Day 23 Last lesson!

Half of our group went to Shreveport, Louisiana today. We had to learn to travel on buses, ride escalators, and use a revolving door. Needless to say, in order to find these things we had to travel 2 hours from Nacogdoches. While we were doing those things we also went to Saltgrass and ate under blindfold.

The bus was interesting. The driver was very familiar with us (every semester some students come and do his route) and was patient while we asked our questions and fumbled putting in our money. I volunteered to go first. I stepped up, asked "is this cedar grove #6?" and he told me yes. Next I had to ask "Can you tell me when we arrive at the transfer station?" he said of course. and last I asked him "can you direct me to the nearest empty seat?" and he was very kind and told me to my left on the left side of the aisle and about 4 feet back. Just as I turned to walk down the aisle this lady approaches me and asks me if I would like some help finding a seat (you see, the people who frequent this route are used to students coming on with blindfolds too) and she grabs both my hands and directs me back into the first seat on the bus. As we were traveling, all of us 6 students found each other, realizing that all of us were facing one another in the front of the bus. It was kind of like a game of marco polo. I hear "Janiel is that you?" and I answer "yes, where are you" and hear a "right here!" which of course does not help, until I get a hand on my shoulder and a "OH! There you are!" It was fun.

At lunch we were not allowed to order anything easy to eat. It had to be something you cut with a knife and fork. I had BBQ grilled chicken smothered with cheese and mushrooms and garlic mashed potatoes. As I was cutting the chicken and felt like I had a piece of it on my fork, I started spinning a d twirling it around in the air before I ate it. After doing this, I was asked by a sighted member of our table why I had done that. I replied that I knew I had melted cheese on my plate and I didn't want it to be stringy and get all over my mouth. She laughed and said, well, you didn't have any cheese on your fork, so all of that was completely necessary. We all had a good laugh.

Note the carafe of soda. Our waitress caught on to what we were up to and added insult to injury and let us fill our own glasses. Smart.

Day 22

We did this crazy traffic light outside of Wal-mart today. It was actuated (meaning traffic had to trigger it to change) but it also was the road coming out of the store where most people just turned right, and the other direction coming toward us was from a hospital, so not a lot of traffic there either. So we were waiting there for a car to set off the sensor for quite awhile. Once the car was moving (my cue to start my crossing) the light changed right away since it was only one car! I had to cross 5 lanes of traffic in about 10 seconds, and since you are discouraged from running with your cane, I had to walk as fast as I could. Richard Simmons would have been proud.

Listening for invisible traffic.

I knew I had to cross slow because I could hear the 18 wheeler and didn't want to run right into his trailer. After it passed I had to hustle.

Listening for traffic so I can cross back.

Crossing using the Richard Simmons method.

After that we went to practice some rural skills. We found a road kind of off the beaten path and traveled it for awhile. To make sure you are traveling on the side of the road you use the same technique that is used on railroad crossings, "touch and drag". You touch the roadway, then drag the tip of your cane over the side of the road where it meets the dirt to make sure you are not wandering in the middle of the street.
There are not many landmarks, so if I have a consumer that needs rural O&M instruction, I might suggest putting out some landmarks. For instance, if someone needs to get down their driveway and to a mailbox, they could put out some flower boxes or bushes at an area they need to mark.

As I was crossing the street I walked right into my own car. I trailed around it to the back to find the side of the road.

Fire ants. Hard to avoid when you can't see.

Day 21

I had to take my instructor to McDonald's for breakfast this morning.  Luckily the traffic lights were the talking ones so crossing the street was easy, or so I thought. I pressed the button for one and it told me to "wait" then it never did anything else! Obviously it was broken, so I turned to my instructor and asked if I should cross and he said that it was safe to do so. The other ones worked fine so I took a different way back to avoid that light. Once at McDonald's he actually paid for my breakfast. That was nice.

After our breakfast we traveled some streets and went to the mall. Let me tell you about the Nacogdoches Mall. Remember when I complained about the Lufkin Mall? Well, this mall was even smaller. I have no Idea why it is not just a strip center. 2 small department stores on either end, a nail place, a Claire's, a candy shop, and a sandwich place. There was another department store (Bealls) but they pulled out and went elsewhere (where reportedly, they are doing twice the business). Anyway, I walked the "mall" under blindfold in about 20 minutes (because I had to go around twice). 

Day 20

Railroad crossings. Seriously? I had to learn how to cross railroad tracks today. Learning that was part of the rural travel portion of the training. Let me tell you, there was an area that had about 4 different tracks all in a row. As there is no sidewalk, I had to trail the side of the road that meets the dirt in order to avoid walking into traffic. After first listening for trains of course.

After playing on the train tracks for awhile, it was time to walk back so my O&M lesson buddy could have his lesson. He had to do the big intersection that I did yesterday. I was following our instructor and him around as he was crossing with the lights when all of a sudden, we were just through crossing when a rude guy in a pickup truck laid on his horn. EXCUSE US for crossing the street and making you wait to make your right turn! Blindfolded or not, we are still pedestrians! It's not like we are jaywalking or anything (which they do give tickets for here in Nac, just ask my instructor). Honestly. I think I turned around and threw my arms up at him and said "what?!" More in a confrontational context than a question.

Let this be a lesson to you. NEVER HONK AT A BLIND PERSON! People do it all the time! It is not funny. It scares us half to death. We had an old guy one day in a classic antique Ford with the "haOOga" horn (you know the sound) that was honking at us randomly all morning. I about jumped out of my skin a few times along with everyone else having their lessons under blindfold. As soon as we thought he had driven somewhere else, he showed up and honked again! I guess we looked pretty ridiculous jumping 4 feet off the sidewalk with a cane. It was like a Jack-in the-Box, you never quite knew when it was going to happen. (By the way, I am afraid of Jack-in-the-Boxes. Can't handle the anticipation.)

Day 19

Crossed what just may be the mother of all intersections today. It had left turn lanes, right turn lanes, several straight lanes, I swear there were lanes coming out of lanes! Hearing this behemoth was enough to make me shake in my blindfold. Not to mention the fact that I had to actually step out into it.

The dedicated right turn lanes really messed me up. If there were cars turning there at the start of the light cycle, I had to wait for the next one in order to cross with my parallel traffic, as it is not safe to cross in the middle of a light cycle because the traffic turning has not seen you waiting.

Well, needless to say I made it, but not before my instructor said, "ok, we went around clockwise, now let's go back around counterclockwise!" I about had a conniption. Are you kidding me?! Confused? See below:

Hissie Fit: A sudden outburst of anger at something trivial.
Conniption Fit: A fit of anger expressed with words AND bodily gestures.

Oh yeah, I was about to be yelling and gesturing all over the place! I managed to keep calm and "swing it and bring it" on all 4 sides of the intersection without being molded into a road cookie.
Oh yeah! 

Weekend 4

This would be the before picture with my trusty safety line guy.

Today was the ropes challenges course.
The campers did great. They were climbing up the ropes and poles so fast I couldn't believe it. My fellow O&M classmates (along with the SFA VI and O&M program instructors) talked me into gearing up and doing a part of the course. Once you complete a part of the course (30 feet in the air), the only way down is a zip line.

Climbing a 30 foot pole. It is harder than it looks. The metal 'steps' got smaller as you got to the top. Awesome.

I have never been so scared in my life. Once I got up to the top of the pole (which looks like a huge telephone pole), I had to step onto a 1/4 inch wire. Have I mentioned I fell off my 16 hand high horse in 2006 and broke my back? Yeah, this was scarier than that, mostly because falling off my horse took about 5 seconds. It did, however, cause a lot more pain than this ropes challenge course will. I ended up with a few small bruises from who knows what. I'll take those any day over a broken back.

Wondering what in the world I got myself into.

Hugging the pole for dear life. If you look closely you can see that my safety line guy is trying to tug me from the ground. I felt my hips being dragged toward the rope and hearing "let go with your left hand and reach for the rope!" I think I held on tighter at that point. 

I hugged that pole for dear life for about 5 minutes, with encouragement from my friends and my spotter who had me hooked to him through the pulley so I could not fall, I would just hang there if I slipped. I slowly stretched out my left arm clinging to the metal ring connected to the pole with my fingertips, my legs shaking the whole way; half from fatigue and half from fear.

This is where I had to make a 'leap of faith'. You can faintly see the rope dangling to my left.

From there I had to grab a stationary rope for support that is strategically placed slightly out of reach. This is what they call a 'leap of faith'. Once I grabbed the rope, I hung on for dear life.

It was another few minutes before I could bring myself to slide along the wire to the next rope. I had to move along the wire and get to 4 more ropes before reaching the halfway point.

Reaching for the ring at the midway point.

Once I reached the pole in the middle I hugged that one for dear life too. This time not quite as long.

Take note that I have to maneuver around the pole and step down about a foot to make it to the next wire.

The second half of the course was easier. I had a wire right above my head to hold onto, and a wire under my feet and I shuffled along it until I reached the platform. Once standing on the tower I looked back at what I had accomplished and at that point careening down a zip line did not seem so bad. I cannot believe I did that.

Triumph!

When it was my turn to zip line, I scooted as far as I could on the platform, knowing I would have to just nudge myself off. After a few moments of encouragement from my zip line buddy (we go in pairs, my buddy was a 14 year old camper) I figured I was being silly. These kids are not afraid, why should I be? In fact, most of them did it several times and completed the more challenging rope courses. With a countdown from 5, we took off. <insert random whooshing noise here>

Waiting for Stephen, a fellow O&M student to help me get down. He is going to drag me by the foot to the ladder so I can get the line unclipped and get my feet on the ground.

It was a blast. At the end you are "rescued" by a few guys with a ladder. You sit on the top while they unhook you from the gear.

After I was down on the ground again with my own two feet, I had to tote my zip line rope back up to the tower platform for the next person. Oh my, what a day!

Day 18

I planned my own route to 2 places downtown. I had to safely make it to the bank, and then to a restaurant. I crossed 2 streets with lights that were pretty busy without incident. My instructor even bought me breakfast! It was a nice end to a good week.

There are only 4 of us that are staying this weekend, but we managed to stay busy with our campers. After dinner the kids went to the gym and we played beep baseball. I had never played it, or seen it played before, but it is really neat! There are 2 bases, each one makes a different sound so you can distinguish them. The ball beeps repeatedly until it is deactivated, kind of like a bomb. Beep..beep..beep.. The batter is told when to swing by the pitcher, and once the bat makes contact there is a person who is in charge of the mechanism turning on the sound for one of the bases. The runner only has to run toward the base that is activated and touch it before the fielders can catch the ball and hold it above their head (yes, I said RUN--remember all the players cannot see). In order to give the fielders a hand, there are sighted spotters verbally coaching them to the ball (that is still beeping). Let me tell you, the kids that have experience playing do not need any help finding that ball. One kid would zone right in on it every time. Once you get the ball you are supposed to yell out "got it" so that the other fielders do not continue searching for it so you avoid a potentially vicious tackle.
I am going to look into the possibility of forming a team in my region. The kids had so much fun. The cool thing about it was everyone on the team has to be either totally blind or blindfolded. That way it is a level playing field. My fellow O&M classmates played blindfolded and I was a spotter for the fielders giving directions of "5 feet to your left" and such. Very great night.

Beth getting ready to hit the ball.

Barry (an SFA O&M program instructor) getting ready to pitch to Stephen while Beth plays catcher.

Stephen just misses the ball. The man in the corner has control of the bases. He is the one who chooses which base to activate for each runner.

Beth and Stephen practicing their fielding strategy.

This is what I would look like had I played the game. Instead, I was a sighted spotter in the outfield. Maybe next time.

Day 17

Ahh, breakfast. How I have missed you. We all met in the cafeteria this morning. I got a huge glass of orange juice and made myself a waffle. Oh yeah, I said waffle.

Yes, the waffles here are Texas shaped. Texans have a tremendous amount of state pride.

Downtown Nacogdoches travel today. Some crazy street crossings, including dedicated right turn lanes. The right turners are dangerous. This particular intersection has no right turn on red signs, but they are ignored all the time making a street crossing less safe for a blind person.

Went to the lake again with the campers. They went swimming, tubing and knee boarding. We tie-dyed shirts and had hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch. We were constantly reapplying sun screen to the kids (there are several albino students) every few hours. 

After the lake we followed the campers to the roller rink. I had flashbacks to elementary school when we would all go roller skating. "All skate... all skate" "boys skate..." etc. Beth talked me into going out there with everyone. I was having a great time watching all of the blind and visually impaired students have fun on the rink. A few of the students with blindness were using their canes while they were skating. Some others were being guided around the rink following someone. Everyone was having a great time skating and dancing to the music. Below are some pictures. I have noted my fellow O&M classmates that forced me to get out there and skate tonight.

Beth dancing around. Note the student with the cane on the right.

Beth and I skating.

Beth, Roxanne and I

Conga line? Oh yeah we did.

 Great day. I am exhausted.

Day 16

We are done with our lessons in Lufkin. At least we are able to have our lessons closer to where we are staying saving us a 30 minute drive everyday. We crossed an intersection with a talking traffic light. That was pretty cool. You press the button (once you can find it) and it tells you to "wait"..."wait"..."wait" every 10 seconds or so. Then depending on the street you are crossing there is a loud repeating beeping or a high pitched screeching sound meaning CROSS NOW! While you are crossing the light starts counting down from 10 telling you how much time you have to finish crossing the street. Very neat. If you veer one direction or the other instead of crossing straight ahead you can correct yourself by turning toward the sound of the crossing signal. Again, very neat! All signals in the country should be like that.

I haven't complained about the heat in awhile, but it is still HOT here. A fellow student told me yesterday if she stands out in the sun any longer she is afraid that she will turn in to a piece of charcoal! I told her if that happens I will bring some marshmallows and a stick so I can toast them.

Day 15

Round of applause please...

I did my drop off like a pro! My instructor had me get into his car blindfolded, and he proceeded to drive in circles all around the area including a few circles in a parking lot I think just to make sure I had no idea where I was. I got out of the car, and made my way up the curb and to the building in front of me. I trailed the building until I was at the corner and stood there, listening to traffic trying to figure out which corner I was at. I decided to trail to the other side of that block to make sure I was correct about where I was. I hit my landmark on the other corner and I was off like a shot! I was only a few blocks from the 'rally point' of Maricela's Day Spa (which also makes awesome smoothies). On my final street crossing I touched the corner of the building which is a stucco exterior with a rounded decorative corner that is distinct. Knowing my destination was on the sidewalk ahead, I purposely turned left and began to trail the building knowing my instructor was behind me somewhere having an aneurysm because I had turned the wrong way. I smiled and called out "just kidding!" and he called out "psych!" as I turned around to head the right way up the sidewalk to our destination. I couldn't help myself. Glad to be done with that test. I was worried about it. Turns out I worried for nothing!

Another group of visually impaired campers arrived today. These kids are older, 12 and up. Much better as far as energy. No one was bouncing off of walls or anything. We had fun with them at the rock wall. I helped organize a "poker run" where the kids were put into teams and had to make it to 5 stations to collect a playing card. The team with the best hand at the end won a prize. The low vision kids took turns being under blindfold for the game to practice cane travel. There are 2 girls who are completely blind that were able to show off their awesome mobility skills. One girl goes down stairs better with her cane than I do using my eyes! It was great to see their success.

We have another week of long nights with these guys, but they are a lot of fun.

Weekend 3

Spent the holiday weekend in Lake Charles, LA. Got a much needed break. Now back to real life. Ugh.

Day 14

More travel in downtown Lufkin today. Had to solicit assistance as part of the lesson today. That was awkward. I was told to go into a business and ask for directions. You have to just say "hello?" "Is there someone here?" and wait while they figure out how to give directions to a blind person! Telling me "that way" is not helpful. Other than that, it was a great day!

I am off to Lake Charles Louisiana for the weekend. Sean is on the bike and meeting me there. Can't wait!

Day 13

I heard a lot of "upper hand" being called out to me. This is in reference to upper hand and forearm technique, which is a protective measure where you place your hand palm out in front of your shoulder or modified upper hand and forearm which is where you place your hand palm out in front of your face. When someone says "upper hand" we generally assume the modified position to protect the face from obstacles. Here's why I heard it all morning.

I had a lot of obstacles in my way today. Lets talk a minute about crosswalks. Please don't park in them. Let me show you why.

My cane picking up the drop off.

Properly lined up and listening for traffic as my instructor watches, ready to stop me if I make a mistake and try to walk out in front of a car. See how his hand is at the ready?

This is my view of the crossing. Note the ladder sticking out from the back of the truck directly in my path ON the crosswalk?

Here I am making a perfect textbook crossing. I am completely unaware of the ladder.

Right before I would have run into the ladder I hear "let's see that upper hand" and it totally saved my nose from smacking into the ladder. I slowly worked my way around it mumbling about negligent people the whole time.

If I hadn't had any warning, I would have ran right into those things. When you travel under blindfold, you actually walk at a regular pace in order to travel in more of a straight line. Going slow you have more opportunity to veer and potentially get into trouble. Learning to cross streets I heard "hustle, hustle hustle!" behind me. Not only do you want to avoid veering by traveling at a good pace, you want to get the heck out of the road!

On the sidewalk there is a very large sign with another large sign underneath it. It is huge, and in the way. If you cannot see it, you will run your face right into it.

My instructor told me "upper hand" so I could avoid hitting this sign with my face. Notice how it is surrounded by sidewalk. How would you ever know it was there?

Well, I lived to see another day. The campers went to Lake Nacogdoches and went swimming, boating and tubing. We went out to the middle of the lake and the kids just jumped out of the boat with their life jackets on. I don't even do that! Talk about not letting a disability hold you back!

Day 12

WELCOME TO DOWNTOWN LUFKIN!

So I had my first lesson on downtown streets. Crossed streets using my traffic pattern skills, and lived to tell the tale. We will be doing this for a few days and then I will have my 'drop off' lesson. My instructor will blindfold me, take me to an area that I should be able to recognize using my landmarks, and I have to make it to a predetermined location. In this case it is a little business called Maricela's Day Spa. I have to do this unassisted. I will be followed by my instructor, but he will not be able to help me. He will be there just to make sure I do not do any mortal harm to myself or others.

I am dead tired. Spent the evening with the campers at the bowling alley. Everyone had a good time, and are now all going to bed. Luckily all of us in the O&M program got to go to OUR dorm, while the campers and their counselors and caseworkers went to THEIR dorm. Being a volunteer has its perks!

Day 11

It is 11:00 pm and today is finally over. My lesson was at 8:00 am, and I have been running on fake energy ever since. It was a crazy O&M day. I had to cross with traffic lights today.

Before we got to the light on Raguet Street, I had to cross a few smaller intersections with 2 way stops.  I had to listen for the right time to cross, which was when no traffic is there.

Listening for traffic.

Then I had to go hither...

and yon...

Until finally arriving to my destination.

I had to cross 5 lanes of traffic on each side, using only the sound of my parallel traffic as my clue to cross. You have to hustle across the street or "Swing It and Bring It" as we say so you don't turn into a road cookie (as I say). You make your move as soon as the car going your direction (parallel traffic) gets to the middle of the intersection. At this point that car is referred to as a "blocker car" as in, it blocks all other traffic from rendering your body into a road cookie.  If you miss this short window, you have to wait until the light cycles through again as it is unsafe to cross at any other time. The car 4 cars back did not see you waiting on the corner, and may make a right turn squishing you into oblivion, so you wait, listening for the traffic pattern again.

Swingin' and Bringin'

Another group was in the middle of their lessons today and this car out of nowhere slows down, rolls down their windows and yells "Y'all stop makin' fun of blind people!" Uh, really? Come back tomorrow, we are doing Down Syndrome.  Are we out here trying to pick fun at someones disability?  Really? Do you not see that we are trying to learn so we can TEACH these skills to the very people who need them?

I spent all evening with our campers. They had dinner, went rock and rope  climbing in the gym on the schools many rock wall courses and rope nets. You would never think a bunch of kids with visual impairments would be all over that, but they sure were! One girl has had no vision since birth, yet was climbing up those challenges like a pro. Awesome sight to behold. After the rock walls the kiddos had a scavenger hunt where they were blindfolded (all but 1 of them have low vision, where they have some usable vision) and given a cane to do a scavenger hunt. We each took 1 kid at a time through the course where they had to discover things, fill up their backpacks with their treasures, and make it to the end. We were giving them directions and some basic lessons with using the cane and their senses. It was really neat to have them explore.

Great day, but I am exhausted. Only 3 more to go and the campers go home. Only for more to come next Tuesday!