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!