Today was my first day of placement. It was a very eventful weekend (to be explained later), and it was difficult to get up early today. But the excitement of starting my placement provided me with fuel. It took about an hour to get to the Autism Centre - walking through the market to the tro station, taking the tro across town, and then walking through the town. I was to observe and not stay for long today. The Autism Centre was started by a woman whose child has autism when she realized that there was nowhere to go for help. Many people began bringing their children to her and she began renting a building. Because we had a VERY strenuous day yesterday, and since it was my first day at placement, I was told that I would be able to leave early. I was to observe for awhile today, and then tomorrow I will be discussing ideas for programs or jobs that I can do while I am there. I was placed with the preschoolers, and as I walked into the class they were having "music time". How perfect for me right? I knew most of the songs so I joined in singing and dancing while I observed (wheels on the bus, baah baah black sheep, shake my sillies out, etc.). Some of the children started interacting with me immediately. There was one volunteer/worker with each child at this point.
After music time we moved on to "number time", "academics", and then "snack time". As time passed, the volunteers seemed to be disappearing until I ended up just starting to help some of the kids with the number activities. One of the kids counted to two for the first time!!!! Luckily his mom was there to see it. Eventually, one of the boys became anxious for snack time and was getting very upset. When it was finally snack time, he began to have a tantrum and was holding my hands. I was leading him to the sink to wash his hands and he began trying to scratch and bite people. I was having decent luck consoling him, and very good luck getting him to wash his hands, when the volunteer who had been working with him earlier came. The boy got upset and bit him. The volunteer laughed and said luckily it didn't break the skin. Good thing I got my rabies vaccinations. As we led the boy back for snack time, we noticed another boy peeing on the floor, and one boy taking other people's food. So the volunteer went to get a mop. All of a sudden I was alone with four kids who all needed to stop what they were doing. Observing means something different here :). Luckily, things got sorted out soon enough, and it was already time for me to leave - or so I thought. As I was leaving, a young woman hissed at me and gave the hand signal for me to come to her (hissing also means come). I walked back and she wanted to show me something. She helped me wash off the mud from my feet and legs from the journey there and told me that I need to always look my best because "you never know when you will meet Mr. Right". I just laughed really hard and thanked her. I got slightly lost on my way home because it was different from the route on the way there, I got a couple marriage proposals, avoided a few mishaps, and then successfully made it back home from my first day. Every time you go somewhere, there is a new obstacle course to master. Today's was muddy.
