Epic Arts Staff Training

Over the last 5 months at Epic Arts, I have had the opportunity to train the wonderful special education staff in a variety of topics related to special education using occupational therapy principles. 

Teachers writing sensory activities under headings of the 7 senses

Working out the task analysis sequence for washing clothes

I divided the staff into groups and gave them sensory motor activity cards to try out. There was lots of rolling around on the floor, athletic attempts and so much laughing!

Claire and Chheun try out ball pushes

Kagna doing ball leg ups

Sarom in a cushion "hot dog"

Claire gets the whole hotdog treatment, salad, cheese and sauce!

Roeun gives Channy some ball squashes...sruel na! (very relaxed)

Kagna is really skilled at wheelbarrow walks, while Sok laughs at his teachers in the background!

Chheun and Sarom rock and roll

Kagna and Phea commando crawl it up

Chheun tries out the ball leg lifts. Pretty skilled with only one real leg! What a hero! Best photo ever x

Phea climbs through a cushion tunnel

I have loved working with these people. They are so warm hearted, generous and grateful. I know I have introduced many crazy concepts that they have taken in their stride and are willing to try out. I have been humbled by their enthusiasm, love and care for their students and their passion for life. I will really miss them. 

Epic Arts Sensory Room

Some shots of the sensory room I created for the Epic Arts Special Education Program with a $300 budget (well, I went a little over!)


Lights came from Orrussei Market in Phnom Penh, scrubbing brushes, wheels, fishing floats, rattles, tactile mats, net shower sponges, bead curtains, whistles, light up toys, mattresses and mozzie net from Kampot Market. IKEA swing from London, ball pool from Toys and Me, Phnom Penh. 

Dis-ability. Who decides?

So, one of things I didn't expect when I came to Cambodia was to be immersed in a deaf community and be challenged as a hearing person. The Epic Arts VTP program consists of young adults with either physical disabilities or deafness. They are performers and run dance and theatrical workshops and belong to a strong deaf community. They use Cambodian sign language which has only been around for about 15 years and only recently in the provinces outside of Phnom Penh. Most of these young adults grew up without a shared method of communication, they didn't have options such as speech therapy, hearing aids, sign language or cochlear implants and were often isolated from society. They were denied access to an education and became vulnerable to stigma and abuse in a country with poor acceptance and understanding of disability. 


Just recently I was walking down the riverside in Kampot at night to get a massage and just happened to pass a group of the VTP students. A tuk tuk driver was trying to get my business and the VTP students were signing to me not to go with him. I told him "no thanks" and he looked at the deaf students and said "don't worry about them, they are stupid people". It made me realise the little disability friendly bubble I was living in had very thin walls. 


Being at the Epic Arts Cafe everyday, and interacting with staff who are deaf, signing for my order and trying to follow conversations in sign has been a unique experience. It has made me question myself and how I take my intact senses for granted, but also about cultural expectations of the norm. When my mum came to visit Cambodia she kept comparing it to back home and what was different, which did not help her to embrace and accept that this is a new way of living, not better or worse, just different to what she is used to. Because of that she missed out on the magic. 


I have come to feel the same way about deafness or any disability for that matter. Sign language is amazing. Communicating with your hands, coupled with the most emotive facial expression is wonderful to watch. It makes me wonder too, without the auditory channels being stimulated, how much more the tactile and visual pathways must be attuned as the brain compensates. I also wonder if it is easier for a deaf person to pick up one another's body language, mood or temperament? I wonder what it is like not to hear music, laughter, speech or dialogue on movies? I wonder if the little voice in your head chatters on and on in the same fashion as a hearing person? I wonder if you can't hear a person's voice, what other cues and messages you pick up to get an idea of their identity?


I also see how many misunderstandings or missed commnunication opportunities occur when there is a mixing of hearing and non hearing people. The jokes that are not understood but only evident by the resulting laughter. The effort it must take to rely on the visual sense to lip read and then translate that into a verbal or kinesthethic output (sign language). Just as I feel disconnection from Khmer people because I cannot speak their language, I feel removed when trying to communicate with someone who is deaf with my modality-speech, and expecting them to do the compensating by lip reading. 


So often disability is seen as a lack, dis-ability, being without an ability, having something of the norm taken away from you. Then we try to overcompensate, and smooth over society's social cement with a politically correct palette knife by calling people with disabilities "special" or having "special needs". I think we've lost the essence of what special is meaning in this case, not special as in talented or beloved, or something to take pity on, or even something to treasure, but special as in a distinct or specific type of character, set apart. Unique but still complete in every way, not lacking anything, but being whole in its own right.





And who is to say when someone is disabled? At what point does lacking a body part, a mental faculty or any other feature away from the norm make you "dis-abled"? We all have different variables that make up our beings. We are complex and complicated creatures. We exist to be in community. Yes we are all different from one another. What of it?

So am I disabled because I can't use sign language in a deaf community? In this context I am the one without the ability. I am the one who finds it difficult to integrate. I am the outsider. I have realised I waste a lot of time and energy worrying that I am "missing out' on something. That maybe I'm not in the right place at the right time. Making comparisons with other circumstances. What a way to miss out on the present. Life doesn't have this one ideal path to travel. We all experience it differently. That is ok. It is what it is. 

Epic Arts Special Education Program

For those of you who have asked me what I do specifically at Epic Arts...here it is:

On Mondays the older class arrives by tuk tuk at 8:30. They sing a good morning song and go through a visual schedule for their gardening class. They are divided into groups and pick up rubbish around the centre, water plants, weed and plant seeds. At 10:00 they break for a snack, usually bananas or rambutans and afterwards they wash their gloves, aprons, hats and boots. 

At 12:00 Epic has a break until 2pm. Yes you read right, a 2 hour lunch break during the hottest part of the day. When I first came I was amazed but now it's not long enough!


Between 12 and 2 I go to Epic Arts Cafe in town for an Ice Coffee with sweet milk and a chicken salad or omelette.The 2 hours goes really fast and it's so hot, you really can't be very active. 

On Mondays at 2pm the younger class arrive and have a hello song and go through a story book. The last book I wrote was about a boy and girl going to the beach and I included activities such as digging in sand for shells, rolling on the beach, getting sprayed by water, eating ice cream, putting on sunscreen and being 'nipped' by crabs. The latest book is about a girl who gets a toothache from eating to many sweet foods and explains how to brush your teeth, quite a pertinent topic for many of our students who already have many rotten teeth from poor diet and oral hygiene. After the story they have free play, either in our wendy house, which is decked out inside with the week's theme, our new playground and sand pit, or water play. 

On Tuesdays the older class cook vegetable noodle soup, Wednesdays they have dance and movement with the VTP (Vocational Training Program) students, who are either deaf or have physical disabilities from polio, and Thursdays they do handicrafts. The handicrafts have included making paper beads and lacquering them with nail varnish, making paper mache bowls, making beaded necklaces and currently doing a textile mural with Kate who is a AVID volunteer from Australia. 

In between lessons I am busy preparing training workshops. I've done one on sensory processing for the special ed team and one on Autism for the whole Epic staff. I've also run a workshop on activities of daily living and backwards chaining techniques using the example of washing clothes. I'm also preparing a workshop for next Friday on Intensive Interaction. 

The last few weeks I've been creating a sensory room and after this weekend it should be completed. It looks great on a $300 budget!

I've also created a wheelchair adaptation and got a floor seat made for Sok. 

Sok has a stretching program twice a week, but it's really hard to get it done regularly as we all know exercise is so boring!


So introducing the beautiful little ones...

SOMATH

Somath with chewy tube. Yay something I'm allowed to mouthe!

SREY PIN

SREY LINE

LEAK

HOAR

SOCHEATA

SREY NICH

VATTANAK

PEATRA

 CHIEN

I am sitting here in a thatched bungalow in Kampot, it’s pouring with rain and I can honestly say I’m loving life. I’m totally and completely absorbed in the moment. Rogue raindrops splash down my screen, blurring my words but I can only look around me at the gullies of water collecting on the pathways of the garden and marvel at the thunder rolling across the expanse. It’s been a freaking hard few months living in my mind, but today I can actually say I’ve found home.  The last week I’ve been touched, challenged, inspired, confronted and reassured. Epic has lived up to it’s name. Last weekend we hosted the band “Dengue Fever” at the centre. The moment for me was when Chok (www.chokfullofgoodness.com) got up on stage with the lead singer and they sung together. It was magic. For someone whose family don’t have the capacity to see his capacity, Epic has become his community and his vehicle for self expression. It was a beautiful culmination of inclusion.

Another moment was Thursday morning at Yoga. Jos from Bodhi Villa runs a yoga session before work on Thurdays for the Epic community. This week Sok joined in. Lying on his rattan mat, consumed with spasticity he extended his limbs and touched his toes with us, giggling infectiously the whole time. I love that kid so much, he and his mum are so poor of material goods, but he has the richest spirit of anyone I know and spurs me on everyday day.

Then on Thursday night, I was invited to the birthday party of Sariya, the 3 year old daughter of Epic’s old tuk tuk driver/classroom assistant. There were prawn skewers, curry, plenty of beer, khmer songs played on guitar, Lilly Allen remixes pumped until the house shook, cream laden cake, sparklers and plenty of dancing. But what got me right in the core of my being was the parents of children in our special ed classes. Channy is a teaching assistant with a daughter with a severe and profound disability. Her daughter, Socheata is unable to care for herself, does not have a formal means of communication, still wears nappies, drools and is carried everywhere. I watched her parents that night, lovingly picking up her long frame and dancing with her, delighting in her smiles and refusing to give up despite her lack of eye contact. I watched her younger sister wipe away her drool with a towel with pride not a sense of burden. It was so powerful in the context of disability stigma in Cambodia, let alone the rest of the world!

Then there is Kagna and Bunteang who adore their dear little boy Rattanak, who experience Down Syndrome. Cheeky, independent and simply delicious, Rattanak is doted on by his parents and the entire community.  Check out this video from a year ago about the Special Education Program http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mw9m_b0B3E

Angkor part 1

 In early July we stayed in Siem Reap for a few weeks and took in the temples. For me it was one of those experiences where you are confronted with how your own life is just one of trillions of stories in the book of history. To see buildings circa 801-1431 and to imagine how these people lived through the inscriptions and pictorial carvings on the walls was humbling. Not to mention the exceptional craftspersonship of the carvings...intricate, whimsical, humorous, fragile, robust, personal and exceptionally clever. Jed and I had a 7 day pass to the Angkor Park and organised a guided tour for 2 of those days. 


David was our guide, he spoke English well and drove us in his air-conditioned car and led us around the temples. On one day we saw 16 temples from 6am to 6pm! Although Angkor Wat is most famous, it actually has the least wow factor compared to all the temples that we saw afterwards.It was built in the 12th century by King Suryavarman and is both Hindu and Buddhist. The temple was constructed as place for buddhist pilgrims all over Asia, was completed in 30 years and is the world's largest religious building. The outer walls of the complex are 1500 by 1300 metres with a 200 metre wide moat all around. 

Lotus motif at Angkor Wat

Lotus shaped towers of Angkor Wat, 5 in all, the tallest being 65 metres

Carving outer gallery wall, Angkor Wat

Water lilies in the Angkor Wat moat

Angkor Wat outer Gallery

Angkor Wat at sunrise

Angkor Wat at sunrise

If you thought Angkor Wat was large, Angkor Thom (meaning big) is a ruined citadel 9 square kilometres in size. It is enclosed by a mostly dry moat and is thought to have housed 100 000 people. People used to live in thatched and tiled houses and tended to rice fields outside the grounds.

The South Gate into Angkor Thom, the next kingdom after the Angkor Wat Complex. There is a northern southern, western and 2 eastern gates, all the same. 

Right in centre of the grounds is Bayon, the temple composed of erratic towers with 216 carved stone faces. Scholars believe the faces bear resemblance to that of king Jayavarman. The lower outer gallery walls are covered with stories of everyday activities, cock fighting, fishing, a woman giving birth, circus jugglers, elephants being ridden and people being thrown to crocodiles. 

Bayon, outer gallery

Detail of the outer carved wall of Bayon

Faces of Bayon

Ta Prohm- Tomb Raider temple

View from the top

Elephants guarding each corner

Apsara with feet on the side as the step were too shallow for feet to face forward. This creates humility when climbing the steps to the inner sanctums of the temple

Moss covered temple stones in the Angkor Thom complex

Carvings in "The Terrace of the Leper King"