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