For people who've followed this thing in the past, you know the drill. Having looked at my 2009 blog and discovered that it picked up a truly random follower with whom I have absolutely no real life connection, I guess a bit of context is in order.
I'm a special education teacher during the school year, working to serve students with significant cognitive and/or developmental disabilities in general education classrooms. For several years now, I've been lucky enough to spend my summers working with a truly amazing little non-profit organization doing assistive technology work in developing countries.
And now, another school year has wound itself down, and I'm once again collecting my documents, stuffing my suitcase, and getting up at a positively ludicrous hour (2:25 AM shuttle call--yaay!) for a flight to Guayaquil.
This year, the Project will be bringing its assistive technology goodies to two new communities, near the southern city of Cuenca and up north near Otalvalo. I'm ridiculously pleased about this, both because it means I didn't totally screw up the advance legwork last year to hook into these communities and because Cuenca is, bar none, my favorite city in the entire known world. We'll be doing training sessions for professionals and families, and also collecting pictures and information for another visual guide--a simple, picture-based "how to" document so that organizations around the world can use local materials to create inexpensive access tools for individuals with disabilities.
Work starts in two weeks. In the meantime, I'm excited to spend some time really throwing myself at the Spanish language: I've got six hours of daily private lessons booked in two different schools. Subjunctive tense, you're going DOWN!
Game plan for the next few days: fly to Miami, transfer to Guayaquil, stay the hell out of Panama, check on the iguanas at the Parque Semanario, and score a prime window seat for the bus ride to Cuenca. Wish me luck!
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