The most beautiful sound

Before my trip, if you had asked me what my favorite sound in the world was, I would have confidently said the sound of children's laughter. Now, that has changed a little, as I have found the purest and most joyful noise.

I have been helping out at a school for kids who are deaf or blind. It's a little different than I anticipated, but that is partially because I chose to stay in one classroom to get to know the same kids instead of switching around. There are classes for very small blind children, a class for slightly older blind children who also have disabilities, and classes for children who are deaf, and then my class where they needed the most help. I have been with six older children/teenagers who are deaf and also have cognitive disabilites. Cristhian, Lesly, Stefano, Klever, Patricio, and Alba, with an age range of 8-16.

Cristhian is the oldest and his disabilities are the least visable, and he's my buddy. We started off a little rough, he just didn't seem to want anything to do with me...all the other kids hugged me, smiled at me and would find ways to voluntarily interact with me. Cristian on the other hand is a typical teenager, not a child, he wasn't going to be instant friends with this random foreigner, let alone touch me or try and communicate. It was really weird for me at first, it's usually so easy to get kids to like you, I hated his apathetic attitude towards me. (Looking back, I was quite selfish). I didn't know how to deal with him, I didn't know how to get him to at least accept me, I generally hang out with small children. As I got to know him by watching, I realized I needed to stop thinking of him as a kid. No, he can't do academic work like most 16 year olds, but he still wants to be treated like and adult, or rather be my equal. That has been my mentality, and it has been great. Instead of (attempting to) ask him dumb questions to interact with him, I genuinely ask him for help (and man do I need it!). We play checkers and the dot game and I don't go easy on him. Also, we cheat if someone is too slow :) Our thing this past week has been to point and pretend there is something interesting than laugh when the other person turns to look. It's fun but Thursday I genuinely wanted to point out the guinea pigs running around the garden but he didn't believe me. He helps a lot with the other kids, especially Alba...

Albita is a beautiful beautiful girl, and she always looks so joyful. But the absolute only thing she likes to do is bother other people. Shaking the table, pulling ears, drawing on their paper, touching them, it never ends. Usually if the teacher isn't around Cristhian with go and sit by her because she doesn't even try to bug him, she knows he won't let it get to him. Her mom is a very sweet women who sometimes spends her whole day at the school and usually kisses me four times a day. I love how Alba "talks" to everyone. Sometimes she'll take my hand, bring me to a stanger and just started making noises and hand gestures pointing at me, showing how excited she is to have a friend. It's very sweet. I love Alba, but she definitly is tough to work with.

Not the best picture of either of us, but this is me and Pato

Patricio is also a chaos started, but usually he his motivation is trying to be apart of the group or wants something someone else has. The poor boy is significantly smaller and younger than the others and desperatly wants to be their friends. He can be the hardest to get to work, Alba will just sit and smile and "talk" when you're trying to get her to do something, it's not stress inducing. But Patricio, for the smallest things will scream and run away, it really wears on your patience when it's such a big deal for the tiniest things. There have been many times I was trying to get his attention to show him something cool but he thought I was mking him work or something so he just screamed at me and ran away. On the flip side though, he can be the sweested boy ever if he wants to. When he takes my hand and smiles at me it melts my heart. His affection is so much more valuable to me than most children's because I know just how hard it is to win him over. I am so grateful for the times his sweet side comes out.

Stefano is also very emotional, usually for the best, he's a hugger.  He gets so so so happy and enthusiastic when you give him praise. He does pretty well academically in comparison to his classmates, so he gets a lot of it.There is of course a "but," he is so crushed by negative feedback. One day our teacher was going to be busy all day so he and the other two more mature students spent thier day with a professor who is blind. So yes, the blind leading the deaf, from what I have seen that is definetly worse than the old saying the blind leading the blind. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but the teacher got very angry with Stephano and he still is talking about it with so much emotion and ends up crying. He is a good kid, loves everyone. He and Alba are both very affectionate, so everyone (including them) says that they are in love. Stefano also spends most of recess with Patricio, which is very kind of him. He is one of the three who can read and write a little, although its mostly copying things from the board.

The most academically advanced is Lesly. She really has a strong drive to  learn and do things well.  She reminds me of all the wonderful qualities in my cousin Cassie, although I can't quite figure out excatly why she makes me think of her. Lesly never ever cause or participates in trouble, is friendly to everyone and really trys so hard to do everything correctly and throughly. She is very uncomfortable when the others are misbehaving, but doesn't (yet) step in like Cristhian. I believe that as she matures and grows, she'll change and become a very strong leader who will help teach and model good behavior to the other kids. Like Cassie, she has gorgeous, long, thick hair.

Klever! This is our classroom

Last but not least we have Klever. I feel like I know him the least of all the kids, but he does make me smile a lot. He frequently trys to talk to me in signs and I never have any idea what he's saying. I always feel like he's telling me something like "haha look at that what are they doing? That's not how you do it, silly silly silly." Klever lives at the school during the week and over all is pretty mellow.

My "favorite" kid who is  blind, Adonis. Picture taken candidly by Cristhian

Sometimes I help with the blind kids across the hall, the day this picture was taken was quite a disater but a great adventure. Of the four kids, three cryed, two hurt themselves, and overall they were just very unhappy with out their  "Profe! Profe! Profe!" (Think mom mom mom mom mom). Although I think I'd rather be alone with these kids than mine! Twice now I've been put in a room with them and a blind man with an accordian to "sing." The second the door shut the kids went CRAZY. When I finally had a little bit of control (thank you Cristhian) and started a song the blind mand kept stopping the song to correct the words I was singing...but THEY'RE DEAF! T'was quite an adventure...

During recreo I hang out with 4 of the smallest deaf kids (or course). We usually play checkers. Here are three of them being crazy for the camera...

The kids at this school, especially these four niñitos changed my mind as to what the most beautiful sound in the world is...The laughter of deaf children. It is the purest and happiest sound you will ever hear. Joyful uninhibited and oh so loud! I had a great time one Friday with my kids, experiencing just how good it feels to laugh like they do. I really love them so much, and they have taught me so many important life lessons.

Please, brighten your day, and laugh with out changing it. Laugh when you want, don't try and control it, let the joy escape you, and then maybe you will get a glimpse of what the most beautiful sound in the world is.