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The Past Two Weeks at SOREM

So, I realize that I haven’t spent much time writing about my work at the school. For all of you donors out there who are wondering if they donated to a cause so I could go on vacation, here is all the info on the work that we did these past two weeks!

Through working with SOREM, I got an amazing opportunity to experience ABA in a new context. We used the same principles and programming structure as we usually do working in a clinical setting (e.g. assessments, AB design, behavioral skills training, etc.)  but, I got to apply these strategies in an organization-based manner, rather then just with individual clients. Further, when I did get to do more individualized work, it was with the teachers, rather than the students, which was also pretty neat and different for me.

Molly, the CEO of GAP, has developed an assessment tool (SASSI-R) to measure relative progress across all partner programs. Like the VB-MAPP or Vineland, this is to help the SkillCorps teams get a better, more collaborative and consistent measure of how to best support the school’s individual needs.

There are also base-level reports completed after each SkillCorps visit (approximately every three months), including plans for sustainable progress, to facilitate communication between groups and, again, maintain consistency. The last group had done a lot of work with the teachers on the appropriate documentation of ABC data, which had been relatively sustained across the center. Now, it was our responsibility to teach other forms of data collection such as frequency, and how to apply that ABC data when creating a behavior support plan. This seemed like a lot of  work to do in just a couple of weeks, especially since we were mostly working in-vivo and did not have a ton of time to sit down with the teachers, but [spoiler alert], I think we all felt pretty accomplished in this goal by the time we were leaving. While, yes, I had an amazing, intelligent team to work with - this is also a direct testament to how hardworking, motivated, and receptive the teachers at SOREM were.

I was assigned to two teachers in particular, each of whom used very different methods of teaching. This is expected given that one was an EI classroom and the other was “pre-vocational”, which essentially meant that the students had developed a broad range of academic skills (it was extremely impressive actually), and were working towards getting involved in more vocational activities, as I wrote in my last blog about SOREM.

Please, keep reading below for more detailed information about my work in the classrooms and, feel free to reach out to me if you have any other questions or input :).

THE EARLY INTERVENTION (EI) ROOM

I am going to refer to the teacher in the EI room as B, given that I did not ask her permission to write about our work together.

B was absolutely incredible to work with. Many people supervising in this field know that, once in a blue moon, you get to train and work with someone who has a natural talent for implementing ABA - cue B. She was so graceful in her implementation of DTI and even though, when I got there, I had some feedback to share, I literally don’t think she EVER needed a reminder. I was amazed at her ability to adapt to the strategies I shared so immediately and accurately.

What many of us found in these classrooms was that, the teachers had intuitively and naturally put in place some of the antecedent strategies that we would have recommended. B was using behavior momentum without having ever read about it. It was my job, then, to get her to identify these strategies, use them in a more consistent and systematic way, and annotate them in a BSP so that behavior management could stay consistent across all teachers. Needless to say, by the time I left, B was analyzing ABC data, identifying function-based antecedent and consequence strategies, and writing her own behavior support plans. More than that, on my last day, I saw her visit two other classrooms to assist them in making progress on THEIR behavior support plans (so freakin proud!). She was also much more consistently teaching manding (aka requesting), which, as I stated in an earlier blog, is more rare than I would have hoped across the center. This was a very exciting step, given that EI sets up the basis for the entire future of the student’s learning experience.

I’ve legitimately described this women as my soulmate. I feel so lucky to have gotten to work with her.

Additionally, I got to work with one of the classroom volunteers and a younger child who had a lot of sensory challenges. I hadn’t done this type of work in a while (or as a supervisor) before, so I was happy when it seemed like we found an intervention strategy that helped to facilitate progress for this little guy :).

PRE-VOCATIONAL

I also got to work with another teacher (we’ll call her KK) in the pre-vocational room. I found this assignment to be a bit more challenging, given a few factors. - KK seemed to have her hands in many buckets at the school, and was not always in the classroom. It being a busy week, with Holi and a visit from the head of the special olympics, we missed out on a lot of time together. - The language barrier, while still not extreme, was a little stronger between the two of us. - It being a group that had been focusing on academics, there were very few socially maintained challenging behaviors, and I did not think we were entirely ready to tackle automatic functions. With our goals for the school focusing heavily on management of challenging behaviors, I didn’t see a lot of opportunity here.

I decided to, instead, do what I could in the short amount of time that I had. I reviewed antecedent and consequence strategies with KK, and worked on analyzation of ABC data briefly but, made the decision to focus on a series of task analyses. The T.A.’s that we made were to help KK get a better grasp on goals that she had set and been working on with the students, but had not yet developed a data collection system for.

On another note, KK was a wonderful woman, and really fun to work with. By the time I left, we had written at least 6 task analyses and developed a system for collecting data across each of them. She was a natural born teacher and, data collection and documentation seemed to be her greatest strength, so I felt good about this decision.

OBM

Lastly, as a team, we brainstormed and developed some ways to establish better communication strategies and reinforcement systems for the teachers THEMSELVES. I can’t remember how much I’ve already written about this so, I’ll spare you, but here are some of the outcomes from this process:

- the school will be holding more regular meetings (weekly or bi-weelky) for teachers to discuss challenges that they are facing, share success stories, and collaborate their efforts towards working more as a team. This felt like a great success and, since the teachers would be responsible for initiating discussion topics on their own, a truly sustainable modification to the system. - They will also be posting a board in the tiffin (aka tea) room to share their daily accomplishments with staff. As many of you in the field know, this can be a thankless job and, in order to avoid burn-out and keep making progress, it is important to practice self-recognition. Hopefully this serves as a positive change in their center! - These outcomes were based on an ACT exercise that we worked on with Saengeeta, the vice principle, to help identify the school’s core values and develop methods for seeing those values through.

Overall, my entire team felt as if we had left the teachers we’d worked with in a much more confident and independent place regarding identifying and managing challenging behavior. On our end, we all gained a lot of experience working in a setting that was culturally very different than ours, somewhat limited in resources, and where there was a heavy language barrier, in some cases. This was a WIN (us), WIN (teachers), WIN (students), WIN (management), situation - and you can’t ask for much more than that.

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The Taj Mahal, and All That Came With it

On our last day in India, we visited the Taj Mahal in Agra after a 10 hour bus ride from Chandigarh.

This time, the bus had air conditioning, which was relieving - what was not quite as comforting was the driving. For some reason, the driver felt the need to tailgate and beep at every single car on the damn road. I’m not sure if he was actually any worse than the previous bus drivers or just the simple fact that we were on his bus for 10 hours was what was getting to me, but I was thoroughly annoyed and actually a bit scared – frantically searching for a seatbelt that actually worked. It doesn’t help either that about 50% of the cars on the road indicate that they don’t have a rear-view mirror by a sign on the back of their car that says “Keep distance; Blow your Horn” – at least our driver got the horn part down.

Luckily, the trip to Agra was far more than worth it (minus the creeeeepy [but gorgeous.. creepily gorgeous] hotel we stayed in, which I won’t write too much about here but wanted to include it for my own memories).

The Taj Mahal is truly beautiful and incredible, as well as practical, and monumental! 

-       Beauty: The entire monument took 22 years to complete and is crafted entirely of marble, beautifully carved and designed with unbelievable detail. See pictures above and below!

-       Monumental: There is a pretty interesting love story associated with the Taj Mahal, which was built as something like a grave for, at that time, the emperors third and “favorite” wife, Mumtaz Mahal. Mumtaz Mahal died of childbirth after carrying her FOURTEENTH child with the emperor, Shah Jahan, in EIGHTEEN years of marriage. This is why I say that the love story was interesting. I mean, the story doesn’t say that the pregnancies were forced and, I could be wrong, but, I can’t imagine that this woman truly chose to birth 14 children- to the point that she was faced with death. Your opinion is yours to form, though.

-       Practicality: The Taj Mahal is and has been one of the most sustainable forces of economic growth in India since they began structuring it in 1631. At that time, it employed approximately 20,000 men and, still today, it attracts tourists from all over the world to visit Agra and to spend and be swindled out of their hard earned money, which is something that India’s economy can greatly benefit from. One thing I learned for sure about India is that it is not a major tourist hot spot, so, this was definitely my favorite thing about the monument.

Our tour guide was really wonderful and took us afterward to some higher end shops which, given the exchange rate, were completely affordable for us. I bought a ring with a purplish Star Ruby stone – Star Ruby is a beautiful stone that displays an asterisk right in the center when shined in the light, and is associated greatly with spiritual healing. We overspent a litttttle, but that felt okay, since I had spent a grand total of less than 200 dollars across the two weeks that I was there so far.

Next, Bopee (our tour guide) took us to his newly acquired restaurant! (Here Is the link Jakya Mughal Spice). It was sooooooo freakin delicious and much nicer than the places that we had eaten so far. I got mildly spicy [not usually a choice in India] lamb and saffron rice! I highly recommend Bopee as both a tourguide and restaurant owner if you ever visit India.

Lastly, Bopee took us to a workshop right by his restaurant where we got to see some marble craftsman at work. You would honestly not believe the detail that goes into the process of creating marble. In the picture you see below, with one flower completed and one missing, the one missing has been delicately chiseled out of the original stone with a tiny tiny TINY little pick. Additionally, each little flower petal and detail that you see in that flower is pieced together with individual, thinly shaved stone, which is shaved on the little machine that you see the craftman working on above.  Its truly incredible, and to think that the entire Taj Mahal was crafted in the same way is mind boggling.  Americans (and millennials) are sooooooo freakin lazy, lol.

We did seem to get a litttttttle swindled in this shop as well, where we all spent far too much on “master” pieces of marble art. I got a goblet, which really is gorgeous. I say we got swindled though because, the owners ONLY showed us the master art, until we finally got talked into buying something, and only when they did their FREE ENGRAVING on the products did they decide to show us what was hidden downstairs … an entire floor of products that were equally as beautiful but, smaller and less expensive. Kinda uncool. I would still HIGHLY recommend trying to visit this place in Agra, but, just be warned that there IS a downstairs .. with at least two rooms (and I would push to find more with these sneaky guys). 

Overall, the last day was one of my favorites of the trip, which left me feeling really blessed and fortunate. Given that my belly, two inches rounder now, was craving some raw vegetables, this was truly the perfect way to say goodbye.

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How to put on a SARI really REALLY quickly!

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walkin into the magic like ...

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The Wedding

My team was prepared ahead of time for a jam-packed Monday. Saengeeta had made a plan for us - one that was appealing, but definitely overwhelming.

We worked at the school until 2, per usual. Afterward, we were set to go home, eat, and get picked up to visit the rock garden - a reportedly beautiful site in Chandigarh. After the rock garden, Saengeeta was sending someone over around six to tie up all of our saris and, if we wanted, do our hair. FINALLY, we would leave for the wedding party around 8, there ceremony was at 11, and we knew that we would be out until at least one.

Luckily, my stomach was feeling better by this point.

We had met Sangeeta’s daughter, Shrea, the night before at the henna ceremony. She was just a bit younger than me, and much more put together. Two of her friends picked us up that afternoon for the rock garden as she helped to prepare for the wedding. They accidentally took us to the rose garden, which was pretty funny. We were all having good enough conversation though that it took us a bit to even notice this. It was still a nice walk through a field of roses :). The rock garden was beautiful and unique, as expected.

Our sari and hair hair stylist was late. She didn’t come until 7:15, and we were supposed to leave at 8. This would have been stressful had I not been with such a fantastically chill team. None of us worried to much about what time we left the hotel - we’ve noticed thus far that timeliness doesn’t hold to much weight in the Indian culture (my kind of mindset).

When all of our hair was finished, every one of us felt a bit uncomfortable. It was done much more extravagantly than many of us were used to. Once I got my sari on, however, any apprehension I had faded away. It was just as beautiful as my expectations allowed me to believe it would be, if not more. Unless I decide to have a wedding that is inspired by Indian culture (which is totally a possibility), I don’t think I will ever feel as beautiful again in my life as I did in that sari - especially not in the polo and slacks that I was expected to wear the next day - so I relished in every minute of it.

As we were driving to the venue, we noticed some really extravagant and tall tree’s, which were lined with LED lights simulating dropping water (difficult to describe - gave it my best shot). Just as we were discussing how cool it was, we noticed that our driver was turning into the associated parking lot. The trees were, truly, the least impressive piece of this incredibly beautiful wedding. As we walked in, the ceiling and walls were draped with what seemed to be tons of thin lace. I am terrible with naming fabric, so don’t take my word on this too seriously .. just look at the pictures. The entire entrance way encapsulated us in a beautiful blue lighting, making your first introduction to this event wonderfully enchanting. They were also playing indian inspired dubstep.. which was interesting.

Inside, the venue did not disappoint. It was not only massive, but decorated from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, in flowers, jewels, arches, lace, beads, artwork, and lighting. Everyone in there looked just as beautiful as the five of us did and it truly felt like I was in a fairy tale land. As we approached the front which, unfortunately, was not captured on video, the entire wall behind the STAGE was lined with gold, mirrors, and flowers. In front of it sat the bride and groom, elegantly, where they were meeting for the first time. We missed it but, apparently, the groom came in on a horse.

The day before, I had asked one of Shrea’s friends if it was appropriate to wear any color to the wedding, even if the bride was wearing the same. They laughed a bit and told me that, no matter what any of us wore, the bride would look better- so we could wear whatever we wanted. They were not wrong; she looked like actual royalty. The only skin she had uncovered was her face and hands. The rest of her body, including her hair, was draped multicolored fabric, which technically clashed but just completely worked somehow. At that point, I wondered whether all the time she spent on henna was worth it - guess she had her reasoning.

I don’t even know how to begin describing the food but, honestly, i don’t know why we were surprised. There were at least 3 people serving delicious ourdurves no more than 5 feet from us, and everyone else, at any given moment. I ate plenty of these. By the bar was a table of .. who even knows what at this point, I’m mixing all of the options together, but I think there were different kinds of veggies? Then, when you got to the back of the venue, there was at least 20 booths of different types of street food, which was not actually like the street food in india at all; something that we hadn’t been able to eat until this point. Finally, there was a table with some of the most delicious fruit i’d ever seen or eaten. My opinion on the fruit may be bias, however, since we haven’t been able to eat much fruit this whole trip (the fruit is washed in the water, and the water has bacteria in it that our stomach’s are not accustom to).

We ate. We drank. We laughed. We took pictures. We watched in awe.

Afterward (about 12:30am), the wedding ceremony started. I had no idea what to expect but, when we walked into the back room, there was a giant, beautiful and golden gazebo at the foot of the room. The gazebo. again, was lined with flowers and mirrors, and under the roofing hung probably more than 100 golden bells.

I couldn’t understand what was happening for most of the ceremony. It just sounded like a lot of prayer and blessing. There was gift giving, fire, and and scarf draping involved too. Apparently though, most people there under 30 were pretty unfamiliar with the standard wedding rituals, and the bride was learning about them as she went along. Some things that stood out were the tying of the bride and grooms clothing. I am assuming the this is where the phrase “tying the knot” came from. Otherwise, i’d never really thought about it, but that saying doesn’t really make any sense. Additionally, I noticed that the bride was almost consistently holding back tears. There was a moment when she switched her hands from her groom’s grasp to her parents, and this seemed to be the most difficult moment for her.

In the Jane religion (and I believe many other religions in India), it is customary the the bride, on their wedding night move to the grooms family home, permanently. Eventually, the bride and groom are expected to make their own living and move into a place that is just theirs but, because marriage occurs at such a young age, the newlyweds are given time with the grooms family to get on their feet. In many cases and in this one, the bride has never even been to this house before in her life, so I can imagine that it is fairly overwhelming that is is set to move in. This, Saengeeta told us, is why she was crying. Up until that point I had been really digging the idea of arranged marriages, for reasons you can ask me about in person in you’re interested, but this piece altered my opinion a bit. I guess, though, the two don’t always have to come in a pair.

The wedding was over at around 2:30am and .. now it was time for dinner!?!??! Apparently. We didn’t stay though, since we knew we had to get up and work at the school again in the morning, where we only had three days left in total.

We’d asked Shrea’s friends earlier why the ceremony was taking place so late. She explained that, when you are getting married, you go to the minister and ask him when the “stars align” for you to get married. He gives you a time, which could be any time at all, and you are expected to abide by it if you wish to have a happy and lasting marriage. My roommate had been to a Nepali wedding before and mentioned that, in accordance with the same tradition, the ceremony was held at 5am, and the wedding party took place over night. This ceremony took place at 12:30am though, even though the stars apparently aligned at 11pm. Like I said, timeliness didn’t seem to be a priority.

All night, I was mindful of just how fortunate I was to have had this experience.  I could have been placed in Indonesia for work, could have done the July trip to India, or the wedding could have been set for another date. Instead though, for me, the stars aligned, and I will remember this experience for the rest of my life.

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Henna Ceremony

On Sunday, we woke up at 6am to drive back to Chandigarh from Amritsar. I tried to sleep on the ride but, the lovely playlist downloaded on my Spotify won that battle.

We got back and immediately got dressed for the Henna ceremony. I learned that, before the majority of Indian weddings, a henna ceremony is held for many of the guests to get their henna, because.. henna is beautiful, and so are weddings .. duh! Definitely want to carry this tradition over to my own wedding some day.

When we arrived, we heard some drumming and signing from the entrance way. Saengeeta’s entire backyard was draped in flowers, beads, and wind chimes - all of different, beautiful colors, as you can see in the pictures. We immediately sat down to play the role of observers but, that didn’t last long. We quickly learned that one of the guests would be determined to get us either dancing, eating, or getting henna’d for the entirety of the time that we were there. Given that drying henna, scarves, and dancing don’t work too well together.. there was a lot of eating. We all came home feeling a bit overly stuffed, as usual.

It was notable to me how quickly and gracefully the henna artist worked. My hands were completely finished in about 12 minutes.. with the intricate design that you see in my photos. Each of my friends got something different. The brides henna, however, had us truly in awe. Her arms were covered up to her elbows and her legs up to her knees. She was sitting with the artist the entire time that we were there, which was approximately 3.5 hours. Needless to say, it payed off on her wedding day- she looked absolutely breathtaking.

My favorite moment of the ceremony, other than the beautiful outcome on my hands, was the dancing! The best way that I can think of to compare dancing in India to dancing in America is, in India, dancing is more “happy” and much less “aggressive”. Dancing is done more with your feet and your hands than your torso and hips. I like both but, wish I had more of India’s style of dancing in my day to day life.

When I got home, I felt pretty sick. I really need to stop over-eating - it’s taking a toll on my energy. The difficulty in this is that Indian cuisine includes a lot of carbs, which I am now realizing that I don’t eat much of at home. Additionally, it is fairly rude not to finish what is on your plate .. something else I don’t do very often at home. I guess I should be grateful that I haven’t gotten legitimately sick, as many of my friends and family have in India. Mainly, I think i just need to STOP eating paneer for a couple days.

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Henna Ceremony on Sunday!

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Brief Synopsis of Saturday

REAL QUICK forgot to tell you that, on the way home from The Golden Temple on Friday night .. we had a tuk tuk experience for the books [or for the blog ;) ]. Out tuk tuk driver was more likely than not drunk or drugged and, while many of the driver in India take questionable risks on the road, this guy was essentially playing chicken our entire ride home with any vehicle, median, or LIVING THING that he could have come into contact with. Long story short .. WE HIT A FREAKIN COW. It was so scary but I can actually say must have been one of the funniest moments of my adult life. 

You know when you’re put in a situation where something is funny but, it’s not an appropriate time to laugh- and that just make the entire situation that much funnier? That’s exactly what was happening for us in that tuk tuk. I am laughing out loud just thinking about how painfully awkward the entire ride was, with none of us feeling comfortable enough to communicate with each other, but all of us feeling the same utter shock at what was happening moment to moment.. especially the one where we hit a COW lol. Omg .. Incredible India. 

Okay, on to Saturday .. 

Food tour: Went on an all day food tour with the team, a new face, and our tour guide, Gopee, who taught us that, “Indian men are creepy because they don’t believe in being sneaky”- interesting perspective, indeed. We also nearly died trying to cross the streets which do not have designated times for pedestrians to cross; so, you essentially just have to take your chances given that the traffic is constantly moving- and not very slowly. .. FUN. The food tour itself was also.. interesting. All of us were feeling extremely over stuffed and, some of us experienced the now all too familiar sugar high/crash after some intense desserts. Some notable moments were being served sweet milk with actual chunks of butter in it, and almost getting sick after eating some intense stuffed ouri which, to me, tasted like a rotten egg. Still, experiences are experiences and I’m glad I had this one :).

Jugaadus:

Jugaadus is the hostel that GAP usually stays at on their visits to amritsar however, this year, we were put up in a fairly nice hotel due to some issues that occurred last year at the hostel. Couldn’t complain about that given that we still got to get a taste of the hostel life and later go back to our big, comfy beds and nice showers. 

The entirety of the hostel walls were covered in different notes and doodles from those who had passed through in their travels. Many of them insightful, many of them funny, and many of them just beautiful pieces of art. In the time that we were there, just sitting in the lobby, we met people who were passing in and out from all parts of the world, having all different kinds of travel experiences. It was really awesome to be back in a communal environment like this ( which reminded me a lot of Winschoterdiep, my student housing unit in The Netherlands). 

At Jugaadus, we drank ginger water, played some games, went up to the roof, and took a cooking class- in which we made paneer butter masala. It was delicious and we all stuffed our faces even MORE. Needless to say, we were all taking some probiotics the next morning and, still, complaining the whole 4 hour ride home.

Gopee also put on some traditional Indian music at the hostel and taught us some of the extremely festive indian dancing techniques. Indian dancing is a lot of jumping and feet shuffling and, if those of you reading this know me well, you know that I was in my glory to get to do this in a place where is was not just acceptable but EXPECTED.

Finally, we ended the night with some guitar. It was an entirely new crew from the time we had entered the hostel, and we had three guitar players including my teammate, Stephanie. Again, anyone who knows me well knows that I am as sucker got a guitar circle, and it was every bit as enjoyable as it ever has been in the past. Having, on a more personal note, had an emotionally draining day, this was exactly what I needed to get my mind to a more positive space.

Definitely developing a serious case of the travel bug. Morel likely than not, when i get home, the comfort of a reliable routine (and being able to eat salad!)) will get the best of me but, who knows! Maybe I won’t wait long before setting off on another adventure.

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Food Tour, cooking classes, dancing, and Jugaadus.