Thoughts have crossed over and over in my mind as to why this blog has not been updated in months, and the reason still escapes me. I’ve sat down a couple of times and attempted to write about my experiences at the NFB national convention in Orlando this past July, and how great the hotel was, how wonderful the staff was, how I loved eating real Cuban food after almost 4 months of deep fried Louisiana goodness, my fingers wouldn’t type, and when they did, my true thoughts were not in the writing.
So, I’m just updating, complete thoughts or incomplete ones…
Next week, all of the staff and students are going rafting. I’m not sure if “rafting” is the same as white water rafting, but a rubber raft, water, rapids, and adrenalin are involved. Yes, I am excited about this. This seems like the type of activity that I would normally love to do, but perhaps some months ago, might have questioned and wondered how exactly to go about doing it. Frankly now, I just don’t care. It’s something I want to do, and I’ll be enjoying myself. There will be some zip lining, ropes courses and a possible water park included in this trip as well. You may ask yourself, why are a bunch of blind people who are to be receiving blindness training doing this? Well to put it simply: because we can. Seriously, that’s the reason why.
It might not cross our minds every day, but most of the things associated with blindness which are negative, such as being unaware of one’s environment, being clumsy, very apologetic, having this humble still like nature and blah blah yakity schmakity, can typically be attributed to how the public treats blind individuals. It’s never “hey blind person, come and get involved in what we as a society is taking part in.” It’s always “hey blind person, stay out of the way while society gets involved and we will throw ya a bone.”
Think of a blind man. Now, honestly describe that person. Is that person someone you want to hang out with, have dinner with, or how about introduce your attractive single sister to?
We are going rafting because it is a confidence builder, a confidence booster, and a good time. The secret to blindness training, as I’ve discovered, is not necessarily the skill one learns, as those skills can be taught in a classroom, from a book, or online, it is the practice of those skills, and most importantly, it’s how they translate into confidence.
There have been some studies which show that for many people, having a terminal illness would be preferred than simply being blind. AIDS, Cancer, suicide have all been chosen as things which would be better than blindness.
These attitudes strip blind people of not only self-esteem, , but also dignity, respect, and of course Confidence.
It is the enslavement of the mind of a small minority by a society; it is at times the self enslavement of the mind of a minority by its own members, as it perpetuates on itself the stereotypes of the general public; but rarely is blindness enslavement because of lack of useful eyes.
I have 4 months of training still. Below is my last accomplishment.
Dinner for 8, under sleep shades, using only brailled recipes, and having shopped under sleepshades for all of the ingredients.
Starter
- Caribbean ginger black bean soup.
Yeast-Yeast rolls
Main dish
-Grilled salmon with mango avocado relishCurry grilled eggplant (sorry vegetarians, the eggplant was burned at the grill)
-Parmisian garlic mashed potatoes
Dessert
Home made coconut icecream
The meal took forever to make, serve but not digest.
Thanks to all who filled their bellies that day.
Get Wet!
