DC and All its Wonders!

It has been a while since I have written a blog. I wanted to quickly update y'll on what I have been up to. Last time I wrote I spoke about our move to DC and what a big change it was moving from Nebraska. Here are some of my thoughts on the move so far...

1. DC is crazy expensive! I mean Nebraska was very inexpensive so DC seems crazy in comparison, but let me emphasize: the difference is huge! We spend so much money on rent that I cringe every time I write a check for the rent! On a positive note we are very privileged to be able to afford the rent and so no complaints here. I always observe my surroundings and realize how fortunate I am to be where I am. 

2. Transportation is amazing! As a person that does not drive (equally by choice and not-choice) DC is the place to be. I can go anywhere I want anytime I want at a reasonable price. As a person with a disability I fell like no place is off limits, I just need to make the time. And as a plus public transit is so clean! 

3. Being in DC lets me take advantage of every one's tax payer money! That's right, not only is transportation amazing, but most places are free including most museums, the zoo, and national monuments. I am planning field trips for my students in the summer and its amazing how cheap they are going to be!

4. We have gotten involved with the National Federation of the Blind of DC. They are a group of loving, passionate and joyful people. They have welcomed us with open arms and we are working on various projects such as hosting DC's first ever BELL program! 

5. Things that feed my soul include people, music and like-minded individuals. We have gotten to know a great group of people through a group called Son Cosita Seria. They (or should I say we :)) are a group of people who play traditional Mexican music- Son Jarocho. Everyone in the group is very authentic to their self and they are involved in social justice issues outside of the group that we all support. I must say they keep me smiling and believing that we all make a difference in our communities. Below is a picture of my first performance! I can only play one chord, but I played the heck out of it! We were raising money for a fair food trip to Ohio.

6. Food: Let's start out by making it clear that there is no good Mexican food in DC. Nebraska had way better Mexican food. On the plus side, there is such a huge array of other choices that so far we have had Tai, Chinese, Malaysian, Ethiopian, Salvadorian, French, Spanish, Peruvian, all American, and I'm sure more. Alex and I always disagree on the method to eat. I think we should always go to different places and he thinks we need to become regulars so that they will know us and treat us better. Of coarse I still think I am right! The thing that is super awesome is that food trucks are everywhere! I know California made them popular and now DC thinks they are cool, but as long as we get them. Below is a picture of a bunch of food trucks at the Capitol Mall. 

7. Did I mention I love my job! It has been a very hectic year figuring out the school and getting running, but it has been well worth it! The students I work with are incredible and my co-teacher really understands blindness from a structured discovery method. We recently went to a training in which we learned more on how to be a better inclusion classroom. We are very excited and can't wait to do more for our students. Also, my students are super cute, loving and truly care for each other, its great!

Needless to say Alex and I are loving DC and what it has to offer!

New Beginnings!

So as many of you may know by now... Alex and I have moved to DC!

It has been a crazy and long process, but it has finally happened and we couldn't be happier. 

To start off many people ask us where we were before DC. When we reply with Nebraska, we typically get a very puzzling look. Like a "are you crazy?" sort of thing. 

The truth is yes, we are a bit crazy, but we enjoyed our time in Nebraska and the wonderful people we got to meet. So in respect to Nebraska here are some take aways about this Midwestern state we came to love:

1. I have met some amazing people in Nebraska. People say Midwesterners are nicer. Not sure it that is true, but I can say they are very caring and I have made life long friendships with people in and out of the blindness community that I will treasure for the rest of my life. 

2. Nebraska has some amazing steak. Here is a little secret, I do not like steak. I am sure if I did I would be missing the great steak coming out of Nebraska. Alex is very sad by this predicament. 

2. Blind people in Nebraska are very fortunate to have such a great rehabilitation program. Your average blind Nebraskan is very competent thanks to the Nebraska Commission for the Blind. I had the privilege of working for the Nebraska Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired and can honestly say that they are light years ahead in having a positive philosophy on blindness, providing their clients with accurate information and just caring. Many states dream of having such a place. 

3. The City of Lincoln is very progressive. I had the honor of getting involved in different activities and organizations run through the city and they have their stuff together. They see the value of having minorities participate in city affairs and building an inclusive community for all! Not sure that I can say that for the rest of Nebraska, but Lincoln is on top of it. 

4. Alex and I were part of the most bad ass Toastmasters out there! We had our get togethers every Friday at 6:30 am! But is was so worth it. We got to meet awesome people from all walks of life and I truly became a better and more confidant speaker because of it, you rock Southeast Toastmasters!

5. If you are looking to party you can get crazy inexpensive alcohol at bars, clubs and local breweries  To give you an idea, we had a night of 5 drinks for about $14 with tip included. There are many local breweries to enjoy and beer and wine galore! Some of our favorite places were:

Lazlos: They brew their own alcohol and are located in the old town Haymarket. Cute place and great local beer!

Marz Bar: Cute, Chick bar for the young professional crowd with some yummy appetizers. The decor is also so posh!

LeadBelly: They have a great selection of beer and drinks and I must admit they make a bomb ass tostada. Which is a hard shell flat tortilla with tons of yummy food on top.

Sher-E Punjab: The best Indian restaurant in Lincoln. Very home style, nothing fancy. But aren't those the best places?

The best Mexican restaurant in town was  El Chaparro: You know it is good because they do not have a web page lol. DC has no Mexican food so we miss this terribly. You could tell is was authentic because mostly only Mexicans eat there. Alex spent his last week there. 

Pan Dulce Bakery: This was the most amazing place ever! They make fresh Mexican bread everyday at a super low price!

Now that I am getting hungry, I want to finish by saying that Nebraska truly gave us so much that we treasure. Yes it was small and a bit conservative for us, but all in all we had a great time and value everything we got to experience. Good-Bye for now Husker State!

  

Off the Grid!

So I did it! The unspeakable... I quit Facebook!

 

What started out as a “I am sick of the privacy issues” idea turned out to be quite interesting. It turns out, yeah I do like to post meaningful, educative, let’s-get-rid of-bigotry posts and my friends appreciate it! But the fact is I do not care that you woke up and had a cup of coffee. If you really were so miserable in the morning how did you manage to write a status update?

Don’t get me wrong, I am not (or actually did not start out) trying to make a political statement. I just got tired of all the nonsense. Don’t get me wrong, there are also great things about Facebook such as keeping in touch with people I have not seen in years. But is it really keeping up? Or is it just stalking to see what they post on Facebook? I don’t actually talk to all of these people and much less send them a card on their birthday or the holidays. I figured if I really want to stay in contact I and they will find a way. I am trying to stay in contact more with people and so thus getting rid of Facebook seemed to make sense.

On the plus side, I will be able to keep up with my blog instead of just posting what others have to say.

But Facebook is not all I am changing; I am changing the way I live. For those people who know me, they know I try to live a conscious life. Equality and social justice for all people are  huge priorities of mine. I can't help but live a life thinking how my actions affect those around me. Not just your typical "be nice to others around you", but how does every one of your actions affect the world? This includes your purchasing habits. How do your consumer urges and purchases impoverish and make life unbearable for others? How do your actions affect the destruction of the environment? Did you know that every single water bottle that you throw away has enough plastic to contaminate every single ocean in the world? So trying to stay true to myself I have decided I will not be a consumer as much as possible. This includes not buying anything from a department store, such as clothes and the like. How will I survive you may ask? Pretty simple actually. There are many second hand stores and thrift shops that have really cute trendy and lightly worn stuff. I also trade my clothes all the time with frineds and sisters. And it may come as a surprise but I hate to go shopping! I would rather go in and get out! This may seem like something really hard for some people, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized I have been doing this pretty much my whole life. Growing up we did not have a lot. And very seldom did we buy new clothes and the like. I spoke to my mom and my sister about what I am doing and they were like "oh ok." So all I am doing now is taking charge of my consumer habits and trying to make this a better world. I have more that I am doing, but that will wait for another post!

 

Honey Badgers Like to Read Braille!

October is Meet the Blind Month so hello!  November 1st  begins the Braille Readers are Leaders program where adults from all over the country are going to read braille and lots of it! I am on a team called “The Honey Badgers”. We will be reading braille from November 1^st till January 4^th. January 4^th marks the birthday of a fabulous person, Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille. I just happen to share a birthday with this man and we would like to share a challenge for you. All 5 of us below will be reading braille and we hope you will be able to sponsor our pages read. You can donate through Pay Pal on the right of this page with any amount you choose.

We are raising money for braille literacy and the money we raise will go to the BELL Program. It is a program in many states that works to foster braille literacy in children through a summer program.

Why are we doing this?

Currently 75% of the nation’s blind are unemployed. Only 10% of the nation’s blind are reading braille. Out of those employed 90% read braille. Coincidence? I think not!! Braille is a tool for literacy and ultimately success! Yet there are so many misconceptions about what it is and can do. It is not hard to learn, and benefits kids and adults in numerous ways. And since we are Honey Badgers, we do what we want! 

And the Honey Badgers are...

Ivan "reading braille nonstop" Walker

 

  Ivan is currently a blind chef in Mobile, Alabama. He graduated from The Art Institute of Atlanta with a degree in Culinary Arts. Ivan worked as Executive Chef at The W Hotel Atlanta for 11 years. He now has his own catering business in Mobile, where he specializes in southern style cuisine. He graduated from the Louisiana Center for the Blind in 2010. Ivan also completed The Randolph Sheppard Program in 2011. The program is designed to develop business enterprising nationwide, and offers an opportunity for blind business owners to own and operate their own businesses on federal property. Ivan is also a member of Alabama's NFB Affiliate, and Alabama's National Association of Blind Merchants Division. He attributes his independence and success to his training at Louisiana Center for the Blind. Ivan uses Braille as an important tool in his professional life, and his favorite quote is "just because you are blind, it doesn't mean you can't do."

Danielle "braille fingers" Fernandez

 

Danielle is a student at Louisiana Tech University working on a  degree in communications. When she was in the third grade she was taught braille but since she had some vision she didn’t use braille and her teachers did not encourage it. Everything changed when she lost her vision in 2002. She still remembered how to read contracted braille but she was a very slow reader. Then in 2010 she attended the Louisiana Center for the Blind. When she first got there she was clocked in at reading 26 words per minute, but when she left she was up to 90 words per minute. “To read is to achieve.”

 

Liz "the braille wiz" Graves

 

Even though Liz was born blind, she didn’t learn Braille until she was much older. She got a handful of lessons on a Perkins when she was 19, learned the alphabet and numbers, and later taught herself some of the contractions before attending the Louisiana Center for the Blind. Liz didn’t really read Braille until she attended LCB. While there, she got her reading speed up to 80 words a minute. Liz had also never used a long cane until LCB. She liked cane travel so much that she decided to enroll in the Louisiana Tech O&M master’s program where she is in her last quarter of the program, and works for the Lincoln Parish school district teaching blind children cane travel. Liz does not have much free time right now between school and the Lincoln kids, but in her free time she enjoys hanging out with friends, shopping, and eating sushi. “I’ll finally be able to get my reading on with this Braille challenge!”

Alex "the braille bandido" Castillo

 

Alex currently resides in Lincoln NE
and is an orientation counselor at the Nebraska Center for the Blind
and Visually Impaired. He has served as a former president of the
New York association of Blind Students and is a proud graduate of the
Louisiana Center for the Blind, where he received Braille training. He
holds a BA in Political Science and Psychology from Hunter College in
New York, and has been involved and started several disability
advocacy projects in New York City. Alex states "Braille is literacy".

 

Conchita "the mean braille reader" Hernandez

 

Conchita Hernandez resides in Lincoln Nebraska and works at The Commission for the Blind and Visually Impaired as a rehabilitation counselor. She attended Louisiana Tech University where she earned a mastersdegree in Teaching Blind Students and Saint Mary’s College of California where she earned her bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Spanish. Conchita holds a National Certification in Literary Braille. She received her blindness training from the Nebraska Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired where she was introduced to braille for the first time. And she states, “It is vital for low vision children to learn braille in order to become confident, competent adults.”

So please join us in raising awareness about braille literacy and helping us raise money for such a great cause!

Nebraska NFB State Convention

So today is Monday and I am barely recuperating from a convention put on by the National Federation of the Blind of Nebraska. The convention is an annual meeting to discuss points movig forward, educate all people on blindness and to meet blind people for support and networking. It was a great convention and here are some highlights.

The above picture was from banquet.

There is a banquet where everyone dresses up and hears great speeches. Banquet was a big success.. The Keynote speaker was Jim Gashel from the national office. He spoke about change and how it needs to be more than words. We need to change what it means to be blind. He mentioned how we do not always make the best decisions for ourselves and other blind individuals, but as we grow we learn and have the collective power for real change.
At Banquet we played a game using ducks and you lost your ducks as the game went on. I think I am a good photographer at times and this is what I did.

Lets be real, the banquet  also gives us an excuse to get all dressed up, and who doesn't love that?

A huge part of convention is the socializing aspect and hangng out with people that you normaly do not see.

This year Nabs idol was a huge success. It is an event put on by the students to raise money. Antonieta pictured below put on a great performance telling jokes and playing the cuatro. The cuatro is an instrument from Venezeula that is like a guitar but only has four strings.
 

Once Nabs idol was over, a small group of us stayed up past the early hours of the next day playing guitars and singing. I do not play the guitar and my singing skills are not exceptional, but I try to follow along.

Of course the winners of the show were the kids (as usual) who spoke about participating in Project Innovation in Baltimore Maryland. They had an awesome experience.

I taught a class entitled  "Looking Good Without Looking. " Basically we went over how to apply makeup using alternative techniques. We had a lot of fun and it was all hands on!
Keeping with my post, here are some misconceptions that were proven false at this event:

1. The blind need to be led by sighted people: False. This is completely false as we need and want to make our own decisions. The whole event was put on by blind people and you can only hold an office if you are blind.

2. Charity is a great way to help the blind: False. Charity is the little demon that dresses up cute and seeks to help. Because of charity many people see the blind and other people with disabilities as helpless and in need of saving by the dominant culture. We want to set our own path, and the money we do raise is through fundraising and promoting a positive belief in the blind

3. All blind people are musically inclined. False. If you would have attended our after Nabs Idol party you would have heard me singing along and that stereotype would have been broken pretty fast. Blind people are not any more or less musically inclined than any other group of people.

4. People with low vision do  not need braille they can read print. False. We had a presentation from the BELL program which seeks to promote braille. Many kids in the program are not getting braille  in school because they have some vision. This causes difficulty with reading, being behind in school and poor grammer and spelling. Braille is vital for low vision people to be literate!

5. Blind people have super hearing abilities. False. Most blind people cannot hear any better than anyone else, they just learn to pay attention. During the convention we had some sound problems and there were plenty of blind people who could not hear what was gong on.

So there you have it. Blind people coming together changing what it means to be blind and having fun at the same time.

Orientation and Mobility: by Liz Graves

We have a guest blogger today, Liz Graves. Liz is currently an Orientation and Mobility student at Louisiana Tech University. She is very trendy, aware of things and is a great friend of mine. Below is her experience with being blind and an Orientation and Mobility student.

(in this picture Liz is sitting in a large chair with her cane)

By Liz Graves

The long white cane is a symbol of freedom for the blind.  It is a tool that allows the blind to travel independently through the environment without relying on another person to provide direction or guidance.  Unfortunately, the white cane is often mischaracterized as a last resort that only the blindest individuals should use when there is no one to take sighted-guide with and no other alternative.

(Liz participated in a fashion show and is showing off her cane)

The blind cannot be fully independent and capable if they are not confident in their ability to travel independently.  The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) is changing this negative misconception about canes through education programs like the Meet the Blind Month and training centers such as the Louisiana Center for the Blind (LCB).  The Free White Cane Program is helping put more canes in the hands of the blind by offering a new cane every six months to blind children and adults free of charge.

I, like so many others, had negative ideas about the cane throughout my life.  I was born blind, but was told by professionals that I had too much vision to learn Braille and should primarily use my vision to navigate through my environment.  I never carried a cane because I didn’t see the point of drawing attention to myself with a tool that I didn’t use.  After college, however, I heard about LCB, an adult training center that teaches cane travel, Braille, home management skills and industrial arts with the use of sleepshades for those with residual vision.  It made perfect sense to me—use sleepshades to focus on learning non-visual skills.

(Here is Liz with frineda and former LCB students)

The most important thing LCB taught me was confidence; both in my own abilities and in non-visual skills.  The importance of relying on my cane rather than only my vision really sank in at the 2010 NFB Convention in Dallas.  I had attended LCB for a whole two weeks and thought I knew what I was doing.  I was tap tapping about in heels using a not-so-good pencil grip with my cane looking for the door to the outside.  I looked around and saw light on the floor, an indication for what I thought was the door.  I exclaimed to the group “There it is,” and clipped-clopped over.  I then ever so gracefully fell down the three marble ballroom stairs without ever realizing I had missed them with my cane.

                                        (Here is Liz with some friends and her cane! They are all adorable in hula skirts.)                                       

If this had happened to me before LCB I would surely have been mortified and retreated to my room to sulk in solitude.  Surprisingly, I wasn’t terribly embarrassed.  I got back up and laughed, and assured the friendly UPS volunteer I was fine.  I didn’t feel awkward as a blind person or like I needed to crawl under a rock; instead, I realized I wasn’t using my cane well enough and that, more importantly, I should first use the non-visual skills I was learning at LCB to gather information instead of throwing them aside when I thought my vision was accurate.

(Liz with friends and former LCB students Shantel Flores and Gabe Cazares)

I really knew I was hooked on using the long white cane after it was accidentally broken only two days into my week-long post-convention break.  Much to my chagrin, I was forced to take sighted-guide for the rest of the week.  I had tasted freedom and had no intention of going back to relying on others to get me where I wanted to go!

(Liz using her skills and enjoying the day at the Ruston Peach Festival)

As I gained more experience through my training, I learned techniques for crossing all types of streets and intersections; navigating indoors in wide open spaces without getting entirely turned around; how to use cardinal directions and mental mapping to stay on track; how to find businesses using the address system; ways to keep oriented in rural and outdoor areas; and how to get usable information from others so I could make my own decisions.  More importantly than the techniques I learned, I gained confidence through experience and learned how to talk to the public more gracefully.  As any blind person knows, people can sometimes act pretty silly around someone holding a cane or dog guide harness.

I had absolutely no idea how to talk to people about blindness or how to get the information I needed from them before LCB.  Honestly, it boiled down to the fact that I had no confidence as a blind person.  Confidence has a huge role in talking to others.  You need to be confident to put others at ease and to receive the amount of information or assistance you need.  I remember asking LCB students and instructors “how do you know what store you’re walking into.”  The answer, simply, is you ask!  Ask what the store is, what the address is, what they sell, what is on clearance, ask relevant and specific questions to get what you want.  If you as a blind person are confident in your abilities, others will be as well.  Confidence in one’s self as a blind person can only be earned through conquering or at least attempting and learning from truly challenging situations.

(Liz at her LCB graduation with her dad)

After graduating from LCB, I decided to pursue my master’s degree in Orientation and Mobility through Louisiana Tech University so I could help others gain that feeling of truly liberating independence I found through cane travel.  I am currently working on my internship from 8 to 5 at LCB teaching students at all levels of training.  I see aspects of myself in each of them: I see how high-strung and self-conscious I was before, I see how I had never thought of simple non-visual solutions like simply touching things to gather information, and I see the development of a positive philosophy about blindness being validated through successes in cane travel lessons.  They are learning these skills and building their confidence the same way I did, through meeting the high expectations set upon them by positive, competent blind role models.

(Here is Liz with others from the Professional Development and Research Institute on Blindness at Louisiana Tech, where she is getting her masters degree. Aren't they all just a cute bunch?)

The confidence gained through traveling under sleepshades with a cane is the most powerful confirmation of one’s abilities as a blind person.  It proves to one’s self and others that the blind are capable of going anywhere and participating in anything they wish.  This confidence and skills, however, must be developed over a period of time traveling under sleepshades with a long white cane and high expectations.  I hope that as a cane travel instructor I will help others build the confidence in themselves to live as a whole blind person rather than a damaged sighted person, the way that LCB did the same for me.

(Liz is pictured here with a student teaching them how to go down steps)

Thanks Liz!

NFB Convention Maddness!

I just returned from the National Federation of the Blind convention in Dallas. I feel extremely exhausted, yet reinvigorated with energy from all that I learned and the people I ran into. Making a summary of my adventure here are the things I learned.

1. You never know who you are going to meet and what difference you may make in their lives. Liz Graves and I had the pleasure of meeting an 8 year old who had never used a cane before. We got her a cane, showed her how to use it, and she took some lessons in cane travel with sleep shades. She was really excited to be amongst other people who share her same characteristic.

2. Going off of the above observation, our schools are failing blind, and especially our visually impaired children. For some reason schools all over the nation are still focused on how much a child can or cannot see, and are not teaching them braille and cane travel. This is not an isolated incident, but a reoccurring theme. If a child has to strain his or her eyes to see what’s on a page and cannot see the board, they should be reading braille. If a child cannot go down stairs without constantly looking down, then they should be using a cane.

3. People still question equality on many levels. Don't get me wrong, we are still far from understanding equality in other areas, but this is one issue that people still try to reason. Currently in the United States it is totally legal to pay people with disabilities LESS than the minimum wage. This is justified by saying that people with severe disabilities could not be employable otherwise. People are getting paid cents on the dollar. This is by no means a wage to live on. Yet people still try to justify why this practice in in place. We are currently working to get that portion of the law removed, but until then many people are not getting a fair wage. Anil Lewis put it best by saying it is "unfair, discriminatory and immoral"

(Anil Lewis speaking at convention, very engaging, let me just say I got to interpret his speech into Spanish and I had a blast doing it)

4. All my friends know that I am a huge fan of Ray Kurzweil. Yes I am a bit obsessed. But come on, this guy is a genius. He spoke about how our brain how millions of connections, and if we want to change a thought, it is not just one connection, but many. He said it much better by the way.

(For those of you who do not know Ray Kurzweil invented scanners, text to speech software and other technology that will blow your mind! Not to mention he has invented things that at present cannot be made, but will be with future technology. Ok I will stop now.)

5. It is always great to see old friends and meet new ones! As much as I am busy, I always make time to hang out and socialize. Even if this means staying up past the early morning hours. I am always surprised by how much fun I have and how people have such different experiences. I laugh till my stomach hurts, dance till my feet hurt, sing till my voice is gone and share stories till I know people at least a bit more.

6. The last thing I learned is that I totally need to take more pictures! I used to take so many, now I just have too much fun. Who wants to follow me around and be my personal photographer?

Until next time off I go to get some sleep and buy some food! Already missing my NFB family, until next year!