Visiting schools in Turkey

2 weeks ago, it was that we went to Italy to visit the school in Rimini, now it was the time for Turkey. 3h30min on a plain… that took of very hard… we arrived in the dark Turkey together with the Italian and Romanian friends. So it would be a surprise the day after to see how the surrounding looked by daylight.

Comenius, it is the second time that I am in a Comenius project... and this trip is the one that made the biggest impression on me.
Before going to Turkey, I had no idea about how the education system in Turkey was structured.

We went to Turkey together with the other partner schools in our project. We have schools from 5 different countries in our project. Ireland, Romania, Italy, Turkey and we.

We had a trip full of new cultural experiences. Starting with the breakfast... warm tomatoes, olives... being in a country were you don’t understand the people, the search for normal toilets, … all male teacher in suites. It had something :-)

The first day we went to the school that is our partner in the project. The bus was the transport that we had that week. We went to Koprubasi. We took a little bus, and went in to the mountains... we saw the real Turkey and not the touristic Turkey... When we arrived in the school, the children were so happy to see us. They took their phones and started taking pictures of us... you can probably find them somewhere on facebook by now :-)
We went on a tour in the school and we saw the classes. We were so surprised that they had smart boards in all the classrooms. In this school, there was one special needs class. There were 9 students in the class.

We also visited a special needs school. The students welcomed us, with a traditional dance with the traditional clothing. It was amassed. They were so proud and they enjoyed dancing for us. In that school they also had the vocational training, like we are having in our school. Here they make shoe covers in plastic. They had a classroom that was an apartment. There was everything in that room so that the children can learn to be independent.
In the afternoon, we went to a rehabilitation center. In this building the students can come after school time to have some more therapy. In Turkey, children with an handicap, don’t have to go to school. When they don’t go to school, they can come to the rehabilitation center to have some therapy. After some cookies and thee we went back to the hotel, were we had a meeting. In a congress room that was much too big for the few people we were J

The first 2 days were amazing, interesting and tiring... We saw so many wonderful things, I was impressed about what I saw. So in the evening of the second day we took some time to relax and have a swim in the thermal bath and to have a massage.

The last day, we went to Manisa. A village, 2 hours driving from the hotel. So we took our little bus and we drove up to Manisa. In Manisa we visited the autism center ‘OCEM’. It was a school for students with autism for all ages. The students can start at the age of 3 in the kindergarten. The first kindergarten for children with autism in Turkey. From 3 years till 7 years old, the children are in kindergarten. Afterwards they are in classes till 15 and then they can stay to work in different workshops. There was a wood workshop, an iron workshop and a ceramic workshop. There was also job training for the oldest.

This school looked as a village. There was a swimming pool, there were horses for therapy, greenhouse, football field, workplaces… and that all on a big green area, with a lot of olives trees. And those olives were used to make olive oil and to use it in the kitchen afterwards.

In the evening we ended our visit with a nice dinner in the hotel, together with some staff of the school and some people who used to work in the school and that we met in the previous meetings.

Again, it was an unforgettable experience. One that I will never forget. I feel good after being there. The only problem now, it is cold here in Belgium…

And when I got home, I made my report papers for my students, took a shower and went to school, were we had a party. It was a long day… but we made it till the end.

La vita es bella

Since 4 years, our school is involved in a Comenius project. We are now in our second project. The project is about Autism and we are in the project with schools from Italy, Romania, Ireland, Turkey and our school.

Last week we went to Rimini, Italy to go and vist there school and organisations that works with Autism. Me, L and C, had the chance to go to Rimini and we has a wonderfull experience.

In the school, all the students with autism and dissabilities are included in the mainstreamschools. It is amazing to see how many support teachers they have in the classes. Sometimes, there are 3, teachers in one classroom. The childeren with a disability get a one to one education.

The school was like a little village. There were wooden barracs, that were build after the World war by the Suisse. The gates were open around the school and they told us that there were no childeren that tried to escape. Lunch in school... we ate together with the childeren in there classrooms. They get a warm meal every day at lunch in school.

The last day after the meeting, we went to an other country, our i should say Republic. We took the bus and after 1 houre, we were in San Marino. One of the most beautiful places on earth. It was so amazing how beautifull it was. We were abouve the clouds and the sun was going down. In that nice setting, we went shopping and the 3 of us, we bought a new handbag...

During the trip, we had a lot of formal talks, but also a lot of informal talks... But those informal talks are as important as the formal talks.

Sometimes I feld a little lost in translation... All the presentations were in Italian (thanks to the French and little Spanisch I speak, I understood some of the things), translated by someone in Englisch and then every country started to translate it in there own language...

Next to the meetings during the day, we also had some freetime in the late afternoon and evening. Time to discover the city, the beach ...

I know one thing, I will go back to Italy. I love the country, the food (Nutella Icecream, seefood, Limonchello, Presecco...) and the people.

I want to say a very big thank you to the teachers of Ceis. It is amazing how dedicated they are to there job. They gave us a great experience and went home with a suitcase full of toughts.

the reunion

Finally, after so long, I am taking the palin to Tucson in Denver. Up to the up with people reunion... In the airport there is already a 'one to one' reunion. I am meeting up with Senta from Germany to take the plain to Tucson. It has been a while since I see here, so we have to talk a lot in the plain. Before I even relise, I am already in Tuson. We even get an official welcome in the plain... "welcome to all the UWP alumnis in the plain".

Arriving in Tuscon, the first thing we see are cactuses. Amasing how many cactuses there are. We recognise a lot of things because we were already in Tucson 5 years ago.

We are at the hotel some days before the official reunion starts. It is still quiet... but that will change very fast. The entire hotel will be packed with uppies :-) One by one they are arriving and we start to see some people we know. It is amasing, we haven't seen them for 10 years, but it feels like yesterday...

We all know that it will be a very emotional reunion. We will miss Joanne, the girl that was murderd 2 years ago... we will miss her, but she will be with us in our hearts. Joanne also recieved an award at the reunion. We went on stage with the entire cast and I read a letter from her parents. They are so happy that she recieved the award. We collected some money for the organisation she started. The organisation, is working in Africa and is building a school and a church. We recieved the award in her name, and we will bring it to her parents very soon.

We also went on stage and did some songs from our show. We dedicated the show to Joanne. We also relised that it will be the last time that we will be singing the UWP teamsong on stage. In 5 years, at our next reunion, one of the new casts will be singing that song on there first reunion.

It was so amasing talking to the people. knowing how many kids they already haven, if they are already married, what are they doing in live. We had a lot of talks, and still the feeling that the time was to short.

The last evening we went for dinner in 'the red lobster' for my b-day...

A b-day that I will never forget because I have spend it on the plaine :-)

10 years later

June 14th, it was the big day. After 10 years I would go back to my hostfamilies in Denver. 10 years ago... it sounds so long when you say it.
The suitcase was ready, not to heavy and there was chocolate in it. I know they just love the Belgian chocolat over there.
Not a big fan of flying, but I went on the plain for my long journet. First flight to Chicago. It was a great one, thanks to some medicine to help me to calm down a little bit. Next flight, the one to Denver. I was starting to get a little nervous now. Is that airport still the same, am I going to recognise Nancy, my hostmom for the first week... Getting out of the plaine, I started looking for the baggageclaim... I think I had to take a train... but were is that train. So I started walking and finally, I found my suitcase. Ok, but now... I have to see that I can find Nancy... after 30 min, I found her.
It was so amasing to see her again. It didn't felt like it was 10 years ago. I felt like yesterday that I left her place.

Getting in to the house of Nancy and Terry, felt like coming home. "If you still know were you can find everything in the kitchen, just take it, don't ask is, you are home here." I even got my room back from 10 years ago. After learning how to make bananabread and Meatlove, they took me around for a week to show me some beautifull places. We went to Estespark, a tea factory, had a leasy day in front of the tv... it was amasing to be back.

After a week, Gene and Greg came to pick me up. They are the family I stayed at for 4 week during staging. I was so happy to see them. I had a great time, we went in to the Rocky mountains 2 times, ones for a roadtrip all the way around in the mountains, to beautiful lakes and ons to the Rocky Mountain National Part, it is so amasing. I maybe love the Swiss mountains, but these are also so beautifull. Walking around there, you smell the pinetrees, you see chipmunks that come to look for food. That is nature... we had some great talks and BBQ's in the evening. It was so great to see them again. And maybe I haven't been in touch with them, it was amasing seeing them again and having a great time with them.
Ok, at this moment, there is no chocolat in my suitecase anymore, but there are a lot of new clothes in it.
So, now it is time to go, on the plain again, all the way to Tucson, AZ, that is the place were the reunion will be this year. I can't believe that I will see 'my people" again.