Another Wonderful Year…Another Amazing Team

As the CITTI Project Team wraps up another amazing trip, Bridgett Perry expresses her gratitude for everyone involved.

It’s hard to put into words the feelings and experiences we have shared over the past few weeks. There are the unique, but now familiar, sights and sounds of the cities and countryside…pigs wander without fences, burrows around every bend. But more importantly, there is the sheer excitement of being in such a wonderful country with people I am proud to claim as friends. Over the past three years we have learned, shared, and made amazing accomplishments.

The CITTI Project is not a one person show by any means. It is true teamwork of people with talents, passion, and collaborative spirit. There is Gladys, our Ecuadorian Director, who never stops. Her day is full of meetings, phone calls, and constant hands – on in her community. Her fervor to make a difference leaves the rest of us clamoring to keep up. The success of the CITTI Project has much to do with Gladys’ contributions and commitment to the organizations within the Tungurahua Region. (picture: Gladys (left) with Bridgett)

This year, we have had the fortune to have our own whirlwind of a team, especially our very own project coordinator, Andrea De Leon. Andrea, already a world traveler and skillful planner, managed to keep up with Gladys in preparation for our travels, meetings, and social gatherings. What I find most incredible about Andrea is her ability to tackle any issue, her unique insights to culture and the wisdom that comes from her life experiences. For some, this would be enough, but in Andrea’s case, she is an amazing teacher as well. (picture: Andrea shown with two children of Huambalo.)

We also took on the task this year of compiling a Visual Guide. While it is often difficult for me to delegate, I found complete trust, comfort, and appreciation for the talented team who have been charged to pull this off. From the time I first approached Stacy Springer to lead this team I knew my choice was right. She brings a steady, professional approach to an otherwise daunting and overwhelming task. (picture: Stacy)

Chaya Spector has been a long time documentarian for the CITTI Project, as well as a founding member. From this vantage, her

contributions to the Visual Guide have been invaluable. Thanks to Chaya, the CITTI Project has secured funding and has ironed out a solid plan to completing the job with integrity. (picture: Chaya (right) with Bridgett)

We are also fortunate to be joined this year by Diane Dew, whose enthusiasm for quality while having fun has rounded out the team. Diane's zeal for photography combined with her thoughtful, compassionate insights has been a personal treat to witness. (picture: Diane shown taking photos for the visual guide.)

Every one of our team members are amazing. Sonia Thacher has a special knack for working with teachers and playing with the children. She is a kid-magnet. Sonia has beautiful way with words that connects concepts to reality. The CITTI Project team has several times been grateful for her ability to put into words what we have otherwise grappled with. (picture: Sonia with children in Ambato.)

Lynn Gitlow offers her years of professional expertise, her ability to absorb what is going on around her. Mixing her skills with her observations a special brew of innovations emerges. Then she sits back and let’s other’s take the credit.

Thank goodness for Dennis Martin. Dennis has a way with tools! We just need to throw him an idea and he manages to craft what is needed. I think the thing I most admire is his sensitivity and respect for his Ecuadorian compadres. His creations are truly a cultural collaboration. (picture: Lynn and Dennis)

Maggie Morales is a anchor in the CITTI Project. Being part of our core team for 4 years, in three countries, she uniquely represents the essence of who we are. I constantly learn from her example, marvel at her kindness, and appreciate her consistent, professional, compassionate contributions. (picture: Maggie)

Communication has grown to become an increased area of concern within the organizations and schools we have worked with here in Ecuador. Thanks to Mimi Deegan, we have experienced a rich and transformative

ability to tackle the issues. When our hearts were aching from questions about “when will my child be able to talk”, Mimi was able to patiently, consistently, and considerately lead them through a paradigm shift, helping them see the value of communication in a whole new light. Watching Mimi in action is worth the price of admission alone! (picture: Mimi with Alfanso)

I love getting new blood involved in the CITTI Project. This year, our team has been boosted with two especially gifted people. Elissa Poel has now made friends with many teachers here in Ecuador. She was frequently found with her sleeves rolled up, creating and crafting materials after having listened carefully to those circled around her. And when the circle was not of teachers, she was surrounded by children, eagerly wanting to play her cleaverly disguised games of learning. (picture: Elissa teaching some of the children of Huambalo)

Susan Pompa has been such an incredible presence for the CITTI Project this year. Being a self proclaimed “generalist” she found herself pitching in everywhere where she went. What I most appreciate is that no matter what the task, what the need, when or where we found her, Susan did it with a contagious joyfulness, and determination that goes way beyond “general”. (picture: Susan)

There is no way for any of us to go home without being changed by this experience. This trip has been beyond our expectations. I extend my thanks and gratitude to this year’s team for their continual pursuit of cultural knowledge, their generosity, and their wonderful sense of humors.. I am ever grateful.

Fondly, Bridgett

A Shift in Dynamics

Stacy Springer and Lynn Gitlow, both occupational therapists and assistive technology specialists, admire innovations of Diana, a physical therapist in Huambalo.

Arriving in Huambalo, we were greeted by so many familiar faces from last year as well as new ones. Immediately we were embraced by Diana, the physical therapist, that we had worked with from CITTI Project 2006. Last year Diana was much more passive, listening to every translated word, eager to learn about what she can do with the children with disabilities. We exchanged information around therapy for children with disabilities, and worked on making some adaptations for the children of Huambalo. At the end of last year, we left her with some ideas and adaptions for the children. Some of the positioning supports that we provided included foam wedges, rolled up towels for leg abduction, and hand splints.

Throughout our conversations Diana kept on asking us for information about "plastics" and we provided her with what we knew based on our knowledge of materials that can be for positioning. This year, the dynamics had shifted...and Diana was now eager to show us what she had made since last year´s project. The excitement in her eyes and the smile on her face as she brought us into her therapy room to show her adaptations did not require translation.


Diana, from some of the ideas of how to create supports from local sustainable materials, had created seated positioning supports out of pvc materials. She took large pvc pipes, cut them in half, then molded them over a gas kitchen stove using the end of a broom stick to create the curves. Then, she was able to borrow a drill to attach fasteners for the velcro straps for the seats. She explained the steps for the positioning seats, and that she created each one specifically for children that attended the school. Words could not do justice to the transformation that had taken place in just one year. (picture: Diana shows a positioning seat she made from local materials.)

Diana did not replicate only what we had made, but she generalized and adapted the ideas and the seeds that were planted from last year to make it her own. She had found her solution to the "plastics" question in materials that were sustainable for her and taught us about them too. The dynamics had shifted - she was the teacher, and we were the students. In that moment, we felt the vision and mission of the CITTI Project materialize.

A New meaning to the Term “Resourceful”

Elissa Poel, Director of the Special Education Student Teaching Program at New Mexico State University, comments on the resourcefulness of teachers, parents, and individuals with disabilities in Ecuador.

As educators in the United States, we pride ourselves as being resourceful when providing for the educational needs of the children in our classrooms. As a newcomer to CITTI Project 2007, I have discovered a new meaning to the term resourceful. I have been working alongside educators, therapists, and parents of children with disabilities for the past eight days in Ambato and Huambalo.

Receiving a salary of $50 - $130 per month, teachers in Ecuador work very hard to meet the needs of the children with disabilities with whom they work. To meet the needs of these children with so little money, the teachers have honed being resourceful to an art form. Empty shoe boxes become engaging activities which cover all curriculum areas. Matching activities that focused on themes (kitchen items, money) were designed from cardboard and clothespins and helped with vocabulary development and work-related skills. A scrap piece of paper with numbers written 1 – 10 and film canisters containing glass beads kept a group of children engaged for 45-minutes, identifying numbers, adding and subtracting, and improving their fine-motor skills. Positioning chairs were constructed from cardboard and used to help students with severe disabilities participate in all activities. Discarded wooden pallets were used to create spaces for classrooms and an accessible outdoor garden center. These are all amazing examples that assistive technology tools come in different shapes and sizes. (picture: Carlos Martinez gives the CITTI Project team a tour of the Special Education Institute in Ambato.)

As teachers and students of another culture, working together and exposing each other to new ideas expanded all of our educational tool boxes. By keeping our focus on the needs of the children, we assisted our fellow educators by helping them break down barriers, adapt for access, and adopt the adaptations for their own purposes. Watching teachers, parents, and students problem solve together provided a glimpse of what it is like to include everyone in an engaging learning process. We are each others’ teachers and students and need to remember “that it’s all about the kids.”

I will be leaving Ecuador and my new friends viewing life through changed lenses. As the Director of the Special Education Student Teaching Program at New Mexico State University, I will work to help new teachers think about the resources they have available to them and help them to focus on creating inclusive environments by empowering themselves, their students, and the parents of the children with whom they work. Two weeks is time to develop friendships, become comfortable in local surroundings, and experience the culture. I get a lump in my throat as this adventure comes to a close. I do hope that I left a piece of me with the children and families of the villages we visited because I am taking away bushels full of new friendships, ideas, and memories.

Building a Mountain.

Dennis Martin, Anatomy, Physiology and Kinesiology Professor of OT and PT programs, pottery teacher, and all around CITTI Project Handi-guy, offers his prospective of this year's project.

I look for the things you don`t see. The different views, sensitivities of individuals, cultures are based on a common need for natural dignity common to all but like seeds must be cultivated and allowed to grow...each in its own way.

My role in this Project was to build things, a portable ramp and an accessible green house for the children of Huambalo to tend, selling the sprouts for income. With each of these projects it was necessary to learn what was being done, what ideas did they already have, and what did they see as their real needs. (picture: the children fill pots with soil and fertilizer.)

With the green house three of us, Arcadio, Susan and I, started with an idea of using available poles, nails and plastic sheeting. This evolved into using pallets on the property to build a three-level mountain on the side of the building which gave the right amount of sun through the day. The overhang of the building added protection from falling volcanic debris and has spouts for the collection of water. Initially, I thought of it as a monument because of shape and weight. But on further thought, I saw it as a representation of the mountain that the communities depend upon for their sustenance. The thought of sometime in the future, to see the mountain covered with green becomes a monument to the efforts of the people that have influenced the realization of their “mountain”.

Seeds give rise to a future for the people of this, and possibly, other communities. Thank you for sharing.

The Seeds of Change

Andrea De Leon, CITTI Project Coordinator and 1st grade teacher of an inclusion classroom, describes how our challenges change to successes with the right kind of care .

San Jose de Huambalo . An endearing community that embraced us with open arms as we arrived at their ``Fundacion San Jose de Huambalo``, a special education school started by Monica, a mother with two special children of her own . It was our second day, our first ``workshop`` day . I sat down with Mimi, a speech language pathologist, and fellow CITTI member at our designated ``communication table`` . As we began to ask the families and teachers at our table to think about and write down some things that they thought their child would want to communicate to them, it became clear that this was not going to go as we had originally thought . Our question was met with blank stares and blank paper . One of the therapists finally asked what she could do to help her students be able to talk, what massages or techniques could she use to help them be able to talk one day . Other parents had similar requests . I turned to look at Mimi, and we realized that we had sort of started out in a place they were not quite ready for . So we started over . We had to share ideas about what communication was… in all its forms . And thus the planting of ideas regarding communication began . (picture: Andrea working with a family of Huambalo)

We began to ask what their children are already doing to communicate, and attempted to validate those means of communication . For example, one mother shared that she and her son had a sort of sign language, in which she understood what he wanted, such as a hand to the mouth meant that he was hungry . From there we discussed what things maybe their children could not quite get across or were harder to understand . And aha…our same therapist shared a story about when that same child was upset about something and she was not quite sure what it was . Mimi explained that this was an instance in which something like a communication board would come in handy . That same therapist was soon making a communication board entitled . ``It hurts…`` and included several body parts in which a child could express a specific pain or discomfort . From there ideas were discussed and turned into reality, with parents, teachers, and therapists alike creating communication boards so children could communicate everything from their basic needs such as going to the restroom, to what fruit they wanted to eat or what activity in the classroom or therapy they wanted to do . Before I knew it was time for lunch .

We had come a long way from the initial questions about how to help children talk, and the community had truly taken ownership of their ideas to help their children communicate, in every sense of the word . The seed not only had been planted, but it seemed to grow rather easily on its own once it was given room to thrive . This culminated with the parents, teachers, and therapists sharing what they had made with the rest of us . One of the mothers actually brought us all to tears as she explained that she was so happy that now she would be able to communicate and understand her son .

The morning was truly amazing and I for one walked away with a new respect and level of appreciation for the whole process . They had a planted a seed in me too . The idea that every community is different and that ``you have to meet them where they are``, as a fellow CITTI Project member so appropriately stated . As the words left her mouth, I realized this was a gift the community in Huambalo had taught me .

The People We Pick Up Along the Way

Sonia Thacher, Special Education Teacher, explains the phenomina of our CITTI Project Ripple Effect.

The CITTI Project ripple effect--a puzzling and delightful phenomenon we´ve observed over the past two weeks as our message of increased participation and independence through simple assistive technology spreads throughout the communities we visit. It has, of course, always been our intention to share information and resources with the teachers, families, and individuals affiliated with our three partner associations. For me, one of the most exciting parts of this capacity-building has been the unintended effects on the people we´ve sort of picked up along the way.

Our first day at Asoplejicat, we presented our demo kit of materials to an audience of adults--compañeros-- with various physical disabilities, aided greatly by three skilled translators from the local community. Delighted by the response of many compañeros, and their ideas for how these materials might help others that they knew, we set about making duplicates so that the center would have its own library. As we worked side by side with the members of Asoplejicat, it became apparent to many of us that Tania (an English teacher with no previous special education experience) was churning out materials with one hand while gesturing with the other--bringing both our words and our ideas to life. The second day, our occupational therapist stepped away from the table for a few moments and returned to find that Tania had finished making the hand splint and was now helping a compañero try it out: we´d definitely made a convert.

Tania and the other translators joined us again at the Institute in Ambato, where we were to work with the entire staff of 20 teachers and a handful of allied professionals. Assuming that having childcare would help faciliate these teachers´ participation, we brought along two wonderful babysitters. As it turns out, we didn´t have a single child at the school the first day, and the kids the next day stuck close to their parents. Undaunted, the babysitters set to work making communication boards and helping finish with the construction of a ramp. The second afternoon, they presented their materials alongside the teachers, beaming with pride and blushing at the applause. "I am hoping to become a teacher", said Belan, "and I have learned so much. I think these (materials) can help all children."

Our last stop, Huambalo, brought out the best in a resource we hadn´t tapped yet: on the second day, our two van drivers took their first tentative steps into the special education center. ¨These are the children¨, said Chaya, our photojournalist, indicating the two smiling faces in the wheelchairs beside her, and gesturing towards Maria, a mischeivious little bright-eyed girl whose Down´s Syndrome doesn´t stop her from dancing, playing ball, and literally climbing the walls for attention at times. Chaya noted the pity in the drivers´ expressions--we´ve all felt that, maybe all even started from exactly that place. The drivers nodded solemnly and moved deeper into the room, taking note of the activities swirling around them before heading back to the familiarity of the van.

The next day, they went to work. Helped by a speech pathologist and a special education teacher, they put together six communication boards--the ones Mimi laid out for them and several others of their own design. The father of one child showed us all the board the drivers had helped him make to communicate about elements of their daily life in agriculture--a shovel, water, seeds, and earth. They presented the rest, finishing (with a grin like Maria´s) with a board devoted to "the means of transportation", including, of course, busses and vans. After the applause, Marco spoke again, saying how much they approved of the work we had been doing, how proud they were to have been the ones driving us from place to place, and how much they wanted to leave these boards as ¨recuerdos¨ for the children they had gotten to know. ¨Now I know about these things¨. said Marco, "and I want to be a part of them." (picture : our bus drivers share the communication boards they made for the children of Huambalo)

These, then, are main stories I tell to illustrate the impact we´ve been blessed to have on many of the people surrounding the Project. There are others I wasn´t as close to, who have their own stories as well. The people at the hotel in Ambato asking Andrea, ¨where do you go every day?¨and listening intently to her answer. The hardware store employee who wanted to know exactly what all the tourists would do with PVC pipes and shower hooks, who got an earful from Tania about the students and compañeros. The woman from Huambalo whose children do not have any kind of disability--she stopped by on Monday just to see what was going on at the Center, and stayed the next two days making mouth sticks and matching games. It has been amazing, humbling, and incredibly satisfying to bring our ideas and information to the people of Tungarahua province, and to watch how people from all different walks of life can give those ideas vitality and depth.

Sometimes, you drop a stone and it just sinks in the water. Sometimes, the ripples go on and on and on.