Laski testimonials

THE UWC+ laski

EXPERIENCE: TESTIMONIALS

TEXTS BY: Augusto B. Ball贸n Pietro Poggiali Chantal Smeland Elizabete Romanovska Nadia Romero Nardelli Michelle Velasco Bachazile Sikhondze

EDITOR’S LETTER

Augusto B. Ball贸n

Last October, twelve students and two teachers from UWCRCN embarked in a

fantastic project week in the surrounding area of Warsaw, Poland. The goal was simple: to interact, learn, and share activities with

our friends from the Laski School for the blind and visually impaired.

Some of us were already acquainted with some of the students as

they had visited our school the previous May; the others, however, would experience this opportunity for the first time.

This publication

intends to convey the feelings, reflections, and personal insights originated from our “Laski experience� (as we baptized it).

As the editor of this publication suggests, the following testimonials should be understood as merely a grasp of the events

occurred during this Project Week, as the insights can vary from person to person.

However, it is also highlighted that the stories

shared hereby were collected from first hand sources and are therefore true reflexions from the interviewees.

The reason why this is published

in written and audio format is not because blind and visually impaired people could not have had access to the content in it otherwise.

In fact, and perhaps contrary to popular assumptions, technology has already developed to enable publications such

as this one to reach broader audiences.

Instead, the nature of this publication has to do with the simple concept of equity. It is

fair that this publication be open to a wide audience regardless of the existence of any high developed technology.

Furthermore,

we hope that, through the use of voices, the experiences to be narrated will establish a closer connection to the reader.

Please, join us in

ześć

a sample of this amazing journey!

cześć!* *hello!

Pietro Poggiali

My PBL was in the Laski school for blind and visually impaired in Warsaw,

Poland. Our purpose was to meet our peers, learn the sports that they do (like Goal Ball), and develop a project for a new sport that involves

both blind and sighted people.

I think this experience was really beautiful and it was also an extraordinary occasion for growth and

learning.

In Laski there are students from 2 to more than 20 years old.

The aim of the school- and of the nuns who are running it- is to

give students the skills to become autonomous and to enter in the society as any other citizen.

They also help students find their talents.

Some of them sing or play an instrument really beautifully; some others are incredibly good at languages.

In the school, we played Goal

Ball and special version of table tennis, we went in tandem biking with the students, and visited a Museum about the Warsaw

Uprising together. We went to lessons and workshops (ceramics, metal work, needlework), learned how they write, read,

use computer and the Internet, and even watch movies with audio descriptions.

We usually spent time with students of our

age but once we went also to a group of youn girls and played with them: we all really enjoyed it. We also had a meeting with Pawel

Uzbanski, a former student of both, Laski and RCNUWC, who climbed some of the highest mountains in the world.

The first thing I

realized while approaching Laski students is that behind each person’s disability, there is a unique and wonderful human being with large

capacity and potential as any other person in the world. We certainly learned how to interact with blind students and how to be a good

guide- which is far more difficult than I thought because the most common attitude is to think that we are doing charity for “those less

fortunate than us” and “those who need our help”. However, they are not less fortunate than anybody and they don’t need more

help than we do. Therefore, this behavior, sometimes, degrades and offends them, because they want to be treated as the

people they are.

I was really amazed by this experience and I’m thinking about going back there in summer or after graduation to do

some volunteer work because I really admire the work that nuns and lay people together have been doing in the school for more than 100 years.

Chantal Smeland

I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to meet the students and

staff of Laski, and more importantly, to get to befriend them. Their spirit taught me to seize the time I have, and motivates me to

keep fighting for what I want in life.

Elizabete Romanovska Before I went to Laski, I had spent one day as blind person. It helped me a lot.

Since that day, I could understand better how they feel: when should I help them, and when can they do things independently.

The biggest challenge for me in this PBL was to learn how to see the world as a blind person. Once, for example, we visited a

museum and we had to tell stories to the students, explain the things that were there. It was very important for me that they could understand

everything from my words- as good as I could see them.

I also learned polish and used it a lot. Many friends from Laski didn’t

speak English at all, so knowing a few phrases in Polish was very good.

We also played goal ball. Goal ball is a game originally

introduced for blind people. I was really happy that I learnt how to play these games. My friends in Laski played it very well and they

like it, so we had one more thing to share (And I am very proud about my friends, they are very very very good in sports!).

I liked to be

there with our group, all of us found friends in Laski and we had really good teamwork. I’m still in contact with my friends from Laski every

day. I like to talk with them, because they teach me many things. I’m sure they can teach and help me more than I can help them. They

teach me how strong we can be, how many things we can do even if we have some problems, but the most important thing they taught me

is how to see world and people all around me without eyes, but with heart.

Before I went to Laski, I thought that the biggest thing I would

learn was going to be about my life: how happy I am that I can see everything!

But actually, the biggest knowledge I got was: how

lazy can I be!

My friends in Laski are doing so many activities, they are so smart, they are sporty, and they are always learning

something new. I have never seen them when they are saying: “bah, I don’t want to do it” or “I can’t do it”. I think this experience gave me new

inspiration to never give up.

Now when I am tired and I don’t want to study I am thinking about my friends from Laski, and they inspired me

to never give up.

PS. After Laski, I contacted the Latvian blind association, I will organise sport events for them in summers.

Nadia Romero Nardelli After taking part on both sides at this project, first as a host and now as a

guest, I must say that I’ve never experienced something like this before. It perhaps sound clichÊ, but I can feel from the bottom of my

heart I’ve learned so much with this partnership.

Last year I got to know some of them and I was impressed on how fast they were able

to manage themselves to move around my school; we created some personal bonds that, later on this year, we developed even

more with some Polish language skills.

Being in Laski made me think about the way I can help people with different abilities, because

helping them doesn’t mean to drag them around with you.

At Laski I learned that the best way of helping them is making the surroundings

accessible for them, so that way they can be more independents.

The biggest lesson I learned there, is that I was not seeing

things as I should have.

The exercise of telling them “what can I see” made me realize that I didn’t really paid attention to details, while,

to them (Laski students) details are everything.

After the trip I posted on Facebook a picture of Arek (Laski student) and I. My mom

commented on the picture – He is seeing through your eyes, the instant reaction I had without thinking too much was replying –No

mom, you are wrong, through him I learnt how to see. And that was the moment where I realized that I’ve learned a valuable lesson.

Michelle Velasco

Laski was one of the most enriching experiences in my life; Laski

created links with people who change my life, and gave me another perspective. For me, every day with this young student was a

day of learning.

They taught me how to live with passions and how to look without seeing, how to feel and use our imagination to

create our own world. They taught me to trust and follow others, work in teams and appreciate what I have; to enjoy the beautiful

moments and challenge myself to adversity or just imagine without limits and smile around other. Laski is a lifetime experience and

great human learning, as well as cultural.

Bachazile Sikhondze At UWC, we are taught that learning is not only about mastering

the academic aspects of education but to take it a step further by accepting and appreciating each other’s differences and

embracing peace through the little things we do.

With this strong UWC pillar, I have grown to understand and see things better: that people with

disabilities are just like me, that everyone has their own disabilities and the fact that they are not physical or visible it does not make

another one a better person than them. My visit to Laski was the best experience I have ever had.

I learnt a lot from a week

spent there. It was a wonderful surprise and great lesson to unlearn that visually impaired people are as dependent as I usually thought

but that they can do anything and everything to the best of their abilities. I enjoyed going around the city with them, playing games

and attending their classes where I saw different products that they made.

These included woollen clothes of different kind, mats,

ceramics and metal work. This was amazing because, I cannot even make those things by my own. This taught me a great

lesson that being out of sight is not the end of the world, but the beginning of a life-long experience of exploring your true talents. I

am grateful for UWC to make it possible for me to be part of such a rewarding experience of a lifetime.

Augusto B. Ball贸n

Whenever someone asked me about my experience in Laski right after

I came back, I did not know what to tell them or how to explain to them the wonderful complexities of spending 10 days with

blind and partially sighted students. And the truth was, not even I had fully understood or assimilated the whole experience yet.

Laski PBL started for me since last June when I hosted a visiting Laski student in my boarding room.

It was not the challenge I

expected, because him, Bartek, was very much independent after I showed him campus the first two days.

We certainly

shared different classes and activities within a week, but it rapidly became insufficient.

This was my first reason when I applied

to Laski PBL, and yet, I did not comprehend what I was going to experience.

During our ten days in Laski, we spent our time doing

different things: we did tandem biking; attended workshops on ceramic, metal work, spatial orientation, and visual impurities; performed in a

show; enjoyed a bonfire; played goal boal and table tennis blinded; and spent classes with the local students.

However, the

personal insights were the most relevant, and I will intend here to convey what I learned.

One of things that we learned as a group is

that everyone is a bit blind.

Physically, there are things that, for most of the people, is very hard to interpret at first or second glance.

Moreover, some people, including me, can fail to see beyond what is in front of their eyes, as if our sight were blindfolding us from

seeing beyond appearances.

Hence, to some extent, our sight can be a blessing but it might turn into a big burden.

Living with Laski

students enabled me to learn from their simplicity, transparency, humbleness and innocence.

And I certainly do not feel I am exaggerating.

I also learned that each of us, fully sighted people, is fortunate. In Laski, I got to meet people with different cases of how they

became blind.

Some of them were victims in accident or illnesses that changed their lives: a car accident, a tumour, an

unfortunate fall.

Each of them had different stories, and I would like to say that I could hear them all, but despite of the 10 days, I

could not reach that. However, it showed me that being blind, or partially sighted, could be the case of anyone.

All of them had to leave some

things back, including their friends, to head to Laski. After such a long experience, I feel blessed, but also committed to a big responsibility.

What advantage am I taking from being fully sighted? What am I doing with this ability that I have, because, certainly, blind people have

other abilities?

Well, the work continues, and we are currently trying to develop a new sport that can be performed by both, sighted

and blinded, in order to increase the possibilities of interaction. I thank Paulina for making this opportunity available, as it is one of the few

opportunities that we get, as students, to interact with people directly in the “Humanitarian� pillar. I am glad I was chosen,

and I feel fully committed to reach the goal of the PBL, and hopefully receive them when they come in June with a new sport to teach them.

cześć!* *BYE!

made in flekke june 2014