April Round Trip

Spring arrived, summer is comming, and winter went definetelly away...

I did an amazing round trip on April whit a friend that brought us down to the East Coast.

We started our trip in Washington DC where we saw how a city can be created in a few years. White House, American Congress and all this stuff... Amazing weather and we discovered other parts of the city.

Next stop was Baltimore, were we could prove for ourselves that was not that dangerous as everybody told us, we saw how art and culture are really present in this city. We had the honour to meet nice people, an amazing couchsurfer and police officers that drove us wehre we needed in "unsafe" areas. 

Philladelphia was waiting for us next and was also amazing. The couchsurfer was also an amazing girl that spent lots of time with us, introduced us some frineds of her that drove us around the city, day and night. Amazing night out in Philladelphia.

New York was next and last stop waiting for us. I should say brooklyn, where we spent the whole weekend. And how glad we are to let ourselves know this dynamic cool and awesome neighbourhood. 

Once back from the trip the life in Maine looks exactly the same.

Winter go away!

It is March and there is still snow around. Although the Mainers keep telling me this has been a mild winter, I still believe it is being too long for me, too snowy, too cold! It is time for Spring. And the true that the sunny days becomming more common, but it is still cold. As you can see in the pictures though, when the sun shines the days are gorgeous!

A part from that, we are already completly into the work programming and routine. We are already one staff member more and have learned very fast how to deal with everyhting so we can be a good help. The kids are really challenging as the behaviors, backgrounds and specail needs. A wide variety of clients and needs are met there and sometimes is diffcult to individualize as much as it is needed. This is the reason because there is that many staff in this School. There is an average of 5 staff for 6 clients. Lots of theses cleints needs one to one attention.

The training the company provided us before starting our job was very useful. The main part of the training was the part dedicated to the Therapeutic Crisis Intervention. The TCI is an approach of the intervention of the educators when the child is in crisis. This approach is very extended and common in the United States. It takes into account all the little pieces and steps an educator can do and take in order to reduce a stressful situation for a kid that could potentially end in a crisis. The TCI also train the workers the physical strategies that need to be used in case that the situation becomes unsafe for the client, the worker, or both. This is something that mkes me thing a lot...

Why in Europe we don't have this kind of technicques? Do we need them? Can the use of theses techniques make the kids dependant to them? It is ok to expect from an educator to be able to physically distress an unsafe situation?

As we say, "mañana más", which means "Tomorrow there'll be more" 

Welcome Maine

Welcome Maine! We settled in Maine! By the beginning of February we settled in this state, after hours travelling by plane, airports, picking up cars, and driving driving and driving, we reached our new destination: Skowhegan, Maine. Wow, it still snows, it is still cold, it is still rural! This is deep America too! But it has coast, sea! A need for me.

Our town is Skowhegan. A small town up in the north of the state of Maine. No more than 7000 people live in here. I share the house with three more persons, one of them will leave soon. The house is not the best, kinda old and a carpet that would need to be removed and changed... A part from that, we'll make it our place.



The town is small. The streets have names and not numbers, and downtown is formed by just one street, in which there are a few shops. What suprises me the most of this area (and it also happened in Grand Rapids, Minnesota) is the old style of some of the shops and stores in town. The vast majority of them are small surfaces where they sell old and antique items that you can barely use, such as furniture, gifts or crafts. Of course in the big Avenue of Skowhegan there is a Walmart that provides the popullation with a variety of high quality American "food". Luckily, this time there is also Hannaford, another supermarket in which you can find a better quality food at a higher price.

Another thing that I can not understand is the management of the space by the American society. Let's see: This country in general has a lot of sapce, more in the suburbs and in the countryside. Maine is not an excpetion, not at all, probably is one of the less popullated states compared to its surface. Why then the people live in huge houses where the warehouse is completely packed and full of stuff as you can see from the street? Why do they still have problems with the space?

After a two weeks training we are ready to work. The workplace is much different than the one in Minnesota. Now we will work in a School program for kids with special needs. We'll be placed in one of the classrooms and will work as Educational Technicians. The job seems nice but very challenging. There is lots of staff because is needed, and this fact makes it easier for a beginner as I am!

The Maine adventure starts now!