When we started our class, my student was talkative and was her usual self. 1o minutes into our time, she wouldn’t do the task I asked her to do. She was blabbering about the chalk, about standing up, kicked her shoes, slapped me with the book and threw the manipulative tool. Suddenly she sobbed and said something about spanking. It was about halfway on our class. I didn’t get her so I tried to appease by comforting her. She stopped for a while. Slumped on her chair, looked at me and said something inaudible again. Sobbed some more. This time she was really in tears and her eyes were red and wouldn’t stop crying. She just hugged me all those times while saying something.
I told her Nanang about it and found out that she was spanked by her older brother last night. Pitiful girl. She felt the rejection but couldn’t understand why she was beaten. She has feelings, genuine feelings. Children with mental retardation does. They just don’t know how to understand and express it appropriately.
Guess what. Their new tambayan is in an unusual place yet nice. It was in a small parcel of land, rather a platform in the middle of the river when the water is low, enough for them to gather in a circle. Sweet. The sound of the shallow, rushing river in itself is soothing. Not to mention the music that they make. Really a nice place to relax. I wasn’t able to be with them in the river though because I was wearing a skirt and it would be impossible to scale the dike with a skirt on, even if I do it in barefoot. Maybe next time. (pardon the picture, it was taken through my camera phone)