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From:
Valerie Sutton Date: Tue Mar 30, 1999 4:22 pm Subject: Re: Nicaraguan SW Report | |
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On Tue, 23 Mar 1999, James Shepard-Kegl wrote: >Last fall, Valerie graciously allowed me to share with all of you on this >mailing list our plans to address some of the needs of Deaf Nicaraguans in >the area affected by Hurricane Mitch. Just to update everyone, we are >actively training Deaf adults to be teachers in the new school we are >setting up in Condega (in the center of the flood area). We ran a sign >language workshop in Condega for ten days in December. The first intensive >session, using three Deaf teachers from the Bluefields school, starts April >7 and will run two months. We were asked to take 70 children, but that >would swamp us, so we reduced the initial enrollment to 30. SW, of course, >will be a part of the curriculum, although at this stage we are more >interested in bringing Nicaraguan Sign Language to these children. Fluency >first, reading and writing afterwards. Many of our storybooks have been >translated into SW (Babar, Taily-Po, Little Engine that Could, Anansi the >Spider, Trojan Horse, Odysseus and the Cyclops, Odysseus and Circe, etc.) > >-- James Shepard-Kegl > __________________________________ March 30, 1999 Thanks, James, for this report - it meant a lot to hear from you. Your project, the Nicaraguan Sign Language Projects is really remarkable - I can't get over your dedication and strength in facing all the hardships of a devasting flood in Nicaragua, and then creating a second school for Deaf children in that area, plus flying some Deaf children to the Bluefields school on the other side of the country! Under the hardest conditions you are succeeding. While you were in the middle of all this in Nicaragua.....I was watching BBC news on television one day, and they reported a terrible plane crash. The report explained that all were killed, flying from Managua to Bluefields, and I realized that you and your Deaf children could easily have been on that plane. I was relieved to hear that all of you are OK, but I also understand that some of your staff lost family members? I am so sorry to hear this. It really brings home how difficult life is in Nicaragua. I am glad to know that you are using SignWriting in both of your schools for the Deaf, and I hope you will keep us informed of your progress with them. You have done so many translations into SignWriting! Perhaps it is time to place some of them in our SignWriting Library Online? We do have an example of one story written in Nicaraguan Sign Language on our web site at the moment: If You Give A Mouse A Cookie https://www.SignWriting.org/mouse01.html But we could post more stories written in Nicaraguan Sign Language if you wish. I am slowly building the SW Library Online...it will take several years, but will become a valuable resource in time. Thanks again for your report, and good luck with your new semester starting April 7th! Valerie :-) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Valerie Sutton SignWriting https://www.SignWriting.org The DAC, Deaf Action Committee for SW Center For Sutton Movement Writing an educational nonprofit organization Box 517, La Jolla, CA, 92038-0517, USA ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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