Hi everyone,
It has been a full work week. As we get close to the final
of our assignment we really needed to put ourselves into that and we made good
advances on our final recommendation paper and now we are about ready to
present to Ekiti State government and ICT department. Our
main focus is in establishing a new smart card that will carry biometrics into
and will be used by the elderly citizens to identify them and receive their
monthly payments. The expectation is that later this will be used by all Ekiti
population.
School for the blind and deaf
On Saturday we went to the School for the blind and deaf in
Ikere-Ekiti to do volunteer work out of our consulting assignment. It was a
blast!!! We divided our 15 team members
into 5 teams of 3 to perform different tasks that would help the school and leave
something concrete after our passage. Setting up computers and printers
(Braille) adapted for visually disable, talking about personal hygiene, washing
clothes, fixing the bedrooms and my team, which was responsible digging a gutter
to help on erosion control and help the rain water flow to go around the school
and not pass thru its complex. The team was me, Bob and Bouke and besides being
really hard to dig in a 35o C weather we did our part really well and all of us
got some blisters in our hands to remind us of how hard we worked. After that
we went talking to the kids and that was very pleasant. They were all excited
about our visit and wanted to know all about us and we sure wanted the same.
The communication was hard, but we managed thru sign language and writing. We
could tell they really loved the songs some of our girls taught them and all
the time we spent there. We even had to force them to go to lunch as they
wanted to be around us as much as they could. After some time talking a football
game was settled and me, as the Brazilian guy, had to participate and correspond
to the expectations.. Gladly and surprisingly I scored twice (I've celebrated pointing
up my finger like Ronaldo…LOL) and the game between the IBM team and the school
kids ended in a tie (2 x 2). Before the game something happened and it really
touched me, so I have a special section below for that:
Samuel, Gabriel, football, CBDV…going from a sad to a happy
story
Before the football game between IBM and the deaf kids, two
of the blind kids approached me in the middle of the field (they have
spectacular other senses that compensate the visual disability) and asked if I
was the Brazilian guy. As I said yes, they them asked me: Sir, do you think
that visually disable people could play football? I immediately responded that
sure they could and that there are special ball with bells inside and special
rules for the game. I then explained the little bit I knew about that and told
them that it’s even a Paralympics official sport and Brazil was champion in more than
one occasion. Bottom line, yes guys, you
can play and you should be playing!!!
Suddenly they started smiling and anyone could tell they
were happy about the good news. They never ever heard about that before
(remember, we are in a remote location within Nigeria). Then I’ve promised them
that I would find those balls and the rules needed for the blind to play
football and I would send this to them, even if that means sending later from Brazil. Later I
talked to the school’s Principal. That was now a matter of honor to me. These
kids have being listening to their deaf friends playing football every day and
they should have the same opportunities for having fun as any other kid.
Got back and started thinking on how could I get that
material for the kids and then I founded the CBDV (Brazil’s confederation of
sports for the visually disable) website and send out a note to them, telling this
story and asking them if they could donate at least 2 balls to us and if not, if
they could tell me where I could find them, so I could buy it myself. This was
Saturday.
Monday, got to the office and logged on to the internet and
my email account and there it was: email from Sandro Laina, president of CBDV.
Sandro told me that he read my email and was happy and emotional about it -
specially being him blind and a former national team football player - and that
he and the confederation would be very glad of helping us, sending the balls,
rules, videos and 2 Brazil’s
3 times Paralympics champion’s team shirts, signed by all the players.
YEAAAAAAAHHHH!!!! At this point my heart
was filled with joy!!!!
Now I’m working with Sandro and my IBM manager, Thiago - who
offered his help for getting this done -
to ship this box to the school. Sandro also asked me for help in getting
in touch with IBM Corporate affairs for a sponsorship to bring/promote football
for visually disable people to Africa, which
he told me was the only continent where nobody plays this sport. I’ve already
started the contacts with IBM with help from Thiago.
Well, if from all of the things I came here to do, I get
only this one done, I’ll be amazingly happy and felling that I really accomplish
something important!
Thank you Sandro and Thiago for all the help!
Oshogbo
This Saturday we went to Oshogbo, a place with a lot of
African/Nigerian culture and art. In Oshogbo
we visited local artist Nike’s gallery, workshop and her house, where she offered
a nice Nigerian lunch (tried lizard meat) and a taste of music. They also gave
us some Nigerian names and mine is now Olusegun, which mean victorious. After
lunch we went to the Osun Groove, which is a sacred forest for the Yoruba
people and we did some site seeing of both the forest and art sculptures that
are in the forest. Then we had a group of local dancers and acrobatics doing a
presentation to us that reminded me of Capoeira. It was a cool but tiring day.
Talk to you soon!!!
