El Sordo A school for the deaf in San Jose. This wonderful mural was painted by a young girl what had to leave school after second grade. There are no accommodations for students with special needs in the public system, so private interests take up the slack. - (34) more edit 2007-05-05 - rec# 484

Had quite a day today. I got to replace the "Professional photographer" that was going to take some pictures of a mural being painted at a local school. Don't know who the professional was to be (or if there really WAS one), but the job fell to me. This is a school for the deaf in San Jose, and the painter is, in fact, also deaf. She had only been working on the job for three days which was remarkable seeing how much she had done. The mural was a composite of many scenes from Costa Rica. The Arenal Volcano, butterflies, lillies, Macaws, lake and waterfall. Beautiful work. I hung out and took a bunch of pics (like 360). Later we sat down with her to get a bit of information about her and her work. The idea was to get something in the local paper. Just like in the US it was looking like we were going to have to do all the work ourselves. So this was an interview. It was an incredibly touching interview. There is precious little help available in Costa Rica for any handicapped person. There are a few private schools and the buses are slowly getting lifts installed. That's about all. As a child she lived outside of San Jose, so there was nothing. She made it through second grade in the public school, but that's all. There was no special help for her and she was feeling left out and pushed back, which I suspect she was. So that was it...second grade. However, she was able to teacher herself to read, function and how to paint. She has a job in a factory that makes swim suits and makes something like $200 a month doing that. On the side she paints pictures and tries to sell them. She was doing the mural for free to help the school. It's been a week of working with the deaf. Thanksgiving, and now this experience. Such brave and resilient people. It's quite the experience being in a conversation with someone who can't hear, who has a translator that only speaks Spanish and can't hear, so her Spanish is spoken unclearly. Here I am, this poor English speaker able to participate in this whole process. It's been quite a day. There are some really special people out there...