Today was another beautiful day in Debrecen, lots of sun and good food.
This morning we had a very early start as we were due at the local special school for 8am! The school itself looked huge from the outside and we soon discovered that it used to be a hospital.
We spent much of the day in the company of 5 lovely young girls. Their day started with speech theraphy. This was a lovely lesson with lots of singing and clapping along to certain words and beats. All of the girls seemed to enjoy it and some of the clearly really enjoyed it. It was at te end of the first part that we were told only one of the girls actually speaks. During this time I started to think about how it would feel to be a parent of one of these girls. It must be so hard as a parent to have to completely readjust your ambitions for your child once you are told of their profound disability. Surely anything more than them being able to enter adulthood knowing how to keep themselves safe and happy is a bonus?
There have been lots of comparisons banded about today between this special school and Emmanuel House. I honestly don't believe today's establishment is any better. They obviously have very different approaches but the children at both schools all seemed so happy and content that I don't feel it is fair to say one is better than the other. I feel one school certainly has less challenging ideas for an outsider to accept and this is where we can draw comparisons, but surely that is personal judgements coming in to play more than anything else...
We finished the day by taking part in folk dancing with the whole school.. The leader was apparently the most famous Hungarian folk dancer! I really enjoyed this as the children became so lively!
Tomorrow we return to the school for sensory lessons, very exciting. Tonight we have homemade goulash made by Judit Senior!!!
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