The day I was attacked by the bees, I got the invitation to go for a show around at the school of the owners of the bees. It happened today. The school is from Fundació Onada, a school for mentally disabled people.
The visit was very interesting. Half of the children were out on an excursion and today they didn't have any kind of special activity so most of them were just drawing in the main room. They, even though called children, are most of them my age or much older, only few were younger and the youngest is seventeen.
It is very important to have an school like that in this town as the closest one is too far from here. Some of the children are from my town and I know them since I was a kid. One of them is the neighbour of my sister, and former neighbour of my grandpa, so I have seen him many many times.
Obviously there are many different types of mentally disabled people. Some of them are "more" disabled than others, and these are the ones who need more attention. And others need just some help and training to be able to get a normal job. The ones in the middle would end up in one of the bunch or the other.
Mostly, what they do, is practical jobs: easy things like to put the cap of a pen, paper boxes and such. Also, they recycle paper. And what is more surprising they recycle mayonnaise. They get the pots of mayonnaise that have run out of date from restaurants, hotels and such, they put it in a kind of machine that separates the glass from the mayonnaise (this goes to a recycling business) adding watter to it and then they separate the watter from the mayonnaise. The watter is reused and the mayonnaise is used to create bio-diesel-fuel, the less polluting fuel. They also recycle the used oil (from frying).
We also met one of the beekeepers –Yuri Gagarin :P . She is such a nice person and she explained us so many things about bees (and invited me to get the astronaut dress and go in there with the bees –which I am certainly not doing any time soon) and showed us what they do. I am not going to explain how it works as I know you all know how to use Google and Wikipedia. But something very interesting: OK, so they give the bees a human-made honeycomb made out of a thin piece of wax that has the little hexagon shapes. The bees pull the hexagons out (it is difficult to explain without hands) as it is almost flat and they place either honey or eggs in them. The interesting thing comes when they do not have enough space in the box: they create a brand new honeycomb out of beeswax and honey. When the beekeepers get that, after cleaning it very good, it can bee chewed (beeswax must not be toxic).
The honey is not sold, just given to relatives and friends. They gave us two pots that I am so looking forward to try.
The visit was certainly very interesting. It is so good the work they are doing for those guys and girls. Also, they do some kind of social work: they bring them to shop, into town, to Port Aventura and such so people sees them and stops being afraid of them. Also they do equine-therapy (therapy with horses) and many other activities.
What seems very interesting is that this association is very into ecology: they recycle everything and they know the important of it, they also have horticulture-therapy (?), i.e. they also have a kitchen garden and work the land as a activity. Well, as well is very important that they teach them basics on personal hygiene and cleaning so they can devolve independent (this matter is very difficult as they normally live with their parents until they die and then they have to find a house to stay in).
[Oh, one of the children just passed by.]
Well, this was my morning, today. A very nice, interesting experience. Since my life is going through continuous changes lately, I can't decide anything. But if I have spare time in the future I will definitely think of volunteering.
BTW, it isn't a private school, it is supported by a private organization but the parents only pay for meals and material they need. So, if anyone has some extra money and does not know which Charity give it to, stop searching.
I know the photo is not great but I took it with my cell phone.
It is very important to have an school like that in this town as the closest one is too far from here. Some of the children are from my town and I know them since I was a kid. One of them is the neighbour of my sister, and former neighbour of my grandpa, so I have seen him many many times.
Obviously there are many different types of mentally disabled people. Some of them are "more" disabled than others, and these are the ones who need more attention. And others need just some help and training to be able to get a normal job. The ones in the middle would end up in one of the bunch or the other.
Mostly, what they do, is practical jobs: easy things like to put the cap of a pen, paper boxes and such. Also, they recycle paper. And what is more surprising they recycle mayonnaise. They get the pots of mayonnaise that have run out of date from restaurants, hotels and such, they put it in a kind of machine that separates the glass from the mayonnaise (this goes to a recycling business) adding watter to it and then they separate the watter from the mayonnaise. The watter is reused and the mayonnaise is used to create bio-diesel-fuel, the less polluting fuel. They also recycle the used oil (from frying).
We also met one of the beekeepers –Yuri Gagarin :P . She is such a nice person and she explained us so many things about bees (and invited me to get the astronaut dress and go in there with the bees –which I am certainly not doing any time soon) and showed us what they do. I am not going to explain how it works as I know you all know how to use Google and Wikipedia. But something very interesting: OK, so they give the bees a human-made honeycomb made out of a thin piece of wax that has the little hexagon shapes. The bees pull the hexagons out (it is difficult to explain without hands) as it is almost flat and they place either honey or eggs in them. The interesting thing comes when they do not have enough space in the box: they create a brand new honeycomb out of beeswax and honey. When the beekeepers get that, after cleaning it very good, it can bee chewed (beeswax must not be toxic).
The honey is not sold, just given to relatives and friends. They gave us two pots that I am so looking forward to try.
The visit was certainly very interesting. It is so good the work they are doing for those guys and girls. Also, they do some kind of social work: they bring them to shop, into town, to Port Aventura and such so people sees them and stops being afraid of them. Also they do equine-therapy (therapy with horses) and many other activities.
What seems very interesting is that this association is very into ecology: they recycle everything and they know the important of it, they also have horticulture-therapy (?), i.e. they also have a kitchen garden and work the land as a activity. Well, as well is very important that they teach them basics on personal hygiene and cleaning so they can devolve independent (this matter is very difficult as they normally live with their parents until they die and then they have to find a house to stay in).
[Oh, one of the children just passed by.]
Well, this was my morning, today. A very nice, interesting experience. Since my life is going through continuous changes lately, I can't decide anything. But if I have spare time in the future I will definitely think of volunteering.
BTW, it isn't a private school, it is supported by a private organization but the parents only pay for meals and material they need. So, if anyone has some extra money and does not know which Charity give it to, stop searching.
I know the photo is not great but I took it with my cell phone.
1 comment:
it's very interesting. i didn't know that mayonnaise could be recycled.
and talking about mentally disabled people take a look at this. (i hope it's not pay-per-view).
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