Alex L first day at Eros School

In this week’s blog post, I will be bragging about my internship. Today was my very first day as a Speech Pathology intern at the Eros School in Bridgetown, South Africa. The details about what I will be doing at Eros will come later, because first, I must explain how public transportation works here in Cape Town. I ride the minibus taxi to and from the school which is actually a whole experience in itself. When taking a minibus taxi, there are a few skills one needs to have. 1) the ability to forget claustrophobia exists – these minibus taxis are very efficient in getting many people to where they need to go and as quickly as possible. For my commute to and from Eros, I have the challenge of having my personal bubble invaded by other sweaty individuals, but I am working on accepting that. The second bit of advice while riding in minibus taxi’s is to learn to go with the flow – there is no such thing as punctuality in South Africa, so waiting for the right minibus could take quite a bit of time. However, once you are on your way there is no more need to worry about timeliness because I’ve never experienced more efficient drivers than those driving the minibus taxi’s. Excessive speeding and dodging in and out of traffic will assure a well-timed arrival to your destination.

Once arriving at the Eros School, you will notice it is a school specialized for children with a multitude of disabilities ranging from severe physical handicaps, learning disabilities, and children with behavioral issues as well. This school has a team of therapists working together to improve cognitive, physical and social skills for these kids, and I will be interning directly with one of the Speech Pathologists. I was able to immerse myself in one of the kindergarten classes in which I will be working one on one with some of the students. The kids were so adorable and clearly excited I was there. The work I will eventually be doing is much different than that of a Speech Pathologist in a mainstream school. I will be focusing on “big picture” issues these kids face such as language development, reading skills, and sometimes feeding. Many of the children are non-verbal, so I will be working on non-verbal communication with them as well. On the other hand, if I were working at a school with normally developing children, I might be working on more fine tuned speech skills such as articulation, or improving things such as lisps or speech impediments. The children at Eros however have much bigger priorities due to their disabilities so that will result in different types of activities geared toward what they specifically need to make improvements. I cannot wait to get more involved with the students at Eros and to help them thrive. Hopefully I will make a small impact on their lives because I already know they will make a huge impact on mine.