Events over the last few months have been plagued by bad weather! But knee-deep snow drifts and monsoon-like rain didn’t dampen our spirits.
Our Halloween Party seems a long time ago, but those who were there no doubt remember fighting through the rain to get there. Some of us did manage to get through the floods and had a great time. Special thanks must go to Robert Neish for the face-painting, special effects make-up, games and activities.
The Inverurie panto was a day of heavy snowfall but we still had nearly 60 people there and it was once again enjoyed by all those who attended. Hopefully this will be an annual fixture.
In January we were 10-pin bowling at the Bowling Centre in Inverurie. Fortunately the weather was slightly better!
NDCS visit to Blair Drummond
Claire Kelly sent us this report from their visit to the NDCS Family Fun Day at Blair Drummond Safari Park last summer.
“This was a great day out for all. Our son David was really excited to see all the animals, especially the giraffes and elephants as well as driving through the lion enclosure watching the big cats eating their breakfast. We also visited the listening bus, where the NDCS family liaison officers were on hand to give advice and David was very happy with his balloon. We found the listening bus useful as it gave us an opportunity to look at telephones, not only for David but also for his grandfather who is currently denying having a hearing loss! Later in the afternoon we headed off to a signed sea lion show which was great and we didn’t even get wet! Thanks very much to NDCS for a fabulous day out and we hope to visit again sometime.”
Upcoming Events
We are currently planning our events for 2010 so some of these are not yet confirmed and more details will follow in due course.
Extraordinary General Meeting Monday 19th April 7.30 Linksfield Academy
To vote on proposed new constitution. All members welcome. More details attached.
Aberdeen Sports Village Multi-sport taster session Date tbc
Come & try out various sports at this state of the art facility.
Doonies Farm Tbc
Nethybridge Activity Weekend 3rd-5th September
More details to follow
Open Day with NDCS Listening Bus 18th September
More details to follow
Family Support Group School for the Deaf, Sunnybank Primary School
Meet the first Thursday of every month (term-time only).
Did you know ...
Grampian Deaf Children’s Society provide direct input audio cables for children and young people to use with music players and other equipment. We purchase these on behalf of NHS Grampian Audiology Department as they are not funded by the NHS.
Various styles are available, tailored to your hearing needs so if you think you or your child could benefit, please speak to your Audiologist.
Newsletter Articles
If you have any articles, achievements, photos or suggestions for inclusion in our next newsletter, or if you have a recommendation for a useful or entertaining website, please e-mail Grampian@ndcsgroup.org.uk
SPOTLIGHT
This edition, we are beginning a series of spotlight articles on some of our young deaf adults who have been involved with and supported by Grampian Deaf Children's Society over the years. We hope you find them interesting and inspiring.
First up we hear from Alistair Kellas. Alistair has been severely deaf since birth. Now 19 years old and having finished his school education at Harlaw Academy, he is doing gap year volunteer work in South Africa.
“My name is Alistair and I am a lucky gap volunteer of the charity Project Trust who have sent me to Polokwane, South Africa. I arrived in November and there’s certainly some words to describe South Africa: unpredictable and crazy. The 2nd week I was here, we had 4 nights of heavy, and I do mean heavy, storms. It’s certainly fun driving along at a crawl dodging trees and most of the roads were literally rivers of water. The weather isn’t predictable either, for example it could be a perfect blue sky with not a cloud in sight and in the afternoon it could change to a rainy day. I also have to admit, the thunderstorms are spectacular. If someone asked me to say one word about South Africa, I would say sky. Yes, sky. Polokwane is based in the middle of a huge flat plain with Kruger Park and mountainous land to the north and even flatter, farming land to the south. Every time I look at the sky, I am just amazed because you can see for miles all around, I just can’t describe how beautiful and amazing it is. After all I do come from Aberdeen, also known as the Granite City.
It’s hard to cram everything into a short article so I’ll just talk about the basics. I arrived here in November 2009 to join 3 other volunteers who arrived 2 months earlier: Andrew, Sophie and Imogen. We all work at a school on the edge of Polokwane (we live near the centre of Polokwane which is a city in the north east of South Africa). Andrew, Imogen and myself work in the ‘Enrichment Centre’ which is basically a separate part of the main school that caters for around 25 disabled children with disabilities ranging from cerebral palsy to autism and even tuberculosis (TB). Sophie works in the main school. I have to say it is a fun job which is extremely rewarding but it is challenging. I love every single one of the kids. We live in a children’s hostel near the centre of the town and although it is a small flat (Andrew and I share a bedroom which is almost the same size as the room for the toilet which is probably smaller than your cupboard. Exaggerated but you get the idea). I love everything about South Africa, especially the people. The range of people you meet is phenomenal, we’ve met such good friends. It can be confusing as people switch from language to language fast enough to make your head spin as there are 11 official languages and over 30 non-official languages. For example one of the language is Xhosa which is composed of sounds and clicks and another is Afrikaans which is derived from Dutch (it’s similar but certain words are different). Although I miss some aspects of Scotland (reliable fast internet that’s for sure), I just have to say that I love South Africa. I feel grateful and glad I have had this opportunity for a gap year, it’s something I or even you would not regret doing…”
