Maxed!

Ten days since I last “blogged”! It’s hard to believe.

On top of being an amazing hostess, Barb Handahl is an unbeatable tour manager. Our team of three – Jason, Gabor and I – have completed more than a dozen interviews, presentations, workshops and even two minutes in front of City Council to have Tuesday, April 21, 2009 declared Judith Snow Day in Faribault.

During three of those days I was without a computer. Last February I received a supposedly indestructible laptop – built to military specifications – as part of my work in Savannah. On this Tour it acquired two holes in its casing and then suddenly the screen would not turn on. Fortunately Gabor has been frequently backing up my files and Barb and her family rounded up a spare monitor, then a donor of a brand new laptop, then some help installing some software.

Throughout much of the week I have had sores and inflammation in my mouth and jaw making chewing a challenge. Meanwhile my four year old wheelchair batteries packed it in, and Jason spent the best part of two days either pushing me around or rounding up some new ones. We couldn’t figure out a donor for these, but research revealed a local business who sold them for $300 less than the price quoted by “medical suppliers”.

Needless to say fulfilling an intense presentation schedule, resolving back-to-back crises and participating fully in the extended Handahl family life of birthday parties, breakfasts with Grandpa, etc. has kept us fascinated, rushed, entertained and close to exhausted. In ten days or so we return to Toronto and end the Tour, or at least this leg of it. I expect that reverting to a relatively less intense and more typically structured life is going to seem like some sort of major let down.

In many ways this last leg is like a final exam for us. Will the concept of “Syncopated Transition” carry the inclusion fostering message we intend? Have I, and we, really learned to reach both people who care about diversity and people who know nothing about the struggle for labelled citizens to be seen and supported as citizens?

The Faribault leg of our tour has brought us face-to-face with service providing managers who are running segregated demeaning programs that create huge barriers for communities to discover the contributions of citizens who have unusual abilities. We have interacted with many individuals who are themselves labelled. We have played and coloured with four year olds and gone into elementary school classes. We have been interviewed for radio and two newspaper articles. We have workshopped inclusion with city business leaders. We have sung, talked, argued, prayed and eaten endlessly with a huge variety of people. If it is ever going to “work” - that is if I, and we, are ever going to make an effective impact in shifting a community to see full inclusion as worthwhile and doable – then surely we will have good results emerge in Faribault, Minnesota.

We have three more intensive days in this location. If time and energy permit I will write more about the impact we are having.
Judith