Tokyo Tales – Day 5: Thursday, January 19, 2006

January 20th, 2006 - Friday (36 views)

Nakahara-san haring with us about Peer Counseling.

It was a busy day today. We sat through four sessions of lectures at the Human Care Association at Hachioji. The lectures were What is Peer Counselling by Nakahara-san, Needs of People with Intellectual Disabilities and Support for Them by one of the Human Care Coordinators, Needs of People with Psychiatric Disabilities and Support for Them by Takezawa-san and Support Services of IL Centre by another Human Care Coordinator.

This familiarisation of the various disabilities made us understand those apart from our own. Although the characteristics of our challenges are different, the issues we face are similar. Prejudice, discrimination and lack of support are obstacles that prevent us from being included into mainstream society.

Darkness descended upon the evening fast and early. It was already dark by 5.30pm. When we left Human Care Association, freezing wind chilled us right into the bones. I had to wear gloves to keep my hands from getting numb. It was impossible to hold the camera, let alone press the shutter.

When we reached the apartment, the digital display by the side of the road showed 2°C. The temperature has been creeping down 1°C each evening. It was really cold. I could feel the frostiness bite into my exposed cheeks. As we were relaxing, the power suddenly went off. Calvin tried to reset the circuit breaker but could not. We could feel cold slowly invading the apartment. The phone did not work too. There was no choice but for Calvin to go out and summon for help from the CIL Hino staff. Fortunately, Saito-san, the CIL Hino staff, came quickly and restored the power to the apartment. We wonder what would have happened to us if we have to sleep without the heater.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 20th, 2006 at 23:00 and is filed under Independent Living, Tokyo 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Tokyo Tales – Day 5: Thursday, January 19, 2006”

LKTan Says:
January 21st, 2006 at 00:18
Pete, just sleep with head under blankets when no heater. My nose used to bleed too with minus brutal winter temperatures. So I had to rub vaselines right into my 2 nostrils whole day and even to sleep! Yes, keep covering your face partially to breathe warmer air.