Hank lives in an assisted care living facility in a smallish town near the rest of the family. He doesn't work anymore but he's only 49. He has Down Syndrome and a speech impediment. He also speaks in a low voice so he's relatively difficult to understand. Despite the fact that I work with a number of people who have Down Syndrome, I still had a good amount of problems understanding Hank. Many of the people I work with reference names or places with which I am familiar or they repeat the same phrases consistently so I can generally get what they are saying. Being unfamiliar with Hank's general life, it made it more difficult for me. However, I then realized that he would use sign language when he would talk occasionally and suddenly I got it. I don't know a lot of signs but I know enough to get a general understanding of people.
I've been second-guessing my job lately as one can probably surmise from my tone in my posts concerning work. However, seeing my skills put to use in a situation outside of work really affirmed my sense of purpose. I still have some issues with the way my job handled firing my friend. However, I do love working with people with DD and I'm going to be doing it for a while longer while I am still in school so I may as well make the best of it. I already started to turn my attitude around right before I left for vacation (primarily because I got called out on texting during meetings). I'm going to continue on with that and reinvest myself in the work, if not for the agency, then for the clients.
What else?
We took Hank and my grandma to the Pizza Palace for my first visit there since the sandwich shop that I went to last time I was in town was closed. Sigh, no hippie for me. ;)
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