Kendra goes to school

Friday March 10th - Another early start to the day as Cheng had made arrangements for us to tour a local school. We took a taxi to Ahmad Ibrahim Secondary School. Secondary schools in Singapore hold years 7-10 or ages 13-16. This particular school is one of the two in the country which has a visually impaired program. The school has about 1400 students with 14 blind students. We met with the principal Stephen Chin, who was excited to meet Cheng & Kendra and was completely blown away when he saw them work together. Mr. Chin happened to be in the process of trying to expand the VH (visually handicapped) program, in fact, the local organization for the blind, SAVH (Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped) is scheduled to present at the school assembly next week. So our timing couldn't have been better. He had NO concept of how a dog could be used as a mobility aid, and was so impressed at how well behaved Kendra was during our meeting. He asked really basic questions like "who takes care of the dog?" And was surprised to find out that Cheng himself could feed, groom, and pick up after his dog. Mr. Chin arranged for us to tour the whole school, including the VH room, which serves as a sort of study hall and is run by a visually impaired teacher.

After the tour the three of us (and Kendra) chatted for a while with the VH teacher who is a friend of Cheng's. There were several VH student's there (all boys), some of whom Cheng already knew. The boys were very interested in Kendra but a bit afraid too. They slowly inched closer over time then mustered up the courage to actually pet her. Kendra is the perfect dog for these situations, she stays very calm, doesn't attempt to lick or make sudden movements. Generally she just gently rolls over hoping for a belly rub.

We got some computer work done in the afternoon and finished the day with our first interview.