Hello all
First I would like to say that I was in error about the turtle. It is apparently a pet here as the little girl Mishelle brought it to our room today and let it loose. I have more fun pictures of it, as it was under the bed, on my shoes and placed on my roommate Erin. Not sure when I will get pictures uploaded, but good odds say not until this weekend at least. Sorry for the delay but we have very full days and with so much new information it is very exhausting. Oh and on one more random note, I am usually on the computer after dinner which would be around 10pm Eastern time. This is not exact but it is the best time to try and catch me on the computer. Okay so for my day
I got up nice and early, had breakfast and the met by small group and walked to Hermano Pedro. At Hermano Pedro my group is volunteering with Infant Nutrition Unit. Even though the name says infant, today I saw anywhere from a little baby to a 7 year old there. The reason all of these kids are in this unit is that they have some issue dealing with nutrition. After arriving there, we were each given a baby/kid to feed. A good portion of the kids there have cleft palate or lip but there are other things going on as well. My kid is a little boy who just turned 2 years old a few days ago and has only been at Hermano Pedro for about 3 weeks. I am not sure specifically what is wrong with him, and I hope to find out more tomorrow. He was in a high chair and I fed him his cereal. Others were trying to bottle feed babies with cleft lips or palates. After we were done feeding them most of us went off to a little room that had a mat on the floor and toys on the self we could pull out some. This is the only other room to be with the kids besides the huge room that has there cribs and chairs to feed them all. My kid is really big around his middle and is maybe on the low end of normal for tone. At the beginning I didn't think he was walking or really being mobile as he just stayed sitting on the ground and would try to get toys without crawling if at all possible. There was not a lot of stuff for us to play with, but he and all of the other kids really seemed to just enjoy attention and being able to play some as there is not enough staff to normally allow for much of this, if any. (the staff do what they can, but there are many kids for barely any staff). After a while I wanted to see if my kid would stand, and he did with my cues. Later I pulled him up and we walked around a little. In the middle is was great to see some cooperative play between him and 7 year old girl as they both wanted to ride on this little push car and sat on it together. Then there was much fun with playdoh and making tortillas with several of the kids. After about 2 and a half hours, my kid stands up on his own and starts cruising some and then walks some on his own. I hold his hands and walk all around the big room with him and he walks on his own some then too. While this was going on, I heard a couple nurses talk about him walking and another adult ( I think a physical therapist from somewhere else who has been there some) said she thought he would be walking soon. I think he was probably already walking at home before he came but maybe had not yet had the opportunity to walk there, but it was exciting nevertheless. And after a little bit it was not just us walking around but we had gained on the train the little 7 year old girl and her little sister. It was a good learning experience and so much more that I can not write it all down. Afterward my group went on a tour of Hermano Pedro, which is not like a hospital that we would think. It has no emergency stuff, it is mostly all long term, and with people that are very complex cases and a poorer population that might not be accepted at other places. They do have different medical teams come in each week, giving time and supplies and everything else for free, to do different operations. It was just too different to write down. I may try later.
After that I headed back home and then there was fun with the pet turtle that I already mentioned. We then had a nice lunch. (by the way, I have eaten so many different foods and I don't know what most are) Then it was off to Spanish for three hours. Today my professor and I had a conversation for 2 hours and then worked on more grammar. during the conversation I tried to explain all about occupational therapy, how it is in the US within many different population and examples of what they do. I also had to explain about physical therapy in the US also. this is hard enough to do in English, but it was very hard to do in Spanish and with thinking about another culture also. In Guatemala, OT and PT is very much combined. I hope I did the profession justice with my explanation.
After spanish I went to the market to buy some water and snacks before heading home with over an hour before dinner. Here is boring stuff...I did my spanish homework and started reading my article for entire group class tomorrow. Had a great dinner and then finished reading. Write my blog and in the middle was able to talk to my mother on the phone but not without problems...my cell phone was ringing, but I had not heard this cell phone yet and it was across the room charging. I thought it was Erin's phone ringing and was wondering why she was not doing anything when she told me that my phone was ringing. Unfortunately I got the phone right after it ended, but able to reconnect with mom.
Well that is the end for today. thanks for sticking with me and reading my stories.
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