Tuesday, April 16th: Day 3

Over View:
Today was the day I was able to do my therapy visits. I went with Nathaniel, Carmen Margarita, and Eleda.  While on those visits, I learned a lot, and was really able to start to understand some of the situations that the kids at the school were living in. We visited 4 children, but only worked with three of them. The first was Stefania. She was and 8 month old, diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The second child was Roger and had a disease where he was born without part of his skull, so his brains could be seen. They  have no idea how to cure it. The third child we visited was Steven, who had cerebral paralysis. The fourth child we went to see, both the mother and the child had HIV positive, so all we really did was a quick visit to allow Carmen Margarita drop off some food.
When we got back to the school, I worked in the arts and crafts room, but almost immediately after arriving, it was lunch time. After lunch, each student had the task of focusing on one student for the rest of the day. I was assigned to Christopher and we worked on opening and closing the hand. I felt amazing when we stopped playing with the play-doh, and he was looking at his hands saying abran y cerda, while opening and closing his hands at the appropriate time.
After he left, I went over to kindergarten, where I worked again with Victor. I found  out that Victor just loves anything that makes sound or has sound to go with it. We spent the first part playing with the wheel chair. He would release the brake and I would spin the wheel saying core, core, core, or va, va, va, and then he  would stop it, and I would say alto. I can just remember him sitting there, laughing every time I said alto. He then got board and pushed me over, then was moving my head to once side, with the accompaniment of me saying moo for the duration my head was on my side.
When Victor left the school, I went down to the arts and crafts classroom, again  where I made paper mache balloons. I worked with Dayana in order to make sure that she got hers as covered as she needed it.

Highlights:
Today, my highlights were from across the board. The small face of little Stefania was so cute, and made a grate start to my day. When she was just sitting there, her face was so small with the largest eyes, and when she smiled, it made you feel like you were making the entire world brighter. The second highlight was when we went to visit Steven, and he was just one large grin from ear to ear when we left. Another highlight was working with Victor, and just seeing him laugh and laugh and laugh again, every time I said alto.

Lessons:
Today I learned a very large lesson. Or more, I just opened my eyes larger then they already were. When I went to the last home, and saw the conditions, it made me about ready to cry, and it also made me feel so strong to know that just by being there, I was making and immense difference for all the kids.

Photos:

Stefania

Roger

Rapping Stevens hands to keep them straight 

One of the Villages

The well

Plan for Tomorrow:
Tomorrow I will be doing my home visits with the Nicaraguan equivalent of Social Services, and will be working in the def classroom, and being able to experience the abilities that all the children have, along with being able to see the signing, which has always fascinated me.