Traumatic to Terrific Tuesday

This morning began with a start when team members were awoken by the translators saying that Harvey fell in the shower.  When he fell, he fell and hit his rib and heard a snap.  The ambulance came quickly and the hospital was quick, amazing, and respectful.  Harvey and Michaell said that the experience was much better than their experiences in Nicaragua.  Harvey was given lots of pain meds via shot, IV, and meds to bring home.  He rested for the day with much push from the "Jefa".  Thankfully, Harvey has no fractures.

Besides the traumatic start, the day went well and was productive.  Everyone enjoyed the nice weather.

Megan and Barbara completed 24 assessments in the last 2.5 days with the assistance of Noelia, Angie, Michaell.  They are working on their written reports and recommendations.  Today some highlights from OT were kicking the soccer ball with L and J understanding placing begs with one model despite his visual impairment.

Pam completed all of her assessments with the assistance of Harvey and Noelia.  She also worked with Paula, the FHC PT, who continues to be very receptive to suggestions. Pam was also excited to see J, one of the children with visual impairments navigate the play yard independently to go visit the llama.

Angie had the opportunity to do infant massage training with one of the young one's mom who visits often.  This was an unexpected opportunity. She also did some additional infant massage training with some of the other Tias.  Angie also helped Kris with an art project with the older children and assisted Barbara and Megan when short on translators.

Kris did an art project with the older kids.  Everyone loved the activity and worked hard to complete their individual projects.  In the afternoon, she spent time with Bessie doing some academics with music and then played with the children as the weather was beautiful in the afternoon.

Bessie did a music group with the babies and toddlers in the morning which wiped her out.  She did a 1:1 with a five year old with Kris to work on number recognition.  She then spent time with the children outside in the afternoon.

Katie spent time with the FHC SLP, Hector, and discussed his treatment plans and the donations that we provided.  She discussed his concerns about feeding and made some suggestions on some adaptations.  She spent the rest of the day wearing Lindsey's hat as photographer and hanging out with the kids. She also worked with A with the newly installed 3-D tactile guide on the wall.  It had been installed downstairs and we recommended on Saturday that it be added upstairs for the two individuals with visual impairments there.  She also helped with doing a wheelchair train.

Thank you for your prayers and support.  We are healing and feeling better.

Marvelous and Miserable Monday

Today had great things and not so great things.  Bessie was sick all night long so opted to stay in bed for the day to get rest and not expose anyone else.  Lindsey ended the day with the same issues.  Please pray for healing for both.  The rest of the team had a productive day.

Katie spent time evaluating a few kids for speech and then spent the afternoon taking data on behaviors.  She talked to the Tias about behaviors and will provide recommendations based on the data and her observations. She also tried to observe feeding of one individual but she refused to let Katie watch her.  She also took some pics so we don't have any pics of her on the other side of the camera.

Angie and Lindsey spent time in the morning training one of the Tias on infant massage and the Tia and the babies loved the time.   She helped Kris with educational evaluations in the afternoon.  Angie got the opportunity to help our cook, Maria, with making the empanadas for lunch.

Kris spent some time sitting in with the Megan and Barbara with OT.  She then did bubble activities with the kids as the weather was beautiful today.  The kids and the Tias absolutely loved the bubbles and there was much laughing and fun had by all. The responses of some of the less engaged individuals was wonderful to see. She also finished up some educational evals.

Pam was able to spend time with the FHC brand new PT, Paula, who started last week.  Paula was open to suggestions and in improving what FHC already has.  Pam completed four more assessments and started planning changes to chairs for better position.  She enjoyed seeing two individuals who spent much of their time in their chairs being free on the floor and seeing some good mobility.

Megan and Barbara were able to complete several assessments.  The ages are a bigger range than what the OTs are used to but they enjoyed the challenge.  One of the older residents (21) questioned everything that she was being asked to do and greatly disliked the Senor Boca.

Noelia, Harvey, and Michaell continue to be fabulous translators and a blessing to our team.  They are working hard and are greatly appreciated.  They are enjoying learning about the different therapies that they are helping with and also seeing that children with special needs have many more skills and understanding.

Sensational Sunday

Our team started the morning with pancakes before heading to church.  The church that volunteers usually attend recently closed down so it was decided that we would attend our driver's church.  Unfortunately, it meant arriving 1.5 hours in to the service but we were able to hear the sermon and meet many of the church members who thanked us for our work at For His Children.

After church, we headed to the mall to purchase items needed for various children and the services and resources we are providing.  The team also got a chance to do some personal shopping. One cultural experience was seeing a ton of people sitting in rows of chairs in the center of the mall watching the World Cup on the big screen TV. The cook and our host do grocery shopping for the remainder of our week.  Due to the amount of shopping by our team and the cook, the team lost a whole row of seats in the van, which meant it was sardines for trip back. There were 14 people even though you can only see 12.

We were able to get back to work with the children in the afternoon to work on assessments and group activities.

Katie and Michaell spent time working with three kids for assessments.  There was evaluating of the iPad communication system for one individual. There may also have been some play with Snapchat filters as a reward.

Angie and Kris spent time with the infants doing tummy time.  They then spent time with the toddlers working on body parts, colors, and sorting.  Later they spent time with a few of the older children assessing doing puzzles, choice making, writing, and letter recognition.

Photo Credit to E age 4 on his birthday

Megan, Barbara, and Noelia continued to do their assessments and working with the Tias to show some different options for tummy time with some of the infants.

Harvey and Pam continued working through assessments.  They taught J a new word in English "boom" and how to play with a ball against a wall.  R loved getting lots of input from a R sandwich with her between a peanut ball and a mat.

Bessie spent time with both groups of kids.  The older kids explored several different instruments and Bessie observed reactions to instruments to make suggestions for future use of the instruments. The younger kids did got to play the guitar, egg shakers, do the rainbow song, Pescadito (Slippery Fish), and explore the ocean drum.

After work with the kids, it was time for an outing for pizza.  This is the first time in a long time that our Nicaraguan translators were able to be travel out at night and it was one of their highlights of the day. (Nicaragua could use many prayers.)

Jackie Chan fighting bad guys in Deutschland as we watch from a pizza parlor located in Ecuador.

Photo credits to Katie Jackson, Kris Thomas, and Lindsey Taylor.

Successful Saturday

Today was a busy day for the team.  We divided and conquered to begin assessing in the morning.

Pam and Harvey assessed three children and took notes to produce a report for each individual that will create goals and recommendations.

Barbara, Megan, and Noelia did assessments on four individuals all of whom were very responsive and all smiles by the time their time was done.  One excitedly responded with, "I am doing my therapy time!"

Angie and Kris provided an opportunity for the older children to find sensory items in slime, playing with floam, and drawing with chalk on construction paper.  With the younger children, they made masks and tiaras and helped with snack time.

Katie, Bessie, and Michaell did two music time with the younger kids and the drum and the farm song were hits.  The older kids loved the large parachute, strumming the guitar, and playing the large drum.  The Tias in both areas were very involved, singing the songs, giving the children a chance to try to participate independently, and then helping as needed.  Katie also did some general observations and talked to the Tias regarding behavioral concerns.

During some downtime, some team members visited For His Children Latacunga's mascot "Seymour".  The slogan for visiting teams is "A Llamazing Experience".

The afternoon was spent organizing the donations by specialty and providing an inventory.  The team also spent a couple of hours with the head Physical Therapist (Juan Carlos) and the new Physical Therapist (Paula) going over information for all of the children that helped guide the team in their plans for recommendations and activities for the rest of the week.

Highlights of the team today include the positive responses of the children to the activities we offered, the amount of involvement and love the Tias have with the children, the interactions with the children, the completion of some assessments, the delicious meals that our cook has provided, experiencing different disabilities for the first time, and working with various team members.

First Friday

Thursday was a VERY long day of travel, where we finally arrived in Quito at 3:00am this morning. 

Our day started with the entire team being united, 3 translators from Nicaragua and 8 from the United States.  We traveled to Latacunga from Quito to arrive at For His Children.  The team got to get a tour of the facility.  The Tias (care providers) and the children gave us a welcome party with dancing, music, and making of hamburgers with the children. 

For His Children has a great facility in Latacunga that is clean and has lots of tools, including 3D visuals to identify rooms at the accessible level for the children and well-stocked physical therapy room which also offered musical instruments and sensory equipment that will be useful for occupational therapy.  The Tias show a genuine love for the children they care for as evidenced by them staying up late to prepare food when children are asleep so that they can spend more time with the children and the genuine smiles from both children and Tias.  For His Children has already expressed receptiveness of input on ways to improve and excitement to have us and the resources and training we will share.

Tomorrow, the team will begin assessments of children, meeting with the current physical therapists, and activities for the children.

Please pray for the team as we adjust to the high altitude (9100ft) and recover from little sleep for two nights.  Thank you for your support and encouragement.