Tesoros De Dios (Treasures of God)

Tesoros De Dios is a school in Managua for children with various disabilities, from learning disabilities to severe Autism and Cerebral Palsy. The team is sitting here talking about the positives of the day. Highlights from the day: Pam, the PT, got two kids to walk with walkers we brought down that had never before walked. One was a three-year-old with Cerebral Palsy, who's mother's only desire was that her son could walk. We made that dream a reality! Thank goodness Lindsey faked a knee injury to get that walker on the plane!

Our early intervention team of Angie and Trisha reiterate how awesome the above moment was. Trisha was entirely impressed with the early intervention director, commenting that she was incredible. There were only a few suggestions made and each one was accepted with enthusiasm. Angie was glad to be able to lend a listening ear to the parents who needed to tell their stories about being a parent of a child with special needs. Amy put on her Education Specialist hat today, leaving Bessie to do music solo. Amy saw five pre-selected students to help create new educational goals and suggestions for the current special education teachers. She saw children that could really benefit from a reading specialist, but will do her best to provide some basic training on Thursday. Two students were needing updated goals, giving her some influence and direction for these children's education. Lorena loved that she was able to co-treat today. She was able to work with Bessie, the Music Therapist, and the student's teachers. This is because pulling kids for one-on-one assessments would be less beneficial than watching the children in their natural schedule. Lorena saw great implementation of various programs including PECS, visual schedules, and token boards. She also got to talk with a lot of the parents, which was inspirational. One parent was even part of a committee for children with Down Syndrome in Nicaragua who is pushing for more inclusion and academic based instruction for her son. Ronit, our Occupational Therapist, has many positive experiences from today. It was a blessing for her to have Lindsey, her own personal assistant who is interested in OT, helping her. Ronit was impressed with the two PT's on staff at Tesoros who were very educated, yet open to suggestions. A heartwarming experience for her included swinging with a boy with muscular dystrophy who had never before been on a swing.

Last, but not least, Bessie the Music Therapist was tickled to have a child with Cerebral Palsy play her guitar with his feet, since those were much more controlled than his hands. When working with another child with Aspergers, Bessie was impressed to see his enthusiasm and discussion about her instruments and his ability to express and identify his feelings.

WE all love Cori, our is an amazing photographer, who made the above photos possible.

New Life Nicaragua, Day Two

All of today was spent at New Life with lots of therapy, rotating children, and staff training. We began by dividing the children into three groups by age. The babies (8 months and younger) and their staff went with Ronit, Trisha, and Angie to learn infant massage techniques. The five and six year olds did an hour of music therapy with Bessie and Amy, and the six toddlers were with the teenagers hanging out. Rotations happened once before we went to lunch. After lunch, the music therapists saw the three babies, Pam observed half of the toddlers, and Trisha and Ronit saw the other half. Lorena, our SLP, pulled kids for one-on-one assessments throughout the day. The rest of the afternoon was spent talking with the director of the orphanage. The therapists were able to communicate their findings, suggestions, and demonstrate how to use donated equipment. The director and staff were very receptive to all of this, which is wonderful! Below are some photos of the therapists hard at work/

Day One, New Life Nicaragua

Our first blog post since we landed! We are finally able to get internet, and so we will take a few moments to share with you what our Sunday looked like. We went to church today at "Verbos" church. The service began with no power (which means no worship or air conditioning) and continued with a generator and still no air conditioning. There was much singing and dancing and praying (and sweating), and a sermon that was translated from Spanish to English via headphones for us "gringos." After lunch, we went to New Life Nicaragua- an orphanage for children with special needs in Managua. There are currently 13 children living at New Life, with one additional child in foster care. These children found their way to New Life from various situations, including horrific sexual abuse from family members, abandonment at the hospital, & abuse at other orphanages. Pam, our Physical Therapist, spent her time assessing the three littlest babies, Patricia (2 months), Lelya (8 months), and Ismael (3 months). Trisha, our Rec therapist, assisted Pam, and Angie helped to interpret to the orphanage staff Pam's findings and suggestions. The rest of the team spent time getting to know the children as an initial assessment, and will do some more structured activities tomorrow. I know you are all dying to see some pictures, and we will do our best very soon. Please make sure to check our FB page for updates. Uploading photos can get tricky with spotty internet. Hasta Manana (hopefully)!

The end (New Life Nicaragua)

As I sit here leisurely, reminiscing over the last 10 days, I can hardly wrap my mind around the fact that I will be in California tonight. We have been extremely busy, yet somehow completely relaxed during this trip. We are running on "Nica" time. There's no need to hurry or rush; no pressing matters that need attending to- just time to enjoy creation and others. inconveniently, the sound of jackhammers coming from the Buzbee's demolished kitchen makes for a less than relaxing atmosphere! Yesterday we spent our time at New Life Nicaragua, an orphanage run by Tim and Chris Bagwell. There were ten children there, ranging from 4 months to 5 years. All of these children were either malnourished or abandoned, and have an additional disability, like drug addiction, genetic disorders, and speech/language impairments. The SLP and the rec therapist spent the morning running 20 minute "assessments" with some of the children. The SLP worked with the oldest children and the rec therapist worked with the youngest. One music therapist co-implemented with the rec therapist and the other one loved on babies. We had the best brick oven pizza for lunch (including dessert) and then worked with the Bagwell's youngest daughers, who both have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Mercedes is 4 and Gabriella is 3, and both are so incredibly precious. Mercedes has a lot of speech issues and Gabriella had slower processing time. We did 50 minutes of music with the two of them to make them feel comfortable. We then turned Mercedes over to the speech therapist and Gabriella to the rec therapist. The music therapists spent the rest of the time kissing babies. We begin our treck back to the US in about 4 hours. We'll see you all on the flip side.

We spent our second day at Colegio Cristiano Havila. We saw the preschoolers this morning for 30 minutes because of a break that they have in the middle of their morning. Four preschoolers were with the MT's and four were with the rec therapist and the SLP. We then switched groups for the next half hour. After an hour break, we split the first graders up into one group of four and one group of five, and rotated them after an hour. The first group of first graders was very shy in music and needed a lot of encouragement to come out of their shell. The second group was crazy, and had ZERO impulse control. They finally calmed down after a song called "Crocodile Shop" which involved rhythm sticks and a steady beat. The repetition helped to regulate them, which then allowed us to actually work with them and maintain our sanity. The rec therapist and the SLP did many of the same activities as yesterday, including planking, bouncing on the exercise ball, beading, playing "headband," having children follow directions, and describing picture cards. After a wonderful lunch, we tackled the sixth graders. There were only seven of them, so we had one group of three and one group of four. They were very well behaved and (most) were receptive to what we had planned. The most interesting observation made of this group was poor midline meeting. The rec therapist discovered that these students had NEVER completed a puzzle before, and so she had the opportunity to introduce something new to them. At 3PM this afternoon, we had a training and informational meeting with all of the teachers and the director of the school. Everyone was able to share a little bit about what they did with the kids, how the teachers can implement some of these strategies in their classroom, and presented donations to the school. They were all very receptive to us and thanked us for being there. We were equally as grateful, because (as I reminded them) our purpose is meaningless if what we started with these kids is not continued once we leave. Tomorrow we get to hang out with babies, which makes all of us excited! Catch ya tomorrow! Here are some photos from today:

Colegio Cristiano Havilah

Today we went to a second school entitled Colegio Cristiano Havilah. We learned that the word "havilah" is from Genesis 2:11-12. Havilah is a place in the garden of Eden where gold and jewels are found. This is representative of how the children at this school are viewed; as precious jewels. The younger children attend school in the morning (Preschool- 3rd grade), while the older children attend in the afternoon (4th-6th grade). The director of the school had targeted children listed before we arrived, and discussed what types of issues these students were experiencing, including social/emotional and behavior issues. We were able to spend an hour with each group seen today. In the morning, the music therapists had the second graders, while the rec therapist and the SLP worked with the third graders. We then switched groups. Lunch was at the director's house (What a sweet lady!). The afternoon included the fourth and fifth graders, rotated after an hour between therapists, like the morning. The music therapists spent the majority of the hour sessions working on impulse control, expression of emotions, taking turns, and following directions. The rec therapist worked on exercises the kids can do to get out some energy to assist in focusing during class, including planking, wheelbarrow races, and bouncing on the exercise ball. She also did some beading and gave chewing tubes to students that need that oral stimulation to focus. The SLP did group work today and discussed some of the student's favorite things. Tomorrow, we will see the preschoolers, first graders, and sixth graders. We will also have an hour training for the teachers in the afternoon. Can't wait to update y'all! This evening was spent talking with one of the missionaries down here about his testimony and life story. Feeling blessed to meet others that are living a life of service for these children.

La Esparanza and Casa Havilah

What a day! After breakfast, we loaded up the van and headed to a school entitled La Esparanza. This school was originally located in the city dump, and educated the children living there. However, the Spanish government created a project (that was both a blessing and a curse to the school) that was going to renovate the land. This required all of the families that were living there to relocate, and the missionaries that were running the school were told they had two days to take whatever they needed, because the school was being demolished. The Lord provided a new building for them, and they now educate about 80 preschoolers (ages 2-6) from 8 am to 11:30 am everyday (with the exception of the two year olds who leave at 10:00). The music therapists took the three classrooms of kids and divided them in half, making six groups that completed a half hour music session in rotation. The SLP talked to the teachers and identified the students that had speech/language issues, including children that had no language and those with stutters. The rec therapist also worked with identified children, either through teacher recommendation or music therapist observations during group instruction. The morning was simply exhausting! I have no idea how three women corral 80 preschoolers, but somehow they survive. We donated instruments, school supplies, and therapy tools to them before we left. After the preschoolers leave La Esparanza, elementary students and high school students come for an after school tutoring program. We did not see these children. Instead, after lunch, we went to the safe home for girls, called Casa Havilah. There are currently seven girls that live there that have been removed from their homes for various reasons. These girls range from ages 9-13. We broke the ice by playing La Bamba on the guitar, while most girls joined in singing. We taught them the Cupid Shuffle. Trish implemented a group game to get to know the girls, including their favorite musical artist, favorite color, favorite animal, and their favorite feature about each girl in the house. This also gave the house mom, Jenny, an opportunity to compliment the girls and love on them with words of affirmation. The girls then split into two groups; the older girls had tutoring while the three youngest stayed with us. We did a lyric analysis experience to the song "Dices" by Selena Gomez. The lyrics to this song are about knowing who you are, knowing that you are wonderful just the way you are, and that changing for others is unnecessary. The three younger girls got it, had some great discussion, and REALLY enjoyed the song. They probably played it at least 5 or 6 times. Eventually, they switched with the older girls, and we did the experience again with less success. They were not as open to the song lyric discussion, but one of the girls seemed to enjoy the song. The oldest girl thought she was too cool for it :p We played the human knot game with them and the made some laynards with rex lace until it was time to leave. Our evening was spent cooling off in the pool, eating, blogging and crashing at 8 pm. We'll check in with you tomorrow about our time at another school for children from preschool-6th grade.