Monday, June 3, 2013

New Life School

Being welcomed by warm hugs was not what we expected when we were told their parents threaten them with "If you do that, the white people will take you and eat you" and "If you misbehave, the white woman will give you a vaccine." Great reputation here. After that first hug though, many others followed. All of our hearts melted. On our first day on site, we did not get much interaction with the children. Since it was a new site, our main objective was to gather information about the school, teachers, and past therapy techniques. We divided up into teams of three with a translator and observed. We asked the teachers about specific children and recorded suggestions we might have for later intervention. Also, we had a full tour of the site and sorted things in the therapy room. One memomrable moment was when we were taking pictures of the classrooms and the children approached us and asked to take pictures with them. They were also very excited to see the pictures afterwards. One funny moment I (Julia) had was when we put up the swings, someone needed to test them, and of course (!) I volunteered. Really?! Who doesn't want to swing and play?! However, I sort of got stuck in the swing to the point where Lindsey D. was pulling at me, and the driver even offered to help. I thankfully got out. I (Stephanie) saw the first therapy child today with Anne and Eva. The little boy was 3 years old and very smart! His mother was amazing, she answered any questions we had and helped us to direct her son to do certain actions. She helped us encourage her son and it was obvious that she was very involved in the life of her son. It was a pleasure meeting all the faculty, children, and the mother of the child we met today. All were more than accomodating to us and we are very excited for what the next few days have in store!

Julia Millburg and Stephanie Strelnik, OT students, giving a shout out to Garrsen (driver/translator) on his awesome navigational skills this morning and carrying a 50 lb bag all over for us....also hey mom and dad, still alive and kicking!

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