Public Health station of SiPacate
Another day where we traveled over 2 hours to our site near the coast. After we dropped off the equipment we promised yesterday, we drove about 10 minutes further and arrived at our destination. There were several people waiting for us when we arrived. We treated about 20 people today including mostly children and a few adults. There were several children who were malnourished. One group of three children from a family had a boy of 8 years, a second boy of 5 years and a girl of three years who were all approximately the same size (the typical size of a 2 - 3 year old in the United States). The primary concern today for treatment included focus on feeding, walking and memory. Additionally, we had two deaf children. Each of the individuals came with family members with unique and interesting stories.

Because we were so close to the coast, we decided to take a short detour to the beach. Although we were only about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, it took about 10-15 minutes from our site to arrive at the beach. The beach is black coarse sand (like Italy if you have ever been there). Since we had a 10 minute time limit, we were just going to get our feet wet and leave. The waves were HUGE! One wave took our group by surprise and most of us had the two hour drive back with very wet pants. It was definitely worth arriving back for dinner an hour late. We enjoyed the people we treated, the ocean and the opportunity to learn from each other as therapists and future therapists.

Joan T. (faculty) and Breanna Lynch (student)