Monday, June 14, 2010

Monday with Wheelchair Team












Today the wheelchair team (Kate, Laura, Kaitlin, Georganna, Chris, Lauren, Krista, Susan, Danielle, and our professional photographer Dr. Mark) went to the orphanage, Nuestra Pequenas Hermanos y Hermanas. After a wild ride there by our wonderful driver Rolando, we fitted four children with new wheelchairs or we fixed their old ones to allow greater comfort and function.

While the chairs were receiving adjustments, the team played with and provided therapy for those children and at least five other children. Occupational therapy students worked together with therapists and faculty to brainstorm ways to create the changes we needed with the material available to us. It wasn’t always easy to make these changes, but we were able to because of all the donations that were provided for the trip.

We also took pictures of the children before and after we provided adjustments to their chairs. This was done to provide a paper trail for the staff at the orphanage in a way that was visible. Pictures surpass any language barrier and allow improvements to be continued after we leave the children.

Overall, the experience was eye opening and put smiles on the faces of all the children. So thank you to all who helped us out in any way! You really are making a difference and everyone from Xavier and the orphanages appreciates it deeply!

Funny Story:

We are being immersed in language here in Guatemala, we just didn’t realize it would be from Georganna. Her best quote of the day, “Parque le truck s’il vous plait”.

Highlight:

The smiles on the faces of the children after they were fitted for their new chairs.

Kaitin (estudiante) And Kate (terapista) plus 8

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