We are on a Mission!

June 2, 2016
         Coming to you from Nora (practitioner) and Leeah (student)!  Daryl’s group began their day early this morning as they traveled 5 hours away to provide services at an outpatient clinic in Canila. The group has been in contact and said they arrived safely and had a wonderful day as they got the opportunity to visit Mayan ruins. Back in Antigua, Missionaries of Highway and ABI’s group also had an eventful day! The Missionaries group split up as half of the group went on home visits and the other half worked at the clinic. Stacia (practitioner) Leeah, Sarah, and Rolando (translator) traveled throughout the community to check in on the homes of three children from the clinic. At each home, the group evaluated the environment and helped implement programs to make each home more accessible for their child. The group was able to provide the homes with play mats and a care plan that included exercises the children can work on at their home. In one of the home visits, the group worked on adapting and modifying a child’s wheelchair for three hours! It was very rewarding to see the final product and the smile on the sweet child. The group learned a lot today and is planning on visiting six more homes tomorrow!

      While half of the group attended home visits, Nora (practitioner), Valarie (practitioner), Lauren, Kylie, Allison, Ashley, and Giovanni (translator) remained at the outpatient clinic. We had the opportunity to integrate speech & language-based services (Nora, SLP) with the OT services for the kids, moms & clinical staff.  We were able to provide training and support for the families and clinical staff.  These included tooth brushes, coloring books, sensory tools to calm the children and ideas for school and home use. In addition, Valarie was able to reunite was a previous child that she worked with last year! We are very excited to follow up with the kids tomorrow to check on these skills being used in the classroom. 

      In the evening, the ABI group was able to get a tour of a chocolate factory in Antigua and even nibbled on some free samples! After dinner, the whole group celebrated a very special 21st birthday with a delicious, local Oreo cake for our translator and partner Brittany! Overall, we all had a good day and are very sad that tomorrow is our last day of service. Nevertheless, we are very grateful for this opportunity to work with and learn from the children of Guatemala. Check in on us tomorrow for another fabulous blog report!