visitors: this week was great because we had a group of physical therapists from chicago come and help us out. they came bearing lots of great toys and gadgets to use for physical therapy, which our physical therapist was very excited about, but they also got to spend some time with all our kids that need physical therapy, including the kids i work with in the special needs home. it was great because they gave myself and our physical therapist a bunch of great tips and pointers and ideas for things we could be doing with the kids. the other great thing is another man from chicago came with them who has been doing fundraising for us to build a new house for the special needs kids. right now the special needs kids live in a house that is built exactly the same as all the other houses, which definitely poses some problems for kids with special needs. so we also all got to sit down and talk about all our different ideas for what a new special needs home would look like... building seperate rooms for the kids that don't sleep through the night, putting doors on the bathrooms, making handicap-accessible sinks and showers, adding therapy rooms to the house, planning for the future (for the kids that will be living here for life). all in all it was really a great week with these people, i feel like we accomplished a lot. and even though i'll probably be gone before construction of this home is finished (or maybe even before it starts), it's cool to think about the possibilities for these kids in the future.
lisbeth: lisbeth is another one of the little girls that lives in san pascual. i haven't really talked about her that much because i haven't really been able to spend a lot of time with her. ever since i got here, she has been living in our clinic because she is really sick. she has some mental retardation, but she was also born with lots of problems in her stomach and esophagus. you can tell by just looking at her picture that she is sick (and she is 6 years old!) she has a lot of digestion problems. when she eats she her belly gets all inflated and if she's not sitting in the right position, she throws up anything she has eaten. she lives here because her mother is dying of aids (which she contracted after lisbeth was born, so lisbeth does not have aids). it's a very sad situation. but on a brighter note, this week she was able to go to the capital and have a surgery on her esophagus that will hopefully solve a lot of her problems. she is supposed to come back next week and spend some time recooperating in the clinic. then, hopefully she will be able to move back into the special needs home. keep her in your prayers if you can!"he who has hope has everything."
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