2010 Mission Trip to Guatemala
So Mom’s not much luck on staying healthy today but all sickly individuals have bounced back and feel much better as of now… We are hoping it stays that way.
Today the groups splint into teams one traveling to the Children’s Hospital and the other going to the Shalom School, the University, and the soup kitchen.
The individuals who went to the Children’s Hospital splint up into their specific disciplines. In the OT clinic students worked hands on with a group of children working on sensory stimulation. They used rice, coffee beans, and different textures of cloth as sensory tools. The students and practitioners observed Guatemalan OTs evaluating a patient with severe CP with multiple serious medical issues. Once the evaluation was complete the Guatemalan OTs asked the students and practitioners for suggestions. The differences in techniques were evident but both were open to communication and excited to learn from one another.
There are three areas of focus that Leonard Little Finger has described to us. They are the physical, the spiritual, and the metaphysical.
What a wonderful experience it’s been. The second I arrived, all I wanted to do was be outside. It feels like home in more than one sense.
It’s now Tuesday, May 18 and it’s a beautiful day in Oglala. Yesterday was a memorable experience. The group built a Lakota teepee together and had time to reflect out in the hills. The teepee is a symbol of the link between heaven and earth (the triangles and inverted triangles meeting where they cross). What is in heaven is on earth, and vice versa. Once the teepee was finished, Stanley Good Voice, with his young counterparts, presented us with unique Native American music from various ceremonies that are held within the culture. We even got to do the Circle Dance! But we’ve met so many people here and they’re all a piece of “wonderful”.
We have arrived in Phnom Penh! It has been one hot, fantastic day! After settling into our hotel, we walked down the street to a cafe for lunch that had amazingly good food– pumpkin soup (the group favorite), lime soda, and pizza for those of us who needed a little break from Asian cuisine! We seemed to cool off a bit during lunch, but once we reached the market all bets were off. There is more stuff crammed into a teeny tiny space than I thought humanly possible. Mrs. Taplin knows many of the dealers, though, so we got the best quality and lowest price. Needless to say, we became shopaholics (well… I was a shopaholic)… Most of us walked home with armfuls of merchandise, some for ourselves and some for you at home! 🙂