Having a Student in Santo Domingo

To be honest, before Jared’s arrival I was only thinking of the increased amount of work that would be incurred. Although it is a bit more work, with Jared around, the last couple of weeks in Santo Domingo have been very productive and certainly a blessing. 

Simply speaking, it’s nice not to have to travel by myself. But, there have been numerous clinical benefits that I have seen thus far. Jared is speaking about as much Spanish as I do, but he can pick up on key words from a patient that I miss when we don’t have help to translate. Being a student, Jared has a recent background in wound care and neurological rehabilitation, areas that I have not seen in about 10 years.  Jared is also planning an educational session for the community on low back pain, something that I was having trouble finding the time to plan. He has also helped me with contacting a PT here in Ecuador. I think this contact will be very helpful in the future, if it works out to return for a week with a group of students.

Jared has also shared that this experience has been particularly helpful to him. Because of the language differences, Jared and I can talk about detailed patient care while seeing the patient. (of course with permission of the patient) In a normal setting, we often have to be careful because the patient may lose confidence in a student if the patient perceives a lack of knowledge or experience. Also, Jared is enjoying the variety of patients and the opportunity to use his medical screening skills.

Very cool experience. Let us pray that our patients continue to benefit from our care and Jared continues to get the clinical experiences he needs for future work.

Checking in

Everything is fine. We forgot to blog last night because of the game. We will send more tonight

Meeting Friends

Well I guess I was too into the UK game and forgot to post yesterday.  Go Cats!  We were able to watch the game through Skype on Jared's computer.  Yesterday we went to Parque Ejido and had a great time.  Lucas climbed a tree and all over the equipment and had fun on some really fast slides.  He also enjoyed the tire swing and the bit net swing with Melayna.  Melyana played on the swing almost the whole time.  She is trying to figure out how to push herself on the swing.  It is really sweet to watch her little wheels turning as she tries different things.  The four of us played tag for a little while in the park too.  After playing tag, we all got some mango and some ice cream for a snack and then headed back home.  Lucas played with the new castle while Melayna rested and I went to the grocery store.  After dinner we watch the UK game and cheered them on to a big win.

Today Matt and Jared went to Cotopaxi to hike and had a wonderful time.  The kids and I went to church and took our time heading home.  Melayna is a little explorer and picks up rocks and sticks and leaves every few steps.  She is funny how she picks and choses which ones to keep.  She loves the little leaves and says, "look a pequeño one".  At church we were lucky enough to meet a wonderful family that wants to get together for a play date.  Their family owns a pizza place in town too and wants us to come eat there.  Yum!  Lorena is the lady's name and she asked us to come over this week to play and she would have cupcakes for the kids.  Lucas heard that and was excited.  Lorena said that her son who is Melayna's age saw Melayna in church a few weeks ago and told his mom she was a princess.  How sweet!  I think it will be nice to change the routine a little.  Matt is going to try to meet up with her tomorrow for a little while.  I am excited for the kids.  Other than that nothing new is going on.  We are just trucking right along.

Swinging on a tire

Always a kid!

I can do it too with a better look on my face daddy.

I think I can

Now what?

Tree climbing

Listening to a movie on daddy's computer during the pregame show

Matt at Cotopaxi

Matt and Jared stating their hike (the kids and I are in 82 degrees in shorts and tank tops only an hour away)

People camping out to prepare for a hike at midnight tonight

This is the glacier with some lava rock on it at 5000 meters above sea level

Art and Creativity

For the past few weeks, I have been collecting empty boxes in order to do some sort of art project with Lucas.  Well last night I had the bright idea that the kids would like to have a castle to play with with their figures.  So today Lucas and I started cutting and taping and coloring and creating.  I think it turned out pretty good.  Lucas worked on his cutting and coloring and then for the most part told me what he wanted on the castle and I created it.  The most fun part was the elevator I made that actually goes up and down.  It has a para-scope, fire posts, windows, a door that opens and closes, a ladder and one platform.  They have played with it for 2.5 hours without stopping and without fighting.  I would say it was a good idea, and I had fun.

Proud of his creation!

Figuring out the elevator

The Para-scope looking at you

Ladder and platform

Superheroes enjoying their new home

New Things

I find it interesting how you can go to work or the store the same way everyday and still three months into doing it see new things.  You can see more clearly some days and you are thinking of different things on different days.  I have been finding that on the bus all the time.  Sometimes we sit on the left and other times on the right.  Pretty much everything plays into what we see and what we don't.  The front or back, if Lucas and Melayna are talking to me or not, if the weather is clear, if I am tired or getting something out of the bag, if the bus is crowded or not and so many more little things.  Today we were able to see the most beautiful snow covered mountain on the way to work for the first time with that much snow.  It was gorgeous!  I think it may have been Cotopaxi and it was more than half covered in snow and it looked like it was just right there, it was clear.  We did not see it on the way home though.  I also noticed a sign for waterfalls and hiking in the city we drive through for the first time the other day.  It just goes to show you how little we truly see of our surroundings everyday.  I want to take the rest of this trip to look more closely at the things we are surrounded by and take them all in and commit them to memory.  There are so many beautiful places and people here that I want to commit to memory.  It becomes a little clearer why many people like my mom and my aunt take so many pictures.  I think it makes them so much more aware of their surroundings and they are always looking for memories to capture.  I love photos and especially ones by my mom and aunt.  If only I could have had their "eyes" here.

The Downhill

Well it officially feels like the end is closer than the beginning!  Matt and I have been trying to plan out our final weekend excursions and plan for the final University of Kentucky brigade.  I really want to work on the final brigade so we are trying to figure out how we will make that happen.  We also want to go the city of Baños which is known for the hot springs and waterfalls and we want to go to Otavala which a city that has a lot of indigenous people and a great market we hear.  We are both also looking forward to Holy Week here, especially the Good Friday procession.  Matt saw how amazing Cotopaxi was and now he wants to go before we leave.  He and Jared are trying to figure out when to go.  There are so many other places in this beautiful country, but they will have to wait for another trip.  Looking back we have had so many wonderful adventures already and we can hardly wait for more.

It was interesting to see this week how much the people at the special needs school and the daycare missed us last week.  I was not sure of our impact until going back this week and hearing how they missed us.  It makes you feel good to know you were missed.  The special needs school is also planning a big pig roast for Jared and I before we leave in the big town square.  It should be a lot of fun.  There is sure to be music and dancing.  It makes you wonder sometimes why we throw parties for people before they leave.  I know some of it is to give everyone an official time to say goodbye, but I like to think that it is so we can remember the person or people leaving in the way we liked being with them the most, having fun, smiling and overall being happy.  I also like to think it is to tell the person we support them and make sure they know they will be missed.  I think we all would like to think we would be missed when we leave a place.  It confirms to us that we are important to someone and that is a good feeling.  That takes me back to an earlier post in which I wrote about letting people know how much we love and appreciate them.  That thought applies to people we work with too.  So if you take any advice from me today it should be to tell people how important they are and how much they are appreciated BEFORE their going away party.

Mucho Sol Hoy

The weather patterns in Quito and Santo Domingo seem to be changing just a bit. Over the last week, the mornings have been plentiful with sunshine, while you can bank on an afternoon storm at about 3 or 4. During my morning run Cotopaxi, a popular snow capped mountain and volcano, could be seen from the higher elevations of my run. Later that morning, the kids and I went to Parque Casacunga. 

The kids loved the equipment and the views of the south end of Quito are marvelous.

While the weather in Quito is ideal, Santo Domingo has been just plain hot and humid. We welcome cloudy days there. I have been setting up my mini clinic under the common veranda which is shaded by several trees and usually has a nice breeze in the morning.

The work in Santo Domingo continues to go well. We are trying to schedule a few more patients this coming week since I now have had Jared’s help for 3 weeks. It has been great having another set of eyes. Jared and I have also begun to plan an educational session for the community on low back pain prevention and a session for medical assistants in our community on basic therapy skills. 

Pray for another good week.

 

Clinical Team at CMHH in Santo Domingo celebrating Gloria's (center) birthday

Matteo