Guatemala – April 2013, Day 6

We spent the entire day at Anini today and really enjoyed getting to know a lot of the kids. There’s so much we could say about each kiddo, but we wanted to share a few of the highlights from the day.

Paige’s biggest moment was when the director of Anini agreed to start incorporating safer feeding methods using proper positioning and thicker liquids for the more involved kids with CP. This is a HUGE breakthrough!! Paige also shared a lot of information with Allen, including incorporating PECS with some of the non-verbal kids. It’s so encouraging to know that information was able to be passed on to someone who will be there consistently.

In the past, the OT’s on the Guatemala trips have mainly worked on equipment. But since we have an equipment specialist on our team for this trip, Julie got do a lot more OT with the kids and adults at Anini. One of Anini’s biggest concerns was fine motor skills and craft activities, but Julie realized that a lot of that had to do with visual-perceptual problems. So she was able to make recommendations to address these issues. With the help of Eric, she also got to make some orthotics today for a boy named Daniel (her first pair of lower extremity orthotics).

Eric and Gregg worked on tweaking several wheelchairs, which was very much needed! Eric also was able to work closely with several of the Anini workers, including the director, to show them how to help a girl named Karen breath more easily. He also had the opportunity to play a little game of soccer with one of the older kids at Anini, and got beat by the Guatemalan – 5 to 3.

It was such a good day, and we can’t believe we head back to the states tomorrow. Please pray for safe travels for our team!! And stayed tuned for a special “Zoom Ball-a-palooza” post tomorrow….

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