We awoke to the sounds of children playing outside at 6 am as they waited for their school bus.
After breakfast, we approached a group of children in wheelchairs and their caregivers and used bubble blowing to break the ice and get to know their names.
We took notes about which children might benefit from adjustments to their positioning systems and made plans to get this done later in the week.
Soon afterwards, we gathered in the Physical Therapy gym and presented their staff with a blue feeder seat that we had brought with us from the States. As soon as they saw it, the Zanmi Beni staff told us that it would be perfect for one of the children and before I knew it, Beth Leiro, the physical therapist on our trip and Tim Sanford, our resident physician, sprang into action. Working alongside the Zanmi Beni staff, they molded the seat to fit into the boy's current wheelchair, replaced the straps to better fit him, and raised the foot rests to better suit him. He looked great !
There are still several other children who need seating modifications (replacing some straps here, raising foot plates there) and we look forward to doing what we can to help while we're here.
Later, we helped feed the children lunch (more on that in a future post ) and worked with some of the younger children to make necklaces and bracelets with beads.
This afternoon's activities were curtailed by a sudden storm that quickly turned the playground to mud (but the able bodied teenagers didn't let that stop them from playing soccer/football in the rain).
I'm already tired just recounting the days activities and it's not yet dinner!
(Much) more to come.
Bonswa !
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