Day 4 - April 29, 2016

This blog post is brought to you by: Kelly Walsh and Lexie Williams

We had another full day of fun, service, and learning! This morning, we had the opportunity to take 37 residents of Las Obras on an outing to celebrate the April and May birthdays. The location of the party was a local ruins site about four blocks from the hospital. It was a beautiful location with wild flowers growing and a large open area shaded by the ruins. Let’s just say it’s not easy to roll wheelchairs across cobblestone. Fortunately there were volunteers from other organizations and schools that came to help and we were able to stop traffic, lift the wheelchairs and hurry across the streets. Once there, the residents smashed a piñata, ate donuts, yogurt and candy, drank juice and did a lot of singing and dancing! Everyone had such a great time celebrating the resident’s birthdays. It was an amazing experience to see the joy that such a simple celebration can bring to so many people, including us PT students.

The birthday group after our party! 

At lunch, Genevieve presented her capstone presentation in la piscina (aka “the pool”) and did a fantastic job teaching about effective interventions for aquatic therapy to the staff at Las Obras and our class.

Genevieve during her presentation.

In the afternoon, we traveled back to Fundacion Ensename A Pescar to host our first health fair. We had six stations including blood pressure reading, low back care, nutrition, hand washing, feminine hygiene, and pregnancy and infant care.  Attendees were as young as 4 months old up to abuelos y abuelas (aka “grandpas and grandmas”)! We were able to provide resources for preventative care and to promote healthier lifestyles. Everyone was so appreciative and it was great to practice our spanglish (see above).

Kelly and Lindsey at the pregnancy and infant care station.

Lexie and Liz at the hand washing station.

Tomorrow begins our day of adventures including hiking the volcano and visiting a coffee farm! Hasta luego!