Whew....

What a busy week!!!! I have been doing so many things this last week. The little boy in the picture above is Emmanuel. He has clubbed feet and his mother would really like to get help for him. There was a lady that tried to get a medical visa for him and so I was initially doing physical therapy with the thoughts of preparing his trunk and lower extremities for future walking. However, they could not find a doctor and a hospital to donate services, so now I am trying to teach him to walk with loftstrand crutches. I'd love to use a walker, but I don't have one available, so I am using what I can. This is something that I am dealing with as a therapist here. I have to learn to use what I have, and not have all of the technology and "things" that I am used to having at my fingertips in the states. In the U.S., I would never teach a child to walk on feet that are like his, or using the loftstrand crutches at this stage, but here in Haiti, we just need to do the best we can. We are so lucky in the states that we get to do the best for the child, here, we just do the best that we can. He enjoys his therapy sessions and he tries very hard. I am very proud of the progress that he has made. Oh, you might be asking why not give him a wheelchair??? Well, he has one that he uses in his school, but for those of you that have been to Haiti, could you imagine maneuvering a wheelchair around this country??? Nothing is wheelchair or handicapped accessible, I mean goodness, it's barely perfectly healthy accessible!!! The roads are rocky and uneven and not paved (or once paved and now a big mess of asphalt and dirt), and the cars are all over the roads with few traffic laws that are obeyed. So, using a wheelchair is very difficult. What we are hoping is that he'll be able to get around on his own with an assistive device so that as he grows his mom and sister won't have to carry him everywhere! Anyway, along with working with Emmanuel and the other babies that I normally work with, I have been helping 5 missionaries as well. All are plagued with back pain and 4 out of the 5 are showing marked improvement. The 5th one has a long history of spinal arthritis and may always have pain, but I'll see what I can do to at least help relieve some of his pain. Well, tomorrow looks to be an exciting day with a visit to a new orphanage up the mountain!