Physical Therapy in a Skirt

So I just finished a whole post and accidentally deleted it.... Here goes round 2.

This week has been very full and busy as I evaluated 23 kids at Kireka Home (its also a school but called Kireka Home), celebrated by 26th birthday, and went to 2 training sessions.

First... I am officially 26 and over the hump to 30...
Being in Uganda was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday!  I started the day by attending a training with Julie Propst at Dawn Children's Center (more on that below). We then went into downtown Kampala to the fabric market. It consists of a bunch of stores in a row that are filled with fabric from floor to ceiling. I picked out 3 to recover my couch, recover the pillows on my couch, make a table cloth, and make a skirt. It ends up being only about $2 per yard. I am so excited to take my mom there!

The 3 fabrics I bought

After this we went back to Julie's flat and started the long process of making tortillas to make tortilla chips since I was craving Mexican food. Shortly after, I was surprised when the women missionaries in the area showed up with lots of yummy Mexican food AND HOMEMADE CHOCOLATE CAKE! Lets just say I went to bed with a stomachache but so happy! I am truly blessed by these women, they have become my family here and I am so glad that God blessed me with this missions team!

Teachings
Julie is a special education teacher, and her ministry is to help communities, parents, and other teachers understand what it means to have a disability, what causes disabilities,  and how to help someone with a disability. Every other Saturday for the last 3 weeks, Julie has shared at Dawn Children's Center about the different aspects of autism and how to manage them. Some of the people that come are parents and others are workers at the center.

Julie teaching at Dawn

My favorite part of the week was going to a village last Sunday. Julie shared for about 2 hours about having compassion on people with disabilities as Jesus did, what causes disabilities, and the details of a few common types. Afterwards, people could come up for prayer and questions. I worked together with an occupational therapist to work with a couple of families. One little boy was had cerebral malaria when he was about 2 years old and as a result now has hemiplegic cerebral palsy. I don't think that he had ever seen a white person before, as he SCREAMED at first when we came near him and his eyes were so big with fear! After awhile he got use to us, and we were able to give his mom a few ideas for how to work with him. There was another little boy that appeared to have microcephaly (small head). It was interesting because the mom attributed it to having malaria as a child, but in reality he was probably born that way and it took awhile to notice there was something different about him. The last young girl I saw had a leg length difference of over 1.5 ft! She walked with crutches and was fully functional but was having pain in her hip. I was able to give her a few stretches in hopes that would help.

Kireka Home this week
So it was a BUSY week and I still have lots of paperwork to do, but hopefully that will make next week much simpler! The kids and teachers here are so fantastic. Even the children that cannot speak when they give you a big smile it makes your whole day worthwhile! I am so thankful that God has placed me here. Not a lot of new details to share, but next week I will try to have a story and picture about one of the kids so you can get to know each of them too. Oh and yes.. I do PT in a skirt... the long skirts area awkward because as I stand up I stand on the skirt and then almost pull it down trying to figure out where I am stepping. And the shorter ones are equally awkward as I crawl and sit on the floor with the kids. Thankfully that's what shorts are for!

"Bulletin Board" that will also have the children's names and stickers for each time they fully participate in therapy. Yes I know there is a border missing... the kids pulled a few down, and I didn't have enough to fully fix it.

Two children at the school. I will not be working with these two fro PT, but they LOVE the camera! :)

Funny story of the week:
I was working on my notes, and one of the youngest girls at the school came and sat in the chair next to me and crossed her legs just as I was sitting and kept watching me. So I gave her a little book to write on, paper, and a pencil, and next thing I know she is fully copying me writing my notes. It was so sweet. Apparently I need to change how I do things more. Jack (the little boy I babysit at home) use to mimic how I always stood with my hands on my hips.

Thank you all for your support and prayers!