July 24, 2015

          There's nothing significant about today's date, yet I realized today that in two weeks or less, I will be back in the States.  I've been putting off buying my return ticket because I don't want to acknowledge that I have to leave.  My heart is here.  My passion is here.  I have felt no stress or anxiety or fatigue while I've been here (except for when I was sick, but that's normal).  Some of the lack of stress is probably because it is summer, but a big part of it is that I'm doing what I love.  I don't dread going back, but I fear heading back to what I know will be stress and anxiety brought on by a new school year.  Every year I say the same thing: this'll be the year that I really will exercise and eat well and make time for myself and not let work consume me and make Haiti a priority even though I'm not here.  I fear that on the first day of school all those good intentions will go by the wayside as they have always done in the past.  Suggestions?

Nathalie coloring

          Well, instead of thinking about two weeks or two months from now, I want to focus on what a great day I had!  It again started with therapy, not horse but regular.  I sent Manda and Meghan to horse therapy with Lauren so that I could work with Shirley again and acclimate her to the therapy room.  Our first child today was Nathalie.  For those of you who have Nathalie, you know what a handful she can be!  We started with her sitting and leaning back a bit so that she could lean on her arms, but she wanted none of that.  She resisted and thought it was a game and started flailing her arms and kicking her legs as only Nathalie can do.  We quickly switched to massage with Shirley working her legs and me working on her arms.  Within minutes Nathalie was a limp noodle barely able to keep her head up.  She relaxed even more when we put her on the therapy ball to relax her back.  By the time we got her sitting in a chair at a table so that she could color, she was so relaxed she could barely sit up!  A good time was had by all.

Sweet Nahomie

          Next came Nahomie and Sarah, two little girls who spend pretty much their entire day in their wheelchairs.  I love working with this two precious little kids.  They are so delicate and tiny that I am forced to slow down, be gentle and quiet, and just be with them.  Nahomie hasn't had her meds for a couple of days, so she was pretty unresponsive to therapy, but we both enjoyed just sitting and cuddling.  By the end she was asleep, so we just let her keep sleeping while we moved on to Alain and Woodmayer.

Fort building

          I spent the late afternoon hours with Chedner's kids.  They have been hanging out here because we have a summer camp going on.  Well, once the camp part is over, they just get to play, but sometimes tempers flare between our kids and them.  I thought it would be perfect to bring them up to the roof and have them read and color the books that I had translated into Creole (don't start thinking I'm all that with the language skills--these books are like at the pre-pre school level).  The kids did enjoy the coloring.  For a bit.  The reading not so much.  Soon they were much more interested in building forts and climbing on the kitchen roof top that extends about the rest of the roof.  Oh well.   I tried to be educational.

Even the interns climbed!

          They climbing and sliding caused them to work up hunger and thirst, so I went to my room and grabbed the cheddar cheese flavored Hanover Pretzel Bits that I bought at the store yesterday.  They weren't so sure about them at first, Lourdesmilla especially.  I wish I could have got a picture of her face when she bit into the first one!  But, they adjusted and soon wolfed down the entire bag!

Another good day.  Tomorrow will be filled with running errands, so I'm glad I got hang with kids today.  They are so much more fun than errands.