Orange Walk Visits

Awoke crazy early..again.  Successfully made it on our bus to the Orange Walk district.  We were picked up by gems Shar and Hilda who took us around for home visits including a little 10 year old girl who is not yet walking independently.  We evaluated her ability to ambulate and gave ideas to her mother on using a walker and motivational cues like music.  We spoke about grading her standing tolerance and the importance of engaging her in meaningful activities.  Here, we felt like we might actually be useful.

We experienced other great visits during the day including the cutest boy ever who was managing so well with fused fingers and toes.  We learned a lot throughout our day about CBR and how the rehabilitation field officers (RFOs) manage to reach out to the entire family right in their own communities.  One example of this was a family with two children with disabilities and two without..their eldest recently passed away.  These people had no electricity, no running water but were managing through help of CARE and the work of the RFOs.  CARE has helped them become more independent as a family by providing them seeds to create their own food as well as helping them build their home.  The RFO also helped facilitate the one girl with a disability go to a normal school.  Kids in her class take turns pushing her wheelchair to and from school everyday.  These visits were both eye opening and overwhelming in seeing the difficulties and extreme poverty that people face here; especially families with children with disabilities.  We've learned about how RFOs often need to address the families' basic needs like food, shelter and water before any type of clinical therapy for the children can take place. Despite all of the difficulties and barriers that most of the families face, it was obvious that the parents' love for their children was what enabled them to support and carry out the interventions that the RFOs provided. Most parents were so welcoming and open when we entered their home- always wanting us to provide them with any information we had or suggestions and even offering us drinks and fans to relieve our sweatiness.

While in Orange Walk district, there was a big difference in the landscape! Tons of sugar cane fields and extremely bumpy roads. The people also spoke mainly Spanish in Orange Walk when compared to Belize City. There is also a really huge Mennonite community that provides most of the dairy for the country. Cat and Sulls were told they would fit in better there. haha

We got to experience Belize's form of a ferry! Much different from the Wolfe Island one in Kingston. The ferry we drove on to was made of wood and had a tiny hut on the side that housed the manual crank to move the ferry across the river. We had the opportunity to try cranking the ferry ourselves! Couldn't imagine doing their 12 hour shifts. Kit also spotted our first croc while crossing.

We stayed with the director's in laws who were unbelievably welcoming and hospitable- such amazing food!  They also had two adorable puppies that kept us entertained.

Back to the city we go (Belize style)- crammed into a pickup truck.

Miss you all!

The queso blanco crew