June 25th and 26th

June 25th, 2018

Helloooooo everyone!! Today we continued with Tykes camp. It was rough getting into the swing of things after an exciting weekend off. But only three kids showed up, so that helped a little. We had a few bumps in the road especially during story time (my activity). We had anticipated having more little friends at camp to ask questions, but since we were missing four friends things went by supppppppper fast and we didn’t have enough activities planned for our time slot. Thank goodness Sylvia was there with a song in her back pocket to save us.

After camp, we ordered some Chinese food for takeout. I got chicken lo mein and it was so delicioso. Everyone was complaining that it was spicy, and normally I would agree because I am a baby when it comes to spice. However, I didn’t find it spicy at all. Belize has changed me into a whole new person. Once we were done with lunch, we got on the bus for the ride back to Monkey Bay

When we arrived, we had time to chill and relax. Alyssa and I hungout in the hammocks and talked for hours. I swear we have known each other for maybe ten days, and she knows more about my life then most people. Weird how things work, right? We had dinner at 6pm, and the camping crew joined us again. They are a different breed of people. Honestly I think they are crazy because they chose to live out in the jungle for six weeks with all the bugs and animals here.

After dinner we had a special visitor come and talk to us about the culture and background of Belize. This woman was so passionate about her people and her country. She started out by telling us how the country started, and all the different cultures that are practiced in this country. Belize is its own little melting pot because there are 5 different groups of people. Along with the different groups, there are many different languages spoken. English is the primary language but they also speak spanish and criol. Ms. Emily (the guest speaker) also went through how life was lived back in the day, and all the traditions they had. She spoke with such pride and passion about her country. After our mini history lesson, she took the time to thank us for coming to Belize to help the children. Her speech was so moving it brought everyone to tears. I knew this was a service trip when I signed up, and part of the reason I signed up in the first place was to do some good in the world. This trip has changed my life, and I am so grateful for that every single day. I believe that God has a plan for everyone, and it is no coincidence that he brought me along with all my other speech peeps here to this country to help children in need. After Ms. Emily finished her speech, she came around to each one of us, gave us a rock that she picked down by the river at her house where she prays every day, whispered in our ears “be the change,” and gave us the biggest hug. This is where I lost it all together. In that moment, I promised myself that these are the words I chose to live my life by from now on.

BE THE CHANGE!!!

June 26th, 2018

Today was such a busy day! We left Monkey Bay at 6am this morning, which means we had to wake up at 5:30am!! That is way too early for me. Not only did we have to wake up early, but we had to sit on the bus for two hours. Thank goodness I brought my neck pillow on this trip because that came in handy this morning. Instead of doing camp today, we did home visits instead. We had three students that were put on the special education list for the entire country of Belize. A social worker and area coordinator visited with all three students beforehand to see if they would be good candidates for us to visit. Today all we did was go into the house and observe/diagnose these children. Our team consisted of an SLP, behavior specialist, pediatrician, and social worker. We worked together to work with these children and come up with different ways the parents could do therapy with their children using the resources that are easily available to them.

There are now eleven of us on this trip so we were broken into three groups. It would be too overwhelming for all 11 of us to go into each house, so we only got to observe one home visit. I was in the second group so I had to wait for a little bit. Our supervisors told us that the little boy we would be observing was diagnosed with autism and down syndrome. He also had lost vision in one eye, causing him to be severely impaired. I was so excited to work with this little boy because people with down syndrome have a special place in my heart.

We got to the house and the little boy’s mother greeted us with a freshly baked cake. We entered the house and the little boy was playing on the ground with a toy. This session was primarily a feeding session so we were there to observe how he handled his food, and if he was swallowing all the way. He was stubborn and the session didn’t go as planned. The little boy wouldn’t touch the apples his mother cut up for him because she cut them into very large pieces. He was then presented with cake and put a huge piece in his mouth. He struggled with this because he didn’t know how to manipulate the food, so he just spit it out everywhere. We tried to have him drink something to clear his mouth, but this resulted in silent aspiration. We were able to share some tips with the mom such as, giving him food in smaller pieces/amounts, and having him drink between bites to try and clear the palate. I feel like I learned more in that 30 minute evaluation then I did in an entire semester.

We went out to lunch at a restaurant on the water. It was beautiful, but it took forever for the food to come out. The service was definitely not as good as it was everywhere else we have visited thus far. After lunch we had one more eval, and then we were on our way back to Monkey Bay. We got back just in time for dinner, and a special treat. It is Sylvia’s birthday, so the kitchen staff made her a chocolate cake. We are currently devouring it which watching the Bachelorette. I am in a cake coma, so I am signing off.

Can’t wait for tomorrow!