Chickens and Street Luge

First of all, Happy Birthday Lindsey! I love you!

My group had a great day at our clinical site. We had to go to the main office this morning and then one of the promatoras met us to take us to another part of the city. We had to take a city car (the F car to be exact.) We pulled over to pick up this one guy, and he had a strange bag in his hand. It definitely started clucking after a few minutes and he exclaimed, "CHICKENS" (in Spanish of course). He was sitting directly in front of me in the passenger seat and I was picturing the chickens coming out of the bag, flying into my fro, and me screaming. I was actively planning my escape route every moment until we let him out.

We made it to Cienfuegos without incident. It was really fun! We saw one child together and then split up and two members of our group went to see a child in the home and then Spring and I were with the OT to see another child. I am so glad I was able to see this other child. He was incredibly wonderful, and had a sad story. It really broke my heart, but I tried to be comforting and sensitive to him throughout the treatment session. After therapy, we gave him this globe beachball we had used during treatment and he lit up! You would have thought we had given him the world (and we kind of did... literally)! I pointed out where we are in the DR and where I live in Omaha. It was so wonderful!

While we waited for the other members of the group, we had what I call, "Americans on Parade." Kids from all over the neighborhood came to play with us, walk up to us to say, 'hello' and all sorts of things. One kid even busted out his 'street luge' that was homemade. Spring called some of the toys they were playing with TBI traps (Traumatic Brain Injury) becuase they were racing down this hill with cars all around. It was very interesting!

What a fun moment to be able to play with the kids and just love them for who they are. Kids and adults from all over came to see us playing! What fun!

On the way back, the guagua cobrador saw us coming, started shouting "licey- licey- licey" and when I gave him the heads up nod to indicate we would be getting on his guagua once we crossed the street, he came over and STOPPED TRAFFIC for us to get in! What a riot!

We had lunch, birthday cake for one of the girls here, and now I'm working on stuff and waiting to perhaps see patients for the clinic if they show up!

Love to you all!