Alpaca Bag-Giving a voice to the voiceless
How is it already January? Time is flying by here in Trujillo and a lot has happened in the past few months(I know, I know, I’m slacking with blog posts). In the beginning of November, my sister, Kristin came to visit. Luckily, I had a week of vacation, so we took advantage. First, we spent a few days in Mancora, a beach town about a 10 hour drive north of Trujillo. Mancora kind of reminds me of a beach in Ecuador called Montañita, but surprisingly, Mancora is somewhat calmer than Montañita (those of you who have been to Montañita can understand). Mancora is a small coastal town filled with backpackers and foreigners who frequently pass through on bus before either traveling north to Ecuador, or south to the rest of Peru. For the 3 days we were there, we mainly plopped down and soaked up the sun. We then headed back to Trujillo for a day before taking another night bus to Huaraz (poor Kris was sick of night buses by the time she was ready to leave Peru). Kris was hit with altitude sickness, so I took all the tours on my own and showed her pictures when I returned.
In the following weeks, therapy continued at full speed. We actually started to wrap up therapy and evaluations by the end of the month. Most of my children are working on using low tech- alternative means of communication, more specifically, PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System). Long story short, children who are mostly non-verbal who I am working with, use pictures to communicate their wants and needs. However, a lot of materials are needed to make this work. To make this happen, I held a “taller” or a workshop to show the mothers how to make their own communication books. Each of the moms made her child’s PECS book, and placed the communication pictures in the books after they were completed. Unfortunately, it did not go as smoothly as planned, because the glue we used did not stick as well, so everything was coming unglued (it was actually a mess). Although a bit of a challenge, it was amazing to see the moms excited to finally have a therapy material that I have been promising them since I started therapy with them in September.
As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, the team I work with (manager of therapy, speech therapist, occupational therapist, physical therapist), have to manage everything to make the program run. In the hospital I worked for in the US, the materials were usually already prepared or easily accessible, kids are scheduled by the scheduling department, the therapy spaces were cleaned and prepared by environmental staff, etc. However, here, all of the behind the scenes work is completed by these 4 women. Last week, we had to pack up all of the therapy materials, because if it is not packed up while we are on vacation for the holidays, all of the materials can easily be ruined (mostly because of the way the building is, there are bugs, dust, and you name it that can destroy the materials very easily). All of the paperwork for therapy is handwritten, so the week after therapy, the therapists (and myself) needed to organize all of the papers. And now that we are returning for the new year, we are unable to immediately return to work with the children. Instead, we need to decide which children need which therapies and which children will lose a therapy because of non-compliance. We need to clean the therapy space, schedule the children (which is a whole day event, because it is very complicated-sometimes, this takes 2 days), we do evaluations, more handwritten paperwork of evaluation and treatment plans, and then start therapy. It’s quite a process.
To finish out the year, the RBC therapists planned a Christmas party for the children and their families. They participated in games and activities, as well as received a few small gifts. I learned that Christmas is celebrated somewhat differently here. Peruvian Christmas is celebrated by having dinner at midnight on Christmas Eve. Peruvians celebrate Christmas similarly to how we celebrate Thanksgiving US, by taking the time to appreciate and give thanks for the past year as well as the family members that they are spending the holidays with. Santa Claus does not bring presents on Christmas night, but rather, children open their gifts given to them by their family members on Christmas Eve.
Over the Christmas break, the team kindly gave me 2 weeks off to travel, because they knew I needed to leave the country to renew my Peruvian visa. My first stop was called Chachapoyas, which is just at the edge of the Peruvian jungle in a cloud forest. It is a quaint city, with a lot of backpackers passing through due to the promise of adventures that the jungle has to offer. During my time there, I went visit pre-Inca ruins and what is supposedly the 3rd tallest waterfall in the world!
While I was there, however, I received the news that my grandfather had passed away back in the US. So During one of my hikes on that trip, I took the day to reflect and think about him. Prior to finding this out, I had planned to go to Ecuador to spend Christmas, but after thinking about it for a long time, I decided to make a quick trip back to the US to be with my family and friends. Although only 3 days, the trip was exactly what I needed. It gave me time to honor my grandfather, as well as spend time with the people who are most important to me in this world. I was glad to have those 3 days.
I was excited to return to Peru after my time in the US, because for New Years, I had exciting plans for New Years! Peru celebrates New Years in a way I’ve never seen before. The whole city lights fireworks, and everyone stays up until around 8 or 9 am celebrating. So, to see it in full action, a few friends and I climbed up a mountain just at the edge of the city to see all of the fireworks go off at midnight. It wasn’t until we had driven up half of the mountain at night, that I realized what I was really getting myself into, but I did it anyway. The climb lasted a little over an hour, but in the dark, rock climbing is not the easiest thing to do. My legs were shaking because I was so terrified of falling because parts of the mountain were so steep, but once we arrived to the top, the view was spectacular!
After we headed back, I decided I wanted a beer, or two. It was 3 in the morning, so you’d think that most people would be heading back home to rest after a night of partying. I quickly found, however, that everyone was just getting started. We headed to the beach, and the streets were packed at 5am with people still setting off fireworks. I met up with a few friends, but after a few hours, I headed back home and plopped down on my bed to finally rest. It was a pretty great start to the new year.