We visited a nearby village, Santa Maria, this morning. This community is home to a school specially designed for disabled children – New Life School. We were invited to teach at the school by Nancy & Karen’s friend Amy, who is an occupational therapist at the school. Yet again, we taught these children about hand washing, first aid and germs… we were definitely getting pretty good at teaching these topics by this point in the trip. These children were inspirational for me – their disabilities did not hinder them from experiencing anything. For instance, one girl was severely crippled and confined to a wheelchair. I was nervous that she wouldn’t be able to look into the microscope because of her physical limitations, but a few of the students were able to maneuver the microscope into place for her to look at bacteria for the first time. I will never forget the look on her face when she first saw the bacteria – instantaneously my fatigue disappeared and I was reminded yet again of why we are here in Guatemala.
After lunch, we were invited to two separate indigenous homes. This is a rare opportunity and definitely something a tourist would not be able to experience that’s for sure. The place I visited was home to one of the children who received OT at New Life School. This little girl had microcephaly and a seizure disorder, rendering her nearly completely disabled and dependent on her mother for all cares. The family was extremely poor – they had to walk long distances for clean water, food was scarce, and money was hard to come by. As I was sitting in this family’s home, I was yet again blown away by how privileged we are in the United States and how many things we take for granted such as having clean water and the opportunity to send our children to schools. I continue to find that while we teach and bring supplies to the Guatemalan people, that they give us much more than we could possibly give them in return.
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