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August 10, 2009
Several days in...
So I have been posting to the wrong blog entries...forgive me. Today was my 4th day working with the handicapped kids at Bidhan Chandra. So far, I have been getting to know each of the 15 childrens' maladies that range from polio deformities to minor birth defects. Nonetheless, there is nothing minor about being restricted in your abilities to move.
Another challenge I am facing is that some of my kids are deaf, which means they can lip read but only in the language of Bengali. With the challenge of the language barrier, I am working diligently to treat these children with a mind and body connection. However this may sound, today's teachings were about hand and eye coordination by tossing a frisbee around in a circle. I have had to reduce the content of my health initiative to the most basic of treatments. Just consider trying to tell a child the importance of learning how to stand on one foot is and this will provide some insights. Exercises of this nature are very important in training the brain to recognize the mechanical receptors in every joint as they relay message after message about the position of your limbs in space. I can touch my nose when my eyes are closed but then again, I have been lucky enough to have been born healthy.
I have been received warmly and enjoy every second when I am at the school. Today I also taught the children about situps as one mother of a child was deaftly concerned about the growing belly on her child. Speaking of parental figures, a man came a few days ago to visit me. I had come to learn that he had been in a motorcycle accident several hours prior to his arrival at the school. He came to ask me what he should do about his knee as the swelling was scaring him. I couldn't believe he was asking me, but nonetheless, I told him I was not a doctor. I advised him to ice his knee for 20 minutes for the next couple days and if the swelling did not go down, go to the hospital. Is it so big a deal to be an American working with disabled kids in a remote part of India that you may be suspected of having quality medical advice for injury? Apparently so...and tomorrow is a new day.
Posted by dipset at August 10, 2009 12:08 PM