It’s the last day in the clinic, and there are mixed emotions this morning. Personally, I’m getting used to the mix and match of the day, learning to adapt to a new clinic every two days, and learning to appreciate frequent change and unfamiliarity. Developing friendships throughout the week with the MMI staff has been so fun and delightful.
Overall we had 14 wheelchair fittings today, which are more tedious projects. Heath, Ryan, and Sarah all worked hard on wheelchairs in the afternoon. Katie and Kristin, and Manuela worked extensively to make up for the additional patients to see for evals due to the increased time it takes to adjust wheelchairs. Kala was able to see and help with many new challenges and interventions with one of the Peruvian therapists, Susan. With wonderful help from staff and teamwork we were able to finish seeing patients in good time! It has been great to see how we all have learned to work together in different pairs and in different languages, all growing and learning new tips.
We returned to the hotel for dinner then went shopping in the evening. Turns out Peru does not have as good of deals as America on Black Friday.
We go to bed with bittersweet thoughts as we will be leaving our loving MMI family early tomorrow, but are excited to explore Cusco this weekend.
We ask readers to pray for smooth and safe travels within this country and to continue to see God move this weekend. May we recognize and reflect on what God has been teaching us this week. May the families we met see God at work in their lives. Also pray for Heath and Katie as they prepare to head back home!
- Sarah
Happy Thanksgiving! We continued at the Pachacutec Ventanilla clinic today. It was a very smooth day overall. All of the students showed increased confidence and proficiency with patient interactions, treatment, and orthotic and wheelchair fittings. The clinic was also playing host to a dance studio, lots of loud music and breakdancing all day long! Very entertaining for our patients and families who were waiting for therapy. Katie got to show off her casting skills today for a 5 year old girl with cerebral palsy and made a custom orthotic for her! We did a lot of wheelchair fittings today as well. As we run low on supplies and wheelchairs we have to get more and more creative, drilling holes and grabbing other pieces from other chairs and just making it work the best we can. After the day finished we packed up the clinic in the van and brought it all back to the hotel. We were greeted by a marvelous Thanksgiving dinner made by the wonderful MMI staff. The head cook is an amazing, shy woman named Ms. Domi. She has been faithfully serving MMI and supporting trips like ours for over 20 years. We had Christmas decorations and music and big cooked turkey. Tonight, we sat around and discussed the progress of the week and how we are growing in our abilities is physical therapist and the spiritual growth and transformation that his happen this week. Today, on Thanksgiving, we are all missing our families and the comforts of home. But we believe in the work we are doing here and know that God has led us here for this particular week for a reason. We want to to be faithful to task He has set before us. Tomorrow is our last day of clinic and we are praying for strength to finish the week strong and be attentive to our patient’s physical and spiritual needs.
-Heath
Today our team woke up early to pack up our van and move our supplies to a new clinic in Pachacutec Ventanilla. It proved to be a busy and challenging day. Instead of separate treatment rooms that we enjoyed the last two days, today we all went in one big room. With 4-5 patients in the room at a time, much crying and noises ensued. Heath and Kala were able to work with several patients who travelled with their family from the Amazon jungle, one family over 18 hours of travel. Kala took on orthotic cases, helping to patiently adapt them for the patients’ needs. Heath also snuck in a couple orthopedic evaluations for members of the team who where feeling the strain of the week. Katie and Ryan worked together with some quadriplegic cerebral palsy patients. One received new orthotics and another left with a brand new wheelchair to better support her posture, development, and fit the functional needs of her family. Sarah and Kristin gained confidence with wheelchair fittings and showed off some creativity. A highlight of their day was a sweet young girl who could not stop giggling throughout her entire session. At the end of the day several of us stood on the roof and looked out over the city and the ocean. The landscape is vastly different from anything you would see in the United States. The houses are very crude and rundown, everything is brown and dusty. It was a good reminder of how fortunate we are and how much God has blessed us to be born and raised with the privileges we have in the United States. We believe God has blessed us this way for a reason and we can give back accordingly with our times, talents and resources. A patient at the end of the day went out of their way to provide heartfelt thankfulness to a couple of tires therapists who had provided customized orthotics for his daughter. He expressed his gratitude over and over again, so thankful that a group of people would take time to give to his family in such a way. The therapists were happy to reply back to the man that the kindness of God’s grace is the main reason why they are here. God was so kind and so overwhelmingly loving to us to send his son to die for us, that now after receiving His free gift of salvation, we now have a new desire to love others the way that He has so sacrifico ally loved us. And what a more amazing, tangible way to show the love of God to others than to first address their physical body as a conduit for reach the heart in a spiritual capacity. We are so grateful to be here, even though many admitted this was one of the most tiring and trying days of the week so far.
Our Peruvian friends say that they will be celebrating Thanksgiving with us! There is talk of our amazing cooks bringing us some of the holiday favorites to our dinner table tonight. Although it will not be a traditional Thanksgiving, we could not think of a better place to be. We are excited for the lives that we will interact with and impact!
Today was our last day at the Shalom Rehabilitation Clinic. We are really going to miss the amazing people we met here. Today was a really good day. We all worked well with each other, and were able to help patients very efficiently. One cool moment was being able to fit a post-stroke patient whose had pain for 40 years, with an assistive device to help her walk. She immediately had a big smile on her face, as she could finally walk without having constant pain. It’s a blessing for God to allow us to be a part in moments like these. We are all excited and ready to set up in a new clinic tomorrow.
-Ryan
Today was our first day working in the Clinic. The clinic is in a very poor part of town and it was eye opening seeing the conditions people live in. I was paired up with Heath and for the majority of the day we were fitting patients to wheelchairs. This required a lot of creativity, in the US we have such easy access to what we need however, here we have to use what we have because it will be another year until the clinic will be available again. The Peruvians here are so grateful to receive what we can give them even when it’s only a little. My favorite patient today was an older woman who we were able to give a new wheelchair. It was nothing special, just a standard one you would see in hospitals. She was so grateful to receive it that she went in the lobby and started showing it off doing small circles in front of the other workers. She lives in the area and spends her day witnessing to others while her brother helps push the wheelchair where needed. The roads are unkept with potholes, puddles, and trash everywhere making it difficult to navigate. She doesn’t let that stop her, her heart for reaching others was amazing. I am excited for what the rest of this week holds and I am so thankful to have the opportunity to serve here!
- Kristin
A Taste of Peru:
The meals they have cooked for us have been fabulous, and we’ve been introduced to some new foods. We’ve eaten two new fruits, granadilla and cherimoya, both are delicious. We have also been introduced to a soda called Inca Kola, which smells and tastes like bubble gum!
-Kala
After a few hours of rest, today was started with breakfast, followed with a devotional about the two healing hands that we hold here: the physical and the spiritual. While both hands are important, the spiritual hand comes first, with the physical hand being second in priority. Luckily, we are blessed with the ability to offer both hands.
This afternoon we had orientation and then got settled into our first clinic where we unloaded lots of equipment and met new friends, including therapists and translators. On our way back from the clinic we stopped by the ocean - what a view! Then we arrived back to the hotel, ate dinner, and had a debriefing.
Tomorrow is our first clinic day treating patients, so we ask that you pray for the patients coming into the clinic that they receive God’s grace through our hands. We pray for safe travels for all and perseverance throughout the week.
We all made it! As a small team of only 6, we came from 3 different states and different modes of transportation to get to this point. All journeys have seemed to be uneventful (in the good way), however the international flight had many surprising treats. With the typical pillow and blanket for a late and overnight flight, they also came by soon after takeoff offering hot towelettes to wipe the airplane grimy feel off our face. They later came by with menus for a hot dinner, and afterwards they had individual sized Ben & Jerry’s ice cream to hand out! When there was about an hour left of the flight, they came by again with warm cookies. It felt close to royalty. After a full day of travel and a late night, I think we are all looking forward to a restful morning before our adventure officially begins on Sunday afternoon with the commencement meeting. Thankful for everyone’s support and prayers for the week ahead!
