Monday, February 7, 2011

Today was great.  This morning Kelsey and I went to Chikonde to observe the physical therapy done with the kids.  Once we got there Davie got the room set up.  Only one little boy was brought by his sister, so we worked with him and some other kids who attended school there and had special needs.  I worked with a little baby boy with Down syndrome.  He has enough muscle in his legs to be able to stand by himself but he is not walking yet.  I had him hold one end of the standing frame and pulled him around the room so he could work his leg muscles.  After about fifteen minutes he was exhausted and fell asleep on one of the mats.  The teacher explained to us that he has a hole in his heart, so he gets tired easily and sleeps a lot.  Then I felt bad for working him so hard, but I am sure he will be walking soon.

 Sitting frame

 Sitting frame

 Standing frame

Exhausted little boy.

Once the little guy was asleep, I read a book to a little girl.  She really enjoyed it, it was a big picture book and I was able to use it to teach her basic words like ‘box’ and ‘dog’ by pointing to the picture and then pointing to the word, sounding it out slowly.  She caught on fast, which was encouraging to me and really neat to see. 

After that we went back to the school.  I hung out with the kids, we sung “Father Abraham” and then I went with them out to P.E.  It was fun.  During that time, Kelsey went to town to get some things.  While she was out she got some fresh chicken, so had it for dinner.  We were going to barbeque it but it did not work so we ended up frying it instead.  Oh boy, was it delicious!  It was a heart attack on a bone, but it was SO good! 

In the evening Kelsey and I had a great conversation with Maribeth and have set up a tentative schedule for our project at the hospital.  We still have not heard if we are medically qualified here in Malawi, but we have decided to minister the children’s spiritual needs.  We both feel it is very important and we do not need any paperwork, certification, or authorization to pray with the kids!  If we hear later on that we are not medically qualified then we will just continue to address the children’s spiritual needs and if we find out that we are qualified, then great! We can add our medial skills to what we have already started.  So our tentative schedule, I call it tentative because so many things can change between now and when we start, is to go into the Pediatric wards four days a week, in the mornings and play and pray with the kids.  Then we will spend time with the parents.  The lunch hour is when the parents take a break from caring for their sick child and eat their lunch outside.  Our plan is to sit with them, read the Bible, pray and give them encouragement.  We are both really excited to start this project and hope we can start Monday!