Back in the US

Sadly, our trip is over, but we are so thankful for the time we spent in Peru. God did some amazing work down there and we were blessed to be a part of it. Every single person that we met down there has touched our lives, the patients and their families, the students and teachers at the blind school, the Herrera household (where we lived for 2 weeks), the amazing interpreters, and every beautiful member of the mission team.

First week mission team

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Some of our awesome translators

The container of equipment did finally arrive! Unfortunately it was not until 10:30 on Thursday night, while the three of us were sitting in the Lima airport. The rest of the team that was still in Arequipa unloaded the 40 foot container in 47 minutes. And on Friday the began to hand out some equipment to patients we had seen earlier in the project. So praise the Lord for that! One of the team members is actually living in Arequipa for the next 2 years trying to start a permenant clinic at the Nuestra Senora del Pilar (the blind school where we were set up). She will be handing out the equipment now that the project is over, so everyone will get what they came to recieve. Please pray for Jodee as she sets up this permenant clinic and sees the many patients that are receiving equipment.

The truck! (got these sent from people still in Peru)

New Equipment!

Thank you all for your supports and prayers throughout this mission project. We could not have had this experience without the support of our loved ones. You have all played a special part in this trip and we appreciate everything. Please continue to pray for all of those that we met in Arequipa, as they are now an important part of our lives.

THANK YOU!!!

It's Coming Tomorrow (we think)!!

WOW, this week has been so busy on the adult PT side.  Monday I saw 8 patients, Tuesday 6 and today 9!!  It is true that God gives you strength to persevere through the though times.  There have been lines of patients waiting to get seen all week.  Today, there were women that were changing the order of papers so they could be seen faster.  Every patient comes in with such different situations.  A patient I had on Tuesday was diagnosed with MS 3 year ago.  She came in to the clinic in a wheelchair unable to move or talk and she had so much tone she was unable to lay supine without crying because of the pain she was having.  He husband brought her into the clinic and he was so sweet.  She is totally dependent on him in ALL of her daily activities.  The love and encouragement in his eyes almost moved me to tears during the session.  He was so involved in the treatment and we were teaching him positioning and different stretches to do at home.  Please be praying for this family and women for health and strength. 

Another patient that day was an older 5 foot nothing lady coming in because of back pain.  This women solely taught me the lesson of strength and perseverance.  She seemed to have some other problems then just musculoskelatal issues but we just treated the pain and told her to come back to receive a new cane when the shipment arrives.  It is really hard to paint a picture of the patients we see via blog.  I know I keep saying that I am just awe struck by the strength of the people in Peru and the determination they have in life to keep moving. 

One last patient I want to mention was a man who suffered a stroke 10 years ago.  My first impression of him was that he visablily looked like he was doing really well.  He was smiling and talking to the man who brought him to the clinic.  But after asking a few question I soon realize the there was deep pain in his life.  He lives alone in a rented room because he lost everything he had when he had the stroke.  He lays in bed all day and in the morning, afternoon and night his wife comes to visit and brings him food.  For me, it was hard to understand why his wife only visits him and he never has visitors.  So I made it my personal goal to do whatever I could to brighten this mans day.  He was very responsive to all of the exercises that we were giving him and I even thought of some different adaptive ideas he could use to make his exercises specific for him.  After the session, Tim, one of the PTs, was taking measurements to fit him into a new wheelchair and we sparked up a conversation about music.  It turns out that he used to be quite the singer and he loves Frank Sinatra.  He left the session teaching me a new song and giving me his card to send him a postcard.  I know I said it before but all it takes is a smile or a friendly hello to make all the difference in someones life, even if you do not know the impact that you are making. 

On a happy note, we think that the container of equipment should be here tomorrow afternoon. So we may actually see the stuff we packed before we fly out!

Tonight at the house was out final dinner with everyone :-(.  It is going to be really hard leaving here tomorrow.  Everyone has been so nice and we all have gotten to close.  We had our MMI talent show tonight.  The acts ranged from a rap made up to the fresh prince theme song to the top 10 things of the MMI PT Peru Mission of 2010 complete with Skyped in guests. The 3 of us did head, shoulders, knees and toes in spanish... but not actually well.  Pray for everyones safe travels over the next few days as some of us are traveling home and some are traveling to go sight seeing around the country. 

Tuesday, Another Busy Day

Today was another very busy day at the clinic!  I saw 9 patients today with a variety of problems.  Many are still coming in with overall joint pain probably due to arthritic changes in their joints...So I teach them some strengthening and stretching exercises and send them on their way.  Today I saw the sweetest little old lady.  She was in with her husband (who was blind) and snuck into a PT spot. She was pretty old and had bad posture which was making her back  and neck hurt.  I helped her neck by stretching it and massaging the tight muscles.  I also did a few exercises with her... She thought it was the best thing in the world.  She said I was beautiful and that when I came back to Peru next time she was going to bring me a present.  She also said that when I was giving her manual traction that I took her bad energy and that I should be tired from it!   So cute and so sweet, she really made me smile. 

Later, I had another patient that was a older male.  He had a mining accident 20 years ago and suffered a pretty severe brain surgery and half of his body was weak.  He was confused and only knew his name (not where he was or how old he is).  He was using an old walker and had a tiny little wife that came in with him.  They live in a one room house with a tin roof.  We fixed him up with a new walker that we happened to have left from the last project and tried improving his ambulation.  He tires quickly and had a hard time following directions.  We couldn't give him a wheelchair, but without the shipment here, it was impossible.  We gave his wife a few exercises to do with him, but she can't read and couldn't read the exercise sheet.  I almost cried.  

Overall, many of these patients have touched me just as much or more than I have touched their lives.  Please continue to pray for the people that we get to work with down here.  They are really great, amazing people that are full of love.  I have been repeatedly blessed with getting the chance to know a little bit about them and their lives here in Peru.  Thank you for the support!  Please continue to pray about our shipment, we are getting scared that after all this work we may not even get to fit these devices with the people that need them so badly.  Tomorrow is the day!!  I can feel it.  Pray hard!  God can work miracles!  Thanks:)

Sharaya

Ps.  Tonight after clinic we went into the downtown and walked through a couple beautiful catholic churches and a convent.  This convent was amazingly beautiful, and I'm now thinking of a life as a nun:) hehe.

 

Week 2 Begins

We have started the second week in the clinic. Luckily both Nicole and I felt a whole lot better this morning. Although many others on the mission team have also had the same sickness and have become sick today. We must be passing around a virus throughout the team. So please pray for all of our sick ones (and that Sharaya can be one of the few spared...) Today the clinic was not as crazy as the past week, having 10 cancellations. The equipment has still not come in, so many patients just aren't coming because they have heard there is not equipment. Hopefully it will be coming n the next few days. We lost 7 team members back to the States over the weekend, and miss them greatly. But we gained 3 new members, 2 of which Sharaya and I got to work with today. They are a great addition and will add a lot to our second week here. We had a very relaxed night tonight, playing cards with a few of the interpreters all night after dinner. A game called golpe (I could be wrong in the spelling... considering I keep calling it guapo which means handsome in spanish...). It is pretty much gin rummy with a few different rules. Very fun game, altough Franko (the birthday boy) kept winning because Sharaya gave him all the right cards!! Tomorrow we are planning on going to the Monestary directly after the clinic because we hear it is an amazing experience. Then more shopping before we leave on Thursday! We don't have any specific stories from the clinic today, but I would like to share some pictures with you of the children that have blessed my day!

This is Anthony, the happiest kid I have ever met. He does not speak much, but you know what he is trying to tell you. And he just loves to push himself around in his wheel chair, although he doesn't like to use his left hand! He was very fun to play with, laughing at everything I did, even though I do not speak Spanish very well...

Luis Sebastian got fitted for a new wheelchair today! A brand new one that was left over from last year, and we finally got to give it away. Laura was my PT buddy for the day, along with Franko the interpreter/engineer (and birthday boy!). He put together most of the chair, it helps that he has been an interpreter on many MMI PT projects in Arequipa (so he has seen many chairs put together), and is an engineer major the the university. Sebastian was also a very happy and smiling boy, however not apparent in this picture. But his smile definitely brightened the day!

Ana Maria was a victim of typhoid fever as a baby causing left hemiparesis. She just loved playing with all of her therapists, chasing the ball, blowing bubbles, playing with animals, and for some reason crawling between my legs. She has about a 1 inch leg length descrepency, and we made a lift on her shoe by super-glueing a Spiderman flip flop onto the bottom of the new shoes we gave her. It is amazing the amount of crativityyou can find with limited supplies. But the creation gave her a much better gait and less pain, so praise that! She was so excited when we asked to take her picture, her mother just kept repeating how beautiful we all were. What a wonderful compliment!

Colca Canyon

This weekend we travelled to Colca and saw some beautiful sights. On the bus ride there, we made stops on the side of the road to see animals, the highest point (15,000 ft), and just beautiful overlook views. Saturday night we went to the Hot Springs and soaked in some nice warm mineral water. We then ate dinner at a restaurant with folk singing and dancing. Sunday we made the drive up to the Colca Canyon and were amazed at God's beautiful creation. We made many stops for the multiple views, the last one including the Condors that fly right in front of you. It was a great experience to see the beauty of this land, even though Nicole and Emily were very sick Sunday. Please pray for our health! Our blog today will be pictures of our weekend happenings, even though the pictures don't portray the amazing beauty that we saw.

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Colca Canyon

photo opportunity on the ride to Colca Valley

Baby Alpaca

Road side stop

Hot springs

Colca Canyon

Hanging Tombs

Condor

LLama crossing

Lunch stop

Dinner

First Week at the Clinic Completed

It is hard to believe that the first week at the clinic is over.  It feels like we just walked off the plane at the Arequipa airport yesterday.  During the past week, I had the privilege to treat patients of varying aliments from low back pain to cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus.  It has been very moving treating patients that do not have the same access to health and medical equipment we have back in the states.  The gratitude and value that they put into something as small as a home exercise program to a wheeled walker amazes me.  I found that it is very easy to take for granted the ease of access to state of the art equipment we have back home but this trip has given me a new outlook on the importance of paying it forward.  It maybe something as small as a single point cane in the corner of the basement that could be the difference in someones life to allow them the ability to leave their home. 

Me with my geri friends

I have had many moving experiences with patients and their stories over the last week.  The two that really stick out to me are about an older women and a 14 year old girl.  The older women was diagnosed with CP when she was younger.  She came to us because her wheelchair she currently uses is rented and she needs to return the chair at the end of the month.  To get to the clinic that day she had to go to a police officer to stop the bus in order to get on it.  She folded her wheelchair up and climbed onto the bus, she never explained to me how she got off the bus but I am sure that it was challenging.  The strength that I saw in her eyes during the session led me to make sure that I do whatever I can to get her a chair within the next month. 
The 14 year old girl was diagnosed with brain cancer and a few months ago had surgery for hydrocephalus.  Before the surgery she was unable to walk.  Now she walked, with moderate help from her mom, into the clinic that day.  She was full of smiles the entire session and by the end, after she was fitted with SMOs and a walker, she was walking independently. 

After the passing of each day, I look back and realize that it is not about the newest or the most expensive treatments.  It is about the quality of care and most of the time it is about the little things in life. 

Just  a few other tid bits about my week: 

-I evaluated and treated my first ever pediatrics patients.  I felt like a deer in headlights the entire time but managed to get through it and now have a great appreciation for pediatric therapists. 

- I am becoming very efficient at treating low back pain because 6 out of the 12 patients I have evaluated complained of gross LBP. 

All three of us made it through the first week without getting sick, continue praying for us.  This weekend we have the opportunity to travel to Colca Canyon.  Colca Canyon is deeper then the grand canyon back in the states and it also is full of condors, google it. 

We hope to return with lots of fun stories about our weekend on Sunday.  God bless and continue praying for safety of the team members and patients and the equipment because it still has not arrived. 

Blog de Jueves

Today was another amazing day at the clinic.  We had a very busy day with the adults.  Me and the Amy (the PT I was working with today) saw 8 patients... that wouldn't be too much in the states, but here it's a ton!  I did half of the evals today (putting me at about 9 patients that I was in charge of so far this week) and I'm getting much better!  My mind had lost much of my PT knowledge in the past couple weeks of being off school, but it's slowly coming back!  (good thing since I start clinic the first couple days of being back in the states!)  I've had some amazing patients... They are all so thankful for anything that you can do for them.  They have such tough lives that we can't even relate to.  It's such a different world down here... A couple of our patients this week we really couldn't help with our PT knowledge and it is so hard to tell them "Sorry, there's nothing we can do."  On the other hand, it's still so amazing to see how much patients can improve in just an hour and a half session with us. It's also great to connect with my patients. Today, two of the patients that I have worked with during this past week came back to find me.  One lady brought me and Amy pears.  The other was the lady that tried setting me up with her doctor son that lives in miami.  She gave me and Christina whistles which is pretty cool.  It really is amazing how these people are so willing to give when they don't have much.  I need to take lessons from them... 
  We still haven't recieved our equipment.  Please continue to pray about it getting delivered.  It's so hard to work without having the assistive devices that our patients really need.  We keep asking them to come back next week, so hopefully it will get ok'd by the head honcho in lima asap.  Thank you for all your support!  I really love working with these patients and the local people that help us interpret everyday.  I've also gotten to be close with a couple of the PT's that we work with, and it's been so great getting to know them!  It's been a blessing to have such a great experience so far.  Continue to pray for our safety, for the patients that we see every day, for the future of this mission here in Peru, and for the shipping container to arrive soon.    Thank you!
Sharaya

Ps.  Food has been delicious.  Also, no sign of parasites in me, Nicole, or Em. Yay!

Directing the patient, with translator Beth close by

Pray for my patients, por favor

vorToday I had a few patients that could really use some extra prayers. My first patient was an 18 year old boy that has CP. He does not have the ability to walk and had to be carried in by a man that works at the institution he attends. Even though he doesn't speak, Sebastian was able to communicate very well. He was very attracted to me and the PT I was working with, making signs for "chicas bonitas", and wanting us to "feed him." He had a great personality, and allowed us to do all kinds of exercises. We played catch, and he was muy fuerte, throwing the ball way past me multiple times. The sad part was that we currently have no wheelchairs at all, so we had to send him home without a new form of mobilty. So please keep praying that we get our shipment released tomorrow, and that Sebastian has the ability to return next week so that I can get him a fancy new wheelchair! The visit was not a bust, he did leave with 2 AFOs to position his feet more neutral, knee immobilizers to help straighten his legs and assist with standing, and a hand splint to keep his palm from being cut and dirty.

Me and Sebastian

My second patient was a 10 year old girl with osteosarcoma. She was diagnosed in December and had her right leg amputated (the whole femur and below) in April. However, her family has not told her that she has cancer, because they do not want her to be upset by this. Her mother told us she is a very happy girl and doesn't even complain about the amputation. We had to go in private to talk to the mom about her condition because of Valeria's lack of knowledge of the situation. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy once a week because they discovered more cancerous lesions in her hips, spine and shoulders. With osteosarcoma, too much pressure on the bones could cause damage, so we had to be extra careful with the exercises we provided. Valeria is about my size, and does not have the means for a wheelchair. Her mother is not much bigger than her, and had to carry her into the clinic herself. We were able to provide her with a walker (and many stickers and a cool I-Carly bag to decorate it with) that she did very well using. This will at least give her more independence to move around the house, go to the bathroom, and have general mobility even if she won't have the stamina to use it out in the community. Again, we are praying for a wheelchair and her return to provide more mobility and less stress on her mother. Also please just pray for her condition and family. This type of cancer is treacherous, and with the amount of lesions she has it is going to take everything to beat it. Her mother was very shaken by the situation, so please pray for her as well, as she struggles with taking care of her beautiful daughter.

Me, Valeria, and Marisa (my PT buddy)

Thank you all for reading, for your prayers, and for your support throughout this whole project. We miss you all and love what we are doing down here! God bless!

Devil, Get out of our equipment!

This was day 2 in the clinic, and our equipment is still being held at the port in Lima. (hence the title, an experience of Sharaya's in Jamaica) Please keep praying that the equipment will be released to us quickly! It has been very difficult because over half of the patients we see need some kind of wheelchair, walker or other assistive device and we are currently unable to fill those needs. These patients are told to come back next week, hoping that the equipment will be in, however we will be without many therapists that are only staying one week. So please just keep praying so that these patients' needs can be met, and that we will be able to handle a double patient load next week!
On a happier note, we had a great day today! Emily moved over to Pediatrics, however Nicole saw 2 kids in the adult area, performing her first (and last) pediatric evaluation. Sharaya got to work with a patient with facial paralysis. In pediatrics, Emily saw many kids with neurological disorders, only one that had walking capabilities. She also met another Emily, who was so excited that they shared a name and loved her new pink wheelchair! One of Nicole's patients could not walk in without her mother's full assistance, and was able to walk out with a walker with her mom just watching from behind. Those are the blessing we love to see, and the strength of these patients touch all of us.
Tonight we went into the city of Arequipa to do some shopping. We had a great time, and we were impressed by the great prices in the market... diez soles! The plaza is beautiful at night, and the company made it even better. Our mission team is full of amazing individuals that we are blessed to have met and look forward to more time together. Enjoy the pictures!

Emily and Emily!

Nicole giving a patient new mobility

Sharaya with hand drawn home exercises

In the plaza

Clinica Day 1

Today was our first day in the clinic. It was an early start, 5:55 wake up call (although Peru is one hour behind PA). We walked to the clinic to get ready for the day. There are many stray dogs here in Arequipa, astonishingly they are not mutts, but weiner dogs, cocker spaniels, yellow labs and others that are our most common family pets. The clinic is at a local blind school, where we set up three treatment areas, Adult PT, Pediatric PT, and Occupational Therapy. There was a variety of patients, ranging from infants to 96 years old. All three of us were paired with the physical therapists in the Adult PT area. It was amazing to see the gratitude that all the patients showed for our service. Some were even brought to tears because they felt that our service to them was such a blessing. It is remarkable how a cane or a wheelchair that is otherwise unaffordable, can change an entire family's life. We had to speak to the patients through an interprteter, but still managed to create positive patient-therapist relationships. Overall, we had a successful day practicing our PT skills, all of us having an oppurtunity to do independent evaluations with the supervision of our PT partner. Besides the work, we had some fun/interesting moments from the day. Sharaya may have a future in Miami, as one of the patients offered to set her up with her son, a student of Internal Medicine in Miami. Sounds goos... keep your options open Sharaya! Nicole apparently looks like a 35 year old to Peruvians, they think you get taller as you age. However, she did get the one English line from any patient today, being told "I love you" in perfect English. Unknowingly, Emily became bilingual overnight.... After losing the interpreter, she had do continue answering questions for her patient, and luckily succeeded in this communication. Here are some pictures from today's activity. Feel free to ask us questions if you are interested. We are looking forward to a week full of helping others and having our lives touched by these unlikely disciples. Dios se bendiga!!

<>Nicole intensely teaching a lovely lady

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Sharaya with her talkative male friend

Emily using some Spanish "Fuerte!"

With our PT buddies for the day, Amy, Christina, and Theresa

Feliz dia de Arequipa

Today is the 470th anniversary of Arequpia’s Independence from Spain. Today’s breakfast was taquitos and avocado cream dip and it was delicious. After breakfast we traveled to a Peruvian Protestant church, Iglesia Refugia, located on top of a delicious coffe shop, Cafe Berea (yay BW) . The service was very similar to an American service. We opened with songs of worship and then the pastor preached. The biggest difference was that it was all in Spanish but at the end we sang Open the Eyes of my Heart, in which we were very happy when we all recognized it. Emily’s youth group will be learning this song in Spanish, so be prepared!

Spanish song book

After church we walked back to the Plaza, which is the historic center of Arequipa, where we reserved roof top seats to watch the holiday parade. During the parade there were many traditional folk dancing groups from Arequipa, Peru and many other surrounding countries. The parade also had many American characters marching, including Pooh, Garfield, Popeye, and Michael Jackson (single white glove, moonwalk and all). We were informed that the parade lasts 7 hours but we did not stay for the entire thing. The big adventure began when trying to leave through the crowds. This was not just any crowd, this was similar to pushing through any NFL offensive line. Emily had a child’s behind in her face as she was being pushed forward and Sharaya and I just kept pushing forward. We ended up making it out alive with all of our stuff. On the way back to the house, all 23 members of the trip squeezed into a 12 person van, it was a real bonding moment. Tonight we will be having our first meeting to discuss our next few weeks here and the food smells fishy but delicious.

Peruvian dancers

Currently, we are writing this post from the rooftop of where we are staying. We have a 360 degree view of the beautiful city of Arequipa, a backdrop of beautiful snowcapped volcanoes and mountains. The weather an ideal 70 and sunny.

Sharaya and Nicole writing on the roof

Welcome to Arequipa!

Arequipa's airport

We have arrived safely in our final destination. The travels went smoothly with some very big blessings along the way. Our flight from Miami to Lima took off pretty late, landing us in Peru only 45 minutes before our connecting flight to Arequipa was to take off. We were blessed that our bags were already off of the conveyor belt after going through immigration. Then Sharaya got the red light to be randomly searched, but the customs officer did not see it and she walked through safely. Then we only had 30 minutes to check-in with our new airline and re-check our bags. Luckily we had a very gracious check-in lady that ran us through the airport and to our gate with 10 minutes to spare. She was definitely a God send.

Our accomodations are beautiful! The three of us are sharing a room with our own bathrooms and comfortable beds. Although Sharaya did not get the memo that we had to bring towels, so she will need to drip dry for the 2 weeks!! The lovely live-in help cooked the three of us breakfast, homemade bread and scrambled eggs, which was delicious. Later today we will be setting up the clinic because tomorrow is Arequipa's foundation day. Therefore tomorrow after church we get to watch an original Peru parade, which we are very excited for. Clinic work starts Monday, but customs has still not released our supplies that have been sitting in the port for 3 months now. Please pray that we will get them ASAP! Right now it looks like Wednesday may be the day for the release, so for a few days we will be using the equipment that has been left over from last year. But we will still treat as many patients as possible. Thank you for your support!

Background Info

It is a week before we arrive in Peru, and we are all extremely excited for our trip! We decided to do a blog so that our friends and family and all those supporting us can follow our experience. Thank you to everyone that has supported us, in every way. And please keep the prayers coming! We leave Friday August 13th at 7pm, so please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
For anyone that does not know about our project, here is some information. We just finished our 2nd year of grad school for physical therapy. We have a class called Professional Exploration in which we develop a 40 hour project in an area we would like to do in the future. Our interest was in service learning, using our physical therapy skills to serve others and God. We decided a medical mission trip would fit our passion. After searching for medical missions online we came in contact with Medical Ministry International, who had a mission trip specifically for physical therapy work. MMI's mission is to serve Jesus Christ by providing spiritual and physical health care to those in need around the world.
We will be travelling to Arequipa, Peru, the second largest city in Peru. We will be working with people living in "pueblos jovenes," permanent squatter communities that completelyring the city. In these communities health care is substandard and not universally available so many must resort to traditional remedies and not medical treatment. We will be setting up clinics at local schools, orphanages and churches to supply physical therapy services and share Christ with patients in need.

In the winter we collected supplies (a van and truck full!) that we took to the MMI wearhouse in April to be shipped on a carrier to Peru in May for us to use on the trip. These are a few pictures from that experience.

That is all I have for now. Please feel free to ask any questions you may have. Thank you all for your support and kindness as we embark on our journey to Peru. We really appreciate all that has been done for us, and love having a prayerful community behind us! Enjoy the future posts.

Thank you,

Emily