Vida Diaria - Daily Life

It is amazing how, no matter where you are in the world, the one thing that enables any person to function and feel like they belong in a new environment, is to have a daily routine. Even though, at the moment, not a single day here is the same for me, the familiarity of the small parts of my day that have been consistent have kept me grounded and moving forward. So, I thought I would open a small window into my ‘vida diaria’ here on the Ranch at NPH Honduras.

En la Mañana (Morning)

A typical day begins with me waking up around 6am (with the sun, of course), trying to do some exercise (I managed to reinjure my ankle running– however that is now almost back to normal), have a cold shower (we only have access to cold water so I am learning to embrace the challenge of a daily cold shower) and then breakfast.

I usually start work at 7:30am and this is where the uncertainty and learning has been steepest. I work as part of a team consisting of two paid functional therapists, two new physio volunteers and a speech and language therapist. A functional therapist is a therapist who has basic training in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy done over only three years. While the two that are here work really hard, three years of training is not sufficient to be able to have the skills and clinical reasoning required for all 3 different areas of therapy. Both therapists have done an amazing job up until now but with such a large population of severely disabled, complex children and adults here on the ranch there is still so much to do. Three years ago, NPH took on a new group of children with disabilities after they were abandoned when a government facility shut down and so this has been an additional challenge.

My role as an occupational therapist here is still evolving and I am in the process of prioritizing and determining how I structure my week of therapy. Some of the children with disabilities are functioning at a really amazing level with an established routine and structure that enables them to be as independent as possible with the support they need. Some have been integrated into the other homes with the typically functioning children as well. While this is not at the same level of independence and quality of life as what I saw in Australia it is an amazing start. However, with others there is so much more work to be done to improve their independence and quality of life.

In addition to these homes with disabilities, there is a home with ‘abuelos’ (grandparents) and a baby with Down Syndrome and a toddler. So I am working in almost every home on the ranch in some capacity and I love the variety and challenges this brings. While I may be a new graduate with limited experience, my experience working in mental health for 10 months as well as my clinical placements at university have all given me such an amazing foundation on which to work from.

Because I am working in all the different homes, throughout the day I walk all over the ranch, racking up lots of steps. While I do have a room where we store our therapy resources and that I can potentially use for therapy, it is so far from everything that I have resorted to doing therapy in the homes and carrying all my resources around with me. My backpack is filled to capacity with any potential resources I can use and I end up using them in some capacity or another every day. I think a lot of people look at me very strangely when I whip out playdough, a multi-purpose tool or a bag of plastic animals for an assessment or activity. It has been such a nice challenge to be so creative with whatever I have.

The other day I was walking around with a cooking pot after one of the functional therapists asked for help widening leg splints – while I am not trained in leg splints, I do know how to deal with thermoplastic arm splints. So using that knowledge, we essentially cooked her thermoplastic splints in a pot of warm water and managed to widen them to stop the pain and bruising she was experiencing wearing them. Such a small thing overall but definitely a funny way to achieve the desired outcome!

A lot of what I am doing at the moment consists of small things I can help with such as the splints and foam seating or spending time in the homes getting to know the kids or adults, talking to the caregivers, observing what they currently are able to do and where they are experiencing challenges and doing small activities with them to build rapport and understand their cognitive functioning a bit more. From these observations, I am trying to write up evaluations – which is usually something I complete quickly. However, it is a new challenge to try and write these in Spanish. While time consuming, it has been another good opportunity to further improve my Spanish skills.

En la tarde (Afternoon)

After a long morning, lunch is served at 1pm everyday by the Ranch Kitchen. Lunch is our big meal of the day with it usually being rice and a meat and salad. We have an hour off before we are back to work until 4pm. 4-6pm is usually our time of rest back in our home (and a good time to phone home). From 6-8pm we do what is considered our ‘second’ job which is working in the homes with the children, helping the caregivers and hanging out with kids. For the last 3 weeks we have been rotating throughout the homes meeting all the kids and seeing what homes we would prefer to be allocated to. It was really special interacting with kids and sharing these evenings with them. While I have enjoyed seeing all the different homes, I am looking forward to having my own home. On Friday I was allocated my home for my stay here which I chose to be one of the homes with children with disabilities. While this may be very challenging at times, the caregivers need so much help in these homes and it is such a lovely opportunity to truly get to know and build relationships with these kids. And I also know it will really help me in my work as an OT as well.

El Fin de Semana (The weekend)

Every second weekend we spend the whole of our Saturday helping out in our home – this is our ‘working weekend’. While tiring after a full week of work it is also lovely to spend some quality time with kids. The alternate weekend is our weekend off where we are allowed to leave the ranch and go explore Honduras. Two weekends ago we spent the weekend in Tegucigalpa (the capital). While it was great to get away and explore new areas, with all the things we have to consider with COVID and personal safety it can be quite stressful – especially since we don’t know our way around yet. This past weekend I decided to stay on the ranch for my weekend off and relax, write this blog as well as go on a hike in the mountains of the ranch. Here are some pictures from these excursions.

Daily life here is keeping me really busy and is full of challenges but I am loving every moment of it. I feel carried by God in so many ways daily and really feel like I have arrived here at a time where the therapy roles are starting to become more important with so much potential for long term impact. Please can you continue to keep me in your prayers and reach out to me if there is anything I can be praying for you for.

God bless!