W.S.

This trip was my second time to W.S. this year.  I was there for about three weeks in March right before I came home for a visit.  I had a rough time during my last visit.  I moved up there right around the time when my nephew was born and internet was tough which meant that I didn't get to call Bill or my brother and sister-in-law very easily.  Then I found out that my grandpap was receiving hostice care.  It's really hard to be away from home during times like that.  During my time in China, this was the period when I was the most homesick.  Unfortunately, W.S. is the site (I feel) that has the most amount of opportunities for me to get involved in and I was struggling to keep myself focused.  I spent a lot of time walking and crying in the evenings after work, it was tough.  This was also the site that was the hardest in regards to the language barrier.  The team that I worked with are all local staff members with the exception of one person and she speaks fluent Chinese.  Also, they have a local dialect which I don't understand at all.  This meant that I really didn't understand anything that was happening ever and that I had a hard time communicating with everyone.  The women that I stayed with are AMAZING!  They never stop, they had people over almost every night and poured into so many people's lives.  I was so blessed to see their work.... it was just tough on me (I'm not complaining just explaining) because I didn't want to be rude so I hung out with everyone but didn't understand ANYTHING.  It's really tiring and lonely to be in that situation all day long.  All of this to say that I had a tough time last time I was there, but felt much better and got a lot accomplished this time.  Also, one of their staff members stepped up and said that she wanted to be committed to making a speech therapy program there which was really exciting!  It's tough to just give general tips to everyone (although its good to do that), I like to have at least one person to really pour into. 

This site has a therapy center which was providing physical therapy services and wanted to start speech therapy but hadn't yet.  They also go into the state run orphanage (Im planning to talk about the orphanage in a later post).  I spent my time in W.S. working with the new speech therapist and teaching her how to assess and provide treatment for the kids there.  I also worked on leaving some materials for them to use.  My heart is to not just focus on speech therapy, but also special education services.  None of these kids go to school so unless their parents or our center teach them academic skills, they won't get them.  I see a lot of kids that have average or close to average cognitive skills but don't have the academic skills that they should have because no one is teaching them anything.  I've also found that when we teach them these academic skills, it really impresses people (becasue they think of these kids as not being capable of learning) and changes the way that people (including their parents) view them.  I love when I'm either teaching kids or doing an assessment and we find that they are capable of things that people never expected.  Some of these kids are trapped in their bodies and just need someone to advocate for them/teach them how to advocate for themselves.  

I'm really hoping that the work that was done at the orphanage carries on, but I don't know :(   It is a trickier sitaution because there are less staff members who go to the orphanage so I wonder if the special education portion will be lost as it seems that the physical therapy takes priority :(   I'm hoping things will carry on and did all that I could to encourage.  Along with training the org. staff, I also shared  my ideas with some of the foreigners who also volunteer there hoping that between everyone, someone will teach the kids something.  I feel like my experience with the two older girls who are currently job training was a big eye opener.  The orphanage kids also don't go to school.... what's going to happen to them when they age out?  When you release kids with no skills its a disaster for eveyone.  I made a special education program (mostly math with some literacy components) that goes up to 2nd grade skills.  Right now the kids are not even at pre-school skills so it will take them a while to get them up to 2nd grade skills.  I think that this is important not only because of the skills that it will teach these kids but also the fact that it will make them learners, give us an opportunity to build up their self-esteem and resilency, give them respect that they deserve but aren't getting and teach them how to operate in a learning environment.  I won't get into the situation at the orphanage on this post but will say that they exhibit textbook orphanage behavior.  I did a poster presentation in grad school about institutionalized kids so I read a lot of the research... they acted exactly how the authors of the articles described.  Basically there is no structure in their day so they roam around doing nothing.  This leaves them with no abilty to participate in group activities, persevere or interact with peers.  It's sad and regardless of where they end up, they don't have the life skills that they need to be successful.  HATE IT : (  It was the most heartbreaking setting ever.  I cried on my way home EVERY time I went because you could see another aspect of sadness everyday.  Just when you thought that the world couldn't knock these kids down again, it did.  But... I pray for a miracle in the life of every kid there.  I pray for families to swoop in and give them their hearts desire... To feel loved.