Here is the basic
overview of my time in China.
KMG Rehab Center
I arrived in KMG
around midnight on Tuesday June 30th. I slept a couple of hours (jet lag is the
worst) and then went into the rehab center where I did speech/language
evaluations and training for the next week.
The evening of July 1st I went out to meet with a family from
the States whose preschooler I worked with last year. This family adopted a little girl from China
who had a cleft lip and palate. She has
had the needed surgeries but didn’t have them until she was two years old and
needs speech therapy. I worked with her
last year and also skyped with the family a little bit when I came home and
sent them practice materials online.
They ended up finding a speech therapist from the States who lives close
to them and agreed to work with her. I
brought some materials from home for them to practice with and also wanted to
catch up. It was great to see them and
also hear her speak… I can understand her much better than at the beginning of
last year! My time at the clinic went
well. A week is not a lot of time so it
was rushed but hopefully I’ll be able to support people from afar. The rehab center in KMG consisted of mostly
kids with cerebral palsy. China is just
beginning to recognize the need for rehabilitation so there are not a lot of
people who are truly training in therapy.
The clinic has a young lady who was trained by a physical therapist from
the states who lived in China for about 2.5 years and comes back in the
summers. They don’t currently have a
speech therapist (they had one who recently left) or an occupational
therapist. I worked with the rehab
director who is going to take on the responsibilities of a speech therapist. While I was there, I evaluated the kids and
adults that they identified as needed services, wrote up a very basic treatment
plan and showed the rehab director how to do the therapy. This clinic is difficult because they tend to
have people with pretty complex need.
The speech and language needs of children with cerebral palsy are
complex and then they also had two adults who suffered from strokes and two
children with hearing loss. I would love
it if the organization could get their hands on an audiologist. There are a lot of kids with hearing loss and
it seems to me that there are not adequate hearing services. There is one kid who is definitely Deaf and
the doctors in China put hearing aides on her.
They obviously aren’t working and I fear that the family was charged a
good bit of money for something that didn’t work. They are talking about doing cochlear
implants, but my experience is that the surgery is conducted without
appropriate counseling of the parents and no follow-up or therapy. I can’t even imagine how much the surgery
cost without the help of medical insurance and it’s a shame that it doesn’t
seem to work the way that it should. I
was also happy to meet one of the new staff members that has come to China
(from the States) since I left last year.
She has her undergraduate in speech therapy and masters in early
childhood/special education (I think).
It was nice to talk to her and I think that I’ll be able to provide her
with resources from home. It can be hard
to communication with the local staff from home because of the language
barrier. Especially when you are wanting
to send resources that have a large amount of technical jargon in them. I’m hoping that this new staff member will
make for easier collaboration.
Over the weekend,
I got to have breakfast with the women who I lived with last year. I absolutely love her and it was nice to
catch-up with each other! April and I
also went exploring, which was fun.
WS Rehab Center
Next April and I
took a car to W.S. I LOVE W.S! I love the way that, despite a pretty tough
language barrier, I feel like I’m a part of their team : ) This
is my third year there and it was nice just to catch-up with everyone. I’ve worked with one of the therapist for the
past three years and it’s been really cool to watch her go through life’s
stages… the first year I was there she was single and living with a group of
girls, the second year she was married and this year she has a beautiful baby
girl! The team remembered that I was
getting married soon after I came home last year and they were interested to
hear about the married life… there were also lots of jokes about me bringing my
baby next year J. One thing that I really enjoyed this year was
just getting to hangout with the team. I
felt a lot of pressure to get a lot done last year and I feel like I may have
prioritized the task at hand over the people around me. This year I only had one week which was
frustrating but also allowed me to do what I had time for but also fellowship
with the team. We played Ultimate
Frisbee one evening, had dinner with some of the team members and I also went
to their weekend meeting. It was
interesting to sing songs in Chinese (April was a great friend and she translated
the gist of the song), play games and listen to a teaching with the team. This year, W.S. has a new team member. Her name is Whitney and she is a special
education teacher from the States (kind of, she’s lived all over the world). Whitney is planning to be in China for three
years and so we decided that I would talk to her about the long-term speech
goals of the center (we focused on the children with autism) and I am hoping to
give her ideas that she can slowly teach to the team. I also had the opportunity to meet up with one
of the foreign families (who I met last time as well) and talk to them about
their foster child. He has autism and
has no speech. We discussed the concept
of him using some pictures to communicate and I’m sending them some materials
on how to start implementing that.
We also went to
the orphanage. The orphanage is a tough
place to visit. Last year, I went there
a ton and I cried every time I came home.
I waited for a day when I would be numb to the situation, but it never
came. I guess there are things that it’s
best we not become numb to. I will say
that its nice to go the same location over a course of a couple of years
because you get to see God working even though there is still a lot of
brokenness. I’ll take you through the
last three years. On year one the orphanage
was not eligible for international adoptions.
The local Chinese are beginning to adopt more than in the past (praise
God), but they tend to not adopt special needs kids which I have heard is about
90% of the kids of the kids in Chinese orphanages. Since most of these kids are special needs
kids, it seemed that they were never going to get out. Year two: the orphanage had just begun to
allow international adoptions and their first child was being adopted by a
family in the States : ) Year three
(this year): the orphanage started allowing one of the foreign families to
foster children who were at risk for not making it and also ones who are close
to being adopted. This family has a
child with cleft lip/palate-these babies tend to not make it in orphanages
because they are difficult to feed and they end up starving. They also are fostering four other kids, one
of which is being adopted soon! Their
foster child with autism was from a different orphanage and was severely abused
and it’s redeeming to see him with a loving family. Despite all of this, it’s still tough to go
to the orphanage… there are still so many kids that need homes and the
environment is pretty bleak.
That basically
sums up my trip. I’ve been asked the
question by others, and have also asked myself… what next? I don’t really know. I’ll admit that I was worried about going to
China for a short trip because of the emotional drain of coming home. There’s a lot of need in China and it always breaks
my heart a little to leave there and not be able to offer what little help I
can. But, I remind myself over and over
and over again that there’s also need here, it’s just different. I continue to pray for clarity on what’s next
for Bill and I and trust that answers will come in the right timing. That’s all!
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