Annnnnd its back into the community, full speed ahead

Today felt like a productive day yet it still had its ups and downs. It was very difficult for me going from Zim to the community after being on such a high for a week in Zim, back into the realities of community, marks and presentations. But I feel that I am blessed and fortunate to have had a week of rejuvenation and passion building for this beautiful profession that we get to do every day. I am hoping that I can carry forth this passion into every aspect of the community because community is slowly creeping its way into my heart, I feel like it is something that I could do forever. It’s exciting. Today a group member confided in me about some group dynamic problems, but I think this is inevitable when you are working so closely with a group of people for so long. It gets difficult when 3 or 4 different people have opinions or the level of eagerness, passion and enthusiasm differs within a group. It can be difficult for everyone to come to an agreement, this is what I find so frustrating with groupwork but we are going to have to deal with group work for the rest of our lives working in MDT’s, working in places where we will be with the same people for years and years. I feel like this community block is teaching us so many skills not only as therapists for clients but to be almost “business” people dealing with emails, phonecalls, meetings and admin. It is difficult when all of this new world of OT is thrown at us in just a short space of 6 weeks but I truly believe being thrown in the deep end is sometimes the best way to learn. Today Thobi and and I were in the clinic with Meghan while Thandi and Chanelle completed the shopping for CDC. I am SO proud of my group because the way that the CDC project has been tackled is in a manner of empowering Nthombi and the teachers to do things for themselves, accessing the budget, going shopping with the students and every single step of the way in CDC has been in collaboration with Nthombi and the CDC’s. It is so great to see, and it was so special today as we started putting the stimulation corner together for the CP children, the excitement of Nthombi and the teachers as we all worked together to make it happen. It is amazing to see how just one corner of the crèche done up is already making it feel more like home. I cannot cannot wait to see the end result before we leave. After we leave, there will be more that needs to be done but because of the way Nthombi and the teachers have been a part of every transformational step, they will have the skills to do it for themselves. to have the courage and ability to access the budget, brainstorm ideas and implement them. And to me, that is what sustainability is all about! I love it, it excites me.