All coming together

Cannot believe we are almost done with community. This whole experience has been something else, something I have never experienced before. It has taught me about what we as OT’s can do, how we are advocates for our clients, how we are advocates for the disabled. How we can be the voice to those who do not have a voice, or who think they do not have a voice. It has been an experience of learning to work with so many different people, my patience being tested to the absolute limit. I feel that having a one week break from community to go to Zim, was the best thing that could have happened to me. In the first two weeks of community, I felt so overwhelmed in being 4 students in this magnitude of community, filling the shoes of three blocks before us. It is something that I have learnt about myself this year, I always compare myself and freak myself out at the impending doom of the end result. Like how am I going to get ther? How am I going to be able to do what other people have achieved already. I need to learn that my experience is not going to be the same as someone else’s. It has happened to me in every single block except paeds, because that was my first block. I had no-one to compare myself to. And I achieved in that block. I loved every minute of it. Shows me something doesn’t it? I think I needed to learn these lessons for my years to come as an OT. That I need to invent myself, and not try and be someone else or try fill the shoes of other people but rather create my own path. I know that I have the passion and ability to do well. I just need that faith in myself. And again, another lesson hard learnt- I cannot do anything in my own strength. Praying for strength and peace that surpasses all understanding allowed for the ever resounding message that I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. How do we do anything without Him? So it’s been a 6 week learning period. It has been tough and challenging, but so exciting at the same time. I mentioned in one of my first blogs that I am so scared of not doing a lot in the community, or feeling like we are getting nowhere and I also said I know that in 6 weeks time we will look back and be like, wow- we really did do a lot. And today was one of those days. And even though we got verbal recognition for the amount we have achieved from various sources, we didn’t even need the verbal recognition from others to know that we have done well and that we have done a lot. And even small things that will go unnoticed means a lot to us, and its not only about the marks at this point, it’s a feeling of satisfaction knowing the things we have achieved. Today the OT’s from a special school came to see the crèche we had been working at, and like I said their praise was well received by our group, and it felt like all the tears and frustration of this block was worth it. Today I felt like an OT. Which is a great feeling! Today was also a day of mixed emotions... a young student at the day care passed away. The teachers heard today, and the tears and heartbreak was awful. A young life taken too soon. You could feel the change in the atmosphere at the day care almost immediately. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why these things happen; I had a good friend pass away 2 years ago at the young age of just 20. It still hurts today. And I will never understand. Today I was taken back to that hurt that I felt two years ago. I prayed a prayer once, and it changed my life forever. I prayed, break my heart for what breaks yours. It is in a worship song and I made it my own. It was a hard prayer to pray, as my heart hurts so easily for others as I feel the Father’s love for others. And I know it is a pin prick of the feeling He has compared to what I am feeling, for nothing can compare to His love. This news wasn’t easy for those in the day care. It was a hard day. And the day didn’t get any better after that when one of the other girls in the day care fell off her chair off the stage hitting her head against the cot. She didn’t hit it hard but she definitely had a huge fright. I saw it happen. I was so proud of my community group, The Awesome Foursome as we were calm and collected. It was sad when none of the teachers responded to the situation as we would have expected. But my group was amazing, two consoled her, as one checked that she wasn’t injured as one went to get sugar water to relieve the shock that she had experienced. We knew exactly what to do and we worked like a well oiled machine. Testament to how far we have come as a group. You truly do become like family when you spend so much time together. We drive each other crazy but I love this group. So today was a day of mixed emotions, followed by some deep thinking and reflections.

CDC Casual day

What a brilliant day! What we thought would be a chilled day at the crèche for casual day turned out to be so much more than that. We decided that we would do something at the crèche for Casual Day. Casual day holds a very special place in my heart as last year for Casual Day we were at a drug rehab centre and we had such a great day dressing up and enjoying the day singing dancing and showing off everyone’s talents in our talent show. This year, I just knew we had to do something! We decided on a photobooth where the children could dress up, have their photos taken and the principal offered to bring snacks and juice. Not knowing what to expect on this day, everyone just “came to the party” and we had such a great day! The principal is one of the most amazing people I have ever met, the love and care that she has for those children and her gratitude towards us is so great. This Casual Day thing is basically an awareness day and day of support for those with disabilities. And how on earth were we to explain this to these children, who they themselves have disabilities? How were we to explain that today was a day for them where people are celebrating those with disabilities and that even though they may be disabled, that they need to know that they are just “differently abled’, and not “disabled”. Chanelle came up with a beautiful idea of reading a story about a duck who was different to the rest, he could not walk, eat by himself or fly. And this story spoke of how his friends and family did everything they could to help him, by making assistive devices for this little duck so that he could learn to do some things by himself. It was such a beautiful story and I think it was perfect for this day as we explained how special this duck was even though he was not like the rest. I feel it was well received by some of the children, those who could concentrate for the duration of the story, they even answered questions afterwards. It was a beautiful site to see, these children sitting together listening to this story. Thereafter, we did the photobooth. And what fun it was! The principal was incredible and dressed up soem of the children with funky clothes and make up and we had tons of props and colours and fun items to wear. The children loved it as they all posed for their photos and came running to see what the photo looked like. Everyone was involved, the teachers, the differently abled children, the principal, the students and the students’ supervisor. We then played a game of bean bag races and settled down to the a meal. This meal came as a surprise to the students as Nthombi had offered to get snacks and juice but she went all out. She got hot dogs, nik naks and juice for all the children and a beautifully prepared meal of Shisanyama (braaied meat), rolls and a tomato and onion mix as well as coke and fanta. It was so unexpected, which made it so special. I love that in our profession, we get to come across people that will surprise us. Whether it be in good ways or bad ways, but bottom line is, we will never just be those ordinary professionsals, we are exposed to so much and today we were surprised by the generosity of this crèche, and at the same time, for the absolute gratitude and appreciation of us. It worked both ways, and in my eyes, that is what community is. working together with the community, for the community. Coming together as outsiders, invited into this circle of trust that is community, and working together for the greater good of the people that are inside that community. Today was one of my favourite days, sharing in laughter happiness and a beautiful meal. Today felt like community. In church, they always speak of community,a nd how we should all be a community of Christians inviting those who don’t believe inside this community, and even though today was not about church/Christianity, I have never felt community like I did today. A community of peace, love and acceptance between students, the differently abled and a passionate principal and our supervisor.

Reflections

I read a powerpoint on blogging and I have been challenged ever since. I always thought I had this blogging thing down, and is there really a way to tell someone how to reflect on what has happened. But it is true, reflecting is a process. Thinking of an event and reflecting how you felt and why you felt that way. Looking at blogging or reflection in a systematic way. This being: 1. Experience. Focus on a critical incident that took place. Describe the event as objectively as possible, how would your community members explain this event? And how do these two explanations compare. 2. Reflection. What are my assumptions and how can I tets them. What were the assumptions, and is there another way to see this event? (this is interesting for me because I have always explained an event, how I felt but not how I could see it in another way. That perhaps there is always another way to look at things. 3. Analysis. How is it related to other issues. Who or what could help in this situation. What action will I take? And then what are the outcomes you hope to achieve. And then reflection on the actual outcome, what worked well? REFLECTION IS A USEFUL LEEARNING EXERCISE BUT IT OUGHT TO LEAD TO ACTION. I have never really thought about this. Its odd, because now I am reflecting on reflecting. It’s never ending. Hahaha. But I will try this from now onwards for any exciting events that happen or if an incident occurs. So this week has been a lot better than last week, last week was just a ard week coming back from Zim and having to go straight back into reality. I think I felt that way because we were on such an emotional high in Zim, we were so fired up with passion and energy and so moved by what was done at Zim, that returning to SA and the reality of marks, and group work, and having to still get through the next 3 months of this degree was a difficult thing to think about when all I wanted to do was be in a lecture at Zim, or in a local taxi going to a game reserve, or walking through the local markets bargaining with the locals. My heart was in Zim and my mind in SA. It was hard. Looking back and reflecting on this, I think that I could have prevented some stress and some bad days and moments if I had reflected on what was going on. I was so wrapped up in the drama and the fighting and the stress of marks, that my eyes were taken completely off the picture. And that is the community. I need to remember that always. And it then keeps me sane. It then makes me realise why I am here. Looking at how to reflect etc, I think this situation I found myself in could definitely have another way of looking at this event. Like looking from other’s points of view. Maybe the group had other things happening in their lives or in their degree, and maybe I needed to keep in mind that I have been taught differently. I don’t know. I feel a lot calmer and more tolerating this week. I am trying to take everything in my stride and remember that I need to be patient in everything that I do. Patience, a huge lesson learnt for me this block. I need to practice patience. The community is not as fast and structured like the other placements I have been to. Patience came in here where I had to learn that the community cannot work on my time, I need to work on the community time, or else one will end up getting frustrated and irritated. Things will happen eventually. Today was a perfect example of community time and just the community in general. We needed to go on a home visit for a follow up client from the previous block. We contacted one of the ward councillors, and she came from Pinetown to assist us in finding this home. After driving around and numerous phonecalls to one of our lecturers, and going to the wrong house (which was really interesting because it happened to be the house of one of the famous soccer player’s granny, and this house had just been redone because cars kept rolling down the hill and knocking the house due to the poor infrastructure of the road. The house had been hit 3 times due to cars having accidents on the narrow road. This is so interesting because this is where the government needs to step in, or the ward councillors and development organisations etc, something is being done about this), anyway we had to access the home visit handover file to find the correct address or contact numbers, and the use of the handover file was proven to us- how very important it is to have updated information and how important it is for the handover file to be easily accessible AND easy to follow! We had some trouble finding this, and the urgency of this case was not specified which we think it should have been because after reading thr handover, we were under the impression that the ramp was being built for this client, where in fact it had not been started, the ward councillor we were with was not allocated to the ward the client was in therefore we need to contact the proper ward councillor. It is so easy for things to go wrong when there are so many people to contact and only some who are motivated to do their jobs. The ward councillor with us today was expressing concern over the politics of the wards etc. It was so interesting because for the first time I felt like we were really exposed to how CBR works, with all the different levels of communication etc. I know I have gone completely off the point now. Oh yes community time. So we had to be patient today when trying to find this client’s house because we cannot operate on our time, but on the community’s. Very interesting experience. Today was a better day. We had some good laughs with the speeches and we found a new restaurant that we fell in love with. It is all about morale building in an MDT, so people become more tolerating of one another.