Island SLP

We love riding in the back of trucks!

before haircut

after haircut

School at Wild Cane

Kim: Oh the days are just passing by since school started! The kids and Dan are gone

during the days and it has taken me awhile to get my projects up and running. It is still in

progress - constantly evolving I had a couple of lonely long weeks while my family was

off at school!

As I was walking home along the beach back home from an outdoor "private" speech

therapy session (one I am paid for) with a sweet 8 year old boy yesterday, I was struck

by how lovely it was to be able to work and be outside so much and to have the calming

and beautiful expanse of the sea so close by. I was able to walk home 15 minutes along

the beach and not be in a car or in traffic! The ocean continues to take my breath away

at how clear and picturesque it is. The shades of blue are incredible and always

changing slightly (helped along by my sunglasses no doubt). The bountiful beauty of the

sea is in sharp contrast to the poverty, living conditions, and trash that are all around.

The houses can appear so lovely up on stilts on the bay with wide wooden doors in

place of windows and chickens pecking in the dirt, but on closer inspection you realize

how little so many people have here.

Back to an update about my "work" here. I am volunteering at a number of different

places around the island and take taxis and buses to get to them. Over in French

Harbor about 30 minutes away, I am at a rehabilitation center (RBC) for people with

developmental disabilities I am working with concerns like articulation, developing

vocabulary and utterance length, and non-verbal children with a variety of disabilities

such as cerebral palsy, anoxia, and unlabeled etiologies. This is all in Spanish which

has been challenging for me on many levels, but particularly because the mothers,

siblings and therapists are all in one room together chatting the entire time! It is a

friendly welcoming environment and the cultural and language differences leave me

exhausted when I leave.

I am also at a place called Clinica Esperanza in Sandy Bay where we are living. This is

where I thought I would be working most of the time, but it has not developed as I

thought it would. I have spent time educating the doctors and volunteers about the type

of patients I can be of help to, but they continue to refer only children with speech

problems. I am at the clinic a few afternoons a week seeing kids that are referred to me

and doing some therapy. I will also be seeing some individual children In their homes:

one from a missionary family and one from a local Spanish speaking family. There is

such a mix of people that make Roatan their home.

I also read books in English one morning a week to kids in a very small local school in a

community called Wild Cane. It has been challenging for me emotionally to be there. It

is a one room schoolhouse with about 40 kids divided into 2 age groups. It is loud and

chaotic and the kids get swatted to pay attention. The children frequently wander home

and out to talk to kids that are not in school. Some days I say to myself that I am not

returning, but then I will show up another day and a group of kids will swarm out to hug

me and I return again. It is bare basic education that is reminiscent of many one room

schoolhouses from over 100 years ago in the US. The kids came with me one day and

love to hear my stories every week about the books I have read and the kids responses

and questions.

Finally, I am working a few mornings a week at Sandy Bay Alternative School to help

the 3/4 grade teacher (Lucia's class). I will also be helping some English language

learners Dan is teaching and a first grader with phonological awareness deficits

In spite of how busy all that sounds, life here is slower and more relaxed It is not the

island way to rush about. I walk along the ocean daily, swim frequently and lately have

been enjoying the migratory birds that are passing through. I also am realizing all the

funny little details about life here that I don't notice so much anymore but that struck me

when we first arrived 2 months ago! I will list a few of them below...

·      All the taxis are white

·      The main road has no center stripe and no speed limit signs

·      Only the driver of the car wears a seatbelt usually

·      Every scooter or motorcycle has a helmet but often they are not on the drivers head, at

·      least not correctly

·      You never can tell what language someone will speak by looking at them

·      The ocean here is silent because of the barrier reef

·      On weather.com the weather always looks the same, but it can vary quite a lot with

·      rainfall and sun even though it is always 80-90 degrees

·      A bus or vehicle is never too full or crowded to fit in more passengers!

Some of my musings about life here. We were talking about Zozobra being last night

and Marino said, "time is passing quickly." I agree.