Worlds, Wheelchairs ad Wonderful treats!

Buenos Noches Amigos,

We have finished day 2, week 2 of the PT clinic here in Arequipa.  Both days have been very busy with administering wheelchairs, fitting braces, eating baked goods, and changing the world of many people.  Lets get to the sweet stuff, the baked goods.  One of the PT's on the team who lives here in Peru has been baking and bringing snacks every day.  Yesterday, it was amazing coffee cake.  Today, it was banana muffins.  Wonder what the last 3 days have in store!  The food we have been eating has been coming from a local restaurant.  While the meals are usually good, they tend to be the same thing of chicken, rice, a potato, and veggies.  Today, we had rice at lunch and dinner.  But, hey, we're in Peru on a missions trip.  At least we have food on the table!!  We have had some opportunities to eat some treats in the plaza.  Mandy enjoyed Burger King yesterday.  Brittany has enjoyed some fresh crepes.  Most of us have enjoyed the ice cream at the local shop.  In case some of you wondered, they didn't have Klondike bars  ;), but the ice cream flavors they had were quite tasty!!

The clinic has been filled with one life after another being changed for God's glory.  While the wheelchair may be a pain to clean or adjust to the patient, it never gets old hearing "gracias" with feeling a handshake and seeing a smile at the end of their session.  The people come with so little.  To be able to give them something to make their quality of life a little better is amazing.  Some patients just need an encouraging word in a time of sadness.  In one case today, we had to tell the mom of a 2 year old that her daughter had developed a form of autism and she may not progress from her current condition.  And sometimes, it's us who needs the encouragement when a patient doesn't seem grateful for their wheelchair or when a patient's past medical history is so overwhelming and we wonder how they are where they are today.  I think we have all experienced a variety of emotions and stories that has changed our perspective on life and PT.

We were able to get some pics up.  The first 2 are from the Colca Canyon that we blogged about last time.  The last 3 were taken in the clinic today.  There was supposed to be a 4th pic of Allie in a room full of patients (imagine her there!) but technical difficulties interceded and we will get that up later.  Between the 6 of us, we will have a boatload of pics that we hope to share on the blog through facebook when we get back to North American internet and more computer connections!

Goodnight family and friends,
Angela