I got up and checked my e-mail. They were holding auditions for a play in Lisbon and I really wanted to be a part of it. Polly lent me her lap top, and I was able to use Skype to call the director and have a telephone audition. I think the audition went well. I was able to Google search and find a sample page of the play. We read the page and switched characters. It was a lot of fun!
The Orphanage
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| Hannah Assessing one of the Orphans |
After a quick breakfast we headed out to the bus. Our driver got lost so we spent a lot of time with him on the phone and him randomly stopping pedestrians to ask where things were. My group got dropped of first. The orphanage, like all the other buildings in the city, had two buildings on either side of it. I don’t think they had any yard or grassy area in the front or back. They also didn’t have air conditioning. The front was wide open, and closed up kind of like stores in a mall would with a big barred gait. It was usually left open during the day. They had bedrooms downstairs and upstairs, with a kitchen on the first floor. The kids seemed very excited to see us. We set up our stations and the assessments began.
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| He just loved the cameras! |
The children would go through the line. One of the students would look in their ear, one would assess their eyes, ears, nose, throat, and teeth, and one would check for lice. At this point the kids got a hold of our cameras and began taking pictures for us. Sadly, one of the children accidently erased all the pictures off of Hannah’s (the other nursing Alumni) camera. After that all of us were careful and protective of our pictures. I would still let the children play with mine… but I kept a close eye on them.
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| Rock paper scissors is always fun! |
During our assessments we noticed that their teeth were wonderful! Some of the children even had fillings. The caretaker of the children told us that she has them brush their teeth for five min twice a day. Also, they have been able to go to a dentist. Our main concerns were their ears. A lot of the ears were red inside, and I couldn’t always see the tympanic membrane. One membrane appeared ruptured. We wrote all concerns that we had on the backs of the assessment forms, and the children that needed to would be seen by a physician.
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| Singing and playing the game... you don't want to be the last person whose hand gets hit, or you are out... I was out early on. |
After the assessments there was the teaching part of it. We taught them how to use floss, and taught them about the food pyramid. The children put together bracelets to help remind them that it is important to eat a variety of food. After that we played games with the children. One of the students there was a French major, so she taught us different song in French. The children there taught us a song too. I don’t quite remember how it goes… but it was a lot of fun.
We had a long lunch, and afterwards we assessed the rest of the children that had been at school for the first assessment. I also drew out teeth for each of the children and marked if there were fillings, missing teeth, or decay. All too soon our day ended and we said goodbye to the kids.
The Evening
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| The pool at our hotel |
We had dinner back at the hotel. I went swimming that night. I remember floating on my back, looking up at the night sky. All the stars seemed foreign to me. It was beautiful and peaceful. I am looking forward to the next few days ahead of me, and I am enjoying and trying to remember each moment here.
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