This year was YouthLINC's last year in Ocotlan and so our focus was to finish up what we started last year in the communities surrounding Ocotlan. We continued with physical therapy and social work consults at DIF (the equivalent to family and child services in the states) in Ocotlan, special education and physical therapy consults at the school for children with disabilities in Jamay, and social work issues in El Fuerte. We also gave small health presentations in various surrounding communities each afternoon. Painting playgrounds was our theme for work this year it seemed...I think we painted 3 separate playgrounds, and only 1 mural this year at the school in El Fuerte. Overall I think we did the best we could with what we had. We were able to donate a lot of school supplies to both the school in Jamay and El Fuerte, as well as to the orphanage in Ocotlan. And we also threw one heck of a carnival for the children of El Fuerte.
Anyway, there is way too much to blog about everything that happened, so I'll just post a few pics and give you all some highlights. :)
Getting our schedule finally set and organized our first full day in Ocotlan in my official "painting clothes".
This was our group in front of the Amigo Bus that took us everywhere!
One of the first nights we were in Ocotlan, we were all invited to the newly developed senior center for a dance. I was quite impressed with everyone's moves out on the dance floor. The community spends a lot of time "chillin'" outside around the city and especially in the plaza. I loved the sense of community that we felt everywhere we went in Mexico. Wish we had a little more of that here in the states.
Some of us were better at picking up the step than others. I struggled :)
This was my very patient dance teacher. She kept telling me to throw my hips back. I tried to explain that I didn't have any hips to throw back. She just kept tellin' me to throw back what I got. :) I did practice though and eventually started to rock it...thanks to Porter's Ipod.
I just don't quite move like a Hispanic...but I try :)Hmmm...let's see, what next?
Food! Here's just a taste of what I got to eat all week...LOVE IT!
Generally I try to avoid the hot stuff, but this year, thanks to Mark, I tried almost all the salsa's...my tongue wasn't too happy with me.
Generally I try to avoid the hot stuff, but this year, thanks to Mark, I tried almost all the salsa's...my tongue wasn't too happy with me.
And of course...the scones!Close your eyes and image this for a minute...a hot, deep fried scone, filled with dulce de leche, and then rolled in sugar...
Yeah, it really is that good. :)And don't forget the tacos and quesadillas made by the Rotarian's wives! Pretty much heaven on a styrofoam plate! And don't forget the lime!
Ok, so I didn't just dance and eat in Ocotlan. As part of our cultural activities, the Rotarians set up two different tours of tequila factories. There are Agave, or tequila plants, everywhere in Mexico and its one of the larger industries. The first factory we went to still produced tequila "the old way" complete with horses and manpower.First the heart of the Agave plant is cooked.
Then, horses are use to pull this really heavy stone that grinds down the agave hearts.
Then the shreds are put into a distillery. We were encouraged to smell the agave shreds as they have a much sweeter aroma before distillation than after. Not quite sure how I felt about smelling that one. The smell of tequila was soooo strong throughout the entire factory that I think it might have singed most of my nose hairs off.
Usually tequila goes through 2-3 distillation processes. We learned, however, that more is not always better. Only going through 2 distillation process apparently produces a finer tequila.Also...the amount of time a tequila is "aged" determines the color of the tequila. The more color, the older the tequila. Things that make you go hmmm....
Then we went to a tequila factory that produced tequila the modern way. The architect gave us a tour of this incredible factory, saying that it was "the most beautiful tequila factory." Here are a few pictures to show the difference between the old way and the modern way.He wasn't kidding...this was definitely the most beautiful tequila factory I've ever seen!
You can make a lot more tequila at one time...
This machine took over the horse's job
Distillation looks a little shinier...
And this plant will soon have a bottling machine...
And here's Team Pachanga hangin' out and enjoying some treats at the tequila factory. :)Cucumbers and salt...yum
Ok, so I didn't just go to Ocotlan to eat, drink, and be merry, I promise. We did a lot of work too.I was the official physical therapist on the trip this year. Yay! :)
Crystal and I and our new PT gang symbol. Yep, we're dorks.
Our main goal for doing PT consults at DIF was to teach Celi, the rehab nurse who provides the therapy, a few more tricks she could use when caring for her patients. She's only had 2 months of training in physical therapy and was eager to learn and apply what we had to share. Its fun to share ideas and work together to help patients succeed. :)
This man had had a stroke and had pretty bad spasticity throughout his lower extremities that resulted in him being very unstable when he walked. He was a character though! Always crackin' jokes and stickin' his tongue out. Definitely making the best of his situation.
I taught his wife how to stretch him at home. She kept laughing at him and telling him it was "payback time" since she had had a knee surgery a few years earlier and he had helped her with her home exercises. :)
The wife also helped me out a little. I recommended a cane for the husband to use to slow him down a little bit and decrease his risk for falls. He didn't want to use one. However, I have a feeling he will since his wife told me she would whack him with her cane if he didn't listen to me and use his cane. :) What a cute little couple!
We were also able to see a C6-C7 spinal cord injury and provided a lot of education for the progression of rolling from supine (on your back) to long sitting for functional tasks.First we taught safe tranfer techniques to Celi and the dad. Note the fabulous gate belt usage. I ended up giving my gait belt to the family to help them with transfers.
Celi is a fast learner
Sometimes we need to be creative to get things to work. I promise we were actually trying to help and not just being mean... :)
Supine to prone...half way there.
Walking on elbows to get into a sitting position. Try rolling from your back to your stomach, and then walking yourself around into sitting with only using your arms, and no triceps. Its tough stuff.
And we made it!! He was such a hard worker and excited to learn how to make himself more independent!! Bonni and I were sweating by the end of our session with him.I have such a rewarding job!
We also went around El Fuerte and followed up on the home visits we did last year and also worked again with Alejandro, the physical therapist at the school for children with disabilities in Jamay.
We also went around El Fuerte and followed up on the home visits we did last year and also worked again with Alejandro, the physical therapist at the school for children with disabilities in Jamay.Porter found us some tour guides in El Fuerte...
Debriefing my group after a home consult
Typical consult in Jamay... Alejandro liked to show and explain to us EVERYTHING he did with each child. Roll their ankles, massage their calfs, use the sponge.... (don't ask. I let Sarah, the OT, handle that one :) )
The teaching staff at the school for children with disabilities in Jamay
And of course, what would a YouthLINC trip to Mexico be without PAINTING??
Annie
Kathryn and Crystal
Marisa and Kathryn
Sean, Natasha, Danielle, James, Yen, and an unrecognizable bum
Tait and Crystal and the kids
Somehow I got blue paint on the end of my nose...I know, no one reading this is surprised at all. Brianna helped me clean my nose off with the rag doused in paint thinner...the only way to get this paint off. I'm not going to lie...I was feeling a little "off" after having paint thinner shoved up my nose...
On the way home:Alison: Wow! We just zoomed past that bus! Go Diego!
Sabrina: Alison, the other bus was stopped.
Oh boy...
And we did some fabulous plastering and roof assembly for a lunch room as well
Mark and Chartise
I think Mark liked putting up the roof better... :)
Work hard...play harder!My cute little soccer team at the carnival we put on for the children in El Fuerte
Disinfecting after the ball rolled into the ridiculously dirty canal water...he probably thought I was crazy
This little girl was teaching me how to shimmy...she's definitely got some dance moves :)
This is Migel. He is the town delegate in El Fuerte. I've been lucky enough to work with him for the past 3 years. Last year, it almost brought him to tears when he recognized me and expressed his appreciation that I cared enough about his community to come back and continue serving there. Migel is a great example to the other men in his community who are caught up in substance abuse and domestic violence
After the carnival, Migel's wife made us tamales...AMAZING!!!
Our group in Migel's furniture shop after tamales...we were quite the group to feed that's for sure
YouthLINC established a microenterprise loan to a group of women called El Groupo Puente. Two years ago the small loan was used to purchase sewing machines for the women of one of the poorest communities surrounding Ocotlan, La Primavera, so that they could start businesses from their homes to increase their families income. This year they had many different purses created from rafia for sale. Needless to say...we pretty much cleaned them out :)
Except Porter...
And believe it or not...Mexicans do play basketball! Getting warmed up for the big game.What on earth am I doing??
My team ended up not the winners...I never said Mexicans were any good at basketball :)We were at our closing social with the Rotarians and Team Pachanga found these toys to play with. Basically you try to get the dumb little barrel on the even dumber little stick. I was the only member of Team Pachanga to not get the barrel on the stick...ever.
Team Leader Duties: Recognizing the Rotarians
Can't forget about Church!
Even though I only catch bits and pieces of what is said at church in Ocotlan, I love going because I rely more on the Spirit to bear testimony and teach gospel truths.
What a good lookin' group :)
And it gets worse...after we all got up to get our food, they took what was left of their basket of chips and the plate of guacamole back. We all felt terrible!
And who was to blame? Its up for debate:
Alison: Instigator of the idea. Surprised? Probably not
Mark: Egged Natasha on to grab the goods. The organizer
Natasha: Actually took the chips and guacamole from the other table. The dirty work doer
You decide...
So for the most part, our trip was great! However, there were a few hiccups along the way...
1. We had one of our high school students, a sixteen year old, go off and get a real tattoo without her father's permission. Yep. Bonni and I had to talk to her dad about it. Bonni laid the law down and I followed up to smooth things over. Oh man...
2. Porter's kidney stone. That drama began Monday with Porter writhing on my bed in pain at 5am and getting violently ill. After the magic shots he felt better. But alas, Porter ended up going home 2 days early. Upon his trip to the ER back in American Fork, it was discovered that his kidney stone was 8mm in diameter and stuck half way down his ureter! For those of you who are unfamiliar with kidney stones...they hurt more than delivering a baby and that is a freakin' huge stone! Not that I know that from experience, but that's what I've heard. But never fear...come the following Tuesday, the docs in the States put Porter under and blasted the dang thing. Porter is now happy and stone free.
3. The waterpark. Ok, this is a good story too. After our week of hard work, we went to a waterpark in Jamay to unwind and have some fun. Most of the girls chilled and layed in the grass and got their tan on. Mark and I on the other hand didn't stop running from water slide to water slide with some wave pool chicken fight action in the middle. But this is where it gets interesting...
I went down one of the waterslides on my bum and got stuck. Yep. Had to push my self the rest of the way down the slide. I like to think I got stuck because I don't weigh enough...please don't tell me otherwise :) After I got down that slide, I watched Mark come zoomin' down on his stomach. Well, duh! I've got to try going down on my stomach now... Maybe not the best idea. I ran up to try that slide again and I certainly did go a lot faster down on my stomach and didn't get stuck either. However, after I landed in the little pool and started to walk out, I noticed a man just standing there, staring at me. Took me a few seconds, but I realized that my swimsuit top and slipped down and I was full on flashing the guy my left boob! How embarrassing!! Thank goodness Mark always let me go down the slides first...
But that's definitely not where the fun ended...
After that incident, Mark and I decide to go back over to the other slides for a little bit so as to avoid any further swimsuit issues. One of the slides we went down was pitch black and you went down in a tube. Well, leave it up to me to turn this one into an adventure too. As soon as I hit the first curve, I got flipped out of my tube and proceeded to sommersault down the water slide. OUCH! My entire body got worked until I finally stopped and had to push myself down the rest of the slide. Turns out, I either fractured my 2nd toe on my right foot or sprained it really really bad because it hurts like crazy! And if I did break it, that would be my first broken bone ever. Weak sauce. Unfortunately, I'm still waiting for my health insurance benefits to kick in so x-rays are out of the question, so I'll never know the fate of my toe. And besides that, there really isn't much you do for a broken toe anyway besides buddy tape it and take pain meds. Of all the luck... And the ironic thing is, Mark fell out of his tube right after i did and got beat up a little too. Who knew the waterpark could be so rough?
Ok, flashed a man and might have a broken toe. What's the next logical thing to do? Well I'll tell ya. As part of our recovery from getting beaten up by the tube slide, Mark and I hit up the "speed" slides. These slides you go down on your stomach on a mat. No dark tube to fall out of and the mat should keep my swimsuit top in place. I'm safe. HAHAHAHA. That's what I thought...
Every other time Mark and I raced down these slides, he beat me for speed and I kicked his trash on distance. Turns out I'm quite aerodynamicly shaped. Well, I tried a different lane this time. Bad idea. I hit the bottom of the slide where the extra water is to slow you down and it happened...the bottoms of my swimsuit somehow end up halfway down my thighs and I come to a dead stop. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!! I've never pulled a pair of pants on faster in my life. Mark looks back at me with quite the puzzled look wondering why I was at a dead stop at the bottom of the slide and not flying past him. I'm sure the look on my face said it all.
And all of this happened before lunch!
There is one more part to this story that just adds to the entertainment of it all, but I'm going to opt out of posting it on my blog for the world to see. Feel free to ask me for the rest of the story on your own time. :)
And of course...I've been saving the best for last!
Team Pachanga:
Porter, Mark, Alison, Sabrina, and Bonni
Team Pachanga:
Porter, Mark, Alison, Sabrina, and Bonni
Viva Team Pachanga!!
So all in all it was a great trip. We helped a lot of people and had a great time doing it. Thank you to my team who worked so hard and put up with me and my craziness. I hope that everyone will continue to see the importance of serving in our own communities and realize the impact and changes you can make by doing the little things. I love service!
PS: The alum trip this year is to Chiapas, Mexico; the new YouthLINC site in Mexico. Its from Dec 26- Jan 3 and I'm thinking about going. You should too! Just ask me for details...
PS: The alum trip this year is to Chiapas, Mexico; the new YouthLINC site in Mexico. Its from Dec 26- Jan 3 and I'm thinking about going. You should too! Just ask me for details...
