Hi Everyone So it’s been two weeks since I’ve last updated the blog. Things have been going well. I have one more week left of my placement and then I’ll be traveling around Kenya and Tanzania for 2 weeks. During the past week we held another Training week at the Opaopo clinic. I had 4 clients that I worked with everyday. All four were children. I had two clients that actually had hydrocephalus and the circumference for both of the young boy’s heads was pretty large. If they were in Canada they would have received a shunt, but here in Kenya, the surgery is expensive and parents sometimes wait too late before taking their child to the hospital. One of these boys was a year and 2 months and the other was 7 years old. The 1 year old still was unable to hold up his head because it as so heavy. Luckily the circumference is no longer growing and is actually decreasing. So hopefully with time and proper positioning the young boy will be able to hold his head up and make other gross motor mile stones. The 7 year old boy started experiencing the growth of his head at the age of 2. When this started happening he lost the ability to walk. Since then, he’s been crawling on the ground or is carried by his father. The reason he couldn’t walk was due mostly to increase tone in both lower limbs. When he came to Training Week, we realized that he had enough leg strength to support his weight. So we made him a pair of crutches from rod iron. From all the clients I’ve seen this far, I feel like I made the most gains with this little guy. Who knows if he’d ever get the chance to walk if he hadn’t come to Training Week? We initially found him in a rural community in Rongo district when we went for our community outreach visits and referred him to Opaopo. I always forget that things that we would do at home (like go and get a wheel chair or another mobility aid) people here don’t have access too or do not have the funds. In other news: I got my first African dress and I was having a real lucky streak with the Matatus until today. Before today I was able to get the front seat on the Matatu (which is not at all squishy) 4 out of the 5 times and I got two free rides this week because my preceptors offered to pay and are refusing for me to return the offer. But my luck ran out today. Today the Matatu ride into Kisii from Rongo was one of the most challenging and I paid double the price. The conductor demanded 70 shillings a person rather than the 50 shillings that we normally pay. Everyone on the Matatu got really mad at him and were demanding that he charge us the usual price. They almost turned the matatu around to send us all back to Rongo. One lady actually got kicked out of the matatu because she as yelling at the conductor and the driver. We continued to travel towards Kisii and the man in front of me continued to argue with the conductor and then we got stopped by the police (there’s always police checks). This time however they were taking people out of the matatu if they didn’t have a proper seat (remember, people seat in between seats with their bottoms hanging and stand too). Luckily Steph and I both had seats at the back. But then, even though these people were kicked out of the matatu by the police, these people started to walk and jumped back into the matatu 5 feet away from the police. What was the point of that?? Anyways… it’s all in the experience I guess. Well, this might be my last real blog until I return to Canada. I miss you all very much. I’m returning on Sept 27th with Khadir. I do have access to facebook on my cell, so I’ve been keeping updated on that. So if you want to say hi before then, send my a facebook message. Otherwise, I will see everyone (InshaAllah) in 3 weeks. Love you all noreen xoxo strong>