Day 22 - Smiles all 'round!

I can't believe that we only have 2 more weeks left in Malawi. Time has gone by so quickly! As we walked over to Kathy's house to go to work, we saw these guys just a couple of meters away from us.

As we walked into the preschool this morning, we were welcomed by so many little ones, with big smiles on their faces, running up to hug us! What a great start to the day! It made me miss teaching quite a bit. We walked into the OT room and another little one welcomed us, though I definitely did not want to be anywhere near this one.

I worked with a couple of kids this morning on fine motor and visual perceptual skills. We also did some activities of daily living (ADLs) with them (e.g. eating, dressing, washing).

E loves to smile! She usually not this shy.

Just before lunch, Luisa was so excited to tell me that the cockroach in the sink was gone as I was heading to the washroom. I was happy about that but was worried that it actually crawled into one of our bags or the cupboards. Upon my return, I saw Lu standing in the hallway shocked but laughing as well. Apparently she wanted to wash her hands and so used the sink inside the room. As soon as she turned on the water, the cockroach came out and jumped a little. Poor Lu! The cockroach remained in the sink even when we left at the end of the day.

This afternoon, I had some successes with those that I was working with. I played tri-ominos with B, this 23 year old with visual perceptual difficulties. There were some tiles where he was able to place on the board very quickly. There were only a few which he needed some help/hints with. He eventually beat me by 1 tile. I am just ecstatic!

B is all smiles after beating me in Tri-ominos. What a great game!

Afterwards I saw the M, the boy I mentioned last time who spoke very, very little, appeared uninterested, unhappy; simply a very flat affect. Although he walked in in a similar manner, I saw that he was very focused and was trying to be very precise with his colouring. He was also meticulous with his printing. When I was taking a picture, Luisa said that she could see the side of his cheek twitch a bit, trying to smile. With 2 weeks left, I feel like I want to make it a personal mission to try to get him to smile, even if it's the slightest little bit. I'm also proud of him for working so hard with cutting, colouring, and learning to print the letter "a" and his name.

Overall, a very successful and joyous day!

This is little G.

Us being silly! As usual!

I don't work with these girls, but R & G are two of the most adorable little girls you'll meet.
Big smiles, giggling lots. How can you not love them?

Also had a conversation with my mommy tonight. It was interesting how mothers just have this "sixth sense" for lack of a better way of putting it. Wow mommy!