Avery's special day at the beach

I don’t know for sure if I have mentioned it in a previous blog post but I have changed my internship location from Maitland Cottage Home to Eros School for Children with Cerebral Palsy. I am working along side a lovely woman named Heidi who has worked in the physical therapy department at the school for quite sometime now. She has let us in welcomingly and has shown us a realm of physical therapy that I didn’t know could be so rewarding. Working with disabled children has honestly been such an eye opening experience. I have not only a greater understanding of the functionality of disability and the physiology of a disorder, but I have gained a huge appreciation for my own body and the amazing and seemingly simple things I can do that for someone who is disabled, is a strenuous labor.

           

I was thrilled when we had the opportunity to help out at Marine Day with the children of grades R-5. (Grade R is like preschool in America.)  We all piled into mini buses and headed to St. James beach with the children. Once we arrived there I was excited to play with the children in the water- it seemed though that many of the teachers were tired from the arrangement of getting so many children to the beach safely that they didn’t necessarily have the energy right away to bring them to the waters edge so that they could splash and play.  Susan, a German gap year student and I helped with the feeding of children and then decided to take them down to the water ourselves. Once we got there I searched in the sand for different shells to put in their hands and have them feel the difference between snail shells, oyster shells, wet sand, sea weed- etc. They would squeal or smile when they felt the different and foreign textures.

           

Avery and her little friend enjoying Marine Day

Heidi rounded the corner and lifted a small Celebral Palsy student out of his buggy. She propped him on her hip and happily walked to the water to dip his feet in. Not being able to resist the same temptation, I did the same with another child.  I have never seen any child so excited to touch ocean water. The beach has always been a source of total peace for me. I loved watching them react so wonderfully to something new and something that personally I have always felt a strong connection to since my mother has taken me to the beach every year since birth.  These kids were absolutely fearless even as they looked out into the ocean with its vastness. They watched the crashing waves which were a thousand times more powerful than their feeble legs without fidgeting or turning away in fear. They challenged nature to impress them; I think they were happy with the results.

           

The majority of children slept on the bus ride back to Eros, I noticed one of the boys still had a seashell that I had handed him tucked in his pocket. I can only hope that our little Marine day inspired a curiosity for something bigger than us- for example, the ocean. Curiosity is what leads to questions, which lead to artful storytelling- I believe that these stories that we share with one another is the foundation upon which we build our understanding of what exactly it means to be a responsible and aware fellow human.