Monday, January 11, 2010

Nicaragua January 11th

Today's photos are all from our work at the Bradley House of Hope. It is a school/clinic a few miles away from Manna that is open during the week. They operate in 2 shifts- 8am to 12, and 2 to 4. The plan is for the WSC students to be at the clinic today thru Thursday all day, and then Friday in the afternoon. They are working with WSC professor Jackie Brennan and the staff at Bradley House- evaluating children, observing therapy sessions. The children are from the area, and each child is on a schedule- my understanding is that they come in twice a week, for half a day. Coincidentally, we are also working alongside another team made up of a doctor, a nurse practitioner, and a speech language pathologist. This week, the clinic is seeing 10 new children, and evaluations need to be done for each child.


































An aberration in the series of kid photos...a dog photo. I met this dog today, as I sat outside eating my lunch...a ham and cheese sandwich. She was desperately hungry, and sat very quietly, staring at me while I ate. I gave her some of the sandwich. (This could partially account for my hunger later on...but then again, I am always hungry.) Just looking at the dog made me almost start to cry. I wanted to feed her, clip her nails, worm her, and nurse her back to health...the vet tech experience runs deep. Although I was photographing the people all day (and some of those kids had really amazing, debilitating, disfiguring conditions) it is with the animals that I feel like I could actually help. My photos of the kids will be useful...to tell a story about our experiences here, and perhaps help by bringing awareness to other people...people that otherwise would never know that Bradley House was here, and that they need grants and donations to survive. But I can't help the people. I am not a nurse, I am not a doctor, I am not a therapist. I am a photographer. A photographer that had a previous career as a vet tech, and knows exactly what the animals need. And so, I get teary when I see these dogs. It's something I can relate to in a much more concrete sort of way. Anyway, on with the rest of the blog...more photos from the work we did today...















































































































































































































































3 comments:

Bil Gardiner said...

Wow ! ! !

Robin said...

once again you are leaving a very positive mark on such a sad situation...you are an inspiration to many !!

Unknown said...

Thanks for the beautiful pictures. We take so much for granted.