Trainings for New Wheelchair Assessors

One of our responsibilities is to organize training for new Basic Wheelchair assessors with our various partners. We have so far conducted 3 such trainings. Our first experience was in Bataan, where we trained 11 new people.

 The woman you see here is Dra. Garcia. Along with Dr. Jeffrey Montes and Wennah Marquez they were trained as our new "trainers" for the Basic Wheelchair Training.  The Docs are Orthopedic Specialists. These are folks we have worked with for some time and really love.

One of the important things the assessor must do is teach the recipient new skills such as going up and down stairs, obviously that takes the help of someone else. . .

. . .going up and down a ramp and turning, stopping, and getting in and out of the chair, among many other skills. Most fun of all, and sorry there is no picture, we teach them to jump up the front wheels (commonly know as "pop a wheelie"). They use that trick to do things such as cross a threshold. I am really good at it!

In this picture you can see Dr. Montes explaining that just Elder Bautista's small shoes made walking painful and problematic for his large feet. . . giving someone the wrong wheelchair can be painful and problematic.

We were in Bataan for Monday through Wednesday and then came back to the APO (area presidency's office)(also know as the Welfare Office)(also know as our home) for another training. We had people from several partners in attendance.

 One of the projects for the students was to learn how to put the Rough Rider wheelchair together. This is not so easy as Bruce and I discovered.  One evening a recipient waited at the office for over an hour as we worked to try and put one together. We found a piece in the box that we didn't know what to do with. We sent pictures to all the area service missionaries to no avail. Well during this session we learned it was a spoke wrench.

There were more stairs here for practice. By the way this is not so easy. The person assisting counts and on "3" he pulls up and the WC user pushes hard on the push rim.

The days got long and so did the week. That is our Technical Specialist in the foreground. . .asleep. That is me in the background. . .asleep.

Finally, a graduation. Each person receives a certificate with his LDSC Certified Assessor Number. Only those with this number can access LDSC chairs. 

The Bataan and APO trainings were the first week in April. The 3rd training was held the last week in May and in Vigan! I love Vigan. It is an old Spanish town in the north of Luzon. It is quiet and smog free.

 The class spends the three days sitting in a wheelchair. 

 Basic part of an assessment are taking a basic history, checking sitting balance and sensation aong with measuring (which sounds easy but needs to be done very carefully)..

So now Bruce and I will come home prepared to fit all of you into a wheelchair!

DEL PILAR OUT REACH MISSION

It is always fun to get away from Manila and into the Province. This was one of those memorable times. Our Partner in University of the Northern Philippines invited us to go with them on an outreach mission to Del Pilar, a city up in the mountains to the south and east of Vigan.

We left Quezon City and drove to Vigan on Monday, April 20, arriving in the late evening. It is about a 9 hour drive. There is a stretch of tollway for about half of the way, and then it is all driving through the cities. When you factor in the people who park in the lane (they put on their flashers, so that makes it okay), the rice drying in your lane, the tarp awning that is spread out into your lane and the narrow street and the scary driving, and it takes quite a while. We left the office later than we planned, things kept popping up, and it was dark when we arrived. I tried a new hotel. It was very nice with lots of atmosphere. 

The thing is, you can just barely see the stair but it was this long and very steep stair case to get into the hotel and then. . . .

. . .another steep stair case up to the room. But at least we were getting our exercise.

  We joined the University staff the next morning at 4:30, and headed out. This was a medical mission so there were lots of nurses, a couple of dentists and a doctor. They even took a supply of medicines. We took our own van as far as Candon, so we could head home from there on our return. We drove south to Candon city, met the drivers from Del Pilar and transferred into their trucks. Why didn't we drive to Del Pilar?

And that is why we didn't take the van!

But jeepneys took the run. I saw a jeepney unload that was even packed on top. Little kids came peeling off the top. My mom's heart almost stopped

We made it!

But the city was surprising. How did they get all this building material so far up in the hills? Then I found there is another much longer route but easier route coming up from the south. 

I did mention that the Spanish influence is very strong here. Every small city, called a Barangay has one of these wonder covered pavilions. They play sports. Lots of basketball and women's volleyball. They also host lots of community programs, and in this case wheelchairs assessment and distribution.

This was a medical mission so lots of people came for lots of reasons. We even saw three teeth pulled. The preferred method for a filling a cavity.

 But our part on the program was the fitting of wheelchairs.

Sadly, on the bumpy ride home my ipad fell out of my bag. Now I have to figure out how to put my programs, audio books and the like, onto a new ipad.