Teaching Day 5

A beautiful sunrise and reflecting read is how I want to start more mornings when I return home.

Final day of class was focused on practicals. The final four students completed the patient practicals without a hitch. The patients became much better actors, the students seemed more comfortable with the pressure, and the flow was very sound.

After a morning of testing, I sat down with each student to reflect on the week and the exam.

We had our final meeting before lunch where I told them that this was the first course I had ever produced and lead as a professor. Everyone gasps and started laughing. I thought they were laughing at me but I found out from the student who spoke fluent english that they assumed I did this often. I was honored to hear that my nervousness and lack of experience did not show to the students. However, I bet it makes more sense to them of why I gave them the tests with the answers on the flash drive the first day and fumbled with trying to hand out the exams and papers.

I ended the class by getting sappy and telling them how much of an impact they have made on me and strengthened my passion for global health and teaching. This 4th year physiotherapy class from Haiti will hold special place in my heart as my first students. After taking this final picture I looked back at the first picture and can see how much closer we all became (literally and figuratively).

After lunch I did a little workout and followed that up by traveling with one of the students to the market to purchase some supplies for our PT Day of Service event tomorrow. He went to the Mayor at lunch to gain a stamped approval for our event giving us the green light to finish planning. We will be doing a trash pickup in the downtown area at 6 am! Myself and 18 physiotherapy students will be working hard to impact the community. For these students, this is the SECOND PT Day of Service event they will be doing in 2018. The first was a free clinic in the local church last weekend. These students exemplify the expression "those who have the least give the most". I feel blessed to be able to work alongside them and serve in the same community.

Dinner was a fresh fish. It tasted as good as it looks!

After the meal I spent some time working on another powerpoint for a presentation coming up and enjoyed a celebratory Prestige.

Cannot wait to tell everyone how the PTDOS event goes tomorrow!




PS: We are in need of a manual therapist to teach the second week of this course. If you are interested please reach out and we can talk more about this opportunity. The students are begging for more and we need someone who knows the skills to come teach. I have already created all of the coursework for the entire second week.