Angela_Sept1

Hello everyone:-)

I hope that you are all doing well. Things have been going well over in Australia. I've been quite busy with classes and attending Rotary Meetings. In July I participated with the East Malvern Rotary Club in planting 1500 trees in an afternoon. Unfortunately the weather decided to not be as cooperative as we would have liked and it was pouring down rain the whole time and quite cold, but we all still worked as hard as we could. It was really fun actually to be out in the country again and planting new life. It was part of a conservation program to assist farmers with soil conservation due to the large amounts of run-off the farmers were encountering due to the bigger sized hills. These trees were also native to that specific area in Australia to encourage wildlife to re-inhabit their natural environment. Ryan, another Ambassadorial Scholar, also joined the effort to plant trees. There are now 4 active Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars and 2 scholars who have recently finished their scholarship period and are still over in Australia. We have also had a get together to learn about where everyone was from. Funny enough, we are all from the US except for Momo who is from Japan.

I have officially moved into my new home in Scoresby, Victoria (although my house still doesn't have a phone or internet). It is a suburb of Melbourne. My house is set in a cute neighbourhood very similar to my home in Williamsport. I was jogging a few weeks ago when I discovered how similar is was to Williamsport - parks, cute homes, trees, friendly neighbours:-) Unfortunately, I won't be able to jog for at least a week or two as I bruised a bone on the bottom of my foot on Wednesday (while jogging) and am now on crutches. I am hoping to be off the crutches by this coming Tuesday as I start back up with more clinical placements on Wednesday.

I've been quite involved with clinical placements this semester. I was previously at a special school set up for disabled children, both physically and mentally. While at this school I was also able to attend hydrotherapy (pool therapy), work on children's balance and strengthening on adaptive bicycles, walking, sitting, and interacting with their peers and teachers. I was also given the opportunity to join my clinical instructor for a weekend and attend a hippo therapy session with some children from the school. Hippo therapy is therapy for children while riding horses. CHAPS is the local hippo therapy facility around Lafayette. I had never been able to attend a session before and am quite amazed at the difference in the children during and after their sessions. Children who weren't even able to maintain their head or trunk/body in an upright position were able to sit upon the horse and only be held at their legs for stability for short periods of time (no support at their arms at all). Children with spasticity or tight muscles in their legs were able to walk better and were very excited about their progress. The older children were even working on cantering and galloping their horses and getting ready for a regional horse show. I will be going to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for the next 2 weeks at a hospital in the Northern part of Melbourne, and will then return to the Special School again.

I thought I'd send a picture of all of the current Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar in the Melbourne, Australia area. We were able to meet each other at a nice restaurant in Northern Melbourne. Not all of the scholars are attending the University of Melbourne, so it was nice to meet other students and keep in touch as much as possible. Hope that you are doing well!