This morning we went to visit two schools in Parintins that serve children with special needs.  The first school, Glauber Viana Goncalves, has students of all ages with a variety of disabilities, such as Down's Syndrome and Autism.  The school employed a variety of professionals--special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, and physical therapists, among others.  The school was great--the children seemed very happy, and the professionals working with them were doing a wonderful job.  Read More »

Today was a very busy day at the clinic with a big variety of different patients.  We saw two individuals with profound hearing loss who were fit with their very first hearing aids today--they seemed a little overwhelmed by the sound but were excited to hear environmental sounds.  One little girl just came by because she heard there were volunteers and she was excited to meet us.  We gave her stickers and a tee shirt, and she gave us lots of hugs.  We wished that all patients could be this easy Read More »

Our first day in Brazil has been very exciting--and exhausting.  Martha and I landed in Manaus at midnight after traveling for the past 24 hours, so we went right to sleep.  We woke up early to take a boat tour of the Amazon and a short hike.  Even though it was raining very, very hard, we had a good time--we saw monkeys and dolphins and enjoyed getting muddy during our walk!  One of the most interesting parts was the Encontros das Aguas, where the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimoes merge.  The Read More »