January 16th, 2018
Have been here in India 10 days now. The program is going really well. There are 10 clients in the spinal cord injury unit, all working hard and most of them up walking with braces and walker. 3 of them sustained their injuries falling from palm trees when harvesting nuts. Last week-end I visited Narayanswamy’s home in the Wester Ghats where Aracna nuts are harvested from these palm trees. There are thousands of acres of these plantations and the only way to harvest these nuts from high up in the tree is to climb the tree, which they do barefoot. It is the most important crop in the area.
I also saw coffee plantations, pepper vines as well as coconut groves and bananas. The whole area is forested and very beautiful. It was a seven hour drive in each direction through chaotic traffic and I just went for one night but it was still well worth the journey.
This week I am doing 2 days of training mostly on cerebral palsy and autism but also on some other neurological conditions. I have spent a few days at the spinal cord centre and a couple of days here in the early intervention centre, which is always busy. Will post again next week.
Hilary
