Skip to main content

Blog Post Challenge #8


For class today, we were asked to listen to a podcast before class titled The First Cow. The speaker was Abeny Kucha, a woman from southeastern Africa who has an amazing story. Her village was destroyed by war and for years she bounced from refugee camp to refugee camp walking and traveling for over eight years. Luckily she and her family made it to America. Listening to her story really opened my eyes to just how lucky I am to have the life that I have. When they first arrived they were taken to this apartment and told it was their new home… she expressed that the word home meant more to her than most could understand. Her children had never had a home, they had never been able to sleep in peace without any worry. She spoke of how they had no idea what orange soda was or what a fire alarm was, things that you never even second guess or need to think about can be completely foreign to others. She also mentioned how they had two couches in the living room and how no one in her family had ever seen a couch… a couch! We as Americans could learn so much from people who live and grow up in areas such as the place Abeny is from. I feel that we would all appreciate life and everything we have so much more. One last thing I wanted to mention was towards the end of the podcast she mentioned how she was able to enroll her children into a school and when the first day came she walked them to the bus stop and watched as they loaded up and the bus drove off. She mentions how she just stood there for a while with tears pouring down her face and how she was terrified that they may never come back that she might never see them again. I would guess not a single one of us would ever have to experience those thoughts as we send our children off to school, not that we don’t worry about them, but we know that the bus is taking them to school and bringing them home afterwards. Abeny however did not know this the way we do, so put yourself in her shoes and imagine how it might feel. I am so glad I was able to listen to her story and emotionally it truly touched my heart and reminded me how blessed I am as well as reminded me to do better by others especially those who may look or seem different, you never know the pain behind someone’s eyes.

Comments

  1. Dr. LancasterMay 19, 2017 at 7:39 PM

    I love this post, Cameron - very insightful and full of OT-think!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NeuroNote #1

For my first Neuro-Note I decided to watch the documentary Transfatty Lives and boy was it eye-opening. The documentary is about a 30 year old man named Patrick O’Brien, who has just been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This film did an incredible job portraying every single aspect of what living with ALS is actually like. Before his diagnosis Patrick was a DJ in New York City, an internet personality, as well as a filmmaker. From what it seemed Patrick was the life of the party just about wherever he went. He was in the process of shooting a film when he was diagnosed with ALS and decided to turn the cameras to portray what his life would become. This film truly made me think about how I would handle or approach coming to terms with something like ALS. I do know that there is no way I would be able to remain as happy and as upbeat as Patrick did, nor could I continue to make everyone around me continue to smile the way he did. His story was so inspirational, not...
2 comments
Read more

Katelyn Grammes: ALS

Katelyn did her presentation on Steve Gleason who is a previous NFL player who now has ALS.  ALS, or amyotrophic laterals sclerosis, is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.  There are two different types of ALS, sporadic and familial. Sporadic, which is the most common form of the disease in the U.S., accounts for 90 to 95 percent of all cases. It may affect anyone, anywhere. Familial ALS  accounts for 5 to 10 percent of all cases in the U.S. Familial ALS means the disease is inherited. In those families, there is a 50% chance each offspring will inherit the gene mutation and may develop the disease  Shortly after being diagnosed Steve decided to turn his experience into a documentary. He also started an ALS foundation. Katelyn was very prepared and also did an excellent job on her powerpoint and presentation. One really cool thing I learned was that he has a state of the art power-wheelchair that he contr...
Post a Comment
Read more