As a PT, I'm blessed to meet so many people and help them through difficult times. Recently I had the pleasure to work with a gentleman who primarily speaks Spanish and has lived in Kodiak for +15 years. He enjoys telling me stories during our sessions and does this with lots of hand gestures and pantomiming. I have to admit that generally these "conversations" leave me exhausted but thoroughly entertained. His last story was as follows: While living on a mountain in Mexico, there was no doctor. 'Juan' (let's call him this for now) frequently would be asked to help care and 'doctor' the farm animals and his friends and neighbors. A neighbor came limping to see him and said "Juan, Juan, please look at my ankle." Juan carefully washed his hands (demo given), proceeded to then clasp the neighbor's ankle with both hands, and "Crrrackkkk". (Juan demos a swift jerk of the ankle with sound effects) And the neighbor's ankle was better.
Then a friend came to see Juan with his forearm hanging awkwardly (demos 2 fractures in the forearm). So Juan carefully feels the forearm, once again clasps his friend's arm, and "crrracck". (demo and sound effects provided) He then proceeds to pantomime killing a chicken and wrapping it around his friend's arm. I incredulously ask 3 times, "You wrapped a dead chicken around his arm?" Juan nods his head multiple times and says "Yes, yes." "But a dead chicken?" "Yes, yes" And then the I finally understand, "You used chicken bones to splint your friend's arm?" "Yes, yes." Smile- so many amazing people to meet. -R (The pic is of China in a series entitled Beautiful China by Jiang.
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