A normal adolescent visits a home for the
severely handicapped and resolves to help them enjoy life as he dose
Step into the place. Know what to expect.
Know what to see. These were the first thoughts that flashed in my mind on my
first visit to the Home for the Blind and Multihandicapped.
Thoughts zoomed and
raced around my head as I stepped out of the orange Peugeot car, onto
the grubby soil which squished down as my weight settled on it like a
heavy bag.
Of course,
everything my brain had conjured had been unreal, an illusion almost.
We had walked for
only a minute towards the home of what I imagined would be the most
pitiful people in Thailand, when out of the mist came a woman.
I guessed she must
be our guide to the place.
She put our food and
sweets on to a trolley which she proceeded to push. We followed her and
the various St. Michael’ sweet, doughnuts, chocolates etc.
The children! Oh
the sight of all of them. I could feel pity overwhelm me like death over
a sick man.
I glanced at them
for a fraction of a second and already knew they were not like the
handicapped children I had expected to see. They were actually worse
cases.
Some children’s
mouths or chins were so deformed that they were shaped in a slightly
different angle or were different in size from those of a normal person.
Some children’s
brains were so damaged they repeated actions over and over such as
banging their legs on the floor.
They were all blind.
Most had eyes shut
which would probably stay shut for eternity. Some needed others to feed
them, but not all were helpless.
Some could even do
weaving and sewing. Here is how I saw them do it.
Two children aged 25
and 15 were making a mat.
One put some thread
on a shuttle and carefully felt his way around the strings of the
machine
When he thought it
was right, he poked the shuttle through the strings and the other boy
pushed the thread or material up the machine with a long wooden
straight-edge.
And then the whole
process was repeated over and over until they finished a mat.
I wanted to buy one,
buy unfortunately, a loud man had ordered 20 mats before I could buy
any.
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