Normal vs not normal children

It struck me as I read the papers here this morning that the concept of political correctness is fluid. Reading how disabilities are descibed made me shoke down my coffee as I started laughing but crinching inwardly. Attitudes change slowly and the thought that a family has flawed children is a sad one.

Family with three disabled struggles


TEK NARAYAN BHATTARAI
SYANGJA, Dec 29: A house here in Waling Municipality-5 resembles a care center for the disabled as three of the four children in the family have multiple disabilities.
Basanta, the eldest son of Padam and Babita Pandey, suffers from mental problems, is lame and cannot speak.

The other son Bhesh Raj, 11, has problems similar to his 22-year-old brother while younger daughter Sita, who is 4, also has mental problems, is blind and cannot speak or get up from bed.
The three can´t even go to the toilet and they discharge bodily waste at their beds.

Luckily for the unfortunate couple, their other daughter Subhadra, 13, is a normal child and her mental abilities tend toward brilliance. She is the brightest student in grade eight at Sagarmatha Secondary School and always secures over 85 percent in her exams despite having to spend most of her time taking care of her siblings.
Both the male children lost their mental abilities at the age of five.

“Both were lame and could not speak but their mental balance was fine at first,” says Padam. “But they lost the mental balance when they were five and couldn´t complete first grade in school,” he adds. Youngest sibling Sita was born underweight due to malnutrition and doctors said she would not live, according to the father. “We took her to hospitals in Pokhara and to Kanti Children´s Hospital in Kathmandu and spent a lot on her treatment but to no avail. The doctors said she was incurable,” he says.

The Pandey couple and daughter Subhadra have to take care of the three disabled siblings round the clock. “We have to pay attention round the clock and at least one of us has to be always at home,” says mother Babita. “We have searched for care and rehabilitation centers but none of them agreed to take them in without money. We have kept them at home as we are unable to pay the huge amounts the care centers demand,” she adds.

Subhadra says she faces difficulty with her studies as her siblings tear her books and notebooks and she has to study at night when they are asleep. Padam says the family doesn´t even have time to work in the fields. “I don´t know how long we can survive without doing any work to earn money,” he wonders.

Vacation in Kathmandu

I don't care about the load shedding today. I don't care that it is so dark in the room right now that I have to fall back onto my high school skills as a typist becasue I can't see the letters on the computer. Bit like I said, I dn't care about that because I am enjoying the exercise options and arts here. Funny how that works, I just decided that I would get what I asked for and(seriously)I found in one day. A an contemporary art school/exhibition hall/awazing little library with book donated from the TATE gallery - that is completely underused. B Two inivitations to art openings, painintg and sculpure. C A fitness club who let you use the facilities in their old rustic castle of sorts "the international club" for the splendid price of £2 per visit. Sauna and squash are extra but still. D The possibility to use the completely luxerious Jasmin spa/fitness club who boasts jacuzzi and swimmin pool on the roof on top of a modern gym.

And, as if that was not enough. The poetry slam event arranged tqo nighta ago as a joint effort between the American Embassy and Nepali partners was brilliant, Nepali moon shine and all being passed around the audience when the poets perforemd their stuff.

I have also just been accepted to a creative writing work shop with a writer,professor and mounteneer. IN what order he likes to identify himself I don't know but I do know that I DO NOT CARE if you take my electricity today!