Surya, left, Ramesh and Ganga. Surya heads Resource Center for Rehabilitation and Development (FOREVER shortened to RCRD) and Ramesh heads Community Based Rehabilitation (CBR). In a word, RCRD does the training -- for family members, field workers, teachers, social workers and government officials-- and CBR does the direct service to people with disabilities.

Here it is, Sunday-day-off, and I have access to the office internet connection. RCRD's web site is finished for the time being. That is, it has everything they wanted and more. Some of you, bless your hearts, have already visited. Surya was tickled pink to learn he'd already had TEN visitors-- and WordPress excludes visits from your own computer, so these are YOU folks dropping by. Very cool. One web site down and one to go.

So now I have all afternoon, if we could all stand it, to write about living and serving in Bhaktapur, Nepal. I started to say "working," instead of "serving," but...and then I raised my eyes to the bulletin board in front of me and it says, "Work is not only about making a living; work is also about making a difference." This is Ramesh's desk. Ramesh runs the part of the organization here that does direct service to people with disabilities, mostly children. I just went through the photos for his web site and this is a batch of photos that are hard to get through. We're pretty squeamish as a people about disability, especially severe disfigurement.

This culture goes a long way to excluding children with disabilities, even from their own families. There is a deep shame about having a disabled child, and one thread in the culture says that this must be punishment for sins in a past life, or punishment for the family's sins. None of this is all that far from our own experience. And we have the advantage of surgery and braces and physical therapy and insurance, all of which contributes to there being a less VISIBLE handicapped population in our culture.

Even so, as the mother of a child with a very invisible (until the social situation exposes it to mostly typical lack of understanding and rejection) disability, as the friend to other mothers with children and sisters with disabilities... this particular job seems entirely appropriate. It helps that Surya is a guy who really "gets" technology. I could live here and feed him with a spoon. Would that my local org had that sort of intuitive insight into the value of technology. I've seen enough of the whole spectrum to realize that West End Ministries isn't off the map entirely, but these people here are "early adopters," while WEM is more in the "lagging back" position, with a few outright "resisters."