handicapped

We headed out to see Job and Lazero in their homes this afternoon. There is an area pastor here, Steven, who was affected with polio as a child and is now unable to walk, pertty much unable to use his legs from the hip down. This is a hard place to be a handicapped person but Steven just puts his sandals on his hands and makes the best of it. He has a heart and a passion for helping others with handicaps which includes families of special needs’ children. Which brings us back to Lazero and Job. Job is nine but got cerebral malaria and then a VP shunt in 2003 but he is severely mentally retarded. He is unable to sit up or feed himself. His father left his mother when they found out he was never going to get better. His mother tries her best but some days she has to leave him and so just locks him in the hut. He is too big and heavy to carry when she has to go to market and “child care” is a foreign concept here. Lazero has much higher brain function but due osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) is not physically able to sit up. Pastor Seven really wants to get these two boys chairs that will give them enough support to sit instead of lying down on the ground all day. So we headed out with Tim driving, Pastor Steven, a physically handicapped workman that Seven hired to make the chairs, Beckie and I. We headed down some roads that were actually narrow foot paths until I really wasn’t quite sure where we were in order to find the homes of these boys. Quite an adventure. Hopefully, I’ll be able to tell you all about the success of the chairs in a few weeks.