My daughter Kristina wrote about an experience she had at a Wheelchair distribution the other day. Here's her note first.
"I interviewed a wheelchair recipient by the name of Huynh Thi Lee, an elderly woman with a full 88 years of life. Her posture was curved forward, and her disposition spoke a quiet history of pain.
When I asked her about her life, she had begun to recall memories of being a prisoner of war. Her eyes wandered in and out of focus, and she kept lifting her left pant leg, pointing to her shin. After I had begun to understand more of her details, I became aware of the injuries this woman suffered; not only physically, but emotionally as well.
She had been beaten with various tools for so long that her leg healed back deformed compared to her other one. She spoke about it, her voice shaking and tears filling her eyes. I could feel her pain so deeply and I had only been talking to her for 5 minutes. She continued with her story and talked about an interaction she had with some American soldiers.
A group of them had forced her to drink water so ensure it wasn't poisonous. After she drank the water and they knew it was okay, they used it to wash their backs.
Her voice was charged with feelings that were unexplainable and impossible to understand.
I leaned in closer and held her hand. She squeezed my hand and looked at me for a moment. I apologized for everything she went through and told her that I hoped the wheelchair would help with her disabilities and aid her physical healing. And I told her that I hoped she was able to heal emotionally too.
I'll remember her story & her face for the rest of my life."
Kristina Kalatschan
This has been her 10th trip back to the country she was born. Each trip at one point my Kristina leans into me and says dad thank you for adopting me. But it is me that got the gift! Plus if we had not come to meet and take her home I seriously doubt there would be a gibtk today, and so many lives have been transformed because of choosing to adopt!
I so often thought I was a quick learner and would jokingly add but a quicker forgetter. But I am "learning" I am a slow learner. Though we have given away over 150,000 wheelchairs in Vietnam. (THANK YOU Don Schoendorfer and the Free Wheelchair Mission) I have met and talked with many recipients. Yet this trip I learned a bit more...
Mobility? There's so much that we see and so much we don't understand or least I don't understand. We drove , a couple hours outside of Danang into the countryside. Then about a 15 to 20 minute walk through trees. I don't know if I'd call it a jungle or not, but a forest. It's very hot! We came to give a wheelchair to a lady who is not been outside in over three years. Amazing the courage she has. Enduring what her life is. Having to crawl to do everything in her life from the bathroom to feeding herself and still having a big smile. As we try to interview her. She just kept looking over trying to watch the chair being put together.
She told us that she can't wait to go visit neighbors. Our next stop was to another lady that hadn't been outside in five years. She had had a gen 1 over five years ago but it only lasted for a year. She was excited and her daughter seemed even more excited. I could see her watching interestingly as her mother's chair was assembled.
I asked the daughter, how will this change your life? She said; "oh it will change my life so much! I will be able take my mother to the bathroom! I'll be able to give her a bath there. Now everything must be done for her in her bed. Now the neighbors scold us because the bathwater goes through the wall and they don't want water from a sick person to touch their plants."
Yes there's a mobility factor, not being outside for years not seen neighbors. My lesson there is so much more that they must live with. Like being scolded by neighbors because water seeping through walls from a "sick person...." Her daughter told me her mother is excited because tomorrow morning they will go across street to have breakfast in a "restaurant" (not one I would consider being a breakfast stop)
I'm sure I will never be able to grasp what a life of a disabled persons life is an emerging economies country. Thank you God for giving Don Schoendorfer the vision that no person should ever have to crawl! www.freewheelchairmission.org
><((((º> BBlessed
