Life Development for All

The main event today centered on a visit to LDC, or Life Development Center. This is a center run by my some of my dad's newest contacts in Nepal, Rolf and Monique. The center is a residential home and school for children and adults with serious developmental disabilities.

Most of the residents are unable to communicate clearly through speech. Many of them suffer seizures on a daily basis. They vary in their level of disability, from mild autism or down syndrome to near a near-comatose state.

Four to six individuals sleep in any given room in the center, and for each group, there must be one caretaker sleeping as well, as the seizures many suffer are random and require immediate attention.

The center provides many activities for the children, such as preparing vegetables for cooking, gardening, music therapy and exercise, and so on. The center needs more sponsors, and today, we video-taped and interviewed a number of children and young adults whose families are no longer able to provide adequate support funds to the center.

With us today was another group of four individuals with physical disabilities. The general consensus from them was one of revelation - the LDC really helped to put things into perspective. Jamuna Subedi, for example, may have artificial legs, but she has full and complete use of her mind, something she has taken for granted. The LDC helped to inspire and show those with physical disabilities that there are people that they can help too, instead of merely acting as recipients of aid themselves.

/end serious topics

On our way back from Boudha, we were lucky enough to have hired quite a young, hip cab driver to drop Jamuna and Chanda off before driving my dad and I back to Sanepa. He is so far the only cabbie throughout Kathmandu that I've encountered who has taken the time to install a subwoofer in his cab (the Nepali people simply call them 'woofers'). While I'm sure he was very proud, the woofer impacted our cab ride in a largely negative way.

In the beginning, we were trying to have pleasant conversation, but the driver proceeded to play techno-Nepali music at a decibel level usually reserved for measuring the sound levels of heavy construction equipment. Luckily, he heeded our pleas and shut it off for some time.

However, the woofer was so badly wired that somehow, the engine noise was amplified through it and every bump would also be amplified. And the bumps themselves need no amplification. For the first time ever, I was grateful every time the cab driver stalled, because it meant sweet, sweet silence for at least a few moments.

As soon as Jamuna and Chanda were dropped off and it was just my dad and I in the cab, the music came back on. However, it did make for some good background music as I filmed our little drive through Kathmandu at night.

No photos today, though, I am thoroughly worn out, slightly sick, and have taken NyQuil and have only a matter of seconds before I fall into a deep, rock-like sleep.

-Carey