Selflessness

I just have to share with you this touching moment.

We went to Huang Mai to play with the disabled children and I was also there to help clean their teeth. When I was almost finished, Thien came in and asked to take my camera. If you know me well enough, you know that I am pretty picky with who touches my camera. I could tell by the excitement in Thien's eyes that it was okay to lend it to him. I followed him within a few minutes to a room where a bunch of the children were sitting on the floor in a circle. One of the students came to me, a young man with thick black hair, came up to me and Thien said he wants Mother Kathy to sit next to him and share his birthday cake. I said, "Oh it's your birthday!" He has a hard time speaking let alone speaking English but he said,"Yes!" He is turning 16 today. Some of the Sisters had gone to a market and bought a cake for everyone to share. I got to sit next to him and help Sister cut the cake. We cut about 20 small pieces, started lining them up, and to my suprise, the eager kids started passing them down to each other. When I was a child and still to this day, you pass me some cake, I am digging in, I'm not even thinking about passing it down, haha. As I make this observation, I see a young boy standing up next to an older boy sitting on the ground. The smaller boy is feeding his piece to the older boy because the older boy cannot feed himself. The younger boy was laughing and getting icing on his face. Here are two young men that have such disabilities that they need constant care. One would think that they are use to taking care of themselves first, if at all possible and yet, here they are helping their brother in need first. The younger boy came back after feeding the older one his whole piece, then asked for some for himself. So what does helpless really mean?? I honestly had tears in my eyes.

I have posted the photos of this in the album Ca Mau

https://picasaweb.google.com/103691188319770375535/CaMau?authkey=Gv1sRgCKee5Y_D0dzh6QE#