Laughter and Hardship

  Newspaper seller with polio 
  Originally uploaded by interplast

Dehradun, India -- Michelle Spring, Webster Fellow  While out walking one night, we saw a man who looked as though he had suffered from polio in the past.  His legs were deformed and he now lives about two feet off the ground.  He lifted each foot with his hands, and waded right into traffic before our eyes.  A woman standing nearby saw us staring and told us that he is self-employed.  We watched him cross 2 (or 3 or 5) lanes of traffic and deliver a newspaper that was in the back of his pants. 

Stories like this make me somewhat ashamed to think of my own country and some of the people relying on welfare or disability payments to survive.  Of course no place is perfect and no people are perfect, but I think that everyone living in "wealthy" countries should visit a place like India some time in their lives.The suffering is incredible.  Yet, children and adults living without health care, electricity, clean water, shoes....seem to be smiling and laughing everywhere.