Ravi

Since our arrival Petra and I have been assisting in the care of Ravi, a young man with severe cerebral palsy. Ravi was adopted by the Kiran Centre about 20 years ago when he had been abandoned on the doorsteps of the city hospital. Basically we try to lighten the load of his full-time caretaker, Clementia, so I go every morning to bathe him and Petra takes him out twice a day for walks and other activities. He loves the pool, the trampoline and playing with our boys. Every evening he’s over at our guesthouse to spend some time with us before dinner. It’s a good opportunity for him to break with his routine and for our kids to interact with him.

A noi piace molto spingerlo nella carrozzina, ogni mattina facciamo la gara per prenderlo da casa sua per portarlo all’Assembly Hall. E’ divertente stare con lui. Quando è a casa nostra e non sta facendo niente  e sembra annoiato gli passiamo la palla e lui ride e ride.

Alex & Leo

Here are a few lines about my experience with him.

Paul

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washing Ravi

as i walk in you turn, you look though you cannot hear the greetings in the hall the feet on the floor the scrape of the door you know i’m here. you turn, you look you crane your head, and grinding your teeth into a smile, you welcome the new day. “good morning Ravi!”, i say awaiting no reply, for wordless  are your lips. but you grasp, you clench with your flailing limbs a garment, a wrist, a hand and hold tight, hold tight to what is real, what is true. i bend and cradle you like a child in my arms yet you are a man. how your mother must have wept when her soul was severed from the body she could not heal. but now your mothers are many and they rock you, rock you in their open arms.

i carry then lay you on white ceramic tiles to wash away the night. i strip you of your clothing and lay your skin bare – i feel your wrists and hands knees and legs, ankles and feet bent at impossible angles. so as i rub the red soap into your thick jet-black hair onto your smooth dark-brown skin your flesh becomes mine and mine yours as i soften the borders and dissolve that space where fear can corrupt the giving. you laugh and laugh – a laughter that rises from deep within your chest and rasps at your throat in spasms of joy, for you know better than i how good it is to be alive! i smell the scent of oil massaged into your skin your body now spotless, you sit strapped to your wheels. i turn and i go, knowing the sacrifice of your body has made love pure washing my sin away.