Photo-A-Week #22: Dishwashing in a Nepali Village

In the villages outside Kathmandu, life is simpler and children have to help do household chores early in their childhood. After the morning meal, they help to clean up. They not only wash their own dishes, take care of themselves, but also take care of their families. The two sisters are only 7 and 9 years old. To conserve water, one is washing dishes with the water that the other is pouring from a bottle. Children from the metropolitan cities, however, lack this kind of practical training. Like greenhouse flowers, they are often too reliant on their overprotective care.

離開加德滿都，走進山區的小村，村民生活更簡樸，孩子們從年幼擔起家務。早上吃過飯，（慶幸有温飽），便要協助清潔，不單是自己的小碟，自己照顧自己，還要「照顧」家庭，兩姊妹，一個九歳，一個七歲，一個倒水，一個忙著沖洗，免得浪費。這樣的生活環境也許是一個幫助，大都市的孩子卻缺少這些鍛鍊，像温室的小花，太嬌，太要小心輕放！

- Violin

Photo-A-Week #21: Suman and Dhana

This time when we visited the Children's Home in Nepal, we saw a few new faces. Though space is limited, we have received five more children to the Home this year - now having a total of 37 children! Two of them are Suman and his sister Dhana. They are extremely adorable and intelligent. Suman is only 2 years old but he already recognizes the names of all the children in the Home. He is also very focus when reading or playing and gets annoyed when interrupted. Dhana is attending school and has outstanding achievements in her grades. From this picture, it is hard to see what kind of life they had lived before coming to the Children's Home. I learned from the home parents that they came from an extremely poor family in a remote village. Their mother suffered from disabilities and did not have the means to take care of her children. As a result, they became very weak and even got infected with pneumonia. It was when they were in such critical conditions that they were bought to the Children's Home. I am very glad that we could save the lives of these adorable children. Now they can be fed well, go to school, and enjoy the love and care of a big family.

- Joe

Photo-A-Week #20: The Honduras that You Never Knew

Honduras is the most dangerous place in the world. According to a 2011 UN Report, it has a rate of 86 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants a year (that's roughly 20 times the U.S. rate). In the cities, nearly all the buildings are heavily secured with multiple gates and locks. However, life in the Honduran villages remains very simple and innocent. 

The villagers are friendly, the girls are more shy, and the children play freely on the streets. As more villagers migrate from rural to urban areas, the most dreaded is not the pollution of the environment, but the corruption of the human heart... feeding only the materialistic desires, while neglecting the hunger and needs of the soul.
Do you like her simplicity?

洪都拉斯的罪惡率是世界第一，在城市的商舖都重門深鎖，但鄉村的生活卻仍是純樸，村民友善，少女含羞答答，孩子天真跳皮。都市化最可怕的不是環境污染，而是人心的變質，眼中只有物慾的享受，忽略了心靈的需要。
你歡喜這女孩子的純樸嗎?

- Violin