"He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches"
- 31 Oct 05, 12:00 AM
Under normal circumstances, I'd feel very uncomfortable about using the word "inspiration" when describing any disabled person. But I take my magnificent hat off to this chap: lives in a village in Vietnam. His legs are paralysed as the result of a childhood bout of polio. His parents sold everything they owned, but couldn't come up with enough money to send him to Hanoi for the medical treatment he needed. He hasn't been able to leave the village for 20 years.
So, what place can there possibly be in a poor rural farming community in Vietnam for a man who can't walk? Nguyen must be a terrible drain on his local economy. His neighbours must resent having to provide food for him when he can't work in the fields himself, right? Wrong. Nguyen plays a hugely significant part in village life by virtue of the fact that he's spent the last 20 years teaching his neighbours literacy skills.
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