The first photo is of Mita with her hair all shaved off. She still looks cute anyway doesn't she.

The second picture is of Mikah, front row far right, singing at the recital at her school today. Beside her is her friend Alisha who is from New Zealand.

Today I did a presentation on how Indonesians view handicapped children. It is interesting because Muslims feel that handicapped children are just the destiny of their parents or given to parents to test them. There are many here who just hide their handicapped children but there are also many who don't. Unfortunately there are only a few schools for kids that have disabilities and they are called "School out of the Ordinary". Nice eh? No mainstreaming here. It's really too bad. There is also no financial help available from the government for families with disabled children. So they really don't have much opportunity here to grow. But I have to admit that is changing, thankfully. There is a store in the local mall that sells big excercise balls and stuff like that and they advertise it as good therapy for children with autism. So there is more awareness of syndromes like autism and people are starting to be able to get appropriate therapies.

The big problem here is that, especially muslims, all want to be the same, they don't want to be different. So when you have a child that is different, you feel embarassed. Muslims all have to do the same things-go to Mecca, pray five times a day, fast at Ramadan etc... and when they go to Mecca they all dress the same. Same with the type of clothes they wear here to school, always the same. When children are taught from the Koran they are taught to first to listen and then memorize, then they are taught to read and memorize. There is no explaining and questioning things is not encouraged. There is not much freedom of thought especially for younger children. You must not think differently than your parents or teachers. But things are changing, there is a huge western influence, both good and bad, occurring here now.