Our days seem to get busier as we meet more people and arrange more outings. We hope all is well with you!!
Leper Colony:
Another experience that reached deep. About 1 hours from the Mother House, is a Leper Colony run by the Brothers of the Missionaries of Charity. Our guide welcomed us and gave us some background info about lepers. Research has found medicines that arrest it but not cure it. Good hygiene and proper nutrition help it from spreading though it is contagious. He explained that most of the lepers came to them too late to help lots because they were so ashamed. Most were thrown out of their homes and left to die. He stressed that they want people to come visit as they have felt so unwanted far too long. And so we went... The first room you enter is full of looms & spinners--about 50 of them. My heart was beating as fast as the beat of those looms as I saw the lepers with missing fingers, toes, limbs, ears, etc spinning and weaving the bedding we've been using for the kids we care for, the aprons we wear when we feed the kids
and the Missionaries of Charity saris--every sister wears a sari weaved by a proud leper!!! Then we walked through their meticulously kept vege and flower gardens, past the goat, chickens & pigs, and by 3 fisheries. They are not only completely self sufficient, they also serve rice to 500 locals each week!! I said a quick prayer as we entered the hospital where 50 plus lepers sat up cross legged with their hands together. As we walked by, many humbly bowed and when I reached out to them, they embraced my hands with such tenderness and love in their eyes. Their need for the touch of my acceptance was so real I could almost see it. My teary eyes only saw their needy eyes. On the ride home, I let it all sink in. Truly it was the most outstanding intertwining of Gandhi --a strong believer in spinning & self-sufficiency--and Mother Teresa.Volunteers:
-Met Yogshi and he told us he was from Hiroshima--we were silent for a time and then Roger said, "I'm so sorry for what happened there." He just shook his head and we went back to the job we were all doing together. My Dad fought in WWII. Doesn't make any sense to me.
-Met Jeaneane Fletcher's (Librarian at our local High School) nephew!! Small world.
-Met many Australians who are here for months as they get 3 months off after working in one place for 7 - 10 years. Another reason to live down under!
-Frederika (from Argentina) showed me her hairy legs today--she thought it was so funny not to be shaving!!
-Melissa from Oregon came up for lunch as she was dying for a peanut butter sandwich. (We took 4 jars with us!)
Gotta run--thanks for all your kind thoughts and prayers!!!
