Day 3 at The Rising Star: Leprosy Colonies.

(Just a warning, there are some pretty graphic photo’s of leprosy afflicted patients in this post.  I would encourage you to read on and not turn away from the photos. This is someone’s real life.  Just be prepared.)

We woke up a little late today (7am) so we were only able to do a shorter workout.  We did 4 rounds of 20 Lunges then a lap.  I thought it would be easy…and it was… until I went to use the squatter.  Holy crap (no pun intended) lunges were a BAD idea! Haha!! I’m sorry guys.  I feel like I have made a lot of really dirty references in the past few posts, I will try to keep it PG.   However, I want you to know, that the squatter and all things relating to feces have been by far my biggest struggle while I have been out here. I will never look at plumbing or a “western” American toilet the same way. Those things are genius.

I took my first bucket shower today. We fill up a big bucket with water in a stall and then use a small cup to wash with.  It’s not as bad as I thought it would be.  They pretty much only have cold water in the showers or warm depending on the time of day, but its GREAT because it’s so dang HOT!!

On the bus! So Nervous.

You have to pay a toll to get into the city.

So today was my first day in the Leprosy colonies.  I have to say, I was TERRIFIED for this part of the trip, and truly thought I would not be able to handle the things I might see or have to do. I pretty much had THE WORST anxiety the entire bus ride.

The church we administered in.

The cute friends we made!

The two women were nurses handing out prescriptions.

This little boy just loved to hang out with us.

We made balloons for him out of medical gloves.

By the way mom: EVERYONE here loves this necklace!! Thanks Mom. xoxo.

They wanted us to dance. So we had a little dance party.

I have video footage of this!

I was surprised to see that this particular colony was actually just a small back alley in the middle of the city Vandalur.  I was expecting to be further away from civilization I guess.  There are some colonies that are hours away but the one that I went to just happened to be in the city.  We pulled up to a cute little church, and this was where we would be giving treatments and washing their feet.

He was such a hoot!

There was the cutest little man, he had leprosy, as you can see from the pictures his face is starting to sink in around his eyes and bridge of the nose.  His fingers were starting to curl and he just had small nubs for feet.  He was the happiest man and I absolutely loved him.  I will post video of him singing and dancing and making funny animal noises.  It is so touching to see these people that, in our eyes, been given such a rough life, but most of them are SOO happy and were actually cheering us up!!

We unloaded the van, set everything up and got straight to work.

Supplies.

A cool sign above the window written in Tamil.

One of my cute friends Kaylee from my group.

She lives in Southern Utah. 

Most of our group. 

Ready to work!

The church transformed into a clinic!

(notice there are no pew's they all sit on the floor. No chairs ANYWHERE here!)

Our cute funny man! 

Everyone was in line to get registered and he kept hitting the guy in front of him in the head, and when he would turn around to see what it was he would just look to us and giggle.  LOVED HIM!

He wanted me to take a picture of him with the nurse. 

They love getting their picture taken and then seeing it on the screen.

Getting his little feet washed and prepared to cut out the ulcers.

We rotated through each station.  We were at one of the smaller colonies this day so we each only got two stations.  My stations were photographer, and the wash station.  We were only allowed to bring in one camera because we didn’t want them to feel like they were “on display” or an attraction for us to come see.  We wanted them to feel like we were taking pictures for medical and documentation reasons and that we weren’t going to exploit them or their illness.  I hope that you guys at home viewing these photo’s know that I took them out of love for these people and wanting to share my experiences with you guys back home so that you can see what kind of work I am doing over here.  I got a ton of cool pics and I’m sure it will take a day or two to get them all up so please keep checking back on this post. I made an adorable friend Sandra.  She was the smallest person I have ever seen.  She didn’t speak any English but kept following me around and blowing kisses. She was by my side all day long (I think you can see her for a bit in the video.) She also had leprosy.  It was in the beginning stages, starting to eat away at her eyelids, eyes, nose and ears.  I hugged her so many times, and she lit up every time I would look her in the eyes. I love this woman.

This is Sandra.  I love her.

In India the Leprosy afflicted are seen as having a curse from God.  The Indians believe that if you even look them in the eyes that you will also get leprosy.  They are exiled to these leprosy colonies and left alone.  For us to come into the communities and hug these people, make eye contact with them, and wash their feet, is HUGE.  You can see the surprise and gratitude in their faces when you say hello and give them a big hug.  They have not had human contact like this and the whole experience for them is, I’m sure, overwhelming.  This has been BY FAR my favorite rotation, I wish I could be in the colonies EVERY day and would love to come back some day as a medical advisor or on a strictly medical mission.  I love the other rotations too, but it is such an amazing feeling to give these people what they need and help them feel loved.  Not to get all churchy but literally you can see the light of Christ in their eyes.  I know that as I serve these people I am hopefully gaining even just the smallest amount of the kind spirit that they possess.

My patient. 

Getting the water sanitized and prepped to wash his feet.

I had a really neat experience in the colony today.  Like I said I WAS TERRIFIED to see the wounds and wash and cut their ulcers.  I almost opted out of being in the rotation, but I knew I would regret it if I did.  My turn was coming up and I could see the man I would be helping at the bandage removal station and he was definitely the worst case of the day.  His skin was so raw up his feet and almost to his knee.  The blood and infection were soaking through his bandages.  At that point I literally almost asked someone to trade me because I did not think I would be able to help this man or stomach what I was about to see underneath that bandage.  I decided to suck it up and said a little prayer to get me through the washing.  The man was so sweet.  He gently set his leg into the water.  It was so raw and looked VERY painful.  I cannot believe that he lives his life like that daily.  I felt so calm and was able to wash his wounds with ease.  I scrubbed around and was able to remove all of the dead skin and loosen up the edges for the nurses to be able to disinfect.  The man was looking at the ceiling almost the entire time.  I felt so bad.  I’m sure it was so painful, me washing his leg with warm soapy water.  He didn’t complain or show any emotion.  After he gave me a small nod of appreciation and moved on to the next station.  That man changed my life.  I did not think I would be able to serve him in the way that I did.  I know that heavenly father helped me get through that moment.  And I know you guys at home looking at these pictures will just see an infected leg and a man you don’t recognize.  But to me, that was a HUGE challenge to overcome.  In the moment I wanted nothing more then to do the best I could to clean his wounds and help him heal. I was not grossed out at all, just sad that he had to deal with this on a daily basis.  That leprosy was a part of his everyday life.  I wish I could take that pain away from him.  I will NEVER forget washing that mans feet and how close it made me feel to my heavenly father and like I was in the right place at the right time, helping someone who REALLY needed someone to love him and do the things for him that he could not do for himself.  Wow.  I could not write a post long enough to describe all of the emotions I felt this day.  I can’t wait for my next colony rotation. 

Washing his feet and loosening the dead skin.

He was tough!

I will never forget this sweet man.

My heart really goes out to these people.

They live with so much pain.

We did ALL of this with NO numbing medication

These people made this day amazing!!

The boys with their glove balloons!

This little lady was so adorable.  She had leprosy.  She loved my jewelry.  I was actually wearing some bangles that I received at a charity event last year for the rising star.  I gave her one and she was so grateful! She LOVED it!! I am glad I was able to leave a little piece of me with her, even if it was already from India.  Buuut, that appearance a year ago is what caused the spark for me to be here this year!  I'm so glad I made the decision to follow through and come to India!

We had to make sure to wash and sanitize our hands, SEVERAL TIMES after we were done.  The nurses made sure of this.  The still believe it's very contagious here, and it is, if you are genetically prone.  This was the washing station outside.  It was run by a big pump and some village boys pumped the water for us. I wish I could have snagged a pic of them too.

One more pic of Sandra, the nurse wanted to get in too! And the boy who pumped our water!

The entrance to the zoo!

Lots of deer! I swear every exhibit was some different type of deer.  Western animals were exotic to them lol but lots of animals we would see every day at home. Kinda funny.

We got done at the colonies a little early since it was a smaller colony.  So we decided to stop at the zoo on our way home.  I was pretty excited for this adventure.  . .Until we got there.  We rented a golf cart to ride around the zoo because it is HUUUUGE!! However; I feel like they didn’t have many animals, and the cages were soooo dirty I wanted to cry.  The poor otter. OMG I wish I could go back and save it.  Imagine the murkiest, durtiest, most disgusting fish tank you’ve ever seen, times that by about 100 and that was the poor otter’s enclosure.  He would come out a on rock and whimper, jump in the water and immediately jump back out and make the loudest squealing sound I have ever heard.  Aww poor thing.  There was garbage floating around his little river. It was bad.  We did see a Siberian white tiger which was cool!! And a Sloth bear.  The cages were just sooo dirty it was hard for me to enjoy the experience.  It made The Hogle Zoo seem like the Waldorf for animals.  I think the Americans on the golf cart were the main attraction haha! It’s like they had never seen so many blue eyed light skinned people in one place before! EVERYONE wanted to take pictures with us and waved and smiled.  It was nice to feel loved by the people here.  They really are so sweet.  Although being in a zoo and feeling like the one on display was a little odd lol.

The Otter Exhibit. :( :( :(

Elk.

Bengal Tigers

White Siberian Tigers.

These were awesome!!!

This family followed us around all day!

They wanted their picture with us, and the little girls LOVED the "Americans" exhibit.

The Sloth Bear. 

So CUTE!

Sorry...not sorry.

I HAD to stop the golf cart and take a picture!

The sad leopard exhibit. 

A TINY chain link cage.

Alligator with no water in the pond.

"V" and Shankar.

Our sweet bus drivers Shankar and (we cant remember his name but something like) Vin, VinLu, Avin haha we can’t remember so lets call him "V", but anyways they were so nice to come into the zoo with us and be our bodyguards.  After the zoo we stopped at the Junction, which is the closest “city” to The Rising Star.  It’s a few shops that sell bangles, bindi’s, candy, soda, toe rings and all sorts of fun little handmade things.  I bought a nice cold ice cream!! Which was awesome because on camp the power is really low so the fridge doesn’t stay cold.  The water is warm by 9am and NOTHING is cold.  I also bought some fun bangles, bindi’s (forehead jewels) and bracelets to bring home to friends and fam.  ….AND I SAW A MONKEY!!!!!!! There were actually 4-5 just roaming the streets eating scraps from the gutter. The shop owners would just hand them cups of soda and fruit lol. It was so cute! I tried to get footage of a couple of them but my camera kept dying.  I got one right as it was about to jump off the roof but then my camera finally died for good lol.  It was awesome though! I have been waiting to see a monkey!

YAY!!!! FINALY SAW MONKEYS!

Just hangin out at the junction.

We didn’t get back to campus until almost 4.  Krissy was on construction until 4 and we were both exhausted.  We decided to skip playtime today and catch up on our blogs. Oops.  Then it was time for dinner at 6 and then story time. The boys were WILD tonight, but I am falling more and more in love with them by the minute!! After family time it was straight to bed for us! It was a loooong day but one I will never forget!

I hope everything is well at home!  Sorry to say I’m not missing any of you yet. ;) lol.  I am having the time of my life.  I will be excited to see you all when I get home, but am LOVING this experience!!