Debbilyn's India Adventure

Today we went to another leprocy colony. We went with Camille and I, the two other volunteers, Shanta and Heather , a couple in their 70's who are volunteering for a year, Nancy and Daryl, Natalie the student from park City , a driver, Robbie an administrator with Rising Star  and two local women , Abby and Kavita, in their twenties who have medical training and are our interpreters. The colony used to be in an outlying area but they were moved in the city. The houses were concrete and multiple generations lived there. Because in India you do not leave your family when you marry, if your grandfather had leprocy and was Moved to a  colony, you might have grown up here and your children too. We saw a woman who was so proud her grandchildren were being educated at the Rising Star school. We saw a woman getting water with a bucket from the water well. Garbage was strewn around but we were told we were not allowed to clean it up. It is up to the village leader to have it done. Childr

Random street scene   Camille painting nails at a leprocy colony  Leprocy colony    Playing Jenga, a game needing no common  language Kids with mom in a colony  A

sorry about my last post. I couldn't edit it. I don't know what the problem was but I published it anyway. When  I get back I will fix it. On the last blog oil Robbins equals oil rubbings which are a comfort to leprocy patients At this lepracy  colony, there were only two women and two men. There used to be 30 people there. People moved away or died. There were single story cement row houses with electricity and open windows and doors.  Extreme poverty. I asked how did they support themselves. There is a government welfare program that supplies the bare necessities for life. The people affected by lepracy  are in the lowest respect of anyone and are shunned and treated poorly so they end up living in colonies. There are 800 colonies in India. The organization that we are here with, Rising Star Outreach helps in 60 colonies.  They have medical care for each person in the village and heal leprocy with a combination of antibiotics to stop the cycle. There are no active cases

Wednesday  This morning we went to Venkata puram, another lepracy colony. Camille is a DJ at her college radio station so we listened to Camille's play list on the way. There were two rows of concrete houses. I asked who built them. Either the government or a church group was the answer. We walked around greeting people. There were two children following us around. Then one of the women in our group, Shanta oiled the skin of an old lepracy patient. Their skin gets really dry.  Camille painted the nails of one older woman. She only wanted one hand painted because she eats with the other hand.  No utensils needed here.  Some of our people played Jenga with the two kids and we wanted to dance with them but as soon as the music started playing they ran away. We also made a rangoli which is a sand painting on the ground. There are four Indians that travel with us, two women and two men who help translate and drive and have medical backgrounds. The two women are in their early twe