We traveled main roads to a large church grounds and could immediately hear singing as we drove in. There were children there gathering to celebrate Easter and play games.
Initially they gathered around as though we were part of their games. Finally we broke lose of the group so we could walk around to the back side of the church and greet the group of lepers waiting for us there. They represented two villages so remote and close to the Cambodian border that we could not visit their actual villages. They had instead traveled to us via a van or their own broken down motor bikes.
Young man in the yellow coat is the leader of one of the villages. He is very young for a leprosy patient but up close you can see that several of his fingers are already missing.
This young man has massive scars and sores all over his head.
We were passing out candies to everyone. After offering a "hand full" to people with no hands...I started putting them in their pockets. Really tore at my heart!
5
Gary is always the center of attention with the children. Here he has a group of young fans around him with one holding his camera taking a picture of him.
We were the lunch guests of this prestigious Vietnamese bishop. He is brother of the only Vietnamese Bishop in the USA (located in Orange County, CA). He was right there ever present interacting with us and the lepers.
Soon there was Gary teaching him his new special handshake (now known as "The Cougar Handshake")
The hand shake was an instant success as an ice breaker wherever we went. Soon everyone was in the act and having great fun.
When it was time to leave, one quiet crippled lady crawled up to Gary and wanted to try it out herself.
We see how badly deformed she was as she crawls over to the van to return to her village...but yet willing enjoy the simple things in life...like a silly hand game played with a strange American man.
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