April 6 - Down the Long Road Past The Rubber Trees - Another Leper Village

Because our convent vehicle had been so unreliable in the previous days, this morning we were picked up with a rented van and driver. It was ourselves, Mr. Minh and 4 of the young nuns going out to visit a large leper village.

It was a very long dusty ride of about 90 minutes on dirt roads with a number of unmarked turns. Finally we passed expansive forests of rubber trees and arrived at the village.

This was a Protestant village with 140 families. There were all ages, small children up to very old adults. There are 65 active leper cases in the village. The remaining families are children of the lepers.

To minimize "traffic" upon our arrival, the food had been dropped off earlier but once we arrived it was brought out and the nuns worked to sort out the allocations.


We were pleased at each stop to see the amount of food that our US Dollars purchased and the number of people that we were able to "touch" with these gifts of love.


Everyone was anxiously gathered around so we kept them involved with handing out candy and cookies. The thin, dirty little hands shoved at you were heart wrenching.




They are however polite and very honest...with none coming back for seconds after their first allocation.




When it was time for the food to be handed out, the village leader checked each family off of his list as they received their allocations.

Most of them brought baskets to put their food in. Once packed they were so very heavy but they cheerfully hoisted them onto their backs for the walk back to their personal homes.


Mr. Minh told us that the first time he visited this village the children had NO clothes. They were clothed today but no diapers...most of these small ones were naked from the waist down.








If you can imagine, up until just recently these people lived without a water system or indoor bathroom facilities. Thanks to the Sisters of St. Paul de Chartres they obtained funding to build them a 4 stall bathroom (Asian style hole in the floor) with running water. We were told they had to be literally educated on the benefits of using an indoor bathroom and instructed on how to use it.






The people were very thin and dirty. Their clothes were filthy and mostly in bad condition.


The more you study these pictures, the more you spot the deformaties that these people live with day by day.


Many artificial limbs are in use but they are in bad condition and many are just barefoot.




One of the sisters stayed behind to tend the people's wounds. She will later get a ride back on a motorbike.





We had such a hard time leaving these people when they are in such great need.


Our driving force was the fact that coming back and sharing what we had seen was the best way to get more help for these gracious people.