Just Jeshi: Bharathapuram (Day One, My Birthday)

Today, we visited our first Leprosy Colony, Bharathapuram. (Barat Puram).

It's a colony situated near the Chengalpattu railway. Its population is 514 and of those, 131 are affected by leprosy. Many of the residents of this colony benefit from the micro finance program developed by Rising Star Outreach. Through these micro finance businesses, they are able to help support their colony. Some of the businesses include snack shops, barber shops, goat businesses, and day care.

This is me in the barber shop with my new friend I met in the clinic!

Every fortnight the medical team visits the colonies to treat their ulcers and to prevent the loss of fingers, toes, and limbs. For those of you who don't know, Leprosy is a microbacterium. It is transmitted through the air. The bacterium attacks the patient's nerves. This turns their extremities into those of the typical diabetic patient. The streets of India are not clean. There is garbage, glass, and feces everywhere. There are stray animals including but not limited to monkeys, dogs, cats, goats, and cows. And all of these things and their germs are easily lodged into an affected patient's limbs with minimal effort. Often it goes unnoticed or the patient doesn't seek treatment because they don't want others to know they are affected with the disease. (I apologize for the gruesome picture, but I saved your from the smell). You see, most of these people believe that they did something very wicked in their past life to be affected with leprosy in this life. They believe they should be treated poorly, that they deserve to be shunned from society and their families. They believe they are untouchable. And that's just not true.

This is actually the decent part of his ulcer. He had some deep infection and possible gangrene on his ankles. I'm sorry if it's a bit too much to look at-- but this is life here.

I was assigned to remove bandages from the leprosy patients today. I pulled on both pairs of gloves and tied on my two face masks. I felt like I was melting before I even started to work. But then they came-- and I almost forgot that it was 95 degrees with 56% humidity. I struggled to speak to them in the broken Tamil I know. Just simple hellos and thank yous. To be honest it was a lot of charades. But I know they were grateful. It radiated from their faces. And it didn't matter that I was working and melting in the heat of the sun because for the first time in a long while, I felt I had a purpose and that I was doing something good in this world.

Today is also the day that I turned 22. It was the best birthday ever.

Our friends from the colony. Some of these kids are going to be attending Rising
Star with us. But school doesn't start until next week. April-May are their summer
break-- it's way too hot here to be in school.