Day 39, Sept. 18

Back to work today. Actually, there has been no work on this trip except lugging around two or three packs on travel days. What passes for work is going to the programs Love & Care supports or is thinking of supporting and see how they’re doing. On might think these places are filled with horrible stories and distorted human beings. If so, I did not see any. I saw plenty of happy boys and girls breaking the language barrier with high fives. I saw men and women with AIDS or Leprosy coping well and preening to get ready for a photo I was about to take. They had the good kind o pride and a lot of hope.
Such was the case in the place we visited for the whole day today. It was founded by French Jesuit missionaries in the 1850’s. It s now led by a former seminary professor who is as kind and insightful as they come. He s and has been the perfect leader for this compound serving over a 1,000 people. There are orphan boys and girls; there are school children taken day students. There are kids with AIDS and adults with every sort o malady. There are mentally disturbed kids and adults and Downs Syndrome children. There are others whom I did not list. Every one of them is loved by the sisters, father, and the rest of the capable and vastly underpaid staff. It is also the cleanest place of its kind.
I had a lot of time to interact with the staff and the patients and students. I would never have guessed that none of these wonderful people had severe problems. So well were they taken are of.
I was supposed to spend five or so days here to gain the “experience.” Other opportunities came up tht I chose to do instead. But, I got my experience in one day – especially since, by now, I had seen a number of these facilities (all of them heroically led) but none better than this one.