It is great to be back-megan

Today was so great. It was so nice to get to work again and serve and be with the kids. Today I got to do construnction but before we went to work in the colonies we got to walk down the street to the Bindu School of Art that was set up by a man and he teaches some of the leprosy afflicted to paint as their proffession. Some of them are missing fingers and all of them have leprosy but they paint the most beautiful pictures. We met the people and saw them painting then we told them that we were interested in buying some of them and they opened up closets full of pictures. We looked through hundreds of them and I was able to narrow it down to two paintings. They are gorgeous and a prized possesion now. They are more expensive then other things I have been getting but it is for a good cause. The money goes back to the community to help build it more and then the artists recieve part of it as payment but it is a pool and so they all get paid even if one sells more than the other. They have even gone to art shows and sold them for hundreds and the best part of that is not the money but the fact that they are again fighting the stigma and showing that they have talents and are amazing people capable of things that I can't do like paint well. They are part of a group that are showing the world that they have worth and can contribute to society and thier disease will not keep them as beggers on the streets. That is what this whole amazing program is about and it is helping to end this stigma which is worse than leprosy. As mother teresa said, "One of the greatest diseases is to be nobody to anybody" and "Lonliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty" We often say that the stigma hurts more than the disease so while we are helping them medically it would be almost nothing if we didn't help them prove the stigma wrong and show themselves and the world thier worth.