Leprosario Sta. Isabel - Sapucai

It was such a great day today! I can't decide whether to write in English or Spanish to tell it all! I'll stick to English, since most of you who speak English are overseas & perhaps would benefit most from this amazing cultural experience.

Today we had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Leprosario Santa Isabel in the outskirts of Sapucai. This means nothing to you guys who don't live in Paraguay (and perhaps also nothing to those who live here too ;). Enough said that it's about 80kms from Asuncion, the capitol of Paraguay.

ARRIVING
The journey to Sta. Isabel was not a long one. A Family Day was made of the experience, so the kids came along. With us were the other families of the Administrative Team here at Km81. With our friends the Schmidts, we shared a Combi - 7 kids, 4 adults. The little town of Sapucai is found on the side of the interstate. As we entered the town, I began to pay more attention to signs and buildings hoping to catch a first glimpse of the Leprosario. The town was quaint. Sunny and friendly. People were sitting outside in front of their houses drinking terere or working about the house. There wasn't much traffic since it was a Saturday morning. The kids distract me with requests for a snack. I drag my eyes away from the passing scenery to tend to them. As soon as they are appeased, I return to my sightseeing. We are no longer in town. There is now a dirt road and what the Germans here call "Busch". It's scraggly, forresty land - albeit "civilized." We continue down dirt roads that get narrower, the Busch alternating with grazing and farmland. Eventually we arrive to the embossed gates of Santa Isabel.

LEPROSARIO: Definition
A Leprosario is an antiquated Spanish term for 'Leper Colony' (-also an antiquated concept). Paraguayan history reveals a tremendous movement of social discrimination towards this particular group of affected people. Leprosy is now considered a curable disease, thanks to Multi-Drug Therapy which erradicates it from any infected body. This cure, however, was not created until 1988! That's not even 25 years ago! And the provision of FREE medication to all endemic countries wasn't implemented until 1995. This means that until not even 20 years ago, no one here in PY received a definitive CURE to Leprosy. Other medications were being used, but were not successful/efficient long-term. A person who is affected by untreated Leprosy runs the risk of mutilation & infiltration. What Leprosy does to the body is it kills nerves. Therefore, if you don't have nerves (feeling) in a certain part of your body, you can step on a nail & not even feel it. This creates a wound, which gets infected, which could lead to amputation. All because you lost the feeling on the bottom of your foot! That's why you see pictures of people with leprosy without fingers and other deformities. Infiltration means that the bacillus that causes Leprosy congregates all in the cartilage of your face and lives there. So it looks like you have lumpy skin where there are little groups of them. These physical affectations, PLUS the Biblical stigma, unjustly creates a discriminated and set-apart group of people throughout time. It is in this moment and mindset where "Leprosarios"/Leper Colonies are created. Not to cure them... but to separate them from the healthy population. Conditions were hideous (not like the modern-day pics i show here).

First sign we see

 "Leprosario Santa Isabel"

Another Welcome Sign

THE VISIT
The kids fell all over each other to get out of the Combi. It was a sunny day with a cool breeze. Absolutely PERFECT for a field trip. The grounds were impeccably neat. The "colony" is funded publicly and privately, allowing nuns to care for the sick and also benefiting from state money. In the past years, there has been an influx of mentally ill patients sent from the government. The colony is residential. There are dorms where the sick live, each having his own bed and tiny corner of space. Some even have rooms - mostly the women, who are fewer.

Dorms

Community Garden

Perhaps what impressed me most of this visit was the seemingly orderly and proper functioning of the colony. It's definitely unusual to see any program here in Paraguay to be shadily run. I was expecting molding walls, smelly rooms, mangy dogs, crumbling buildings, etc. None of those proved true (well, except for the pet dog ;). As you can see from the pictures, all is nice and neat.

Patients' House

THE CEMETERY

As is the reality with most institutions like this one, there is a cemetery. Some of these bodies "had no place to go" and were buried here. It had a melancholical beauty to it. Perhaps in the light of such a beautiful day, the eye fools the reality of it all.

RETURN HOME

On the way back home we passed the same fields and the same Busch, but this time I wasn't so distracted by the kids. It's a long, difficult journey for anyone who wants to come in or go out. No bus lines, no paved roads, no neighbors... nothing. This is/was intentional. Eventually we reach the edge of town & the normal Andy Griffith, small town life beauty returns. First to catch my eye is a small group of people in front of a "despensa" drinking terere around a man playing a harp. yep... a harp. Quaint, right? But the thought troubled me... Now-a-day the people of Sta Isabel apparently live a decent life. But imagine 60 years ago... Lepers were outcasts. And the quaint townsfolk from the beautiful town playing the harp and drinking terere? they were those who'd sent them away. Times have changed. The colony looks great... but they ARE still set apart, while others continue to live their Leper-free lives. Just some food for thought...

If you are interested, here are 3 Interesting sites. The first one is the website of the hospital where we live & work - also serving those with Hansen's Disease (aka. Leprosy).



Hospital Mennonita Km81
Paraguayan Efforts for the Control of Leprosy (Spanish - Gov't Page)
Elimination of Leprosy in the Americas (English - World Health Organization Page)