Today's Reality Check - Guest Post by Andrea Gaines

Here’s what Andrea had to say after her recent visit to Hope for Korah…

"Today's reality check, just in case you need a little perspective. We went to one of my favorite places today, Korah. It's a leper colony that a holds close to 130,000 people. It's one of my favorite places because some of my favorite people reside there. 

We started at the Hope for Korah Berta Breakfast feeding program. They feed roughly 375 children and mothers every morning. This morning a scene stuck out to me. A little boy of maybe 6 yrs old came in with his little brother who was maybe 3 yrs old. He led him to the Berta (very nutritious pancake like disc) and handed little brother 2 of them. Then he grabbed 2 glasses of hot tea. When they got to the bench, he carefully placed the tea and then picked up little brother and situated him to eat. More responsibility at the age of 6 than most adults.

We also stopped at the Elders compound. This houses several elderly men with various stages of leprosy. Two always stand out to me. Adana is blind, face deformed, has no fingers and is mostly bedridden... yet he will smile the biggest smile and sing and clap for you if asked ... and sometimes even when not asked. Gabriel is the other, always a smile always a hug, also mostly blind, missing fingers and most of both feet.