I am thrilled to be back in India! I previously spent over two years in the state of Tamil Nadu. That's in the south, they speak Tamil there, and it's relatively well developed. Now I'm in the state of Bihar, in the northeast, and it's perhaps the poorest part of India. The language here is Hindi.
This is Madenpatel. He's a leprosy patient who lives in the Little Flower leprosy colony. That's where I am. He saw me with my camera and gestured for me to take his picture.
The big hero around here is Baba Christdas (baba means "father"). He founded Little Flower in the 1980s and dedicated thirty years to improving the lives of the leprosy affected.
I will be spending a lot of time assessing the Little Flower school and the state of the children's education. Around 200 kids are in preschool through 8th grade. Some of them live right here in the Little Flower village with their parents. But most of them have come from any one of twenty different leprosy colonies, and they live in the hostels adjacent to the school.
I went over to the boys' hostel after lunch and found this...
This is their courageous housemother. She is in sole charge of 77 boys. Maybe she gave them a sleeping potion?
And then I went over to the girls' hostel.
Namaste from Lal Baba and Rajendran!
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