Surviving Hansen’s Disease Patients A Rarity On Kalaupapa
With Hansen’s Disease, formerly known as leprosy, under control in this day and age, 24 surviving patients on the island of Kalaupapa on Moloka’i still remember what it was like to endure the stigma and pain of the disease and how they wonder who will tell their story once they are gone.
“In one room, Makia Malo, a gifted storyteller of 74, sits in a wheelchair, sunglasses covering his compromised eyes. He so vividly recalls the morning he was sent as a boy to Kalaupapa that you share the child’s excitement about boarding an airplane for the first time, even though you know the dreaded reason for the trip. In another room, Henry Nalaielua, 84, who wrote a memoir of his rich life in Kalaupapa, talks about the black-and-white photograph in his book, of a boy of 10, posed with hands across his chest to help document the state of his just-diagnosed disease. The boy glowers back at you from the harrowing past.
‘I was scared and defiant,’ that boy as man says. ‘Or maybe I just didn’t care to smile.’”
Currently, patients run an organization Ka’Ohana O Kalaupapa which fights to preserve the settlement and advocates for patients.
I hope to one day visit Kalaupapa to honor my great-grandmother who suffered from this disease as well and that the island will be kept as-is to respect my ancestors and not be turned into another place for hotel chains to make into another touristy playground. Link! (via Der Spiegel)
January 25, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I first visited hawaii and read the book 10 years ago. Have gotton videos and read true books about the settlement by Henry Nalaielua
no footprints in the sand. I also ordered the vidio naratered by robin willams about Father Damin..Do you know how many of the survivors are still alive and living on the island? I also pray that the island will be kept as is and turned into tourist trade..