Fr. Irek Dampc omi is sharing his experience he had in a leprosarium in the southern part of China.

The trip from Xi’an to Han Zhong took eight hours by bus. The distance between these two cities is not so great, about three hundred kilometers. However, the rode goes though the mountains and sometimes it gets so narrow that just one vehicle can get through.

Fr. Irek omi

In spite of the long hours sitting in the bus, I enjoyed the beautiful scenery outside the window. The people in the bus were very friendly. They shared with me fruits and water and since I was the only foreigner traveling on that bus, they asked me many questions. So, it was a very good chance to use my very basic Mandarin, which I learned during a two-month course in Beijing.

Four Sisters, from the Congregation of Franciscan Missionaries of Peace were waiting for me in Han Zhong. After a quick dinner, we went to the leprosarium, where the sisters have been living for two years.

The leprosarium is about twenty kilometers away from the city. It is located in a very beautiful place near the mountains. There are more than three hundred lepers living in that place. The village is divided into three quarters: a quarter for men, women and families. The lepers are living in long barracks; each barrack is divided into ten small rooms. Unfortunately, there is no running water in the rooms. They have running water only at the front of each barrack.

The sisters’ house is almost in the middle of the village. In their house, they have a few rooms, a chapel, a kitchen, a common toilet and a shower. They also have a little vegetable garden at the front of the house. They were able to build the house with financial assistance from the Jesuit Fathers from Macau.

Every day after breakfast I go with the sisters to one of the quarters. In this quarter, there are two rooms with running water where every morning there would be about twenty lepers waiting for us to clean their wounds. Each wound has to be cleaned very thoroughly two or three times. In some cases, the dead skin around the wound has to be cut and removed after cleaning before you could put the medicine into the wound. Some of the wounds were quite deep so you would have to push the medicine hard.

After taking care of the patients, we would have to spend time cleaning all the medical instruments and preparing medicines for the next day. The instruments have to be disinfected and sanitized by placing them into a special container with very high temperature.

The sisters work very hard and long hours with great dedication and patience. They clean the rooms, prepare meals, wash clothes for the lepers who don’t have hands, legs and for those who could not see.

Some of the lepers didn’t have any wounds, however, the disease was attacking their nerves and slowly destroying it. In the early stage of the illness, they were able to take care of themselves and even help others. There were some who worked in the garden; some of them were producing charcoal for cooking and even made noodles.

A couple of doctors would come to examine the patients once a week. Sometimes, the diagnosis was to cut a hand or a foot in order to stop the spreading of the disease to the rest of the body. In such cases, the sisters were always there to support and pray for the unfortunate patient.

Among the 300 lepers, just one is a Catholic. However, everyone knew the four women helping them were Catholic nuns. Some of them were quite interested to become Christians.

One of the doctors kept asking many questions regarding God, faith and the life of Jesus. The Sisters spent many hours with him answering his questions. They advised him to go to a nearby town, talk to a priest and see a church and a parish community. So, he did. He went to talk to the priest and see the church. When he came back he shared his experience. He said: “Dear sisters, I talked to the priest. I saw a beautiful church. But, I don’t like their God. I like your God.”

The sisters smiled and explained to him that there is only one God. However, he found it very difficult to understand.

The time I had with the lepers and sisters was a very fruitful and enriching experience which helped me even more to know Jesus better. It also helped me know and understand more the Chinese culture and I appreciated the chance of having made more friends there. I believe it was a great gift strengthening my faith and vocation, which will enable me to continue to serve the poorest of the poor.

Fr. Irek Dampc, OMI