Can You Look Away?

Today we spent the afternoon at one of our Kampongs, Hock Peng.  Here we have many members of the church.  I have been here a number of times before, but today was particularly emotional.

Can you look away?

This is a village.  This is a home.  People live within.  They eat here, they sleep here, this is their life:  yesterday, today, tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.

Everywhere we stopped, we heard the same report:  sickness and disease.

And it is no wonder, as it is the perfect breeding ground for every imaginable terrible growth.  Hot, humid, stagnant.

We walked through garbage, debris, piles of trash...  and cesspools of filthy water...

This is our new Elder Wheelwright.  He has been out 9 months.  He said he had never seen anything close to these conditions.

Elder Limpahan with Sambun.  She couldn't walk as her leg was swollen and painful.  She has had a fever.  This has just happened this week:  sickness.  The hospital is full, too many people.

The worst part is that little children are here.

They are as beautiful as any children anywhere in the world.  And this is where their life is, their playground:  squalor.  Their future?  How will it change?  Can you look away from such eyes?  One's heart almost breaks.

One woman was washing her clothes underneath a home.  How could she bear to be underneath it, leave alone wash clothes?  The questions cry out:  How can they live here?  How can they bear it?

The common sight on the paths through the kampong.

One does not know the source or makeup of the water.  One does know it is awful beyond any of our experience.  How do they keep from rampant disease?  At the moment, how do I navigate the path?

A board here and there if we don't slip off...  and it's inevitable that one slips...

And the path continues on.  We visited Nofi again, the young woman from Indonesia.  She, too, has been sick.  We are very concerned that she has little food.  She gets bonier each time we see her. 

Our hearts cry out:  How can people live this way?  It haunts our thoughts and our dreams.  Tonight we are very unsettled.