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| Seacoast where patients were put onshore |
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| Father Damien's original grave site |
On June
10th and 11th 2016, a group consisting of two senior couples and the
director at the Jonathan Napela Center for Hawaiian Studies and his wife were
sponsored as helpers to Ken Arima to travel to Molokai to clean and maintain
the LDS buildings in Kalaupapa.
Elder
and Sister Jeppson organized this trip with Ken. Elder and Sister Keyes and
Hiagi and Susan Wesley were invited to join in on the service project and
discovery opportunity. We jumped on an eight seater plane on Friday morning and
spent the day exploring the history of Kalawao and Kalaupapa. The exploring
happened first in case the rains came and muddied the roads so that travel
would be impossible.
We were
met at the Kalaupapa airport by Meli, a long-time resident and patient there.
She was warm, welcoming and helpful. She rode ahead of us in her truck to our
lodgings, then later led us along Damien Road where she stopped a few times to
come to our van and tell us stories of things we were seeing.
We saw
old water systems, moss-coated stone fences, hand-piled lava rocks for catching
and storing rain water, and the churches built in the mid 1800’s. One of them
was the church where Father Damien was the priest. We talked of those who came
to the island with leprosy (Hansen’s disease).
These
people--adults and little children--came without hope of a cure. They came in
shame, hurt and despair. They were stripped of all their relationships, their
homes, neighbors, communities and nearly all of their possessions. Their
families back home moved away and changed their last names in order to hide the
shame they felt for having a family member who was a leper.
In the
afternoon Ken took us to LDS grave sites and the home site of Jonathan Napela.
We went to the top of the “crater,” looked across the valley and learned that
the sides of this old volcano were filled with graves. Some of these were caves
that the sick would crawl into to die.
We also
saw the natural beauty of vines, bushes, and trees that covered this scarred
place with a blanket of life and a canopy of protection. The silence offered a
feeling of reverence and the understanding of peace. From the heights of the
crater lip we looked down on Kalaupapa and saw it as it would be seen from
heaven. It had grown from a countryside of suffering to a refuge from the
world.
On
Saturday we went to work and helped Meli, her husband Randall, and the priest
clean St. Francis Church sweeping, dusting, and cleaning and changing light
globes on the hanging light fixtures. We then moved on to the LDS chapel and
recreation hall next door and did the same.
After
lunch we went to a beach and cleaned up plastic and other trash from Japan that
had washed up amongst the rocks--likely Tsunami debris. This helped us feel
like we were leaving the island better than when we came.
We
returned home better than when we left, filled with a larger understanding of
what we as humans have the capacity to endure, to give, to support, and to love
unconditionally and look forward to the peace that our Heavenly Father offers
to all his children. This peace comes both through His love and through great
people who love others and gave up their health and their lives so that those
who suffered would not be alone. May it always be so. Elder Randy Keyes
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