I went to a leprosy colony and ...

I went to a leprosy colony and a dance party broke out. Seriously. A dance party. In a leprosy colony. Not what I expected.

There are three purposes for our visits to the colonies: (1) medical, (2) emotional, and (3) physical. The medical part comes with the different stations at the clinic: blood pressure, bandage removal, washing, oiling, re-bandaging...Emotional comes from how we interact with the patients and help them feel loved. Physical is supposed to come from some sort of movement resembling physical therapy. We haven't done too much in terms of physical but yesterday was different.

Yesterday we had two professional dancers with us, Shaun Parry and Catherine Poppel. They brought a sound system and one of the drivers had some Indian music on his phone. Before we arrived Shaun prepared us for what was going to happen. He said (and I'm paraphrasing), "After we work we are going to dance. We are in the middle of nowhere India. Nobody here knows you. Nobody here cares what you do. It is possible that nobody here will ever see you again. After the work is done we are going to play music and dance with the patients. If you are self-conscious then they will be too. If you let go and have fun with it they will too, ten times over." Shaun also explained that previously this colony was among the most depressed and that their souls would really be lifted by dancing with us. It would give them a chance to forget about their mundane and somewhat difficult existence if only for a few minutes.

Shaun was right. This colony really was in the middle of nowhere. It had about 6 or 8 patients affected in varying degrees by leprosy. One man moved around on a 2-foot by 2-foot cart with wheels and by pushing himself along with the pads of his fingerless hands. One tiny woman moved around on all fours on her hands and feet, barely more than a crawl. She seriously could not have been taller than Jenna and probably weighed less. Another man was mostly blind. The colony leader was Jayaraj. "Raj" means "king" so we called him "King Jaya". He was so full of life and much more happy in his circumstances than I would be.

We set up our "clinic" outside in the shade of some trees. The bare ground had been recently swept with the little straw hand brooms they use so often here. It was almost like they had prepared for welcome guests. We finished our medical work and shortly before we were done, true to his word, Shaun hooked up the sound system and got the music going. When all of the work was finished we cleared the tables and chairs and had a dance party, India-style.

Shaun had us form a circle (including those who could not stand up) so that we could all participate. He led the party by asking each of the patients to lead us all in a move. We would all imitate the move to the beat of the music for a bit and then someone else would be the leader. At times Shaun would pick up one of the patients and dance with them. They liked it when I picked up Jenna and danced with her right next to them. Once, while Shaun was holding the little lady and I was holding Jenna, the little lady grabbed Jenna's hand in her stumps and held it up to her cheek. It was so spontaneous, tender, and filled with pure emotion. Other times we knelt down with the ones that couldn't stand and held their fingerless hands and did simple dancing motions, swinging our arms side to side, raising them over our heads, clapping, doing patty cake.

One of the ladies was too inhibited to dance at first. Shaun sent Catherine to invite her. She had soon joined us in the circle and shortly thereafter was totally loving being the leader and dancing in the center of the circle with all of us following her. Her face showed pure joy.

The nurses and doctor stood watching, laughing, and enjoying our little dance party but they strongly resisted all invitations to join us. Jenna tried several times to grab their hands and pull them into the circle but they declined each time. They were fine to watch us but didn't want to join in.

The quality of dancing may not have been the highest but I know for sure that the act of dancing with the group was a very, very good thing. And I really enjoyed it.

Shaun Parry with Jayaraj (King Jaya) and Catherine Poppel warming up for the dance party.

Jenna and I with Shaun and Saroja.

Note the nurses (top, left) watching Shaun and me dancing with these two patients.

I don't know her name but she sure LOVED being in the center of the circle.

Sam dancing with this man who would not leave this doorway.

Dance Party India 2012