stig·ma : 1. a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation.

I had no clue until today that 200 people a year in the US are diagnosed with Leprosy. I went to an art school today called the Bindu Art School. The art school is filled with students who have or had leprosy. The owner is a man from Austria and he had some of the Leprosy afflicted fly to Austria to do an art show. Becky Douglass tried to have some of the Leprosy afflicted fly to America to do an art show as well. It never happened because all of their Visas were declined. I asked why their Visas were declined and the translator said because they have Leprosy. That really, really upset me to know that there's still a stigma in the US. People are so ignorant about things they don't know about. Most people are like this with culture, religion, politics, diseases and people. People are ignorant because their scared of the unknown so they are quick to judge and make opinions. Which is understandable because their scared, but if people stepped back to make an effort to learn about the unknown and try to understand different things, the world would be a different place. We could all work on being more open minded and turning hate, anger, sadness into to pure love. People should think of being open minded as learning new things.

Today I went to the art school and bought THE RADDEST piece of art you've ever seen. It's these two ginormo eyes with a bindi in the middle and it has a mustache and its just so rad. Later we had play time with all the kids and we had a water fight which felt amazing considering the one million degree weather! Then during dinner on the roof it started pouring rain. It was so awesome! Everyone wanted to go inside but I wanted to lay in the rain haha. So I did, by myself after dinner. Then Later we put the kids to bed. K not really. I danced with them and gave them airplane rides and made videos with them.

I look at how amazing and pure these kids are and their family members with Leprosy and I wonder why do bad things happen to such amazing people. I think God chose these people to have such hard trials like these because he knew how special and strong they are. He knew that they could handle it and still have a great attitude and that they would embrace their trials and take the positives out of them. They're not people they're angels. Their beautiful. I wish I could just take all their trials and burdens for them. I wonder why I got so lucky. Why I have the life I have. Why do i deserve it? These people have nothing except for a heart of gold,love and the most beautiful outlook on life I have ever seen, and they still try to give you the shirt off their back, the rare meal that they have, and the little water that they have from their community well. If this was your life what would your outlook be? Would you embrace the trials or would you have resentment towards god and life it self? Some of us complain if we cant have a pair of shoes we want from Nordstrom or if we cant get a certain phone or whatever. That stuff used to be somewhat important to me but its just not anymore. They are all things. The best things in the world aren't things. Their beauty, people and love.

The best quote my amazing big brother ever gave me: " If god put you to it, he'll get you through it."
God doesn't give you anything you cant handle :)