AIDS Hospice

Today we went to a Buddhist temple in Lompamburi that also serves as an AIDS hospice run by monks and staff. Some people come because they can't pay for AIDS medications, others come because their communities reject them, and some people are left by their relatives at the doorstep and never return. It is a really beautiful but emotionally hard place. We went and talked to people with severe stages of AIDS. Most of them couldn't speak. You could see their bones through their skin, Koposi's sarcomas on their skin, and many lost bowl control. One man was trying to drink soda pop for some nourishment and kept throwing up and they had a hard time getting him to keep from wasting away. Another 16 year old girl was mentally retarded and got AIDS from the man who raped her. She was crying in pain unconsolably. It was so hard to see.We talked to a 29 year old woman who got married to a man when she was 15. The man had slept around before they got married and had AIDS though nobody knew about it. He cheated on her again and they divorced leaving her with AIDS and a child. When she got sick, her exhusband's family took away her son (which she doesn't know if he has AIDS because they haven't let her see him for the last 5 years). Her family took away all of her belongings and told her that they wanted her to die. They wouldn't take care of her when she got sick and told her that she was only a burden. The people in her town tell her that she is ugly and hold their hands infront of their mouths as they pass her because they dont want to "catch" AIDS. She is incredibly skinny with the weight that she lost and she is too far gone to take antiretrovirals. All she can do is wait for death. She said living in the hospice is good because everyone accepts everyone and helps each other. They have become each others family. She says it also scares her to death as she sees people in worse conditions than her and people die because she knows that she will have to pass through the same conditions. It was quite hardWe talked to multiple people with similar stories. All said that they wouldn't go back to their homes even if they could because of the rejection they felt. They said the hospital was their family. They helped with everyone in the "hospital" and the children's hospice. They said they lost a 4 year old last month and that this year they had lost 11 people so far. 11 of their friends and "family" who they watched suffer with the same fate that they would face.We went to a buddha statue that had thousands of bags of ashes of cremated bodies that their families wouldn't come get to bury. I lost it there. It was so hard to see so many people who had to die whose family had rejected them to the point that they wouldn't even collect th eir remains. Many people would say that AIDS is their fault because they had sex, they took drugs, it was karma or God's curse on these activities. They are people not sins