CARVILLE, LOUISIANA (and a Healing Water giveaway)

In keeping with World Leprosy Week, I'd like to call your attention to the former leprosy hospital in Carville, Louisiana. It's closed now but in previous decades, if you lived in mainland, USA and contracted leprosy, you could be sent there to live.

Today, the former hospital houses a museum that commemorates those years and that offers information about leprosy.  

Just in case you cannot hop in the car and head to Louisiana, consider one of these virtual tours.

I have this lovely, immensely informative book about Carville.  It not only clears up some of the confusion about leprosy but also shares stories of people who were hospitalized and their heartwarming interactions with the Carville community.  

As James Carville says in the book's Forward, "...our little town in southern Louisiana became a model for the world, a place of hope, progress, and tolerance."

Sounds much like Kalaupapa, Hawaii where my Healing Water takes place.

And BTW - this week, Linda Andersen is giving away a copy of Healing Water over at A Writer's Playground.