Quite disturbing

Sometimes I joke about being part albino. Mainly in the winter. And, sometimes Matt and I talk about the fact that our kids are going to be freaking clear. So. Last night I was flipping channels and found a show on TLC called "My Shocking Story: Albino Island". Naturally I had to watch. It was muy disturbioso. Apparently, in Tanzania, it's widely believed that the albino him/herself is bad luck. Unfortunately, a few witch doctors have led people to believe that the arms and legs of albinos bring good luck. So - you can probably see where this is going - these poor albino people are murdered for their arms and legs. It's terrible. They are rejected by their community and hunted.

We were introduced to one particular family with 5 children - 3 of which were born with albinism. They live a mile or 2 outside the village and their extended family has deserted them because they don't approve of the albino children. One of the characteristics of albinism is poor eyesight, and their eyes are extremely sensitive to the light. The albino children were the oldest children in the family, and therefore had to take on a lot of responsibility. They had to walk 2 hours round trip to the nearest water hole (which didn't look like something fit for washing clothes in, much less drinking out of), chop firewood, and perform other various chores essential to their survival. Of course all this is done in the blistering sun, and these poor girls can barely open their eyes in the daytime to begin with. Their skin has been badly burned repeatedly, resulting in wrinkled, leathery, blistered skin. It's so sad.

Even more sad, was the story of how their sister was murdered. They woke up in the middle of the night to men standing over them with machetes, threatening to kill them if they looked at their faces. Then, while they lay there, they heard the men cutting off the legs of their sister with a machete. While she was alive. She died shortly after from blood loss. If that is not the embodiment of evil, I really don't know what is. The family lives in fear, because they have no protection and know that this could happen to them again at any point. The 2 surviving girls spend their days doing chores outside in the Tanzanian sun where they are being burned and practically blinded by the sun, and they spend their nights in fear that they could be killed. It was such a tragic story. It makes me anxious for heaven.