Maung Maung Tinn - Water Colour Paintings - 30

Just for my daughter

There have been only my daughter and I in my family for a while. My husband left once he knew that I had this disease. If I have treatment for it, the infection will be gone, but complications of the infection remain with me forever. It is so obvious to see, with shorter fingers and shorter toes. I am getting quite old and I can guess how I will be in the future. I can try to understand what the community thinks about my condition. But my daughter is too young to understand people’s reactions. In our tradition, people look down on a person who has leprosy. They believe that only inferior people get this disease. Also parents do not like their children to get married to a person whose parents used to be infected with leprosy. I think about my daughter’s future every night. By MMT