Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
A11
BEAUTIFUL PRISON
Nine patients remain at remote Molokai leper colony
By Kathy Aney
EO Media Group
Tour guide Rick Schonely
summed up the story of Molo-
kai’s leprosy colony in one
succinct sentence.
“What started as a night-
mare in 1866 has a happy
ending.”
1866 was the year 12 lep-
rosy patients arrived at Ka-
laupapa. They were the first
of more than 8,000 people
forcibly removed from their
families and exiled to this iso-
lated peninsula on the wind-
ward side of Hawaii’s island
of Molokai. They came by
sea and lived out their lives
in isolation, trapped by a to-
pography of battering surf and
towering seawalls.
Schonely, the son of Port-
land Trail Blazers broadcast-
ing legend Bill Schonely, told
the story as he drove a rusted
yellow school bus around the
tiny settlement, keeping up
a high-energy commentary
about the colony’s past and
present. Though the state lift-
ed the quarantine in 1969 af-
ter a cure became available,
he said, many residents stayed
by choice. Nine remain. The
state of Hawaii has promised
to provide room, board and
health care until they die.
My husband, Bill, and I
relaxed in the jostling bus and
listened to Schonely with cu-
riosity. We had hiked roughly
three miles into the colony
earlier that morning down a
rugged pathway that descend-
ed almost 1,700 feet. The
route includes 26 switchbacks
and about 1,800 steps made of
cinder block and rock. Only
100 people may visit the com-
munity daily after walking or
riding a mule or flying in by
air taxi, securing reservations
through one of two Kalaupapa
tour companies.
At the top of the trail that
morning, we came across a
sign forbidding anyone to
proceed without permission
and warning of no medical
services. On the way down,
we occasionally dared to pull
our eyes from the rocky, mud-
dy trail to observe feral goats,
cardinals and other creatures
amid thick foliage.
At the bottom, we joined
a group of people sitting on
bleachers awaiting two tour
guides. Everyone in our group
of 11 had booked through
a company called Damien
Tours. The owner, Gloria
Marks, came to Kalaupapa
with leprosy, or Hansen’s
disease as most at the colony
prefer to call the affliction.
Marks arrived at Kalaupapa
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
This is the view seen by thousands of leprosy patients
exiled to a remote peninsula on Hawaii’s island of
Molokai. The residents were delivered to their beautiful
prison by boat.
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
Palm trees wave on Molokai’s gentler western shore where many visitors to the island
find lodging.
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
EO Media Group/Kathy Aney
A tourist arrives at
Kalaupapa on a mule.
Visitors may walk, ride a
mule or fly to the isolated
peninsula where at least
8,000 people suffering
from leprosy were
quarantined.
Clarence “Uncle Boogie”
Kahilihiwa greets a group
of visitors to Kalaupapa,
where he was forced to
move in 1959 after being
diagnosed with leprosy.
The native Hawaiian runs
the bookstore.
at age 21 and is known as
Auntie Gloria. We headed to
the Kalaupapa bar where she
sat behind a table and checked
off our names. She took our
$60 apiece and smiled up at
us, scars visible on her beau-
tiful face. The bacterial dis-
ease causes disfiguring skin
lesions, nerve damage and
muscle weakness.
After the group clambered
back aboard the bus, Schone-
ly slowly cruised the streets.
The colony, now a National
Historic Park managed by the
National Park Service and the
State of Hawaii Department
of Health, is Mayberry-es-
que, featuring a library, movie
house, post office, YMCA,
bookstore, clinic, athletic
field, churches and even a
horseracing track. Some fa-
cilities are no longer in opera-
tion now that the patient pop-
ulation has dwindled. The jail,
for example, provides storage
instead of housing for wrong-
doers.
The bus passed a long
skinny graveyard bordering
the little community. The
graves, along with others pep-
pering the area, remind one
of how many died here. Even
so, only about 1,300 of those
who died have marked grave-
stones. Thousands more are
buried in a large field.
When Schonely arrived
in Kalaupapa about three de-
cades ago, about 200 of the
patients were still alive. He
said he gleaned many life les-
sons from these people, who
live fully despite their circum-
stances.
“I have learned much from
them,” Schonely said. “They
teach us to live aloha every
day.”
Schonely stopped the bus
regularly so we could troop
off and wander through
churches, graveyards, a con-
vent and a bookstore. In the
bookstore doorway stood
Clarence Kahilihiwa, known
in Kalaupapa as Uncle Boo-
gie. Uncle Boogie, who
runs the bookstore, flashed
a wide smile and offered a
strong handshake. At 76, he
is a youngster among the pa-
tients. He bantered with his
visitors in Hawaiian English.
He was difficult for most to
understand, but his joie de
vivre was unmistakable.
Another stop was St. Fran-
cis Catholic Church where
we gazed at portraits of two
Kalaupapa heroes: Father
Damien and Sister Marianne
Cope. The pair is a dynamic
duo in the colony – both were
eventually declared saints by
Pope Benedict XVI.
Father Damien, a Roman
Catholic priest from Bel-
gium, spent 16 years caring
for the lepers. He eventually
contracted leprosy himself
and died at age 49. Schonely
called him “champion of the
lepers.”
At our next stop, the Ka-
laupapa convent and the
Bishop Home for girls, Sister
Alisha Damien Lau talked
about Sister Marianne. Lau,
a nurse who divides her time
between Oahu and Molokai,
said the German-born sister
and her cohort of nuns dis-
pensed plenty of love as they
cared for the disfigured girls
of Kalaupapa.
“She did not fear the dis-
ease,” Lau said. “She was
prudent about infection con-
trol, but she hugged the girls.
She dressed their dressings.
By faith, she believed none
of the sisters would get the
disease and none of them
did.”
The nuns taught the girls
confidence and schooled
them in making lace, singing
and dancing.
“The sisters made this a
cheerful place,” Lau said.
Back on the bus, Schonely
drove past “the world head-
quarters of Damien Tours,”
otherwise known as Auntie
Gloria’s house.
“She’s probably taking
a nap in there right now,”
Schonely quipped.
His obvious affection
is contagious. He said “the
queen of Kalaupapa” serves
as president of the local Li-
on’s Club and has a thing
for fancy cars. A yellow
1968 Mustang sits under a
tarp in Aunt Gloria’s garage.
Her husband Richard, who
died in 2008, once tooled
around town in a Model T
when he wasn’t driving the
tour bus.
The presence of former
residents lingers, Schonely
said. He finds hope and awe
in the way the patients found
joy in their dire circumstanc-
es. They fell in love and
married. They danced. They
fished. Despite not being able
to travel or raise children,
they found joy.
“This was a happy place,”
he said.
During the lunch stop,
Schonely pulled out his uku-
lele and sang a song written
by a leprosy patient. The lyr-
ics spoke of the man’s beauti-
ful home — Kalaupapa.
One of the most recent pa-
tients to die was Uncle Pali a
year ago. Next to the volley-
ball net sits his dilapidated
Volkswagen. In the doorway
of the van, he once stood and
refereed volleyball games.
In his later years, Schone-
ly said, “he blew his whistle
at random. No one’s had the
heart to remove the van.”
The National Park Ser-
vice, which maintains the set-
tlement, considers the opin-
ions of the remaining patients
at every turn. The Kalaupapa
advisory commission created
by the Hawaii Legislature in-
cludes seven seats reserved
for patients.
“Our mission at Kalaupa-
pa is to provide a well-main-
tained settlement for the
remaining patients as long
as they choose to live here,”
said Erika Stein Espaniola,
NPS superintendent at Ka-
laupapa.
The fate of Kalaupapa,
once the last patient dies, is
yet to be decided. The Na-
tional Park Service is con-
sidering four options for the
future ranging from doing
nothing to unrestricted ac-
cess. The decision will likely
fall somewhere in between,
Espaniola said. The public
and the remaining patients,
who don’t want their story to
die with them, are weighing
in.
“What we’ve heard loud
and clear from patients and
the public is that they want to
see Kalaupapa retain its es-
sence,” she said. “They want
to preserve Kalaupapa and
interpret for education and
inspiration for present and fu-
ture generations.”
Our tour came to an end
with the squeak of the bus
brakes. Schonely hugged us
exuberantly after the tour and
we hiked back up the trail.
I will remember this day
for a long time, I thought as I
sucked wind, and not just be-
cause of my aching calf mus-
cles. The patients of Kalaupa-
pa had lodged in my heart as
proof that humans in the most
dire of straits can overcome
with grace and joy.
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