June 9 1987, 12:34 p.m.

Good news! My group leader was so impressed with my notes from yesterday that he promoted me! I'm now in charge of teaching my group about leprosy's history. There's only one small problem... I knew nothing about leprosy's history! So that means I got to spend my day off reading old, dusty books. Fun, right? I actually learned something pretty interesting, though. I've always wanted to travel to Hawaii, so when I saw an article on Hawaii in one of the history books, I had to check it out. It turns out that on January 3rd, 1865, some land in Hawaii was set apart for lepers to live in. Basically, they were isolated from all people who didn't have leprosy. Even worse, the people bringing them there on ships were too scared to get close to the settlement, so they forced everyone with leprosy to jump from the ships and swim for their lives towards shore! Then they threw crates of supplies overboard, hoping that the rough water would wash them up to shore. When the nine men and three women that were first sent there got to shore, the conditions were terrible. There weren't even houses or buildings of any kind! They had to live in caves or shelters made out of rocks, branches, and leaves. Instead of getting the treatment that they needed, their leprosy got worse and worse.

About seven years later, a man named Father Damien came to the settlement in Hawaii to build homes and churches for the lepers! He went all out, providing them with medical services and finances, until he himself got infected with leprosy. He spent his last years on Hawaii helping the lepers until he died of leprosy years later.