Friday, August 04, 2006

Sad but kind of nice

As I mentioned before, we care for some people who have nowhere else to turn (they have no papers and no one else can help them). I went with Fa again to meet with some patients. One we stop at just to say hello...incredibly beautiful little girl, mother who is HIV positive and father who has asthma. A short but reasonably nice visit.

The second house is a really tough situation. We arrive to their bamboo house with floors rotting out. The man wearing a tradition gray floor length Burmese sarong with no shirt...very traditional look that I have grown to like. The wife was laying motionless on a bamboo mat on the floor. Their 8 year old daughter in the background. The woman is 46 and just had her second stroke. She is paralized on both sides. She just lies all day on her mat.

It was incredibly sad and nice at the same time. The woman cannot talk but mumbles so we were talking with her husband. The wife tried to speak but nobody could understand her. Her frustration quickly turned to tears and Fa just held her while husband lovingly massaged her feet. It was incredibly sad but you could see the love so there was something kind of nice.

They are desperatly poor so their thirteen year old son works doing construction work...building our children's home while destroying his future. The husband works at home weaving baskets so he can care for his wife 24/7. He makes $55 a month doing this.

We brought them 15 kg of rice and we are going to redo their floors next week. I guess we did good but it is kind of sad thinking about it.

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