Every day after school we take some of the kids home in the school van (no don't worry, I'm not allowed to drive it.) One our kids' mums has cancer - and so we bring her home and give them leftover food from lunch at school. She is a single mother, a baker and was diagnosed with cancer in January and was told they had caught it very late on. On Monday we dropped this little girl home, and my boss and room mate went into the house leaving me with another little girl in the van. As we chatted and played and sang songs, my boss and room mate were busy talking with the mother - and deciding whether she needed to be taken to the hospital or not. Over the weekend she had had terrible muscle ache and the doctor had given her some medicine for it - the medicine helped for a little while but when the pain returned it had spread to her legs. She said she didn't want to go to the hospital because she wouldn't be able to see her own doctor and so she would rather stay at home, despite the terrible pain she was in.
Later on that evening, we were all having dinner at our boss' house when he received a phone call from the mother, asking him to take her to the hospital. 3 of them left, leaving 3 of us round the dinner table to pray. They gave her some medicine, and told her to come back on Wednesday.
The next day, when we dropped the little girl back home again, she seemed much better. She said that the pain was gone and she was feeling brighter - she kept saying that because of the amount of pain she was in, she was expecting death and was just relieved that the pain was now gone.
On Wednesday, our boss wasn't going to be around for most of the day - so left the school van in our capable hands. (Again, I wasn't allowed to drive..don't worry!) We had to make a trip to the hospital to take the mother for her check-up and so that myself and one of the other teachers could get our medical check done for our work permits (this included a syphilis test..standard procedure apparently..) Anyway, the 3 of us plus 2 of my room mates left to go to the hospital at around 8.30 am and didn't leave the hospital till after 4 pm. In the meantime, one of the boys at school broke his foot so had to be taken to another hospital by my last room mate and one of the Thai teachers.
While me and Emma (the other English teacher) went off to get our tests done, accompanied by a trusty room mate, the others waited patiently in the waiting room to be seen. The blood test was fairly harmless and I am happy to inform you that I am indeed, clear of syphilis. We had our blood taken at about 10.30 but had to wait till 2 to get the results and get the rest of our check up complete which consisted of the doctor making me breathe in about 100 different places, prodding (which felt a little bit too much like groping if you ask me) and checking I had teeth.
The mother was not seen till 3.30. Apparently the system here is that, they don't actually have a system. They tell everyone who has to get a specialised check up to arrive at 9 and then they just work their way through them. And after all that waiting for an appointment that would tell her what was going on, they couldn't really tell her. Basically what they said was 'we diagnosed her in January, took a scan in February, operated in February, did some chemo, then radiation and then some more chemo.' To which my room mate said 'right, okay, but you've done more scans since then to see if the cancer is spreading right?'
'No, she's already had her scan for this year but the cancer is not spreading because we've been doing radiation.'
It just seems that life has less value here. In a place where social class is everything, you really have no chance if you're amongst the poor. A single mother who works herself sick to provide for her family is treated like the dirt beneath our feet, simply because she has not had the same chances in life. Here, that is her fault. It's 'karma' and so most people brush her aside.
It's in days like these where I realise why I'm here. The smallest amount of help can go a long way - like waiting at the hospital all day with someone when they're afraid and lonely. Or giving someone leftovers so they have something to eat. Or giving a little girl a ride home.
I think we tend to forget how big an impact a small act of love can have.
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