Donor from Qatar arrives

Yesterday I met Carol and husband Keith from Doha in Qatar. They and their friends sponsor several children and their Wooden Spooner Rugby Club provided the Science equipment to the Simpani school. It was such a pleasure to meet them. They brought with them 180 kgs of clothing, quite amazing. They came to our office and we took them to see the children they sponsor near hear. One is Pinky and they use her name for their fund, "The Pinky Fund". They were so happy to meet her in person. We also visited another very poor family and Santi who they sponsor also. Santi and her mother and father are terribly poor and live in a tin shack, her father does blacksmith work and her mother, who is blind, pumps the bellows. They live in absolute poverty making about $1 per day.
Sima had told me that the Santi's mother had a bad foot. When I looked at it I was horrified. There was a gaping hole in her foot, raw flesh with flies crawling in it. It was severly infected but because they have no money they could not go to a hospital. Mann and I took her to a private hospital where I felt she could get the best care. We stood in the emergency room for three hours and finally saw a sugeon who told me that the bone was also infected and that amputation may be required. I went with her to the treatment room where I held her while they cleaned and cut away the dead flesh. The poor woman was in agony and all I could do was hold her close and try to comfort her. When the doctor was finished he asked me look at what he had done and it did look a lot better. Today she has had surgery to cut away more and hopefully save the foot. This morning the doctor told me that if it does not start to heal in a few days then they will have to take off her foot. This poor blind woman has not a friend in the world, her husband last night when Mann went to get him was drunk. When we told him this morning the prognosis he cried. All so hopeless. They have the little girl Santi who is five.
Sometimes like last night I find the poverty overwhelming, there is never any end to it. How lucky we are. Stand in an emergency room here for three hours and you will never again complain about our medical system. We are the luckiest people in the world. Each stage of treatment has to be paid for and I watched as accident victims are asked for money. Otherwise treatment does not continue. Our bill for Santi's mother will be large but I could not let that even enter my mind as I just wanted this desperately poor woman to have the best treatment I could get for her.
Well enough for today. Tomorrow we head to Pokhara again to take many clothes and books and to to show Carol her projects at the schools there.