|
From the Field
When there are so many people to take care of the day goes by very quickly and it is not so easy to reflect on what it is and why we are doing what we are doing. However, every now and then God sends us a reminder. One day Dr. Andrej and I were working with a very thin and weak young man named Rakesh. He was about 30 years old. He came to us holding his medical records in an old brown paper bag with his right hand. His left hand was cramped and he was slowly limping into our clinic with hesitation in his eyes. We welcomed him with warm friendly smiles and uttered a couple of greetings in Hindi in order to make him feel more comfortable. After some time he disclosed to us that he was HIV positive and after a physical examination we could see that he was beginning to develop a few infections that indicated he had AIDS. His biggest complaint was about the sores he had in his mouth for the past six months due to an oral fungal infection. He couldn't eat much because of them and thus was losing much needed nutrition in order to fight his disease. He also had partial paralysis of the left side of his body, which was caused by an infection that he had in his brain. I could see that Rakesh was losing hope and energy to fight AIDS.
We didn't think much of what we were doing; we were just doing whatever we could to help him. Then, on his way out Rakesh (who didn't speak much English) grabbed my hand and said with a bit of a slur, "friend, friend," and then squeezed my hand with a bright smile. It was then, in the midst of the business of our work that time seemed to come to a halt. He caught me totally by surprise and I could feel a tear well up in my eye. I squeezed his hand back and said, "yes, that's right, friend." As he left it dawned on me that when someone has AIDS in Bombay they are usually ill treated like an outcast because of fear and lack of education. Maybe it was the first time in a long time that somebody was nice to him or bothered to try to help him. I don't know what it was that moved him, but I'm just glad that he had found a "friend." Thank you for helping us to bring hope and light to people like Rakesh. Your continued support is essential as more and more people are counting on us for all kinds of help. May God bless you and please be assured that you are in my daily prayers. |
Considering that 50% of the people in Bombay, India are very poor, each day of our mission brings a new challenge and many begging hands. From the sounds of the first call to prayer by the Muslim priests at the crack of dawn (which can be heard across the city) to the sixth call around 9:30 PM, our day is filled with many beautiful opportunities to serve the poor and sick of this enormous city.
One of the most important elements in the fight against AIDS is a strong and hopeful spirit. This can be the difference in living for 10-15 more years or only 1-2 years. We knew that we needed to help Rakesh lift his spirit and help him see that he could and should fight to stay healthy. We sat down together and went over the good things he could do physically and nutritionally to help him. After some time we could see a smile developing on his face and a light in his eyes. His hope was coming back.