i felt it

A Chinese lady approached me while I was having lunch with a friend. She was carrying a child of about 2 years old, and uttered something to me in Mandarin. She then whips out a page of newspaper with a couple pictures of her and that child in it, which was also in Chinese, and tried to elaborate more.

Since I was unable to understand a thing she said, I asked my friend what was it all about… since he was more Chinese literate than I am. I initially thought that lady was just one of those ubiquitous loafer that goes around asking for donations for some pseudo charity work, but the child that she had with her was making me feel otherwise…

My friend then looked at me, wearing this serious look and said
“She said her child was born without an anus…”

Just at the same time, the lady lifted her child’s shirt to reveal a colostomy, with a disposable pouch hanging off the child’s abs. A pang of emotion suddenly swept over me upon learning about that child’s misfortune. My late grandmother had one before, and I know exactly what the child has to go through with that… But for somebody that young to be having such a thing, it must be even more difficult.

I can imagine how the kid’s not so going to have a normal childhood. He will not get to mix around with his friends without having to worry about overflowing his pouch… He wouldn’t be able to do a lot of things. And most certainly, it will be a lot of pain for his parents. (It’s painful enough for me to see him like this, and it will be even more for his own parents.) Like, what had he done to deserve such a fate? He did nothing. He was just unfortunate to be born like this.

I didn’t know what I could do other than to help the lady in her cause to get her child better, which in my limited understanding of her language, is to get her child an operation or something - so I whipped out a 10 ringgit note (that was about the biggest note I had in my wallet then…) and gave it to the lady. My friend himself whipped another for her. Though it wasn’t much, I could tell that she was very grateful and repeatedly thanked us.

Just before she left to approach another table, I took the initiative to say something to her (in shitty Mandarin…)

“Lady, you know… you should have left your child at the comfort of home with somebody… It’s difficult enough for him to be in this condition… it’ll be even more difficult for him to go around under the heat and all that discomfort…”
(I don’t know how I did it but, I somehow managed to get the message across)

The lady then replied…
“If I do not bring him along, people wouldn’t have believed me and my efforts would have been in vain…”

She was right. Had she been going around by herself, everyone would have thought that she’s a fake, like what I almost did prior checking with my friend.

The incident got me thinking, what a strange and ironic world that we’re living in. Here you have somebody who walks all around asking for spare change to fix her sick child, and there you have perfectly healthy people wanting to end their lives over some failed relationships. If there’s indeed God in this world, he surely is an odd bastard.

(and why are our leaders worrying about buying expensive fighter jets that aren’t going to serve in any war, while hundreds (possibly thousands) of unfortunate victims of fate have to beg on the streets for a better life?)