Feet and Maggots

I never want to take anything for granted anymore, because nothing is guaranteed. You have no “rights” or “claims” to anything. Who am I to say that it is my right to have a healthy body? Or who am I to say that I have a right to have a home or a family who loves me? Why should I believe I have that right but others don’t? Everything we have is a blessing, we are not entitled to anything for we are all sinners and we are all in debt to our Heavenly Father. I feel like this week I understood Elder Holland’s last conference talk to a whole new level. We are all working for the same thing, in the end we want to same destination, just because I was blessed to get work at the beginning of the day, who am I to say another person can’t have the same reward who only worked half a day? Let me try and explain why I feel this way..

It all started with this beautiful woman named Chinnaponnu, she is from the Bharathapuram colony. Oh what a sweet heart she is, she is one of the patients that goes to the hospital with us every other weekend. I feel like I know this lady very well by now because I see her so much, even though we can never talk because of the language difference she never hesitates to hold my hand or just sit next to me and just talk (what about I have no idea), well today I took it upon myself to walk around with her from station to station, let me back up real fast, the reason she goes to the hospital with us every other week is because her eyes are so damaged. When you get leprosy it attacks your eyes and makes your eyes sag so even when you close your eye lids your eye is still exposed because of the damage, well this has happened to this sweet lady, so infection has gotten in her eyes and she needs surgery so bad but with lack or money and lack of people helping her because she has leprosy she can’t get it right now, so she suffers every day because of her eyes, not to mention the ulcers that are on her hands and feet.

Back to the story I was helping this dear lady around, when we were going from station to station she kept trying to give up her chair to me and have me sit while she stood, I wouldn’t let that happen but every station we went to she tried to get me to sit, we had gone through all the stations besides the last one where they cut out the ulcers, we were waiting in line and there was a tree with flowers in it. I just walked over and picked off some flowers and came back and started putting the flowers in Chinnaponnu’s hair, I finished and I started telling her how beautiful she looked and how she was all pretty to see the doctor now. I looked up and I saw the doctor, Navamani just staring at me, she smiled nodded her head at me and went back to work, when it was time for Chinnaponnu I helped her into the chair and then took a seat next to her, to comfort her if it got bad, which sometimes it does. Navamani started cutting and then stopped and motioned me over to see. I walked around and what I saw will never leave my mind, in her foot instead of having skin, muscles, blood and bones was nothing but pack full of maggots. There inside this woman’s foot that she had been walking around on for two weeks since we had been here before were maggots, all alive and eating away her foot. I couldn’t stand to look at it anymore and struggled to get back to my seat to comfort this lady as Navamani attempted to cut all of the maggots out. This turned out to be kind of a long and very painful experience. All I could do for this sweet lady was hold her hand and tell her how much she is loved by me and by her Father in Heaven. I will spare you the details but when we were finished Navamani stuck her tools in the bottom of her foot and they came out the front of her foot, it was hollow. We bandaged her up and I helped her back to her bed, when we got to her bed of course she had me sit down with her and then she just put her hand in mine and started talking, again what she was talking about I have no idea but I do know it caused her to break down and begin crying, she just kept looking and me and talking and all I could do was wipe her eyes and tell her how much she is loved and when this is all over she will have her eyes and her feet, I told her that she will be able to run to her savior and when she gets to him she will be able to see his face. I then had to go and help others but I couldn’t think of anything else for the rest of the day besides Chinnaponnu and her feet.

How could a lady who was in so much pain, who had maggots living in her foot be so giving? She was willing to give up her chair for me at every station because she wanted to make sure I was okay. How could she do that? How could she be so concerned with my wellbeing when she was in so much pain herself? And then on the other hand how could I, a 20 year old girl who is healthy and completely fine be so concerned for myself? How many times a day do I pass up an opportunity to serve another because I am so wrapped up in my own well being? How could I do that? This lady knew the true meaning of service and love and even though in my head I thought I was here to serve and help her, I was the one receiving the service and she was the one giving. This lady will never know the impact that she made on me but because of her I will never be the same. I hope from now on I could put my wants and needs last and truly serve, serve with no intention of receiving anything back, no intention of benefiting myself, and no intention of seeking for attention of others. To truly serve like Chinnaponnu taught me to; truly serve as the Savior did.

I am so blessed, never have I thought to thank my Father in Heaven for my feet but never again will I take my feet for granted, In the morning I have never worried to check my feet to make sure that they are still there or check to see if one of my toes have fallen off, no my worries are which pair of shoes am I going to wear today or does my shoes match my outfit, if not oh no I guess I will have to put on another pair of shoes that I own. My worries and my needs are nothing compared to the people here. I have never had to worry where I would get my next meal from, or worry if my dad is going to beat me tonight because I didn’t get enough money begging on the streets, or worry about my house being burnt down with me and my family inside it because we couldn’t pay to keep it, or worry about my mom burning my hands in a fire because she didn’t think I was smart enough. These are all things that I see all the time here, but a lot of the time we will just turn our heads and pretend we don’t see, pretend we don’t hear the cries and pretend it is not happening, but the sad thing is, is that it is happening, it is happening all around me and still my biggest concern is what shoes I am going to put on in the morning.

Who knew what feet and maggots could do to a person? But the thing is you can’t see the maggots. A person sitting next to you could have “maggots” inside of them eating them away and you will never know how much your simple act of kindness could do for that person. Never judge a person because you don’t know what is going on in their life or what kind of “maggots” are eating at them..