We plodded though the mud and ended up visiting a smoke-filled shack in Dunoon where a young mother was cooking dinner on a fire. Her second child, no older than a couple years, was hiding in a corner. As often, the young lady was now a single mother, the father having disappeared into oblivion with another girl.
Clearly, this small family had trouble making ends meet with an unemployed mother and two young children, one of which suffering a handicap. So we decided to send for regular provision of essential food and to organise a consultation by a renowned orthopaedic surgeon at the excellent private Vincent Pallotti hospital in Pinelands. Notula was taken in and plastered whilst awaiting for the much-needed surgery. A club foot can be quite easily treated without surgery if taken early, but Notula being over 4 years old, surgery had to be undertaken. The date was fixed, surgery planned and offered by the surgeons at an extremely advantageous cost. And guess what ? Nomute and her mother were never seen again. We never managed to find out what had happened to her, why she disappeared and for what reason her mother would have given up on the opportunity to treat her handicapped daughter at no cost. |