GOODY TWO SHOES: Good-hearted Dr Ina just loves her Vincci shoes

I HAVE to tell you this story, a very short one, about caring and compassion and about being human.

It’s not my intention to place any morals or judgments in this story I am about to tell, it's just a story. I was in Makassar, Sulawesi, recently, as you might have known from my previous column. The first story was about this beautiful island in the Indonesian archipelago and I wrote about the mysterious Tana Toraja, where the people have a great culture and where they honour their dead with a big party.

Well, I had a very brutal case of food poisoning one morning, where I thought a broken arm would be more bearable.

Food poisoning? Don’t ever wish it.

I was totally incapacitated, barely strong enough to call the front desk, and the girl at reception said: “Don’t worry someone will come up to help you to the van to take you to a hospital.”

I was actually worried about the prospect of being admitted to a foreign hospital. Once I remember being in a similar situation in the 60s when I had a severe case of diarrhoea, and of all places in Kabul, Afghanistan.

The hotel proprietors took pity upon me and took care of me for about a week, free-of-charge.

The wife of the hotel owner said if I was sent to the hospital in Kabul, chances are I will not survive the ordeal.

She said it was cheaper to put a sickly patient to “sleep” rather than to treat them.

Back to Makassar; I was driven to a Catholic hospital, the Stella Maris at Jalan Somba. And a woman doctor, Dr Ina Tandirerung, was kind enough to treat me, and she also asked her  colleague to give her a second opinion.

They concurred in the diagnosis; I had food poisoning. It took about an hour, and in  between the prescription and proper documentation of my ailment, we got into small conversation.

She said she had been to Kuala Lumpur and loves the city. Once in a while after saving enough, she would buy a plane ticket via AirAsia to Kuala Lumpur so she could buy her favourite shoe brand, Vincci.

In my state at that point in time, I just nodded and acknowledged her story.

She then said she stayed at a very cheap budget hotel and after shopping for her shoes would take the RM9 AirAsia bus ticket to LCCT and fly back home to Makassar, with her precious Vincci shoes.

She asked me what I was doing there and I told her I was doing some work and hopefully would try to find my way to Tana Toraja, to which she exclaimed: “I am from there and I am a Torajan. Go see it. It is a fascinating land.”

We bid goodbye after thanking her for the treatment. I went to my room and slept, and the next morning I, strangely enough, recalled our conversation clearly about her being in KL just to buy her favourite brand of  shoes, and I didn’t even know the brand Vincci!

One good turn deserves another. I thought if she could treat me so well, and after telling me a story that was so poignant that we here in Malaysia take for granted, I decided to go back to see her and ask her for her shoe size. Initially she thought I was strange.

But I had to convince her that when I went back to KL, I would send her the shoes and all I wanted was her shoe size and her address.

As I write, her two pairs of Vincci shoes are on the way via Pos Malaysia special delivery.

So just to let you know, she will be wearing her Vincci shoes. So from now on, the name Vincci will have a special meaning in my life, in my quest to be with nice and beautiful people of this great blue Planet

Water….hey actually there is more water than earth on this one!

Hope you like the shoes and hope to see you next time, Dr Ina!