the mystery of my bowab's wives: solved?

i'm wondering where this relationship is going to go. friendly greetings again this morning when i arrived, an hour late (long night last night + boss out of town = ignored alarm clock). When I go out to lunch the older, chubby wife is sweeping the stairwell. She points at me and then her mouth, miming eating. I'm saved by the elevator.

When I get back she's sitting at the lobby desk and she beckons me over. She shows me a callous on a knuckle and I make an empathetic sad face. Then, with some effort, she lifts up her leg and rests it on a box. Her foot and ankle are hugely swollen and covered in dark splotches. She tells me she wants money to go to the hospital. I feel bad for this barefoot, middle aged woman, probably far from her family in a rural village, but I'm leary of how far this will go if I start giving her money. I handed her ten pounds (about two dollars) and she kind of makes a face, like she knows I know it's not very much, but she's not going to turn cash away. Finally the elevator arrives.