Why I love my job – Quote 4 of 10

“Lomtfwana ubukeka amuhle.”

She looked me straight in the eye as the said this, and chuckled as the SiSwati words rushed from her mouth. Her face was creased as smiling faces sometimes crease when skin bunches around the nose, eyes and forehead. Her words were dripping with gladness. Her handshake whitened my knuckles.

“What did she say?” I asked my translator, Thembi, after the old lady left the room.

“She said that she is happy. The gogo is very happy that the child is looking good now.”

The child is a 6 year-old named Phumile, and she started ARVs two years ago. Her previous health dossier included herpes zoster, chronic upper respiratory tract infections, pulmonary TB, pruritic papular eruption, and other things that nobody wants on his or her health dossier.

Translated directly, the quote means "the child is looking good now."

Indeed, she was.

(I sometimes find it hard to believe that I actually get paid to watch sick children look better and better.)