International Family Medicine Education
Vol. 40, No. 1
57
Caring for Each Other—Tanzania
J. Dennis Mull, MD, MPH
She bows her head and lifts her ragged skirt just slightly, as she bends her knees to curtsy me and says “Shikamu,” greeting me, her elder, with respect. I whisper a reply, hushed by her humility, for it is I who should “Shikamu” her, my snowy head bowed toward her bare brown feet— it is she who walked in dust since early dawn, her youngest slung across her back. Now here she is, burning with malaria, sapped by anemia, pale echo of delivery number 9. “Please help me to feel stronger,” she implores, “so my husband won’t buy another wife once more.” “I’ll try,” I say, feeling grateful for her visit, for her trust, for being able to stem adversity’s tide, just a little. And later when she leaves, her medicines in hand, her hope ascendant, she thanks me, and I say to her, in the Swahili way, “Asante kwa kushukuru”—which means “Thank you for thanking me.”
(Fam Med 2008;40(1):57.)
From the Department of Family Medicine, University of Southern California.
Correspondence: Address correspondence to Dr Mull, University of Southern California, Department of Family Medicine, 1975 Zonal Avenue, KAM B33, Los Angeles, CA 90033. 323-442-1325. Fax: 323-442-3332. dmull@sbcglobal.net.