Source: Pinterest
"E lo fa ditshiwane khisimusi ngwanake." - the father to his daughter, telling her to take the sweets to the orphaned children
Their father died of Tuberculosis, leaving behind them, his two sons, and his wife, now a widow left to fend for herself. He was a talented man, having spent most his life doing some freelance garden work around surbaban homes; he had not had a tertiary school education.
When the TB bacteria claimed his life, he had not battled with it for too long. It very quickly consumed him, as he had struggled to always have the life-saving medication. From his village, the nearest hospital was an hour's drive away, and it was not always stocked with medication. Only by the help of Medicien Sans Frontier, and God himself, has that hospital even survived.
Under the microscope, they look pretty in pink from the staining dye, but how deadly without the stains on the living lungs. Such is the nature of these little living things - so deceitful by their little size, but so destructive through their life spans.
Could he have been saved, had the hospital been better maintained?
But at least, his children cannot suffer to the point of starvation, because in this village, it takes the village to raise the child. Many had lost their parents at tender ages, but their lives had been preserved, and they had passed the many exams of life outside of their schooling.
Disclaimer: Pseudonames have been used as far as possible and any identification with any of the characters is not intentional.