Falling Through the Cracks

Through friends I met a Tanzanian woman who ran a health and massage business in Dar es Salaam. Besides giving therapeutic massages, Numi also plaited hair and gave manicures and pedicures to support her three children. She’d built up a clientele in the expat community by word of mouth and was able to open a bank account to save for her children’s education.

The enterprising single mother was in her mid-thirties when I met her. A tall thin woman who had separated from her husband, she seemed to be doing fine on her own. She looked to be in good health, although she caught a few colds and grew thinner in the year that I knew her.

When Numi suddenly dropped out of sight, none of her clients knew how to reach her since she didn’t answer her cell phone. One day her brother called to inform me and other clients that Numi was sick, but he said she’d be back to work in a couple of weeks. A month later, her 15-year-old son called and said in a plaintive tone, “My mama has died.” He couldn’t tell me the exact cause of her death, only that she’d been sick for some time and got pneumonia.

Another client told me that she’d driven Numi to the hospital for tests and treatment, and she’d suspected that Numi had tested positive for HIV/AIDS though she wouldn’t admit it.

Numi’s sudden passing left me with these haunting questions: Why didn’t she try to get AIDS medications before it was too late? Was Numi afraid to learn more about HIV and face the stigma around it? With millions of dollars pouring into Tanzania for AIDS treatment and with life-saving drugs available at no cost, why did an enterprising networker like Numi have to fall through the cracks?