Nutrition Training

I apologize for not keeping the blog updated! Last week I attended community based nutrition training that was conducted by the Ministry of Health. The training lasted all day long, so I was unable to go to the office to use the computer. The training was so helpful in teaching me about specific problems dealing with nutrition in different districts of Sierra Leone. The topics the training covered were infant and young child feeding, complementary feeding, promotion of breastfeeding, nutritional counseling and support, and nutritional care and support for adults with HIV/AIDS. I learned the most from the experiences that health care workers described in their hospitals and clinics. One of the things the health care workers discussed was the constraints local taboos play in nutrition. For example, one of the local taboos is that the mothers believe their children should not eat eggs, fish, or chicken because these foods will give their children worms. Actually, these foods will not give the children worms if they are cooked thoroughly. These foods are actually an excellent source of iron, and many children, as a result of this false belief, are anemic from having an iron deficient diet.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

I returned from Taiama on Friday night. It was a quick trip, but I learned so much. Most of all I truly experienced the faithfulness of God. On Friday morning at the Taiama clinic I was there and ready to get to work. I was disappointed that the turn out ended up not being so great. The entire day I only screened about thirty children. Some of the children we enrolled in the malnutrition program, some were returners, and we had two graduates. It was great to see how excited the mothers were when I explained what it meant that their child had graduated from the program! Since the number of children who came to the clinic was low, it gave Christiana and me the opportunity to talk to the mothers one-on-one about why their child was malnourished. We asked them many questions trying to discover the root of the problem. I learned so much about the struggles these women go through daily in order to take care of their family. If I had not had the time to find out, I may not have learned the reason for the low number of mothers that came to the clinic. We discovered that this is the time of year that they are harvesting their crops. If the mothers stop working in the fields to take their child to the clinic, then some of the food needed to be harvested would go bad in the fields. During the time I spent talking with the mothers, I began to realize that there is no education of what foods are healthy and why. Even though the mothers have access and even grow healthy foods that would prevent their children from being malnourished, these are the foods that are valuable to sell. If the mothers were trained to keep some of the foods for their family, then this would be a great way of preventing malnutrition. Another reason for malnourishment among their children is that it is just hard on the mothers to do all that they are doing and be concerned that their children are receiving a varied diet. These mothers are doing the best they can to make sure their children are fed at all. Even though this trip looks as if it was not a success in the amount of children we saw, I think it may benefit more children in the long run. Lately, I have been praying specifically that God reveals His will to me in the direction the Peanut Butter Project needs to go. It is so easy to get my own will or what I see needs to be done confused with what God's will is. Only God's perfect will can bring about the way these children can truly be helped. Pray that I am able to discern God's perception of things from my own. How easy it is to see something that needs to be done and just because it has the appearance of a good thing, I want to go out and do it without patiently waiting on God's response. Great is God's faithfulness for being with us even when we persist on doing things our own way! This trip to Taiama has taught me some important things about community based nutrition that I can implement into the child malnutrition program. I am continuing to pray and think through how this is supposed to work, so I will keep you posted!

On the road again...

Today I have been busy working in the new peanut butter project production room! It is so exciting to be able to say that! I have been setting up supplies and figuring out measurements for the ingredients. Tomorrow we are making the supplement then heading off to Taiama to do the peanut butter project for this month. Amadu, Christiana, and me is the team traveling to Taiama. I am ready for another opportunity to learn more about the Taiama clinic, get to spend some time with the health care workers there, and follow-up on the children we saw last month. I will be back to the computer by Monday. Please pray for the children and families of the children we will be screening and evaluating at the clinic. Also, keep the healthcare system of Sierra Leone as a whole in your prayers. There are so many amazing programs dealing with healthcare that are beginning all over the place.

Yum!

We did not have work this Monday due to the end of Ramadan. There was a national holiday on Monday, so no one had work and schools were out. Today I have been in the office playing catch-up!

Since I don't have anything really interesting to post I thought I would explain my experience with "bush meat." As we were coming back from the Kono district a couple of weeks ago, we were driving along when one of my Sierra Leonean co-workers asked the driver to stop. So, along the roads you see people selling various things that you can stop and buy. The thing about stopping at one of these points is that the people are so eager for you to buy their product that they practically throw it into your lap as you sit in the car deciding if you want it or not. Well, someone in our car was interested in the bush meat that the people were selling. The bush meat was monkey! You could see these little arms with the hands still attached that had been cooked with the fur still on them! These monkey arms were almost thrown into my lap as we stopped! It was quite an experience. Apparently, the monkey meat is sweet and very tasty. I haven't gained enough courage to try it though!

Kissy Hospital

I have been at Kissy Hospital on the eastern side of Freetown for most of the day. I went to observe the nutrition program they have going on there. It is so refreshing and inspiring to see a program that is doing so much for the mothers of the community. The program teaches mothers whose children are clinically malnourished about healthy food. The nutritionist uses foods that are grown locally and teaches mothers how to prepare and cook the food for their families. I spoke with one mother today who had a two year old daughter. After breastfeeding, the only thing she was feeding the child was crackers. The child is malnourished but recovering thanks to the nutrition program at Kissy. The mothers come once a week, and they go to a kitchen behind the hospital where they learn in a hands-on way how to prepare the food. The next day they return to the clinic for their child's check-up, a nutrition lesson, then they get to take home some of the food they prepared the day before. I am going back tomorrow to learn more about the lesson and needs of the nutrition program.

Well, I'm still trucking around Freetown visiting companies that can provide the ingredients and things necessary to begin the production of the RUTF peanut butter supplement. There is so much traffic in the downtown area of Freetown! Along with the traffic I see so many amputees from the war. It is terrible seeing these people out begging in the streets day after day. I have even started recognizing people that I have seen before. There seems to be a lot of work being done to help these amputees, but there are so many of them that progress is slow. One thing that has been done that amazes me is there is a soccer (or football as they call it here) league for amputees. I have watched these boys play on the beach, and it is incredible what they can still do even without a limb. This is a picture of them playing that I found on the bbc website. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/africa_sierre_leone_amputee/html/1.stm This is a link to an article from bbc about a mother who had her arm amputated by RUFs during the war. She explains the daily struggles she deals with from being an amputee.

After all the time spent traveling, I had a much-needed, restful weekend. I went to the beach and watched rugby with some friends. Rugby is a huge sport here. I would say its popularity is equivalent to the U.S. with football. Today I am in the office working on setting up production of the RUTF peanut butter supplement. I am meeting with someone in charge of a food processing company to talk about buying a bakery style mixer and producing groundnut paste, then I am meeting with the plastic company in Freetown to discuss manufacturing plastic containers to hold the supplement. It is exciting to begin obtaining supplies to start locally producing the supplement in a larger amount. Our goal is to buy as much as possible locally in order to give business to Sierra Leoneans. I'll keep you posted as we begin the production room!

Peace

The Friday before we left to go to the villages was the International Day of Peace. Since living here, I don't think peace has ever been such a reality to me. I have never been around people that depend and pray for peace so much! As I have spoken to individuals, one common thread seems to run through our conversations. They know the value and worth of life, because they know what it feels like to be close to losing it. Sierra Leone has been without war and "at peace" since 2002. Even though there is no fear of war currently in the country, this does not mean that Sierra Leoneans are at peace. As we drove out of the city and into the country I saw many camps for displaced people. The way these people are forced to live is anything but peaceful. They are without the basic necessities of clean water, food, and shelter. Each day as they struggle to survive, they are reminded of the events of the war that caused them these hardships. As I witnessed the conditions the people live in, it was hard to believe what my eyes were actually seeing. It was definitely not a community at peace. Peace is the work of justice and love in the world. In my opinion, the peace that comes from God is the restoration of order to the way God meant for things to be and this is done through love. A common krio phrase that people say when you ask them how they are is "TeGotanki." It means "Give God Thanks!" One thing that I have learned to "TeGotanki" for is the example of those who, no matter what the circumstance, continue to thank God. They may not have physical peace, but they experience peace in their hearts in knowing the love and faithfulness of God.

Back in Freetown

Our CHASL team arrived in Freetown yesterday evening. It was a productive trip for each of us. I have learned so much about the country in this short period of time that I don't even know where to begin! Let me start with the peanut butter project. We were in Taiama Thursday through Saturday. On Friday we held the child nutrition clinic. I couldn't believe how many malnourished children I saw. Seeing and experiencing the children suffering is something that just can't be described. There were three children that were almost two or already two years old and had not even started to walk or even crawl. The children were so malnourished that the mothers supported their heads because of lack of strength in their necks. I was speaking to one mother, and she explained that her child was like this because she had a disability. The mother did not realize that the disability was from lack of nutrition in the early stages of her child's life that would have made all the difference. It was amazing to see the physical results of what the project has already accomplished. Mrs. Betty Sam and I had the opportunity to "graduate" about five of the children that had been a part of the program since April. Their mothers were so excited to learn that their children were healthy! It has been such a blessing to see the physical results of this project.

The picture I posted was taken on Sunday before we left for the villages. Melissa and I have been attending Peace Presbyterian Church. This past week the church began a school. The school classroom is being held in the same structure as worship is held on Sunday mornings. Each week, on Sundays, the room is converted from a classroom to a chapel. In this picture, Melissa and I were helping them carry the desks for the classroom from the carpenter's shop to the church. Of course, we have to do it the African way! On our heads...it is actually easier, and you should try it!