Hearth

Porridge. Every meal. 365 days a year.

Can you imagine an eating schedule like this? For the last 12 days my appointed "village mother" and I introduced a nutrition program with 6 new and delicious recipes to add some excitement to the taste buds of 7 Kayanga women and their babies. More important than the nice change of pace, food wise, was the protein that it supplied to the children.

Each day of the 2 week program began by finding women in the village who wanted to participate and whose babies fell into the moderately malnourished category, tested by a MUAC band. The MUAC band measures a child's Mid-Upper Arm Circumference and is a simple proxy to measure malnutrition. 

Each day of the program we started the day by fetching water, making the fire and washing our hands. Did you know that ash can be used as an alternative to soap? After a 30 minute session about healthcare, nutrition, contraceptives, or HIV, we would begin the cooking. I have seen the women cook porridge practically every single day; at my center, at my friend's homes, and with my host family, but it still never fails to impress me. Years of practice results in hands of steal, the ability to pick up the boiling hot pots, eyes that can handle the smoke, and such strong biceps for stirring the thick porridge. Whenever my eyes water from the intense smoke, when I squeal from touching the hot handle and when I get tired from stirring after 5 rotations they laugh and shoo me away, constantly thinking of me as fragile. Their jacked arms make it look easy while at the same time looking graceful in their beautifully patterned wrap around skirts.

It's funny that I was in charge of essentially a cooking course with these women, because I consider myself seriously challenged in the kitchen. I give my mom credit, she tried to teach me how to cook so many times, but I never cared. Namibia was the first time I flipped an omelet, boiled macaroni or even mashed my own potatoes (I lived off english muffins and cereal in college). So it felt nice that at the end of every new recipe when the women would gush over the new taste, accomplished by adding a single, simple ingredient such as; banana, peanut butter, cow's milk, eggs, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, mangos or beans.

So for 2 weeks we cooked, taught and fed. The children, ages 7 months to 5 years, were all in the moderately malnourished category except for one severely malnourished. This severely malnourished baby, Kanjenge, is 2 years and 4 months old, weighing in at only 5.5 kg (12 lbs) with hands and feet the same size as a 7 month old in the program. She quickly became one of my favorites because she was so delicate and adorable. By the end of the two week diet she gained 1.5 kg, moving her up to the moderately malnourished category and just 2.0 kg shy of her goal weight! The results for the whole group showed that 4/7 babies gained weight, 2 stayed the same and 1 lost 0.2 kg (we found out he had malaria half way through the program, which I am sure affected his progress).

I do not expect all of the women to immediately go home and cook these recipes day after day. That is a high expectation considering how they have not changed the taste of their porridge like...ever? I do hope they take the egg porridge one back with them, that one is the easiest and most accessible..everyone has chickens. I will check up on the same seven women and their children to see how they are progressing in one and three months. We are coming into a nice time of year when all the pumpkins are ready for picking and other vegetables will be available if people prepared well during the rainy season,which is now behind us. So, fingers crossed they keep gaining weight!