Wow-2 doses of Cipro and I am a new woman! Back to 100% today.
Today I was asked to speak to the woman, Lillian, who runs the Nutrition Clinic. I also spoke to the cooks and pastor Giovanni to try to gain an understanding of what they are doing, how they create the menus and determine the children's needs. For those who don't know, I am an RD (Registered Dietitian), which is why I was given this privilege. There were a few things lost in translation, but I do know these things: The Nutrition Clinic serves 13 children 2 meals/day, I believe 5 days/week. Their budget is combined with the Daycare, which serves approximately 480 meals/week. All together, they serve 600 meals/month on a budget of $300-$350. About 50cents per meal. How do I tell them to serve more fruits and vegetables? I basically tried to gain information as I think I would have to spend more time there to offer many suggestions. When I asked the cooks about fruit, they said that someone had been donating fruits and vegetables, but they stopped in February. The children get fruits and vegetables roughly once/week.
The work they are doing is essential to these children. There is no WIC program here. Mothers give the babies bottles of sugar water to make them stop crying, which helps for a moment, but of course does not satisfy their nutritional needs. Wow...so hard to explain. I asked the pastor how he does not get discouraged. He said it is difficult sometimes, but that we live in a fallen world, and we must deal with these things. Very true, and real to me now.
More later.....
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