We are up early on Wednesday and after grabbing a quick bite for breakfast, we walk down to the Medika Mamba clinic. Today, Caroline Gast, who runs the Medika Mamba malnutrition program at Canaan, will take her program mobile and we will go to the mountain village of Rousseau. We load the back of the truck with boxes of Medika Mamba, baby scales, a wooden measuring device made by a Missouri man just for this program, bags to carry the Mamba in, packets of baby clothes and essentials, and Kids Against Hunger food packets. First, we stop at a bakery and Caroline purchases bags of baked bread rolls. The people walk for miles and wait for hours for the Medika Mamba program, so Caroline provides everyone with a large roll of fresh bread.
Looking at the main highway from the back of the truck we ride in.
Mothers walk miles to enroll their babies into the program. They all wait so very patiently. I see this over and over at all the clinics. No one wears a watch or checks time on a cell phone. Haitian Time. So very different than the impatient people you and I deal with every day when waiting is an issue. Everyone here is grateful for the opportunity to be seen. I am always so inspired by the true humility and gratitude and patience that I see. This country may be impoverished by material and nutritional goods, but it is rich in decency, dignity, and compassion.
We pass out bread to everyone.
I call this little girl on the right "happy face". Her face looks full, but her hair is scant and light-colored, telltale signs of malnutrition. Orange hair is the obvious give-away. Full bellies but bone-thin arms and legs also spell malnutrition.
Moms everywhere love their children. Some parents walk five to ten miles to be part of this program. Babies with bare bottoms are given diapers. The bags on the right with crosses were made by women at First and Calvary Presbyterian Church for mothers to carry the Mamba home in.
Moms everywhere love their children. Some parents walk five to ten miles to be part of this program. Babies with bare bottoms are given diapers. The bags on the right with crosses were made by women at First and Calvary Presbyterian Church for mothers to carry the Mamba home in.
This amazing wood device is used to measure the kids for the Medika Mamba program. It lies down for babies, or sets up for the kids who can stand.
Medika Mamba (mamba is the Creole word for peanut) is a ready-to-use therapeutic food that was developed by Dr. Patricia Wolff, Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis. It takes 6-8 weeks for the program and has a high success rate at reversing malnutrition. To learn more about this product, please visit the website at mfkhaiti.org.
Babies are measured for height, they are weighed, and the muex (upper arm is measured). Weight gain is dramatic when the program is followed.
Oftentimes, families have other children at home who may not be malnourished. Caroline will
send Kids Against Hunger food packets with them so that they too will have something special.
We load up the truck and leave Rousseau mid-afternoon, after every family has been seen. Our ride down the hill coincides with Haitian kids coming home from school--that is, those who are fortunate enough to go to school. Many kids cannot. Those who do are often transported home on motorbikes----carpooling on a motorbike: one adult driving and up to nine kids packed on, four in front and four behind. As we head down the mountain, this boy begins to run after us to gain a ride on our "tap-tap".
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