The Daily Grind

Its a bit of a different feel working in South America rather than just traveling through here, or working in some office somewhere.  While the "work" I'm doing is mainly just volunteer work, to me at times it still feels like a stressful job, although a different type of stress that a clock-in clock-out type of job.  I don't really have a boss that gets mad at me if I mess things up.  Thats a plus.  I also get to see interesting things, like the guy who stuck a screwdriver blade up his nose on a bus in Lima in order to get us to buy chocolate.  He was an ex-con who is trying to turn his life around by selling chocolate instead of robbing people.  I bought the chocolate.   But the downside of working down here is if I mess things up then I have to deal with the consequences, which may mean a long bus ride somewhere or quite a few apologies.  For example, one day while I was in Lima I got a phone call from a district president in the North of Peru who said that he was running late to the chapel and was wondering how long we would be there.  "Be there for what?" I thought.  Then I realized that instead of the 29th of June, like we had originally planned, he had told all of the Moms to bring their children to the chapels the 29th of May for the evaluation, and I was no where nearby.  In that situation the only thing to be done is apologize and hope he lets us work with him in June.  

As a whole the work has been enjoyable.  I'm helping start nutrition projects for Liahona Children's Foundation all throughout western South America, which sounds a lot harder than it really is.  In reality the whole process is pretty simple.  I, or someone with the foundation, calls a stake president (ecclesiastical leader) and asks if we can weigh and measure the children in that area to see if there are any that are malnourished.  We set a date, and we show up on that date to weigh and measure the children.  After that the ones who are below the World Health Organization standards for height and weight receive nutritional supplements each month through a local coordinator that we choose during the nutrition evaluation.  

For such a straightforward approach things sure can get complicated.  Not including those who cancel, or change dates for the evaluation, the majority of the issues arise when there has been a lack or communication to the community about the project.  Lots of times people think that American doctors are coming to give free medical services to everybody.  More than once have I had someone angry with me because I wasn't a doctor.  In those situations I usually recommend one of my mom's natural remedies or "witchcraft" cures and see what people's reactions are.  My favorite is the mom's who are worried about a child with a cough or runny nose.  I always recommend a lemon and honey tea, but I tell them to put a few chile peppers in it, and see what it does.  They never believe me, but that is my homemade remedy that I've sworn by for years.  Its probably good that I'm not a doctor.  

Anyways, another problem that seems to happen in the evaluations is that no one shows up.  For me this is the one that hurts the most.  Recently we screened two towns in the northern Bolivia/Brasil border.  Both have districts, which is a smaller version of an LDS stake.  In one evaluation we had about 30 kids show up, and 3 entered the program, one of whom was on the verge of death.  In the other area, which is less than an hour away, over 115 kids showed up and more than 50 entered the program.  The reason it hurts when no one shows up is because I'm guessing that there are malnourished children in both towns, but we can only help those who show up to get help.  

A lot of people think that giving handouts is the worst way to help people.  In all honesty what we do is basically give handouts to mom's so that they have something to feed their starving child.  In the states we can't really understand the situation of the people here.  We think "Get a job" or "learn how to eat healthier" or "I'll give you a loan so you can get yourself out of the situation you're in."  While in some cases these philosophies might be true, its a little hard to tell someone to get a job when there are no jobs to be had.  And its hard to give a loan when there is no market for them to sell their goods.  And its hard to tell someone to eat healthy when they don't have anything to eat.  We Americans have a hard time fathoming someone not having anything to eat.  But sadly, its a reality.  Some children eat one meal a day, if they even eat a meal, and their bodies visibly suffer.  One of the children that entered the program from the town where only 3 entered was so malnourished that I knew from just looking at him that he would enter the program.  We use three standards in order to tell if someone is malnourished; height for age, weight for age, and BMI.  He was extremely low in all three.  He looked a year or two younger than his age and rather than a smiling, or crying baby, (both of which signify life), he looked like a limp shell of a human being with barely enough energy to care that there were strange people measuring him.