When JeanJean and Kristie were here from Haiti this summer and shared about life in Haiti, the image that most stuck with my nine year old, Sara, was the scene that Kristie described of seeing children making mud cakes to eat because there was no other food to eat.
You can check out an article about this practice that is increasingly occuring in a country that is desperately under-resourced and facing even greater starvation due to flooding there from four hurricanes. Check out http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22902512/
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this is absolutely so hard to comprehend.
I've been thinking a lot about the idea of "brothers and sisters"... what I would do for my own brothers and sisters, how much our own kids love each other, and how short I fall in my consideration of others outside my own tiny sphere... I want to understand that my sister in Haiti is making mud cookies to sell in a market. My brother is tucking one in his pocket to stop the gnawing ache in his belly. How can I have 12 boxes of cereal in my cupboard right now, when my "family" goes days without eating?
There are no easy answers... God help us.
This morning while I was slathering my toast with jelly and crunchy peanut butter, I was thinking about Haiti. My kids were playing with their food. I'm with you, Maribeth. This morning in Haiti my brother woke up before his wife and kids and didn't have any breakfast to make, or work to do, or money to buy food. What do I do for him?
I just forwarded a report from the Iowa Haiti Coalition Team that met last Saturday in Des Moines to discuss the situation in the village of Pignon, Haiti. Here's a portion of the report:
"…the needs were great. Things are dire. There is nothing to sell and not $ to buy.
"There is no food available. If food makes it to Pignon, it is so high priced, no one can afford it. Rice is their staple and it is not grown there. A bag of rice that cost $18, now costs $45. It rose to as much as $50 before the government stepped in and demanded the price be dropped. 1 cup of rice costs more than the average person makes in one week. Gardens were flooded and those on the mountainsides were washed away, so there is no local food to buy.
"Supplies for construction have risen 45%. A bag of cement was $52.
"Roads were still impassible due to water 2 weeks after the hurricane. After that, impassible because they were washed away. It is still raining everyday. It is the rainy season. Fuel is up to $15 a gallon.
The Hospital
"The hospital has not paid employees for 2 months. Fewer people are able to make it to the hospital for treatment. And once there, people are dying because of lack of blood for transfusions and lack of supplies. The price of medications is off the scale. The hospital relies on 1/3 of their patients paying to keep the hospital going. Right now there are no paying patients. There is no more rice in the hospital depot."
Someone yesterday said, "I'm not sure I know what it's like to really be hungry." Me neither. Is it possible for me to identify with what's happening to our friends in Haiti?
I was in the WalMart grocery area last week and the insane amount of food choices offered to us on shelf after shelf is also hard to comprehend.
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