Trainings, Part 2

I’ve now conducted another two sets of trainings with farmers in nearby villages.  The first we held in a school room, and on the first day the room was packed with about 50 women and a few men, and children were hanging on the windows and in the doorway.  I didn’t have enough handouts for this many women, which they got kind of quarrelsome about (…women…).  Even if they can’t read them, they each want their own handout.  I think that some of the women also sometimes come because they’re hoping for money or food.  Oh well, hopefully they’ll take away some helpful information in place of the money I don’t give them.  In case I’m making them sound stingy, I’ll also say that a nice woman brought me 5 beautiful large avocadoes as a gift.  I’ve found them to be very nice people.  Not polite perhaps in the way that mid-westerners are, but friendly.  And most of the people are genuinely interested in the trainings.  The second set of trainings were held under a tree outdoors, which was very pleasant except for the bugs and the ever-present chickens.  There are always chickens roaming around everywhere, but I’m told they always find their way back home.  I had no idea chickens had enough brain in them to do that.   Under this tree, I also managed to stand right under where a bird decided to “defecate”, as they say.  Twice.  I’m telling myself it’s a sign of good luck, and double the poop means double the luck.  Either that or the African birds have decided to claim me as their own, which I think is also a good sign.   

Waiting for the other women to arrive.  As you can see, my lecture materials include a stand, flip chart, and markers (and of course, Agnes).

It is difficult to convey the level to which our food knowledge and customs differ.   I’ve received so many interesting, funny, and sometimes sad stories and questions… not all of which am I able to answer.  Sometimes they want advice on how to handle certain medical conditions, which I’m clearly not qualified to address.  I’ve been asked about leg pain and feet pain and chest pain and other random things.  I guess because I went to University they consider me a general expert.  I certainly don’t want to misinform them, so I’ve learned to only tell them what I know and be firm about not saying anything I’m uncertain about.  Sometimes I’m able to look things up at night and tell them the next day.   It’s particularly difficult when my advice conflicts with advice they’ve been given by their doctor, like that drinking water with meals is dangerous?  Or that eating raw eggs helps with ulcers or heart disease?  I don’t know where they get these things.  I told them they could eat raw eggs if they wanted, but they might die of diarrhea instead of heart disease. 

That sounds a little flippant, so I’d like to clarify that I emphasize thoroughly cooking animal products.

In addition to being asked about eating raw eggs, I’ve been asked about drinking raw pancreas juice (apparently it has perceived healthful properties… maybe the enzymes?), drinking raw blood from the cow, and eating raw insects.  I encourage eating insects as a good source of protein, but not raw. Agnes said it used to be common to think that if a fly landed in your tea, it was a sign of a blessing from God.  So instead of removing the fly from their tea, they would push it down to the bottom again and again until they finished their tea.  Luckily I think that practice is on its way out.  For the most part, they understand the important food safety things, especially when it comes to clean water and washing things pretty well, but the nature of their outdoor/indoor farming lifestyle means that the way they handle food and cooking equipment would still make most people in the US cringe.  

Some of the kids that are always hanging around the trainings.  When they see that I have candy to hand out, they are infinitely more interested in what's going on.  Today a little girl cried when she saw me (again, I think it's the white skin thing), and I had to bribe her with a sucker to get her to tolerate me.

One young women talked about struggling to breastfeed due to lack of milk and asked what she could do.  This issue is particularly difficult because she has very limited options.  Formula is expensive.  It’s also not safe to give your child to another mother to breastfeed because of the risk of contracting AIDS.  And contrary to a recent trend that has apparently surfaced in the US, homemade formula is not a good option.

(stepping on soapbox... if you ever hear anyone talking about making their own formula and why it’s better than commercial formulas, you should probably smack them and tell them to wake up from their mom-blog daze.  Companies put millions of dollars and years and years of research into figuring out what should go into formulas to make them as healthful as possible, and you think you can do better?  It’s not only stupid, it’s endangers the health of your child at a critical stage of growth... stepping off soapbox)   

I’ve also heard more than one story of a mother being poor and feeding their young child only cassava porridge or maybe white corn porridge.  The child obviously didn’t do well.  Anemia, as I said before, is a big problem, and many children die from it, so we spend some time talking about good sources of iron.  Vitamin A is another common deficiency, and they lack a lot of ‘orange’ in their diet.  Their maize is white, their sweet potatoes are white, and the only common orange thing seems to be mango.  Their egg yolks are a nice deep yellow from the "free range" chickens, but eggs are expensive.  So I talk a lot about liver.  I wish that fortification or supplementation were options, especially for pregnant women, but at this point I don’t think it’s practical.  However, things like carrots and orange-fleshed sweet potatoes are available to them for growing, so I’ll be recommending the adopt more of these crops, at least for their personal use. 

This sweet girl wanted to take a picture of me, but I made her be in it with me instead.

Some of the women want to talk about business and how they can use the things that they are learning to make money.  So we talk about composite flours and sprouted grains and soy milk, and I put on my stern face (which doesn’t get very stern) and tell them that when they are making things for others, the food safety things we’ve talked about become extra important.  Then Agnes puts her stern face on and tells them that she will help them, but to take the learnings from the training and apply them for the health of their families and potentially a business- it’s up to them. 

The 3rd training group.  When we take a picture they love to see it and find themselves and ooo and ahh over it.  You can see the one woman in the middle hiding her face behind the cup of soya milk that we just made.

I have two more sets of normal trainings- Wed/Thur., and Fri/Mon (I'll post more about my weekend activities later). On Tuesday I'll conduct a ToT training, which is for people who will be able to continue the training and act as a resource after I'm gone.  Additionally on Tuesday I'll be presenting to members of the district council to tell them about what I've done.  I will be traveling back to Kampala on Wednesday for a debriefing, and then Friday the 29th I head back to the states.  In some ways it seems like I've been here forever, and yet the time is going so quickly!