One of the
things that we decided to do with Project 21 recently is to fed malnourished kids at
the hospital. Tuesday morning we have a cooking demonstration on how to make
nutritious bouille (rice porridge). Other times we just make it and give it to
them. We are trying to start feeding the kids three days a week twice a day.
Today I helped to make the bouille and distribute it at the hospital. Today
there were 11 children that were considered malnourished, which was about half
of the kids there. In the evening I helped distribute it once again. When we
were about to feed some more we heard some crying. I didn't pay much attention
to it at first, because I thought that it was a kid. Then Naomi (our
translator) informed us that a baby just died. I have never been in the same
room when someone just died. I have been to quite a few funerals, but that's
much different. It’s harder to look at a limp body that was alive a few minutes
before. How can the baby be dead? Maybe he is just unconscious. I wanted to
deny the death, since it happened so recently. Living in the U.S. I have been
so sheltered from death unlike how it is in places like here.
Shannice
and I stood on the side observing what was happening. People in pediatric ward started
to gather around the lady with the baby. Some people said things to her while others
just stared. I looked over and saw a guy bending over the bed crying, who we
assume was the father. The hardest thing for me to see is a man crying. Tears
started to develop in my eyes, but I just held them back as much as possible.
The woman who we assume was the mother started to whale out things. She had
tears running down her face and was exclaiming her pain. A nurse came by and
took the IV for blood transfusion and Quinine out of the babies arm. It seemed
so final. Do you sit there after your child has died? What is there left to do?
They started to pack up the little that they brought to the hospital. The baby
that died is one of the babies that we feed earlier. Did the bouille that we
made for him not make a difference? Would it have helped if we feed him more?
So many questions flooded my mind as I watched. I watched the pain that was in
their faces. I watched as other mothers began to cry. I watched as someone
tried to close the eyes of the lifeless baby. Then they took a small cloth and
tied it around the babies face, so that you couldn't see his eyes. Then they
got up and left the hospital grounds.
As I stood
there I thought of the other people that were in the hospital. As they looked
at this family did they fear what would happen to their own? They were only a
bed or two over, so death could easily come knocking at their door. Which
child’s life would be next? Whose family would have to leave in agony as the
fight against the disease ended in defeat? It’s sad to think that way, but it’s
reality here.
As we continued to feed there was a silence that was in the
air. There was also a deep silence within myself. There was nothing that I
could do. Saying sorry to them would amount to nothing. I do not have any
children, so I don't understand that type of loss. Death is part of life, but
it hurts me most when it is a child that dies. As I write this post I am still
saddened within me. I don't know the baby, but I feel some of the pain that the
family feels. My heart goes out to the family that just lost their baby. May
they be comforted in this time of despair and find hope.
The bouille
that we made may not have saved the boys life, but we hope that it makes a
difference in others. The bouille is full of nutritious things that can help
the children to grow fatter, while at their stay at the hospital. We also hope
that by demonstrating how to make it with a few extra ingredients, more
families will do it that way and save their children. We are hoping that every
scoop of bouille could make a difference in their life.
~ Comfort those that
need comforting ~
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