After the cancer wards today, Kelly and I decided to stop into the malnutrition unit, which of course feels like a little bit of an oxymoron here where you see so many children on the street that you feel are probably malnutritioned, you sort of wonder how all kids don't end up there. In this unit, as kids are nursed back to a healthy weight, parents are taught how to add protein and other nutrients to matoke (the banana staple that most kids are fed three meals a day) because it has very little nutritional value. While we were there, we held and help feed a couple of crying babies who were very small and underdeveloped for their ages. We then saw a five year old who was no taller than my 2.5 year old niece Hannah, with arms like sticks, no hair, and she couldn't speak, she only made cat-like cries. It was heartbreaking. She had been abandoned, so once she is well, will end up at an orphanage. She has some serious heart problems considering the amount of wasting, but it seems she was found in time. Our group is headed to an orphanage next week. We bought a bunch of donations to bring, and are looking forward to spending some time with the kids there.
In the evening, we had a group dinner with all of the Americans that are here, we went for Pizza. It's been good to have the whole group here to talk to and discuss what we see in the hospital and sort of reflect on things.
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