Catching Water

I won't cease wondering what kind of impact this experience of living and working in Guatemala will have on our girls. I think about the visits to communities in which we work. I carry images of my girls playing alongside indigenous children, their brightly colored guipiles (traditional Mayan clothing) in stark contrast to my girls' outfits bought at a large department store in the US. 

From a trip a couple years ago:

Duck, Duck Goose (Pato, Pato, Ganso)

Makes friends fast, a life-long skill.

My girls have experienced a lot. With time their memories will fade and become more ideas than specific recollections.  

On the way to Honduras a couple weeks ago we stopped to visit a project that MCC supports near the Guatemalan border. Guatemala has the 4th highest malnutrition rate in the world, and within Guatemala this area is among the poorest. 

It’s starkly impoverished. Children with extended bellies wearing clothes intended for kids half their size. The poverty is real and unbelievable and yet there it is, begging us to notice. 

We were welcomed in the community by a group of women, the leaders of the community working to improve their access to water and food. They fed us bread soaked in a sweet corn-based liquid. 

Photo credit: Ellie

Ruby really enjoyed it, and the women enjoyed her. 

The rest of us offered ours to the kids sitting near us. “We just ate lunch. We’re a bit full." 

 We went on a walk to visit their local water source, the most dinky watering holes imaginable.

Peering at one of the "wells."
(Don Peters, MCC Canada Executive Director, joined us on this trip)

These women wake up at 4:30 every morning to walk here and gather water. It can take two hours to fill a small container. These plastic bowls “hold” their place in line, as the water trickles in over the course of hours. 

 I couldn't help but feel the irony in carrying around our plastic water bottles to quench our thirst as we stared into the small puddles of water. 

This is their reality, their daily ritual, whereas my morning ritual, in contrast, is to take a hot shower, drink hot coffee, and check my Facebook. 

This area has been hard hit by the drought that has passed over Central America over the last couple years. MCC’s work here has been to support a local NGO to construct water catchment systems that save and store water for individual families. This water can then be used for things like watering gardens. 

Retrieving water from the Catchment System

The girls were with us, and we trudged up and down the dusty paths, visiting sparse but proudly demonstrated gardens, water systems, and these watering holes. As happens often while living here, I was unsure how much of the desperate situation to explain to my 3 and 5 year-olds. 

It was hot and sweaty and dusty. I carried Ruby on my back up the steep hills. There were several complaints from our girls. “It’s hot. I’m tired. My legs hurt. Are we done yet?” 

I don’t want to instill a sense of guilt in our girls. That’s not the point. But I do want them to know that there are others who have very little. That basics like running water are not a given for all people. (Ironically, as I wrote this, our electricity and water were out for more than five hours due to a thunderstorm). So I explained in simple terms that these women are people Mommy and Daddy work with, that our job with MCC is to help them figure out ways to catch rain water and feed their families. 

“These women have to walk along here to get water. You know how we have water in our house, in the faucet? These women have to carry their water all the way from these water holes to their house. Every day. Lots of times every day. It's a lot of work.”

The next day, as we continued our travels towards Honduras, it began to rain. 

“Mommy! It’s raining!” This, from Ellie. "That means our friends from yesterday can have some plants.”

I just looked at her. Somehow, some little piece of the day before had stayed with her. She made the connection that these “friends” will be thankful it’s raining, that the rain will be helpful. That with this rain, their plants will grow, and their children may get some food.

I hope and pray that these moments will be nestled deep in their hearts, that the feelings of compassion and joy for others will be nurtured. That our life here and the stories we will choose to tell them as their memories of Guatemala fade, will shape our girls and our family in unfathomable ways. 

Food for Thought and Is Organic Necessary?

My last thoughts related to Superbaby, by Dr. Jenn Berman.

Since we began giving Ellie solid food at around 6 months old, I have become increasingly aware of food issues. From nutrition content to pesticide exposure, I have made it a priority to give my child the healthiest and most nutritious food I can find, and afford. We are vegetarian, and I'm constantly asked, "where do you get your protein?"

Well, first of all, vegetarians tend to be much more aware of food intake, and usually have overall healthier diets than meat-eaters. I always want to respond to that question with something like, "Do you get the proper amount of fiber? Do you eat enough whole grains in your diet? Do you know how much protein is necessary?" I think people are less-aware of their nutritional needs than they are willing to admit. Protein is just one of many things to be aware of.

(To answer the protein question, we eat a lot of beans and rice, eggs, cheese, yogurt, nuts and seeds, and cottage cheese. Did you know cottage cheese has 15 grams of protein in one 4 oz. serving?)

Dr. Berman focuses on a variety of feeding topics, including breastfeeding tips and several other feeding tips for the first three years. I want to simply explain what we do for our own child.

I have used a book called, Super Baby Food, by Ruth Yaron. It has great tips for which foods to introduce each month, and how to think about diet and nutrition with children. One of my favorite parts of her book is what she calls "Super Porridge." I don't ascribe to or follow every suggestion she gives, but I love one element of the porridge, and that is the complete protein element. Ellie eats super porridge, or my version of it, almost every single morning. I grind up a variety of grains: barley or brown rice or oats or millet or quinoa, for example. Sometimes I choose one or two, sometime I mix it up and combine several. Then, I also add to the mix a legume, usually dried lentils or split peas. Yaron gives a specific recipe and ratio if you are interested in getting the complete protein correct, which I am, so I do. I grind all these grains and legumes up into a powder, boil them in water for 10 minutes, and usually add my own touch, cinnamon and some fruit, usually apples or pears shredded finally. Ellie loves this cereal and I feel great knowing that she is getting a wonderful variety of whole grains and a complete protein every single morning, plus fresh fruit mixed in.

Another important tip Yaron gives: feed your child yogurt every day or as often as possible. It's wonderful for the digestive track. At first, Ellie didn't like plain yogurt, but she has grown to love it and now gulps it down. I usually mash a banana in it but I love that she isn't eating any weird chemicals or added sugar put into most yogurts. Plus, I've learned to enjoy this yogurt myself as I always eat whatever she doesn't finish. Bonus health points for me!

I have started to make my own bread, which I love. It's cheap, and I know everything that goes in it (especially no high fructose corn syrup). I make a whole wheat honey bread and I add healthy extras like wheat germ and flax seed. I feel good giving my child this bread, and I know she's getting excellent nutrition too.

The final topic regarding food that I can't ignore: pesticides. The question many ask is, is organic really necessary?

"Things that by their very nature are designed to kill come with risks. And they don't always disappear after doing the job. Pesticides can remain in the air, food, and soil; contaminate water; and accumulate in plants, animals, and people." -From Chemical-Free Kids: How to Safeguard Your Child's Diet and Environment.

A few thoughts to ponder on pesticides:

-There are currently 600 chemicals that farmers are legally allowed to use on produce and at least 50 of these are classified as carcinogenic, according to the FDA.

-20 pounds of pesticides are used per person per year in the US.

-Pesticides are present not only in conventionally grown fruits and vegetables but also in processed products like cookies, cereals, and crackers.

-9/10 kids under age 5 are exposed to 13 different neurotoxic insecticides in baby foods.

-Insecticides in apple, peach, grape, and pear baby food that is consumed by 85,000 children every day exceed the federal safety standard by a factor of ten or more.

-20 million children age 5 and under consume an average of 8 pesticides a day.

-Drinking nonorganic apple juice may expose your two-year-old to as many as 80 different pesticides, an exposure that is 20 times that of his mother on a body-weight basis.

Here's why you can't assume the government will protect us from harmful chemicals:

Pesticides are linked to cancers, birth defects, kidney and liver damage, reproductive disorders, and asthma, but they are still present in children's foods. The current system assumes that chemicals are not harmful until proved otherwise. This is difficult to prove because pesticides are too dangerous to be tested directly on humans (yet it's still ok to eat them?). The EPA almost never bans a pesticide that is currently in use. Wow. Scary.

80% of our pesticide exposure comes from food (the other 20% comes from drinking water and in and around our homes). If you feed your child organic food you eliminate nearly 90% of their pesticide exposure.

So what can you do? Well, buying organic can be expensive. We've chosen to focus on the "dirty dozen," the top 12 most pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables. Check out this website for more information and for the official EWG Shopper's guide. I have the free app on my phone in case I forget when I'm out shopping.

I'll list the "dirty dozen" here for you. These are the foods I do my best to buy organic whenever possible:

1. apples (98% of conventional apples have pesticides!)
2. celery (tests positive for 57 different pesticides)
3. strawberries
4. peaches
5. spinach
6. nectarines-imported
7. grapes-imported
8. sweet bell peppers
9. potatoes
10. blueberries-domestic
11. lettuce
12. kale/collard greens

There is also a list called the "Clean 15," the fruits and vegetables that are the safest to buy non-organic. The complete list is also on the above website.

1. onions
2. sweet corn
3. pineapples
4. avocado
5. asparagus
6. sweet peas
7. mangoes
8. eggplant
9. cantaloupe-domestic
10. kiwi
11. cabbage
12. watermelon
13. sweet potatoes
14. grapefruit
15. mushrooms

A few tips:

-Wash your hands after peeling skins of fruits and vegetables.
-Wash and peel conventionally grown fruits and vegetables.
-Remove and discard outer leaves of cabbage and lettuce.
-Make your own baby food.

One more thing to be aware of regarding food: genetically altered foods.

Over 75% of processed foods contain at least one genetically engineered ingredient. More than 30 countries around the world have significant restrictions or outright bans on the production of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) because they have not been proved to be safe. The US, on the other hand, does not demand any such labeling.

GE Foods account for:
-87% of soybeans
-79% of cotton
-55% of canola
-52% of corn

Read your labels and be aware of the above ingredients in most processed foods. Better yet, stay away from processed foods. I don't want my child to be the experiment for the long-term effects of this type of food.

"The children of North America have now become the world's lab animals on whom to study the long-term effects of eating GM products." -Jane Goodall