I thought I would start a new blogging trend to try and post more regularly. I'm calling it Friday's Favorites. These are snippets of some of my favorite or most unique moments throughout the past week. This week I have three Friday's Favorites.
1) I was visiting one of the kiddos on the ward today and we were playing a game with the translator. Since I am working as an RD now I wanted to get a little perspective on the food here as that will be one of my tasks (to keep the patients happy and get them to eat). I ask this 14 year old guy Mati if he likes the food here and at first he says yes, but then he gives me a confused look, changes his mind and decides no. I ask him why and the translator replies "it makes him want to vomit!" complete with hand motion of the vomit. I really hope not everyone feels that way about the food here, but I guess I have my dietitian work cut out for me!
2) This one actually came from one of the other nurses as I didn't see it myself, but I thought it was very African-esque. Listed on the admissions form for the patient food restrictions: "no snake please"....no worries about that one!
3) And my final favorite's moment: realizing this week that most of our donated rice cereal that we give to the babies is infested with weevils. Yes, these fun little black bugs lay their eggs inside the rice kernels and eat away all the good nutrients.
But more than that, coming to the realization that many of the mothers here have no problem giving this to their kids anyway (as a little extra protein never hurt.) Never, ever would you see this happen back home. I suppose though that here you've got to appreciate all the donated, expired products that have been sitting in hot temperatures for far too long creating ideal conditions for the little critters. From now on the rice cereal boxes go into the deep freezer to prevent bugs, but I'm sure going to think twice about buying expired food products in the ship shop here on board.....yum. I can't wait to see what other fun food issues come up!
Yeah for the new friday post! Good stories... especially #3. Did you take that picture yourself or is it off the internet? I remember the time I bought a cake mix from the ship shop and found some lovely black surprises... only in Africa!
ReplyDeleteAre weavils bad for you or dangerous? We always had weavils in our grains in China, too. I just thought that was normal. Then again, a lot of things that happened in China were considered normal til we moved back to the States!
ReplyDeletehaha kim yeah they are medically safe if ingested, but just kind of gross to eat..that's all! =)
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