Some of my favorite things

Last night I went to a talk held by a local university. It involved two of my favorite things:

1. Ending malnutrition in children in developing countries

2. Peanut Butter

Don't think those two go together? Project Peanut Butter does. Dr. Mark Manary, Pediatrician, teacher, and founder of Project Peanut Butter gave the speech last night. As someone who worked with malnourished children in India, I was intrigued by his research and innovative solutions to solving severe malnutrition. It started with a simple study to see if severely malnourished kids could recover at home (instead of in the community health centers or hospitals) with a peanut butter RTUF (ready to use food) that had extra vitamins and minerals and some sugar to make it taste good! After discovering that this supplement worked and worked better than previous supplements, Dr. Manary went about finding ways to use local ingredients and to produce this peanut butter locally. And he did! It was a very hopeful story, a beautiful blend of assessing a problem, finding a solution, and making that solution sustainable (both culturally, financially, and environmentally).

Dr. Manary was very knowledgeable individual and he talked about the difference in malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa and in India. In Africa, the problem is a lack of food which is different from India, where cultural beliefs about food are the root cause of malnutrition in children. The talk just illustrates how important it is to know the culture and situation you are going to serve. What I liked most about Dr. Manary's talk was that he lives in Malawi, he lives in the villages, and it was through trial and error and careful observation of daily life in the village that Dr. Manary found what worked. Once he did, he worked to make sure that the food was culturally acceptable. Once he opened up the plant to make the food, he employed Malawians. He took an idea and gave it over and let the people of Malawi make it their own. I am really convinced that that is the only way to make sustainable change.

I could not figure out how to attach his website but just google Project Peanut Butter and you can learn more about it!

Here are some pictures of the kids I worked with while in India. I especially like the first one, I keep it on the cover of my binder to remind me why I am going into medicine.

A small victory is still a victory

When caring for people with dementia it is easy to become depressed. To feel as though nothing will get better and it only will get worse. It is tempting to let yourself slip into a sort of apathy, thinking "what does it matter if I engage him in conversation, he doesn't even know it's me?"

But you can't! Because there are victories to be had, lessons to be learned, and joy to be given, even amidst the pain. That point was driven home today as I talked to my grandfather as he ate his dinner. Every day for the last two weeks I have, in addition to our normal conversation, asked him the same three questions. One he always gets right, one he sometimes gets right, and one he never gets right. But tonight, when I asked him the question that usually stumps and confuses him, he sat up, thought about it and then proudly proclaimed that his dog's name was indeed Seamus. A victory!

On the topic of victories, the flowers in the pictures began blooming a couple of weeks ago (evidently unaware that it is the dead of winter) on a beautiful green ivy arrangement we have in our home. What a wonderful present!