23 July
    Today I accompanied Annali to a nearby town to instruct a group of women in proper nutrition for their babies. The meeting was supposed to start at 11am, but only three of the women showed up on time. An hour and a half later everyone was finally ready to go, but the man who was leading the session - a doctor paid by the government - did not seem to garner much respect from the women. He eventually managed to explain there there were three groups the women needed to focus on: protein, carbohydrates (for strength and weight) and vitamins. The problem is that the women don’t know what any of those things are, nor that feeding them more protein and vitamins would help them. Many of the women themselves are malnourished, and seem unable to think about anything except the immediate present. Often they feed themselves first, and refuse to take their children to the clinic to be checked for parasites (which cause severe malnutrition). Apparently the nurses at the clinics often get extremely frustrated with the mothers and express their frustration in less productive ways. I, too, don’t think I could patiently work with this group of people without expressing some frustration in an unproductive manner.
    About half of the women at the meeting seemed to be a good few years younger than me. It’s so weird to see them with babies strapped to their backs, knitting or nursing. They almost look like kids themselves, but they know another whole side to being a woman that I can’t even imagine.