Nutrition 101
Touched strongly, I start mentally organizing a garden for her, so she can feed herself. But what would she eat, in the meantime? Her palate hadn’t had much for months, if not years, and Mr. and Mrs. Abundance had clearly forgotten to make her cup runneth over. So, why not do it right? There is still light to make a detour to the market. So, why not do it right? Off I go.
“Give me a pound of meat, not bone, not grizzle, not chew chew,” I tell the lady next to a slab of cow hanging on a hook, visited by a large flock of flies. I watch her cut the beast where he is the best. “Good, very good,” I commend her.
Across the way is an old lady with a straw purse filled with greens. I buy half of her produce, which makes her happy. “Urakoze” [Thank you], she says. I say the same, and then march with gait of a man with a mission to the vendor with veggies. They are half dead. “I want only life for this woman,” I say quietly to myself as I move on to other vendors, scouring the place for something potent and lifesaving: garlic and ginger, beetroot and carrots, peanuts, lemons, eggs, dried fish, pineapple and bananas, amaranth leaves and avocados are now in Santa’s socks. And for dessert, we have iron pills on menu. The bag is now too heavy to lift and too precious to drag.
Back to the woman, by now in the dark, I display the life force on her sofa made of earth and explained each item. Learning by doing, nutrition 101. “This is a carrot. It has lots of vitamin A you need to get healthy,” I say instructively. She’s never eaten a carrot before. They are too expensive for her budget.
“And this is a lemon,” I add, knowing that she’s never tasted one of these either because they are also too expensive. “It has vitamin C. Drink its juice and eat its inside, the white, very important,” I say.
“This is beetroot,” I continue, holding up yet another unfamiliar something before her eyes. “It is red and will make your front and back stuff red when you go to the bathroom. It is not blood. Don’t be scared,” I caution her.
“Eat the meat first,” I suggest as she has no refrigeration. She says she has oil, Africa’s equivalent to a refrigerator. Apparently soaking meat in oil preserves it. Okay. I learned something today. “Meat, eggs, peanuts, fish, avocado are protein. You need protein to make your immune system strong,” I add. “The immune system is like a military inside your body that protects you,” I say, suddenly acutely aware that the analogy is a bad one given that she had been brutalized and raped by soldiers too many times in the past.
She deserves to be blessed
I am supposed to deduct the amount of the food purchases from the money she will receive from the kippot, but I can’t do it; not because the math is too hard, but because I can’t. So I give all the food to her as a onetime gift.
[su_pullquote align=”right”]Upon hearing that the food was a gift, the woman gasped again and became tearful. “May God bless you,” she said.[/su_pullquote]
I know exchanges empower and donations deduct from one’s self esteem, but just this once, I will turn my back on my principles. I know it’s better to give a fishing rod instead of fish to people in need, but this woman has no strength to hold the fishing rod, so let’s pretend and look the other way, just this time.
Hearing that the food is a gift, the woman gasps again and becomes tearful. “May God bless you,” she cries.
No need for pleasantries or gratitude. She’s been through hell and back and forth too many times and deserves to be blessed herself.
Tonight and tomorrow and the next day and days, she and her boy will be able to eat. And they will get stronger and not only physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually, too; very strong, because it’s about time.
I will find people to buy her handmade kippot and help others who have the same story. Apparently, there are many women just like her. They can also crochet kippot according to their capacity and be like Bobo: big, bold and beautiful.
It is said when you save the life of one person, you save the world. I think I will call this project Tikun Olam—repairing the world.
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imagem 1 Pixabay 2 Refugee camp by Maher via Flickr (CC BY-ND 2.0) 3 Pixabay 4 Matiop’s First Days as a Refugee in Uganda by UNHCF photo unit via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) 5 Pixabay
