Village health workers waiting to get their nutrition parcels outside the Hlomelikusasa container.

Nutrition day at Hlomelikusasa happens once a month. Here’s how it goes: Nokulunga goes into town and buys the nutrition which consists of dried beans, mealie meal, sugar, semp, dried soy mince, and oil. Handing out nutrition is a two day process with a line out the door, waiting to talk to Nokulunga and tell her how many orphans & vulnerable children (OVC) they are cooking for, or how many Child Headed Families (CHF) they have (the child headed families are kids being looked after by an older sibling, & in addition to food, they also get soap, candles, and matches). Each Village Health Worker (VHW) cooks for anywhere from 5-50 kids, so the nutrition is distributed accordingly. And then they have to carry it back to whatever bus or taxi they are taking to get home—and home could be up to 60km away. If they can, they get someone from home to help them carry everything, and whatever they can’t carry they balance on top of their heads! The nutrition they are given is supposed to last for 1 month, but we have heard many accounts of it only lasting 3 weeks. There are a lot of stories of “extra kids” coming to eat the nutrition so it doesn’t stretch the month. The meals are always the same, but they are very hearty, and mixed with vegetables, if the village health workers have their own gardens, which many of them do.

…. And speaking of nutrition… Last night I decided to make a celebratory Obama cake. Here’s the recipe, for those interested:

First of all, look around the kitchen. What do you have? Not much? Perfect!

I melted a candy bar w/ a tablespoon of low-fat margarine; separated 2 eggs and beat the whites until I got bored (about 45 seconds); mixed the egg yolks with some sugar, and hey, why not a little diet coke, too?; some flour (even though I decided to make a flourless cake, it seemed wrong not to put flour in); a splash of Amarulah; a pinch of ginger; and some coffee. Mix it all together, bake it just shy of smelling burnt candy throughout the house (about 45 minutes at 190c), and then voila!

Celebratory Obama cake. Mmmm... tastes like CHANGE!