The first part of the path up the hill is the steepest and there isn’t a lot to hold on to; some of the trees have thorns, so you’ve got to watch where you place your hand! My companion, Esperanza, didn’t even seem to try to find handholds, she just motored on up.
After that treacherous bit, there’s still a ways to go, but it’s not quite as steep. I always think back to the first time I climbed this hill with a few colleagues from Presbyterian World Service and Development. It was late 2007; I was new in Guatemala and not nearly accustomed to the altitude yet, making the climb feel like the last few kilometres of a marathon.
Unidad para el Desarrollo (Unity for Development), with eight members, is one of the smaller groups of Mam women that I work with. Several members live close by; one has a long walk from her place farther down the hill. They’re busy women because they have domestic tasks such as childcare, housework and meal preparation but they also help with agricultural work. As in many rural communities here, the men may be away for years working in the United States.
As we reach the house, we’re soon greeted by Hermana Leona, emerging from the small kitchen building. (Hermana, literally “sister,” is the term used by church women to address each other.) She’s an enthusiastic, energetic woman, belying her 70-odd years. She and Esperanza exchange some words in Mam (one of the 23 Maya cultural groups in Guatemala), and soon the other women arrive.
It’s hard to get a good look at Jorleni, Isaura’s nine-month-old daughter (and Leona’s granddaughter), since like all Maya babies she’s kept on her mother’s back, but she did look malnourished, and her runny nose indicated a cold. Since the toddlers also looked very small for their ages, a session on healthy, appropriate weaning foods seemed like a very good idea.
Usually we would use whatever foods the women happened to have in the kitchen, but the pantry looked quite bare, and I didn’t want to use foods the family was counting on for a meal. Luckily, I had decided to bring ingredients. In an effort to ensure their intact arrival, I brought eggs in a fancy supermarket carton as opposed to the usual loose-in-a-plastic-bag.
We made scrambled eggs in generous oil for extra energy, with a little onion, sweet pepper and tomato for vitamins, and tried a few other preparations. Mam mothers tend to delay introducing meat to their babies and it’s not very accessible anyway, so eggs are a good nutrient-packed alternative. When we had the children try the “baby food” we’d prepared, I paid close attention to how much little Jorleni’s mother fed her, in the hopes of encouraging her to consider giving the baby larger portions at every meal.
I give thanks to God for my own healthy toddler, Jeremy, and for having the means to be able to feed him well, and enough education to know how to ensure his good health. It’s always hard to see other children of Jeremy’s age but much smaller and not as developed. That’s where the hard work of organizations like the Fraternidad of Maya Presbyterials comes in; the more we can educate women and provide opportunities for them, the healthier their children will be.
We reviewed the main learning objectives for feeding babies, including giving them meals and snacks as frequently as possible, making sure the babies are hungry by giving them food before breastfeeding, and feeding them beans and not just the liquid they’re cooked in.
Soon it was time to say our goodbyes and for me to head back through the woods and slip down the hill, thinking about the Quiché group I’d be visiting the next day.
I’ve worked with eight other Mam groups and 12 groups of Quiché women, doing similar classes on nutrition and health topics. The Fraternidad of Maya Presbyterials works in three main areas: support of women’s ministry, a revolving loan program with technical assistance for both traditional handicraft projects and agricultural projects and education in health and nutrition, which is, of course, where I fit in as a nutritionist.
