Thursday, June 12, 2014

Malnutrition or Moringa


When we first came to Guinea Bissau, our family faced many trials.  One of those trials was the new foods in our diet.  We became vegetarians over night, have no refrigerator or freezer, and we are limited on what kinds of fruits, veggies and other foods we can buy.  Our entire family struggled to feel full or to desire to eat.  Eventually we adjusted and with the help of friends in America, I got recipes and spices and was able to start making some delicious meals for my family.  

However, we still had a problem, our kids were losing weight.  I was worried about their nutrition and their little bodies growing properly.  We were blessed to be serving with a couple long term missionaries, Andrew and Lia. Lia worked with CHE, Community Health Evangelism, and one of the things she did was to teach women in West Africa how to feed their children nutritional filled foods. She introduced me to two trees that we have growing plentiful in our yard and in the orchard behind our house called Moringa and Chaya. I tried Chaya first and the kids did not enjoy it at all.  I then tried Moringa and got a more positive response from our kids. Moringa is more time consuming to prepare because of the size of the leaves and picking them from their plant, so Andrew introduced me to Moringa powder.  This excited me because I could sneak it into almost anything I cooked and as anyone that cooks for children knows, sometimes you just have to hide the nutritious stuff.  

Moringa is an amazing plant that is packed full of vitamins and nutrients. (Check out this website to read more about it's nutrients.) Within a week of cooking with Moringa and Moringa powder, our kids faces started to fill out.  After a couple weeks, their clothes started to fit them again and they began growing normally. They have now grown so much that they are out growing some of their clothes we brought over with us.   

Because of this experience and seeing what Moringa did for my family, I want others to know what Moringa can do for them.  When a friend of mines son got sick with vomitting and diarrhea. he wasn't eating and wasn't able to keep anything down that he ate. I decided I would make him mashed potatoes and put Moringa in the potatoes.  He hungrily devoured the mashed potatoes and he did not get sick from eating them, so his mom asked if I could make more.  For two days I made mashed potatoes, which they call papa, and brought it over for this boy.  He quickly got better and was back to his normal healthy self.  

When we returned from our vacation, our laundry lady's daughter, Rebekah, was sick with diarrhea.  She had lost one kilo in weight and was not eating or drinking much. She is only a little over a year, so to lose a whole kilo was a little worrisome to me, although I am not a nurse, so I don't know medical things. I quickly made up some papa for her with Moringa and with the help of Jada and Lydia, we fed it to her. We continued to make it for her for a couple days and she also quickly recovered and was back to her normal busy activities of a one year old.   
  

This is Rebeka eating mashed potatoes with Moringa.


I would say she enjoyed this very much so. 

Guinea Bissau may be a poverty stricken country, but God has planted the very nutrients they need in their land.  God cares about all his children, no matter the country or economic status they are in.  

I am so thankful for Lia and Andrew who helped me to learn about Moringa and encouraged me to keep feeding it to our kids. I am also thankful for those that sent me recipes, spices and other yummy additions to add to our diet.  Our children are now growing like weeds and as healthy as they always have been.  Our God is a good God. 

3 comments:

  1. I love Moringa!! I have been researching even more about it and it has so many healing and nutritive properties! I am taking Moringa powder every day in hopes of healing my Fibromyalgia and chronic pain, I also ordered seeds and have baby Moringa trees growing! Andrew spent last Sunday afternoon with us and I presented him with his own baby tree, he seemed really excited! Love you all and pray for you daily!

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