I’ve already written about my anemia charla but last week there was a little something-something added to the end; something to both inspire and aid the mothers. We made blood pudding!!!
But before I discuss that, let me just talk a little bit about how we got there.
About three weeks ago, a random doctor came to Huantar to test the hemoglobin counts of all the children. The results were not spectacular, but they were especially abysmal in the inicial (the preschool and kindergarten). The health post knows that I have a cookbook with recipes specifically designed to combat anemia, so they asked if I could give a charla. I was thrilled. A day was set aside, I was prepared, we had agreed to focus on a single topic, so the talk we were going to give would not be overwhelming, would last a reasonable amount of time, and hey, maybe, just maybe, we were actually going to get through to the parents.
Oh, how naïve I was.
By the time the actual arrived, we were going to give charlas about proper nutrition, hand-washing, teeth-brushing, and my anemia one. Not only that, but we were now also going to fluoridate the teeth of the entire elementary and high school. All in the same morning.
Sigh.
Suffice it to say that we arrived half an hour late, the nutrition charla ran on a bit longer than expected—like an hour and a half longer, and that I had a mildly difficult time keeping my annoyance out of my face. And by mildly I mean very. I was so bad at keeping my face neutral, that when the nurse introduced me, she did to the effect of “and now Kassel, who is very annoyed with us, will begin.” Oops.
But then, things turned around. I went through my talk, with all its shocking information (Did you know that peanuts are a significant source of iron?) and then I pulled out the big guns. Blenders and blood.
The mothers were SO skeptical. There I was putting blood boiled with cinnamon in a blender with sugar, powdered milk, and vanilla, and telling them that it was going to turn out delicious. I kept repeating how delicious it was going to be because, in truth, I didn’t actually know. I had never made the recipe before and was desperately hoping that this blood pudding would in fact be delicious and a huge success.
At long last the moment arrived. All the ingredients had been blended together and there was nothing left to do but put it on a cracker and try it. Gulp.
So I did. And it was delicious. Together with a nurse tech and the doctor, I passed out cracker after cracker, and slowly, one by one, the mothers tried it, nibbling at it at first and then eventually swallowing it all down. By the fifteenth cracker, I wasn’t alone in encouraging the mothers to try it. Those who had were chiming in, preaching it deliciousness and begging for seconds. It was time, I decided, to put it to the Kix test—I wanted it to be “Kid-tested, Mother-approved.” BRING IN THE CHILDREN.
And oh did they eat it up.
The head of the health post also enjoys a cracker of blood now and again.
Slowly the blender emptied until there was only a Tupperware
container’s worth of the pudding left. I
packed it up and together we all walked over to the elementary school to start
fluoridating teeth. Mind you, there were
ten minutes left in the school day at this point, so all we really did was walk
to the elementary and then turn right back around.
Except not me.
Because I had a dessert in my hand and the children picked up on that real quick. “¿Podemos probar?” they asked me.
“Claro que si,” I responded.
So in the most unsanitary manner posible by US standards, but in a
totally reasonable one by Peruvian, I spoonfed, using the same spoon, some
sixty-plus kids blood pudding. And oh
did they eat it up.
Besos!
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