Of Tofu, Malaria, and Tragedy

So yea, not that I was exceptionally worried or anything… But the Tofu was a huge success and is very popular with everyone in village.




We made tofu brochettes (meat on a stick) as well as tofu soup with a delicious spicy peanut sauce. The Brochettes are by far the most popular and are in high demand. After succeeding with the process, my women’s groups and I marched around the village giving out free samples in order to gage public opinion and to build a market base. At first, people were a bit skeptical, but their skeptism melted away as soon as they tasted the brochettes. “Wow, this comes from soy?”



Now as a result, we have a number of people offering to donate money to keep this project going. Although a nurse and I fronted the cost this round, there are any numbers of others willing to help out in the future.


As mentioned in an earlier post, soy has relatively high amounts of protein and other vitamins, which make it incredibly valuable to the malnourished and poor in village. Soy is relatively cheap and has a number of uses. Speaking of which, there is now interest in making soy milk and other soy products on a large scale. Needless to say, I will be busy in the future and am excited to watch as the number of malnourished children decreases. (We currently see about 100 cases of malnutrition each week)



Malaria has also been keeping me busy. Luckily, there have not been too many mosquitos so far this year, but that will definitely change as rainy season goes on. Although villagers usually have no defense, excluding bed nets, against mosquitos carrying malaria, I am happy to say that my villagers have a new form of defense. Simple Mosquito repellant. Although every PCV in country makes the same mosquito repellant, my region of the country seems to have never even heard of it. They are now awestruck that they can now make this repellant on their own and avoid mosquitos. We now have an expanding collection off women’s groups that are excited to make, and then sell for profit, neem cream from the leaves of the neem tree.



Tragedy; of the ironic yet almost comedic, but not quite, variety. It hailed this past Monday. Yes, I live in what most would classify as a desert, but big chunks of ice fell from the sky… and killed a couple of kids. The children had been outside herding animals when blocks of ice fell from the sky and hit them on their heads. I imagine that before the incident, they were probably more surprised to see the ice than I was…



The kids were young and there therefore will not be a funeral or mourning. (Funerals and mourning are reserved for old people.)