Two more days have gone by and my trip is starting towind down. Tomorrow I will be vistiting the homes of three of the children at school. These children live in farmhouses which is something I’ve neverseen before. Fourth grade have finished their bookand are begging for another one! I also did a worksheet with the third graders today and found some of their answers very amusing. When asking “what letter was on the gold medallion that Jack found?” three different people said “Meera Di “as the answer rather than the letter “M.” Conspicuously, all three girls who put that as their answer were sitting in the same corner of the room (cheating anyone?) Or when asking “What is the pterodactyl’s name” a lot of students said his name was “scissors” instead of “Henry.” How foolish of me to think that, after Henry, the next plausible answer would be Jack, John, or even Rahul, but no, clearly scissors is the right choice. The students are now asking me for my autograph too! Oh God, is this my moment of fame? It took me a good ten minutes to convince them that writing my name on their arms would be bad for their skin.
There was one thing that I noticed this week that I never payed that much attention to in years prior. Of course I knew conceptually how malnourished the students were but I now realize that it was stunting their growth. In height, weight, and muscle development. Below, circled, is a fourth grader named Ansh. He is eleven years old 😦
(For reference, my younger brother, Rohan, is eleven and he comes up higher than my shoulder.)
One third of the world’s malnourished live in India. Of those malnourished, half the children under three years old are underweight. Malnutrition can lead to diseases such as pneumonia, malaria, and gastroenteritis. Seeing as those who are malnourished are not getting enough strength, it is possible that, if they pursue a career in manual labor, as most do, they cannot perform as well as those who are properly fed and therefore cannot make as much money. Yet another factor working against them and keeping them in the cycle of poverty. In addition, undernourished parents can often have unhealthy babies. In comparison, 3.5% of the United State’s children and teens are undernourished. This is why a school like Ruhi is so important to the children’s futures. The school provides bananas, bread, milk, and clean water for each child. Without Ruhi, many of the students could go days without seeing food. Shameless plug: For just fifty dollars you can ensure a Ruhi student eats nutritiously for an entire year 🙂 Below are some highlights!
Ruhi Trip 2018 