From Zarephath to Esquipulas

Nancy Link, RD has been a Registered Dietitian for 48 years. She is technically retired, but continues to work all over the world. She volunteered in a home for women with high risk pregnancies in Nicaragua, worked for Catholic Relief Services in Nicaragua and El Salvador, continues as a volunteer at two stateside CHW clinics, and the list goes on. This is her 2nd year in Esquipulas and says she just really like to help people feed themselves.

During Sunday's education session with the local nurses, Nancy asked about their hopes or dreams for health care in Guatemala. They listed: help for young people with drug and alcohol problems, family planning availibility, breast feeding for all mothers, better clinic conditions for safe care, and more nutrition education.

Nancy made one of their wishes come true. Before she left for Guatemala, Nancy did some research on local Guatemalan food sources. Not the kinds of things grown on farms or available in markets in town, but nutritious herbs and vegetables that grow wild in the forests and fields around Esquipulas. Because names for these edibles do not always translate well and because many of the people we are serving are illiterate, she printed photo flash cards to show the patients referred to her for nutritional education.

"There are gifts out there in the forest," Nancy told me, "hierbas y verdures, nutritious food that will more than supplement their tortilla diet." She went on to describe a woman, originally seen for a swelling in her neck, referred to her for prenatal nutrition counseling. She was pregnant with her sixth child, her other five ranging in ages from 10-16 years old, and her husband was dead. Nancy began show the photo flashcards and the widow nodded along with each one, "Yes, we eat that. Yes, we eat that. Yes, we ate that one yesterday."

 

Nancy then told me about the prophet Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath (I Kings 17: 8-24). During a famine, God told Elijah to travel to Zarephath where a widow would provide for him. Elijah found the widow and asked for water then a morsel of bread. The widow told Elijah that she had no bread, only a little flour and oil. She was headed home to make a meal for herself and her son--so they may eat in and die. Elijah told her to do as she planned but make some for him as well. Do this for me, he said and "the jar of flour will be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD gives rain on the land."

There was another question that Nancy asked the nurses she was educating: "What would you like the rest of the world to know about Guatemalan nurses?" They listed, hard workers, brave, intelligent, responsible, strong, strivers. I think between Nancy's tutelage and the nurses' resilience, Guatemala's flour jar and oil jug may never be empty.

Comments

[Michelle telford-vegas]

Nancy,
I am so glad that you were able to go on this trip to Guatemala. You are such an important part of the teachings that must be shared. I am not with you all physically this year, but am with you in spirit.
Keep the faith,
Michelle Telford-Vegas