After completing my first year as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Esmeraldas, Ecuador I have decided to refocus my energies into nutritional education and food security. As I am changing my vision as a volunteer, I have decided to revamp my blog into a practical guide for others working in nutrition and food security in developing nations. I hope to give my readers a view of my world through the angle of food. Just as they say, “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach,” I hope that you can relate to my experiences and mishaps in my Ecuadorian kitchen. As the 50 year old Ecuadorian Peace Corps Agriculture Program will be shifting to food security in the coming year, I too will be shifting my focus to work with the farmers and my community in the area of food security and nutrition, as it seems that this is the most pressing issue I can tackle.
While my kitchen may be lacking of many efficient gadgets of those in the states, I believe I can get by with the necessities. I will be working with a two burner stove, 3 pots, 1 frying pan, 1 cake mold and a few other kitchen essentials like a carrot peeler (which I love) a knife and a few utensils. This may limit the breadth of my experiments but it will induce more creativity in the kitchen which is welcome.
Over the last few months I have been on a mission to cook healthy foods that my 5 year old neighbor will enjoy. His diet now predominantly consists of rice, plantains, egg, various cow body parts and fish. His parents claim he will not eat anything and as a result his growth is stunted for his age. His parents have taken him to various doctors and are giving him a plethora of medicines, but to no avail. They are planning a trip to visit a shaman who will perform traditional remedies, such as cracking an egg on his head and other more spiritual medicinal techniques. As a frequent invitee to their home for meals, I have seen that meals lack nutritional variety and two of the main food groups, vegetables and fruits, are unfortunately underrepresented while others such as white rice and oil seem to steal the show every meal. A carbohydrate heavy diet is general trend here in the community and throughout many parts of the country, especially those which are impoverished and in turn lack financial means and education to provide a balanced diet to their families.
Though there are numerous areas in which I could designate my time and effort over the next year, I have decided that nutrition and sanitation is the best place to begin and will hopefully have a lasting effect in the community. I will continue to work with my other projects, the community bank, the cacao cooperative and the reading program which I also hope to expand over the next year.
