Forced to eat

This summer I had the opportunity to go back to El Salvador and visit with some friends, Sam and Julie. They are pretty cool people in my book, I guess because before they ever met me they took the word of a friend that I was an okay guy. And they let me stay in their house for free; food and running water too.

I recently reread my journal entry from that weekend I spent there in El Salvador with them. My daugther and her friend Andrea had gone along as well and my daughter was in charge of feeding one of the little babies there, named Angelica. She, like all the kids there, was suffering from severe malnutrition when she arrived at the nutritional center. Angelica was a little fussy this day while Carrie was trying to feed her. She just didn't want to eat and Carrie didn't want to force her to eat. Carrie was a little nerve racked to say the least. Why wouldn't this kid eat?

Later that day as Carrie explained her battle with Angelica over eating, Julie said something that I will never forget, "Some of these babies you simply have to force to eat. You just have to. It's a matter of life and death."

For babies suffering from malnutrition, eating is a matter of life and death. I found out this summer that often times they just don't want to eat, but they must eat in order to survive and to grow and not become sick and die.

Balance this with the amount of overeating we do in the US. Okay, I'm sorry, it doesn't balance itself out. It just doesn't.

Maybe there's a way we could balance it out. Maybe we could set an amount of money aside each month, or each week to give to someone like Sam and Julie in the work they do in El Salvador or Compassion International or to our work in Mexico. We feed hungry families too. But I'm not writing this to raise money for us.

I'm writing to raise awareness and to get Americans to quit stuffing themselves to the point of sickness and start thinking about little ones like Angelica in El Salvador and begin coming up with creative ways to help starving children.

I remember my mom encouraging me to eat all my food on my plate as a child. Maybe she said something like this, I don't remember, "Eat all your food, because there are starving children in other countries."

Maybe we could change that method and put a jar, a can, a box, whatever on the dinner table. And each day, maybe once a meal, place money in it, a quarter, two dimes, a dollar. Then we could take that money at the end of each month and send it to some organization that feeds hungry children. Maybe you've got a better idea. Just try something.

Maybe when we go out to eat we can order one meal to be shared by two people, since they give you so much anyway. Then take the price of another meal we would have ordered and write it down. At the end of the month take all those amounts and send a check to a group to feed hungry people. Hey, it's better than taking home leftovers that get thrown out.

That's all for now. Eat well, think about others as you eat, pray for Angelica.