You Are What You Eat

Sunday morning, after Paul preached, we began our 5 hour journey to spend a week in Lilongwe for business and meetings. All the babies were healthy and happy as we departed.

Monday evening we called the Nursery just to check in. The news was not good. Lister was suffering from vomiting and diarrhea. Joyce (our nurse) and Augustine (the administrative assistant) took her to the clinic for medical care.

By Wednesday evening, Emmanuel, Barnabas, Chawanangwa, Alesi, and the twins (Thandi and Isabelle), were also sick. What was going on?

Thursday morning, Barnabas and Emmanuel went to the hospital, were treated and released.

Friday, Barnabas and Emmanuel were still declining and Alesi had gotten worse. Joyce and Augustine took the three babies and headed back to the hospital for the third time in five days. Barnabas and Alesi recuperated in the Nursery sick room for three more days. Everything in the nursery was washed, scrubbed or boiled.

All these little ones were suffering from gastro/intestinal problems. For adults this is annoying. In infants it can be deadly. We needed to discover the cause.

If “you are what you eat,” then something in the babies’ diet was the culprit. Joyce decided the problem was with the Likuni Phala. A couple years ago we had purchased a tainted bag of Likuni Phala and now it had happened again. Likuni Phala is a mixture of corn and soy flour fortified with minerals and vitamins. Once they are able to digest it, Likuni Phala is the babies’ staple food.

Administrative Assistant, Augustine, returned the 50 pound bag of tainted flour. The folks at the mill apologized. It turns out they had discovered a broken sieve which allowed contaminants to enter our batch of Likuni Phala. A fresh bag was given to the Nursery.

How to avoid such a problem in the future? Simple. The nursery administrative staff will have the first meal from the new bag of Likuni Phala If no one gets sick, we figure it will be safe for the babies. A small price to pay for healthy babies!

We are now safely back in Mzuzu, and the babies are all healthy in the Nursery. God is good. All the time.