Work sort of continues...

After a very restful weekend filled with all together too much food (Thanksgiving was really the part that said "hey, you're eating too much all the time") and reading and relaxing again, Monday brought work. I had spent part of the weekend translating a document on the internet Lyn left me about a study using Spirulina to help HIV patients. Spirulina is a blue-green algae with lots of toted health benefits, but I was supposed to read it and then pass it on to Dr. Vindu and discuss it with her and do something similar with Moringa. Yesterday I gave her the study and talked for a bit and I'm going back today at 2 to talk about it since she was supposed to read it last night. This will give us some guidelines on the moringa research with the HIV children, but I still don't know how it's going to work. I think moringa is a good plant, but as the only thing added to a child's diet, I'm not sure how much good it will actually do. That's what the study is to find out.

The major downside I see with the study is our lack of moringa powder. We only have 20kg and the dose recommendation by most people is 25g a day and that works out to 800 days worth of powder for children. Even using a fairly small sample size of 40 children that's only 20 days, which probably isn't enough time to notice a change. The moringa at Mawe Hai isn't producing yet either, so I'm not entirely sure what's going to happen. It is possible to maybe get some more moringa from Rwanda but will have to see what Dr. Vindu says. That dose though does provide a number of nutrients to the children when compared to the recommended daily requirements:

Protein – 20%
Calcium – 60-100%
Iron – 70%
Magnesium – 40-60%
Selenium – 75-100 %
Vitamin A – 100%
Vitamin E – 100%

With the ranges of nutrients, the younger kids have the higher percent and the older kids (like 6) have the lower percent. There are also other vitamins and minerals in smaller quantities but these are the major ones. Any reduction in dose will decrease these nutrients. There might be other health benefits though too. Moringa has been used for centuries as traditional medicine for many ailments and when children first start eating moringa many report expelling intestinal worms, so that is a benefit too. I'll have to wait and see what the value of moringa is.

We also need to plant the rest of the moringa seeds and since I'm meeting with Dr. Vindu we haven't done that yet. Maybe tomorrow or Thursday I can make it out there. I'm also in active discussion with Joe about getting transport more for me. I'm either going to be getting a car and I'll have to pay gas for it or a bicycle and can bike the back road to Mawe. Hopefully that'll all be figured out by the end of the week. Even though I live at his house it's often hard to find Joe as he's always busy and often doesn't get back until late, but we'll get it figured out.

Other than that, Dr. Christina left this morning. Eve left Sunday evening to meet her parents in Rwanda and will be back Thursday for a couple days before heading out for good. Christina is leaving on Thursday but will be back for Christmas. Melisa is leaving on the 5th or 6th of December. The ranks of young people are thinning and we need replacements... any takers?

Facebook also decided it likes my computer again so I added some pics around Maji to the Maji album (fancy that) and there are some flowers on there that I have no clue what they are and wouldn't mind someone helping me out with what they are.