13. Three Meals A Week

The doctor checks the needle in Guled’s little arm, before he gives the mother the powder.

“You need to mix it with water, but it has to be clean water,” he explains.

Hamsa nods absently while holding 7-month-old Guled tightly in her arms. The doctor shows her how to mix the powder with water and then hands her a package of special paste that contains the nutrients that Guled needs to grow stronger.

She takes it and tries to feed him, but he is unresponsive. The doctor watches him for a few moments, sighs and shakes his head.

“Try again in a few minutes. The drip will hopefully give him some energy back,” he says and then leaves to attend to the next mother and baby in the beds beside her. The room is full of them. Every night a different baby dies. Three nights ago, it was a mother that did not wake in the morning. It is always the nights that are the scariest. When the doctors come back in the morning to check which babies were strong enough to have lasted the night. Hamsa always waits until the doctor checks Guled before she has the courage to look at him. Still alive. Barely, but he is breathing.

Today they weighed him, and he gained 100 grams. So, he is 5.2 kg now. He should weigh eight. But he is alive.

When Guled moves she tries to give him the paste again, and he does start pulling at it with his tiny mouth, but after a few seconds he stops. She tries the powder, but he starts crying weakly, so she stops and looks around herself to find help.

“Is his fever down?” a mother in the bed opposite her asks and nods to Guled.

“I don’t know,” Hamsa whispers.

“He looks better. He will make it,” the mother says and smiles at her. Her own baby is sleeping in her lap. Hamsa knows she should ask her about it, but she does not have the strength for conversations. She only barely has the strength to hold onto Guled and to watch him. Just in case he might want some more food, so he can survive. She shifts a little on the bed, waving away a few flies and forces herself to not lay down. She needs to be strong for her little boy. Hamsa watches the doctor move from mother to mother in the crowded room and waits for him to return to her to help her make Guled eat some more.

She herself has only eaten three meals this week. That is more than Guled was able to consume in his weak state. Her husband did not find any work this week, so they did not have the money to buy any food. They only ate what was left over from some of her neighbors. This is their new reality now. Three meals a week instead of three meals a day.

They were cattle herders, but the animals all died of starvation. It has not rained in years in Somalia. The fields dried out. There were no plants or grass for the animals to eat. The water holes dried out. So, the animals died one after the other. First their animals died, now it is them who are dying. But not today. Today Guled has survived one more night.