Of the 15 children you bring into the world, a handful may survive to adulthood. Some of the children we saw were nearly 2 years old and couldn't walk because of malnutrition. In most places there is no indoor plumbing, and frequently the water you are drinking is the same water that animals and people have been bathing in. Malaria and tuberculosis are common problems, as are worms and fungus. One woman proudly presented us with a moon- rise over Haiti when she flipped up her dress to show us the scars on her rear from worms that had burrowed into the skin and had to be cut out with a razor blade.
Anemia is common in women.
Yet amongst all the squalor and misery, the dignity and the beauty of the people shine through. No matter where we went, the children we saw at the clinics were dressed to the nines. I would exchange smiles with the mothers over the beauty of their children, much like the waiting rooms back home. You were in a grass hut or a cinder block courtyard with sheets tied together for a roof and a slimy green cesspool out back. Many of the children you were seeing would never reach adulthood, and once they did they would have the same path to follow their parents had.