He discovered in several instances that the answer was 40 percent before relief corn arrived, and 10 percent afterwards. But he got answers and found that the donated food was spelling the difference between life and death. They were making flour from the cellulose husks of corn. He also found that shortages extended beyond food to include the most basic medical supplies. Doctors perform surgery bare handed because there are no rubber gloves.
Patients agree to operations only under the most extreme circumstances, since there's no anesthesia.
One boy, small for his age, but otherwise showing no obvious signs of malnutrition, sat near another boy who gazed ahead with a vacant stare. His bowed legs and withered arms looked like brittle twigs ready to snap in the first high wind. One has had an untreated case of dysentery, and the other hasn't. I asked a doctor if he could put the children on IVs. He said he could put them on saline solution, but not glucose, because there was no sugar to make it.