food

I got an email recently from someone asking how the world food crisis was affecting Tajikistan. And it made me think I should do a post on the blog about it. But I kept delaying because I'm not an expert, and this blog is not typically about depressing stuff, and talking about food shortages is pretty durned depressing compared to putting up pictures of Ella.

But here goes: Yes, in case you've not heard there is a growing world food crisis. I am not going to take the time to look things up and tell you all the most shocking statistics, but I can tell you that the cost of bread and rice have doubled since we arrived last September, and that this is indicative of other staple items, and that this is a major problem for many people who were eeking by on a couple of bucks a day already. On top of everything else, the harsh winter apparently had some destructive effect on the potato crop, and more seriously, in the last month Tajikistan just fell victim to a locust plague that, I am told, wiped out everything green in the southern half of the country. Oh how creation groans!

I am no expert on the situation, but I hear that there are lots of other factors involved in the food shortage, one of them being the whole bio-fuel craze in the US, which has lead to mass amounts of food being burned so that it can be used to feed cars instead of people, a fact which actually seems a little criminal from this end of the planet (Are we going to save the environment by starving all the people? Actually I bet that would be really good for the environment).

Anyway, I am not sure how the food shortage story competes for the headlines back home with other stories like people hacking each other to death in Africa, or the criminal indifference of the Burmese government, or which pop star forgot to wear underpants, but it is a pretty serious deal, and it is at least partially man made.

So what is a little team of humanitarian workers to do? You may remember a few months back we sent out an appeal for aid for "winter relief". Well, zoikes we were amazed by the response and have received something like $45,000 which seems like a lot to us but is small taters compared to the volume some organizations deal with, but with us at least you know you get quality (locals have told me they call the UN the United Nothing because of all the millions that have been spent here with no discernible impact). We have used it for several hospitals, an orphanage, a homeless shelter, etc, etc, and also for food aid distribution. We have been able to provide bi-monthly packages of staples (thats food staples, not the other kind) to the needy. It can be discouraging to think that the several hundred families that we have been able to help are only a fraction of a fraction of a percent of the people around here who need it, but when you see a package reach someone who needs it, you think "well that was a good thing, I guess we should keep doing more of that." This lady thought so:
On a lighter note, as I write this Jen's mom should be somewhere over the ocean on her way to visit Ella for a few weeks. Photos to come.