OK, No, I'm Sorry. This Is Not Acceptable!

from the AP news wire:

Poor Haitians Resort to Eating Dirt
By JONATHAN M. KATZ

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums, and Charlene Dumas was eating mud. With food prices rising, Haiti's poorest can't afford even a daily plate of rice, and some take desperate measures to fill their bellies. Charlene, 16 with a 1-month-old son, has come to rely on a traditional Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of dried yellow dirt from the country's central plateau.

The mud has long been prized by pregnant women and children here as an antacid and source of calcium. But in places like Cite Soleil, the oceanside slum where Charlene shares a two-room house with her baby, five siblings and two unemployed parents, cookies made of dirt, salt and vegetable shortening have become a regular meal.

Read the rest of the article here.

On what planet is this okay?? And here I am worrying that I have TOO MUCH to eat! It just makes me want to cry.

But I won't. Tears won't feed them.

I'm not rich, and I know most of you aren't either. And heck, these are supposed to be my sworn enemies. But Haitian or not, when I hear that BABIES have to eat dirt to survive, I cannot, as a mother, sit back and let that happen.

So if you can or want to, or know someone who can or wants to, take a moment to check into organizations like www.haitichildren.com that try to make a difference.

*smooches...not trying to preach, just trying to inform*
-----------
just... don't tell my grandparents, okay?