2007-03-28 Sunrise

Here is a Carlablog….

"Fat" is not a four letter word in South Africa.

Yesterday I was in the bookstore looking for a book titled "Clued Out on Culture". It is a book aimed at reviewing the many different cultures within South Africa and I thought it would provide good basic information; with 11 official languages in this country, life is not straightforward. Unfortunately, as the book was out of stock, I'm stuck with borrowing the book and making my own revelations.

One of the things I'm cluing in to is that the Black culture has a different perception on body size than North Americans. While our Nigerian friend (Ochi) suggested this too is changing, I have been interested in what body size implies. During one of my home visits, I spent time in conversation with an older Black woman. Let me clarify, I spoke English and the mother would respond haltingly if she could understand me. The Nursing Sister present translated what I said into Xhosa. I'm not sure that it was a direct translation as most of the responses were extremely animated. When they spoke Xhosa together, I witnessed another world filled with noise and clicks and arms swinging. The highlight of the interview was the discussion on the weight of the mother's HIV positive daughter. Apparently when her daughter had started anti-retrovirals, she had come close to dying. Her weight had been extremely low—I think she said 21 kilograms. Now, the mom happily reported, she was over 75 kilograms! At this point, there was joy in the room. The mother clicked and laughed, and made many gestures- puffing out her cheeks, ballooning out her arms- to indicate how large her daughter was. The nurse kept repeating in an incredulous happy way "She's fat! She's fat!". And when she added "She's fat like you" (pointing to the mom), the mom absolutely beamed. Apparently, when the daughter was diagnosed, the mother quit her job to care for her. Now, due to the meals that she makes on her 2 burner stove, the daughter is well nourished and thriving. That was the point of the joy. Being fat meant that the mom had been able to provide for her and meet (and exceed) her nutritional needs. It was cause for celebration! I do understand that the North American perception of fat is much different and for many different reasons. However, it was an interesting comparison.

Food security is an issue that is becoming more and more obvious to us as we enter into dialogue with a range of people around us. As Ochi told us, many people think of food- how to afford it, what and when they'll eat, etc - constantly. Even well educated people may be focused primarily on the basic necessities of life. Both Katy and Henry's schools have a designated day where the kids are encouraged to pack extra food that is then delivered to a community school. Although a start, it somehow seems like efforts such as that fall very short of the target.