Spriulina update

Hi guys,

I have not had time to blog in the last few days, but I'll try to separate my entries by project to make things easier, mainly for me!

On Friday Dave, the guy running the Spirulina project, and I went down to Naroda to visit the kids at the ashram there. This ashram was started in Gandhiji's time. After independence, these people went to Gandhi and said we may have our freedom, but we are still poor. So he said, well then get educated. We met with the kids there briefly mainly to see how spriulina was working and to find out which kids were having trouble with it in order to get capsules for them. I had the headmaster (or some title like that!) gather all the 8-10 kids that do not drink the spirulina milk and round them up. Spirulina has a strong smell, and is green, which is why lots of kids find it unappetizing. Most are fine if they just gulp it up. I talked to the few kids that won't drink and asked them if they'll swallow the 4 capsules instead, which they were very enthusiastic to do since they see their friends feeling better taking it. The teachers said they have noticed fewer kids being sick (fever etc) in the rainy season compared to normal and the kids seem healthier. So it looks like things are on track there.

Today we started giving Spriulina to the Earn-n-Learn kids - the ones that work on the streets and thus are brought in to make cards and decorations at the ashram to keep them off the street and give them values. We made a big pot of milk and put the spriulina in there - the drink looked like moss! Then we called one of the kids from the ashram over who has been drinking it for the last year on and off and asked him to tell the kids how he feels after taking it. He is the cutest little kid and told everyone how he gets sick less often and feels more energy after starting it. We used that to convince the kids to just gulp it up and that it's worth it! Only a few threw a fit about it, and we're going to try to put sugar in the milk tomorrow, so hopefully that will help. But overall, a success at getting kids on the path to get healthier!!