CHOCOLATE ROOM OR
DIRT COOKIES?
Written
by Luz Leigh – 30 January 2008
When I read the
headlines in the newspaper today, I could hardly
believe my eyes. There on the same page, almost
side by side were two most unusual items. “Rising
food costs force Haiti’s poor to resort to eating
dirt” and “A real ‘sweet’ room---made of
chocolate---is unveiled for Valentine’s Day
stunt”. The dateline on the article about the poor
eating dirt was Port-au-Prince, Haiti while the
chocolate room was, of course, from New York City.
After reading
these articles, I sat thinking “How can our world
be so screwed up that people eat dirt to survive
while we in America can lick chocolate from a room
made entirely of chocolate?” I am not advocating
the communist way of life…..take from the rich to
give to the poor, but surely here in America we
could find some better way to use our resources
than to build a CHOCOLATE ROOM. Get real. I love
chocolate as well, if not better than, the next
person, but even I can see the waste of money that
could be used to help feed the hungry, clothe
those who are without warm clothing, find shelter
for the homeless, or any number of other
humanitarian things.
Some of the
poorer Haitian people rely on a traditional
Haitian remedy for hunger pangs: cookies made of
dried yellow dirt from the country’s central
plateau. By adding a little salt and vegetable
shortening the dirt is transformed into an edible
“cookie”. The article quoted a sixteen-year-old
girl, mother of a month-old-son, as saying that
when her mother doesn’t cook anything, “I have to
eat them three times a day.” Although she likes
the taste of the cookies, sometimes they give her
stomach pains and make her baby colicky when she
nurses him. She lives in a two-room house with her
parents, who are unemployed, and her five
siblings.
When we sit down
to eat our meal today, let us thank our Father for
his bountiful gifts to us, even if it is not as
fancy as the chocolate room. It is edible food
which brings nourishment to our bodies.
You know
something? The next time I tear into my favorite
candy bar, I will be wondering…..hmmm was this a
portion of the chocolate room wall….did someone
really lick on it before the room was dismantled?
With that, I
shall retire to the kitchen to see if there are
any non-chocolate goodies for me.
