At the end of the day at Maison de la Gare, after classes are out, it is time to eat. What is offered is not much, not enough to prevent the boys from growing up stunted, or malnourished, or at risk of much worse. But, it is enough to keep them alive and to keep them going. The speed with which the kids line up at meal time is evidence enough of the importance of this food in their lives.
Talibes enjoying their meal
The Maison de la Gare Dortoir d'Urgence offers more complete (and more expensive) meals to the runaway talibes who find refuge there. These kids can be in the worst possible shape, having been living alone on the streets, not staying too long in one place, in hiding from their marabouts. And, they do not stay too long in the Dortoir. Often just a few days, sometimes a few weeks, rarely a few months. Not long enough to make up for a lifetime of neglect and extreme malnutrition. But, we hope, it will be enough to help strengthen them and give them a chance.
We have known these children for so long that we have perhaps become accustomed to their smaller statures and thin limbs. Their empty begging bowls. To mistaking twelve year olds for eight year olds. Perhaps Robbie and I had gotten too used to leaving with the dojo talibes to arrive for training on time, before the evening food had been served at Maison de la Gare. They boys do not eat along the way. Nor do they eat after training. They just don't eat.
training at the dojo happens nightly
However, my eyes were openned wider than usual last week when we trained at Sor-Karate Club together with the dojo talibes. The class was challenging, testing my skill, my speed, and my Japanese. But, not my conditionning. After the warm up, class was suspended about every 10 minutes for a rest break of a minute or two. The boys were sweating heavily (so were Robbie and I, who are not used to training in over 30C, but not as much as the dojo talibes), and exhausted. Some would be dizzy or faint, needing a moment to recover. Several of the dojo talibes astked me: "was I not tired?" Well, actually, no, I was not. Last year when Robbie was invited to lead the warm up, the dojo talibes had a hard time keeping up with him. But the end of Robbie's intense warm up, they looked ready to drop, not ready to begin. It did not really sink in at the time, but now I ask myself: How could I have missed such an obvious issue: Some of these boys are expending more calories in this karate class than they likely consume in a day! This cannot possibly be sustainable.
Dojo talibes waiting outside a restaurent as a late night meal is arranged
A little while ago Maison de la Gare had tried to offer a better meal at the centre to the dojo katate kids, but too many problems arose. Food is expensive, and Maison de la Gare can not afford to feed many this way. So, much jealousy and arguing arose over the preferential meals being served to some but not to others. Staff at Maison de la Gare told me: "If some eat, everyone will want to eat." Early this week after training we bought the dojo talibes a very much appreciated good meal. I was about to do so again the next night but Robbie warned me: "be careful, we had better not encourage them to get used to eating every day". Now stop. Think about those words. There is a terrible truth to these two statements. But, just think about the absurdity of such words when discussing nutrition for children. Or, for anyone. I fear we may have lost sight of the forest for the trees. Perhaps this is due to how we, in our own lives, take nutrition for granted. And here, being hungry is just normal. So, it would not naturally occur to raise lack of food as an issue to be solved for the karate program. Some things, many things, just are what they are. Indeed, a few of the dojo talibes had stopped doing karate for lack of enough to eat, but all that was discussed was that the numbers at the dojo had dropped.
To better understand the nutrition issue, I spoke with some talibes, and staff at Maison de la Gare. Traditionally talibes beg at the doors of private homes for their food, receiving a part of the family's meal of rice with vegetables, and sometimes fish, in their begging bowls. Traditionally, Aminata, the administrator at MDG explained, talibes have had a reliable relationship with a family, known as ndiatigue, leaving their bowls before meal time, and later returning to eat a reasonsbly decent meal. But, this explanation does not seem to jive with the stunted statures, quick susceptibility to disease, and mad rush to the food line at the end of the day. Upon further questionning, she admitted that perhaps only about 20% of talibes are lucky enough to have such arrangements today. In fact, staff member, Noel Coly adds, many talibes arrive at the MDG Centre each day not having eating anything at all. Noel explains it is somewhat easier for the young ones to be successful begging for food door to door, or to find a ndiatigue areangement, but very difficult for older kids. However, the younger talibes often have other issues with food. MDG's nurse, Awa explained that young talibes are often required to return their begging bowls to their marabouts who collect the food. Marabouts then retain the best for their own families, returning a small handful to the talibe child. She and the others explain that the young kids without ndiatigue must beg to 10, or 15 or more homes to accumulate a handful of food, or perhaps some cookies. Awa also confirmed that the older ones eat even less, usually just bread and coffee that they purchase in the market in the morning with money they may have earned in excess of their begging quotas, known as versements.
My friend Arouna, a talibe for many years, now in high school and on staff as a talibe in transition with Maison de la Gare, explained that there are just too many talibes in Saint Louis to be supported by the traditional ngiatigue system. In fact, a recent survey conducted by MDG pegs the number of begging talibes in this city at about 15,000! A few thousand of them flow through the doors of Maison de la Gare. A few hundred of them eat at MDG on a regular basis.
The kids rarely eat fruit, according to Aminata. Infrequently they may buy a piece of fruit for 50cfa if they have extra money. Ocassionaly Maison de la Gare can provide some fruit from the garden, but not regularly by any means. Protein is a rare luxury. Bread and white rice, with some small amount of cooked vegetables if they are lucky sustain these children. Of the 23 older talibes who train at the dojo, only one or two have ndiatigue arrangements. And, four are staff in the talibes in transition program with means to feed themselves a bit better. The rest go hungry. My friend Yaya is from The Gambia and has been a talibe since he was 10 years old. He is now 18, a dojo talibe with a ndiatigue. Yaya considers himself lucky, eating more than most, and considers himself well fed. But, he is very small for his age, and needs the regular breaks offered in karate training. It occurs to me that we have very different perceptions of the term: Well fed.
Robbie and Yaya share a passion for karate
Finally, two years since starting the karate program at Maison de la Gare, Robbie and I fully realized the implications of these karate kids not having enough to eat. And, that the karate dojo schedule reduced their limited access to food even further. And, that this is a problem we could solve, now that we were standing back, viewing the full forest! We discussed the problem with MDG president, Issa Kouyate. He confirmed how problematic it would be for Maison de la Gare to provide separate meals at a separate time, but he appreciated the problem. Issa suggested we find a local eating place where the kids could go, near the dojo, where a meal could be waiting for them on a regular basis.
dojo talibes testing the fare of a local restaurent, thorouly enjoying the experience
Robbie and I tested a couple of possibilities, always with some of our dojo karate friends along for quality assurance. We enjoined our friend Mapate, a long time friend and supported of Maison de la Gare, to help us find a restaurent and negotiate a price. At one point when it appeared we might not be able to find a reliable arrangement for a reasonable price, Mapate offerred his own home, suggesting we hire a local home cook to make the regular meals. In the end, we securred an arrangement with a restaurent located between the dojo and Maison de la Gare. The meal, dojo talibe-approved, will consist of a large samosa-like sandwhich, with fried eggs, sauteed onions and potatoes added inside.
Mamadou Ba checking out a fataya complet
The restaurent owner will have 23 of these fataya complets ready at the appointed hour, two days a week. He has the list of the approved 23 karate students, and it will be updated as needed, as directed by Sensei Ignety Ba. Maison de la Gare will regularly recieve a bill, which I guaranteed we would find a way to pay.
Robbie with dojo talibes in the restaurant hired to
provide regular meals
Robbie and I determined that the meal should be consumed in the late afternoon, a few hours before training, to allow time for digestion and to provide the required energy to get through class. Robbie knows first hand what happens when you give 100% to a karate workout within an hour of having eaten. Not good. And, nightly karate classes may conflict with the evening food distribution at MDG, but, French classes and other programs from about 5 until 7pm would still be available to them. 4pm is also a slower time for the restaurant, perfect! The meals will be served the days of the heaviest karate training, led by Sensei Ignety Ba. Sensei, responsible for maintaining a current list, will then also be able to track the kids attendence at the dojo on meal days.
Sensei Ignety Ba with some of the dojo talibes at Maison de la Gare
Each meal costs a mere 500 francs, or about $1.12. Thats only about $52 per week, $2680 per year to change so much for these 23 kids. Now living with a passion will no longer come with sacrifice. I expect within a short time the number of kids regularly attending the dojo will rise to the full 29 spots that donors have sponsored. That will increase the cost, I hope. And, I would love to be able to afford to add Monday to the timetable of available restaurant meals for the dojo talibes. After all, the kids train every night but Sunday. And imagine, some day it may even be possible that Robbie's sad analysis could change, and that the karate kids could come to expect to eat a good meal every day. Why not dream bigger, maybe all the kids who visit Maison de la Gare will some day come to expect to eat well enough to prevent them from growing up stunted and malnourished. Insha'Allah!
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