
By Celestine Osemeilu, Editor
If you were told there is a place on the face of the earth where humans eat baked mud as regular meal you probably would say it is incredible. Yes I intially thought so too. But it will be worthy to know it is true. There is actually a place where people eat mud for a living. That is no other than Haiti.
In an era where corruption and authoritarianism are rampant, it is often the ordinary people who suffer the most. Millions of people in Haiti are malnourished and cannot afford nutritious food, so many have had to resort to eating cookies made out of dirt in order to fill their stomachs.
As an impoverished country without a stable government, Haiti is a country where nearly one third of its 10 million plus population don’t have enough to eat. Hunger is becoming a serious issue. While the wealthiest 10 percent of Haitians earn 70 percent of the nation’s total income, most Haitians live on only $1 or $2 or less per day. Many adults and even more children suffer from malnutrition.
Nutritious foods such as fruit and other staples are often considered luxury items among many in Haiti. In order to survive difficult times, some Haitians have resorted to a generation-old recipe of mixing salt, vegetable oil, and dirt to make what locals call “bon bon terres”—or mud cookies.
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