When the canoes showed up all painted, and it was explained what they meant and who they came from, everyone was just so thrilled,” says Nia Peeples, who left her two children at home for the three-week trip. “The kids jumped and everyone was so thankful. For the parents, they represent a way to make a living. For the kids, they just wanted to go race in them. It is amazing how something this simple can have such a profound effect on the people. “It’s amazing to go to a place where the women describe poverty and hunger that kill their babies before they can crawl,” she adds. The infant mortality rate is 50 per cent, she said.

Throughout the trip, the Mikumba crew had to make difficult choices. On one of the first days, after traveling about 10 hours north, they were ready to drop off the buckets of food for stranded residents. But after arriving at the first island, they found an eight-month-old boy with tuberculosis was fighting for his life. The baby would die if he weren’t brought to a hospital.

“We had to make a quick decision to deliver and distribute the goods or to turn around and head back south 10 hours to the hospital,” recalls Matt George. They made the choice to take the baby, his mother, and grandmother on board and head back to where they had come from. Throughout the night, the doctors administered CPR four times. They made it to the hospital. But despite the efforts, the boy couldn’t hold onto life. — Beliefnet.com