they look a lot like pancakes arecookies recipe passed down from generations herein haiti women spend entire days makinggrandmothers daughters in younger girls in tensor nurse while mothers work themix kids seem to enjoy that at least whenour camera was around but these patties known as bomb bombtears by the haitians who eat them are grim reminder of just how poor thisCaribbean nation years they are too sweet there are justswallow and add almost nothing in terms ofnutrition because the copies are actually made dear but feels your stomach when we have any anything this turkeyfills your stomach traded sold even ordered by women here in the poorsection up the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere city soleil inPort au Prince Haiti small amounts a vegetable shorteningsalt and occasionally sugar are mixed in withthe dirt and water as well made in places like this an old 4 wheretorture was once common by corrupt dictators here fort dimanche is now a center ofcommerce built around the dirt cookies abasketball courts soccer field in school for hundreds of kids and home to many toget to the basket ball court which acts as a preparation area for the dirt cookies you have to crossthis open sewer which is littered with animal parts andtrash and other nasty thanks to get to an area where thecookies are laid out to dry out in the Sun you can see that these arestill very wet not quite ready to be served but this is literally dirt beingprepared for humans to eat on topic other dirt and Phil sewing denny's life revolves around thecookies for days we watched as the grandmothersat mixing the batter cookie batter selling cookies is Danny'ssole source of income and often are only food monitor it's a necessary evil I'm in abad situation and that's why I make them it hurts myheart but I have no choice were forced to eat it mix is sick butnot the way it would anybody who's not used to eating our system is kinda used to it the dirtis trucked into this huge slob and sold at an enormous markup to the women to pay about five dollars a sack theysay it comes from an area in the mountains and are convinced the dirt is rich inminerals and vitamins and if they don't have the money they'rehappy indeed eager to buy the dirt on credit if it rains are the Sun isblocked the cookies can try out and womenactually end up Boeing money on the dirt theypurchased not a drop a batter is wasted and throughout haiti the cookies areseen in urban markets and small mountain villages we rarelysaw adults eating the cookies as many say Shane kids however asked repeatedly why we were sointerested before freely eating the UN's humanitarian coordinatorin Haiti says the need for dirt cookies is an indictment government failure and waste a five-centcookies a necessity in Haiti imported food tooexpensive for families living on about a dollar a day some million haitians our food been secured today around percent to the children arechronically malnourished these are the same indicator that meanas he sub-saharan Africa pregnant women have long eating thecookies for their suppose source of calcium and and acid benefits but doctors dispute this and Warnertooth decay constipation and worse United Statesambassador to Haiti has taken a personal interest inlessening dependence on the cookie I've actually taking members of congressdown the city soleil and they've seen it too what do they saywhen they see people eating dirt well its it's worrisome it's veryworrisome and we don't like to see it since the UNarrived in Haiti in as peacekeepers nutrition has improved in pockets butthe dirt cookies are still being eaten the widespread hunger means hundreds ofkids starting another school day in city soleil as the Haitian flag is raised will bereduced to eating sure this despiteinternational efforts there is hope by the way there is nobecause despite picture doable to lift Haiti out of poverty but even the mostoptimistic observers agree the future is bleak for these kids without two elements long missing in Haiti money and a stable government reporting incity soleil Haiti this has been a shirt for world focus