I used to live on the other side of Bolivia, in the Yungas of La Paz. I didn't know a single couple in my community that hadn't lost at least half their children, one way or another, usually because of malnutrition. Despite rosier official statistics, 300/1000 first-year infant mortality, and 500/1000 five-year infant mortality, was considered normal.

Many, many children were born in the four years I lived in Imi, and only two died. Two is far too many, of course, and one of those deaths was particularly painful for me, but special pain is a good thing: we were never immune, of course, but infant death came to feel almost normal in the Yungas. Imeños eat pretty well (they're just about the only people in Bolivia who regularly consume beans), but the health personnel from Rosario probably deserve a lot of the credit for the relative health of our children.