searching skin

For several of these days, I have been screening children to determine whether or not they need to see a medical doctor, or if we can simply give them a fine dose of worm medicine and vitamins - plus the experience of being truly seen and heard.  I ask the children how they are feeling, what they notice in their bodies, what questions they have about their health.  I them search their skin, looking at their dusty legs and feet, their little arms, their empty bellies, and beautiful faces. 
Here are my observations and confusions;
1. I usually can easily get children to engage with me - to giggle at a funny face, to laugh when tickled, to respond to questions with more than a nod.  The children in the mountain village we visited yesterday were blank - no smiles or frowns, few words aside from the ubiquitous complaint of a stomach ache from hunger and headache from dehydration.  Even when tickled, they remained stoic...I had always thought that response to tickles was involuntary!  I wonder why the faces are so devoid od expression - are we new or scary to the children?  Have they been taught to be expressionless or is it a way to cope with the stresses of daily life?
2. In our urban settings, there was scabies all around!  Itching and scratching! Little bugs crawling under skin and nesting!   As one who has had scabies, I know how easy it is to catch, and I also know that without clean sheets, clean clothing, and clean water (plus the powerful scabacide cream) it is difficult to cure.  So many of these families are unable to wash themselves.  They don't have clean water - they have dirty puddles, whatever little pools have formed after the nightly downpour.
3. In the remote village up in the mountain, way up a dirt road with a cliff on one side and grazing goats on the other, I found these wart-like growths on the children, some infected and others dried.  I learned from the doctors that they are a bacterial infection, and many of the children had it on their knees and arms, the exposed places that get dirty.  Again, no clean water is available.
4. Most children complained of stomach aches and reported being hungry.  They all stared at my water bottle and the bold ones asked to drink.  Others asked for food.  One mother asked me for food while nursing a baby and holding a toddler. 

I wish there was a way to offer these medical clinics and serve a big feast to everyone.  It doesn't seem complete to offer vitamins and anti-fungal cream (and prayers and compassion), without the practical - a hearty meal and a clean glass of water. 
I know, I know,  people will come from all over for a big meal and water and it won't be easy to set a limit....but there must be a way to get people all that they hunger for, real food and real love together.