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| From Bangladesh 2008 Photo Album |
We travelled on a rainy day southwest to the Padma River and then by ferry to Noapara Island to distribute 800 bedkits to families that inhabit this island that has no electricity. They also have contaminated and silty river water for their drinking water. It was a very interesting day starting with a three-and-a-half-hour trip travelling through mostly a rural area with little villages along narrow roads. We were delayed with a truck snarling traffic as it had almost slipped off the road onto a sharp slippery embankment leading to a water channel.
There were many areas where there was water on one side and sometime two. On the approach to the ferry we travelled for perhaps a kilometer through a village that had only huts perched over the embankment and literally living on the road and over water. These villages continue to be fairly self-contained with services including barber shops, material stores, and a forge.
Docking the ferry dock simple: ram the boat into the muddy bank and let passengers like us slip down the slope with our equipment to clamber aboard — but not before singing "O Canada" to what seemed like the entire village. The ferry was a small beat-up, roughly-built tin can with a tin roof and we sat in the one and only compartment with a very loud engine until escaping to the top of the tin roof for the trip over.
The distribution was great, although we set up under a canopy — remember, it was raining a little — and got half-done before the real rain and wind came and blew the canopy away. We thought afterwards that we had perhaps waited a little too long before moving into a storage room. ;) This is a very optimistic team!
For those donors that get pictures from the storage room the backdrop looks like a low four poster bed with handles but is actually the village equivalent to a hearse. Did I mention earlier an interesting day?
Eight hundred kids didn't care about the rain, or what the backdrop was — they just went home happy.
Through a taste of monsoon season we made it back across the Padma river in our leaky boat and made it home by 7:30 PM.
A good day.
Doug MacDougald
for Team Bangladesh
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