Our group has just returned from an overnight trip to Kharakpur, a city about 150 km west of Kolkata. The SCAW teams have been there in past years, and again we were able to stay at the guest house of the Tata Bearing Works. Tata is a huge conglomerate in India, and makes cars, trucks, and much more. The distribution site was in front of the recreation complex in the compound for Tata Bearings executives. The little white houses, the flowers everywhere, and the lack of people, cars and general chaos that characterize the rest of the urban areas of India provided quite a contrast from our usual distribution sites.
But the children who received our SCAW bedkits were not the children of Tata executives. They came -- almost a thousand of them - from many villages in the surrounding countryside. At least one group had come from 100 kilometers away. Most of them were in school groups, often wearing their school "colours" before getting to change into a dress or shirt/shorts from the bedkit. I was kept busy for over four hours in the hot sun lining up children, alternating boys and girls, checking for too much height contrast, conflicting dress colours in the same photograph, and so on.
Then on our return trip to Kolkata we had car trouble! Our van came to a halt with a shredded fan belt. It took over an hour and a half at the side of the road before our incredibly capable driver could fix the trouble and related problems (mostly in the dark). Fortunately a car with Rotarians also returning from helping at the distribution was behind us. They stopped and gave at least moral support. During our wait we went into a nearby restaurant and got chatting with some high school students. We sang "O Canada" for them and they in turn sang the Indian National Anthem for us.
Yesterday on the way to Kharakpur we had a smaller distribution in a village in the Howrah district. This is the first time a SCAW team has been there. We had to make our way along a very narrow road from the paved road, past the houses of the village, and around a couple of very tight corners. In fact, our van had to remain at the road, as did the trucks carrying the bedkits. These were brought in small numbers the kilometer or so to the actual distribution site.
NOTE: The power just went out. I've got only about half of what I'd written back from draft, but will send this now in case I lose it all again. I, or someone else, will tell more next time about the village in the Howrah region.
Bill Weldon
for Team Kolkata 2010
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