We had to take a flight from Dhaka to reach our next distribution location. We will have our second largest distribution day of 1160 bedkits. Cox’s Bazar is the most southeastern part of Bangladesh in an area with many adjacent hill tract people. This was seen clearly in the varied facial characteristics of the children with their eye shapes, cheekbones and eye colours. 500 of children that came for the bedkit distribution were from these areas and also one of the poorest areas of the country. We were told that some of the children had to travel a long distance to get to the distribution site.
Cox’s Bazar is also a busy tourist community with its extraordinary beaches and beautiful sunsets. The tourist nature of the community has produced a local culture unlike what the team experienced in the northwestern part of Bangladesh. For the first time on the street, we were approached with requests for "baksish" (tips).
The team of packers and Rotoactors who transported the bedkits to Cox’s Bazar deserve special mention. They left Dhaka at 7:30 am the previous day and did not arrive until nearly 10 pm – an arduous journey of fifteen hours. Getting through Chittagong alone took 4.5 hours. They were still on-site today with energy and dedication – a truly remarkable group of people.
The local Rotary club hosted a barbeque and cultural show for us on the rooftop patio of a local Rotarian (his fish processing plant was located in the building below). The barbeque tiger shrimps were the size of farmer sausages – absolutely the largest any of us had ever seen. Such a land of contrasts – beautiful singing and generous amounts of food after a day of so much need.
And here are some of the beautiful children we saw today.
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Charlene Gordon for Team Bangladesh 2012
