Tuesday 11 November 2014

Bangladesh: Day 4



Our day began with a leisurely drive through rice plantations, headed towards our distribution in Lalmonirhat, in the northeastern part of the country.  We missed a turn coming in to the stadium, and ended up going down small side streets and alleys.  We were in awe of our driver's ability to navigate such tight turns.  Finally we pulled up to the distribution site,  a large cricket stadium. We distributed 550 bedkits while a cricket game was going on in the middle of the field! 









Our first challenge of the day was to figure out how to photograph groups of fifty children.  We came up with the idea of stacking some of the bundled bedkits to form benches for the children to sit on, staggering the height so that all of the children were visible. This worked well, and we were able to quickly photograph the children then give them their bedkits.






It was a very very hot day, with blistering sun even at 10am, so we did our best to minimize the time the children (and ourselves) spent in the hot sun.  There was a water pump which several of the children used it to splash some water on themselves to cool off (as did some of the SCAW team!) or have a drink. The bedkit distribution went well despite the heat, and the children seemed very grateful to receive a bedkit.



We finished off the day with a visit to a street tea shop.  Our SCAW team and our Overseas Volunteer Partners, The Rotary Club of Dhaka, squeezed in to a 10x10 tea parlour, and sampled some freshly brewed tea and milk, marvelling at the technique for brewing tea.  A great way to end a busy day, and to remember all of the happy faces and smiles of the children when they received their bedkits today.

Team Bangladesh 2014
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