Here’s a note I wrote about an April mission.  The photos are from different missions during my time there and aren’t related to the narrative. 

The children were even more aggressive than the ones we met at the last camp we visited.  Anything we did not want to lose had to either stay in the car or go into pockets that couldn’t be reached by hands that helped themselves.  I slipped my cell phone out of its holder into an inside pocket.  This precaution was a bit of a nuisance, because I was in the front seat and had a couple of phone calls from the first chalk asking us to delay our departure.  I had to dig under my body armor and fish my phone out before it stopped ringing. 

We arrived without incident.  Kate and Sonja headed into the camp.  My cargo pockets were stuffed with candy.  I was less interested in handing it out to children.  There were probably a hundred of them running around, some of them rich kids who live in the nearby high-rise buildings.  Instead, I offered mints to the women.  I only wanted to say hello.  At least half of them are pregnant, nursing, or both.  One of the women had a couple of small bottles of lotion or shower gel, which were very much coveted.  I remembered the last camp, where the women fighting over the little hotel sewing kits somebody was handing out.

 

I was taking pictures of the tents and animals.  As the children approached me and tried to climb into my pockets, I took pictures and handed out candy sparingly.  I managed to make my treats last until I came to the goats roped together, when I got frisked by children.  “Boro!  Boro khana!”  (“Go!  “Go home!”)  As always, bigger children ripped the candy out of the hands of the little ones who couldn’t defend themselves.  I had to physically remove hands from my pockets.  What I was most concerned about was the kids getting too close to my weapons.