How to keep 'em begging

I had assisted in making arrangements to get rice for the kids at a temple months ago. The donor approved the rice after a few weeks.

The donor works through another NGO (Non-Government Organization) to transport the rice to the groups. The NGO's supervisor was out and nobody could decide to bring the rice to the kids. After I made many visits over 2 weeks, I finally got them to bring the rice. The rice was not edible because it was full of bugs.

I contacted the donor who asked the NGO to check on the rice. The NGO promptly forgot to do this. I went 2 days later and they said they would go the following day...which they did not. Finally, I told them we could go together the following morning. I showed up at the appointed time and the man had not gotten approval go (he has no papers and there is a checkpoint between our town and the temple). He made some calls and got the approval.

We finally arrived at the temple and he saw the rice and sure enough he agreed...can only feed the spoiled rice to pigs. The bags had arrived with many holes so the rice was going everywhere (and of course providing easy access for insects). The temple changed the bags because of the mess the broken bags were causing.

So...60 bags of rice were delivered, some spilled, some was eaten even though it was spoiled. 52 spoiled sacks of rice should have been replaced but they said they could not take the bags because they had replaced the broken bags so it could be other people's rice and the weights were not precisely the right amount. Soooooo....they only delivered 8 new bags. This should last a couple of weeks while we try to sort it out.

Until the new bags came, the kids kept begging for food.