...Continued from yesterday:
| The day before Claire left for Bangladesh (see yesterday's post), I called my son-in-law Miguel to see how he was doing. |  |
Turned out he was busy. Very busy.
The previous day, New Year's Day, Claire had received an urgent email from one of the aid workers in the Rohingya refugee camp for which she'd be leaving in two days.
The aid worker was a clown.
The previous day, New Year's Day, Claire had received an urgent email from one of the aid workers in the Rohingya refugee camp for which she'd be leaving in two days.
The aid worker was a clown.
| He was a member of Clowns Without Borders, an international organization made up of professional entertainers whose mission, according to their homepage, is, |  |
 | "to offer joy and laughter to relieve the suffering of all persons, especially children, who live in areas of crisis including refugee camps, conflict zones and territories in situations of emergency." |
And so along with the doctors, nurses, and other providers at the refugee camp at Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, have come the clowns, who've taken on the herculean task of trying to spread some joy in what has got to be the saddest place in the world.
However the clown who emailed Claire on January first had apparently temporarily taken off his clown hat.
Knowing that Claire would be arriving at the camp and that she would be bringing along suitcases full of medical supplies (see post from 1/3/2018), he informed her that there was a great need for infant bulb nasal aspirators,
However the clown who emailed Claire on January first had apparently temporarily taken off his clown hat.
Knowing that Claire would be arriving at the camp and that she would be bringing along suitcases full of medical supplies (see post from 1/3/2018), he informed her that there was a great need for infant bulb nasal aspirators,
 | ...known in the vulgate as snot suckers, |
...and asked her if she could possibly round up and bring with her 50 of those little suckers.
Claire immediate pulled up her Amazon Prime account and tried to put in a rush order for fifty infant aspirators to be delivered the following day, January 2, the day before she was to leave.
But because it was New Year's Day Amazon Prime was taking the day off and wouldn't be able to deliver the aspirators by the following day.
And because Claire had to work the following day and would be leaving the next day she'd have no time to dash around town trying to buy 50 aspirators.
Up to the plate strode Miguel, who volunteered for the mission of acquiring the aspirators.
Now, Miguel is a production coordinator for TV commercials filmed in the Chicago area (turns out there are tons of commercials filmed in Chicago). Part of his job is to do whatever it takes to make sure that all the players involved in the making of the commercials - producers, directors, actors,
etc - have whatever material items they need or desire while on location in Chicago.
I've said on more than one occasion that I don't know whether Miguel is such an accommodating person who's so good at getting things done because he's a production coordinator or if he became a production coordinator because he's such an accommodating person who's so good at getting things done.
In any case, on January 2 Miguel was driving around Chicago in 5-degree weather, hitting the dollar stores in search of baby snot suckers. At the moment I called him he'd already been to seven stores, had rounded up twenty suckers, and had just entered his eighth dollar store.
We chatted for a few minutes while he perused the store, then he said, "I think I've just found the mother lode of nasal aspirators."
Indeed he had, and among the 100 pounds of medical supplies Claire brought with her on January 3 to Bangladesh were 50 infant bulb nasal aspirators.
Hopefully this will make the clown smile.
Claire immediate pulled up her Amazon Prime account and tried to put in a rush order for fifty infant aspirators to be delivered the following day, January 2, the day before she was to leave.
But because it was New Year's Day Amazon Prime was taking the day off and wouldn't be able to deliver the aspirators by the following day.
And because Claire had to work the following day and would be leaving the next day she'd have no time to dash around town trying to buy 50 aspirators.
Up to the plate strode Miguel, who volunteered for the mission of acquiring the aspirators.
Now, Miguel is a production coordinator for TV commercials filmed in the Chicago area (turns out there are tons of commercials filmed in Chicago). Part of his job is to do whatever it takes to make sure that all the players involved in the making of the commercials - producers, directors, actors,
etc - have whatever material items they need or desire while on location in Chicago.
I've said on more than one occasion that I don't know whether Miguel is such an accommodating person who's so good at getting things done because he's a production coordinator or if he became a production coordinator because he's such an accommodating person who's so good at getting things done.
In any case, on January 2 Miguel was driving around Chicago in 5-degree weather, hitting the dollar stores in search of baby snot suckers. At the moment I called him he'd already been to seven stores, had rounded up twenty suckers, and had just entered his eighth dollar store.
We chatted for a few minutes while he perused the store, then he said, "I think I've just found the mother lode of nasal aspirators."
Indeed he had, and among the 100 pounds of medical supplies Claire brought with her on January 3 to Bangladesh were 50 infant bulb nasal aspirators.
Hopefully this will make the clown smile.
References
http://www.cwb-international.org/
https://www.npr.org/2015/01/02/374629531/clowning-without-borders-aims-to-give-refugees-another-way-to-heal
http://www.cwb-international.org/
https://www.npr.org/2015/01/02/374629531/clowning-without-borders-aims-to-give-refugees-another-way-to-heal
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