This

I will confess, I’ve never had any desire to go to Bangladesh.

But it is ranked 4th in the world in terms of the largest number of cleft births a year so off I went. Left on a Thursday, arrived on Saturday after traveling for 25 hours straight.

It was even poorer than I had feared. In a country slightly smaller than Iowa live more than 150 million very poor, very frustrated, very unlucky people.

Half of them live on less than $1 a day.

It’s the most densely populated country on earth with a long list of hardships including cyclones, flooding, systematic corruption, political turmoil, religious and political violence, government incompetence, military coups and the world’s highest death rate due to infectious diseases.

Average lifespan is 55 years. Literacy rate is just 50%.

Driving around Dhaka, the capital, was depressing. At times it felt like we were driving through Iraq. Slums, shacks and shanties abound. Wild pigs foraging through rotting garbage. People too poor to afford shoes, sometimes clothes.

Not only were most people skinny, you could see the ribs on camels as they went by. One rare highlight were Smile Train posters we saw all over town telling people about our free cleft surgery programs. A small ray of hope in a sea of despair.

While stopped at a traffic light we were startled by a tap-tap, tap-tap-tap.

Someone was tapping on our car window. Beggars. Two little kids with a baby.

“Don’t look at them!” Shouted our hosts.” Look straight ahead!”

Then more tapping on the left side, tap-tap, tap-tap-tap. An old leper without a nose.

On the right, a mother with a sick child. Every stoplight we were surrounded on all sides. We looked straight ahead as ordered I am ashamed to say. But I could hear that tapping long after the light changed, and we drove away.