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A heavy rain falls on the refugees in ragged clothes waiting patiently at 8 am on Wednesday in front of the heavy gate of Thakya Mara Zein Pagoda in Laputta Township.

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They are wet and cold. They rub their hands to stop shivering. Their faces betray real hunger. Dehydrated and exhausted, they have eyes like people who have been fighting a war. They stare intently at the people working in the blue-colored canvas tents.

They represent more than 1.5 homeless Burmese now struggling for survival in the Irrawaddy delta, victims of Cyclone Nargis. They are gathered at this temporary camp for food. If they are lucky they will get real rice.

A man with a megaphone announces in a loud voice: "Please don't crowd around the gate. We will share the rice as soon as we receive it. Please don't block the road."
The refugees remain motionless at the gate.

One hour later, the man returns: "We have no rice for today. We have nothing to share at this moment, but we will cook rice soup from rice left over from yesterday. We will serve it at 11."

The rice soup amounts to one glass of water with low-quality Mee Done rice, almost nothing. But it was better than nothing.

I entered the pagoda compound as it started raining more heavily. Thousands of people huddled under pieces of canvas. Children’s lips are pale and blue. Some people try to build small fires under the canvas. A mother tries to sooth her crying baby with breast-feeding.

"Thakya Mara Zein Pagoda now has 2,477 refugees from 534 families,” one of the refugee leaders tells me “There are 221 children under age 5. We’re one of the biggest camps in Laputta." Stark statistics to describe suffering people.

Talking with the refugees, I start to piece together a picture of their lives and routine. Almost everyone lost family members or relatives during the cyclone. On this, the 12th day following of the disaster, they would receive a little rice soup, but on other days, if a big army officer or official comes by to check the camp, they might get a pack of Yum-Yum instant noodles. For drinking water, they fetch it themselves from chlorinated ponds and wells in the town, treated by UN Development Programme staff.

A 35-year-old housewife at another shelter, State High School No 1, says, "We got two tins of rice yesterday, but we don’t get a rice donation everyday. If we can't get rice, we have to queue at the place donating boiled rice water."

The UN World Food Program (WFP) and NGOs arrived in the area a few days ago. They are coordinating the relief effort in what’s called a “Cluster Response Plan,” which distributes food, clothing, medicine and drinking water, under the best of circumstances. It’s unclear how many essential items such as food, clothing and medicine is actually getting to the refugees at this point. Many survivors have yet to be contacted by aid workers.

A UN staffer said, "There are 49 temporary shelters in Laputta Township and the total population in these camps is 33,887. We provide 36 tons of rice a day; it means 720 sacks per day. We try to provide 5 kilos of rice a day (2 tins). We procure most of the rice from Myaung Mya Township and the surrounding area."

A group of refugees described life at State High School No 1: "Yesterday, we spent the day and night outside in heavy rain, and we couldn't sleep. We have no shelter. All our clothes are wet, and we have noting else to wear. We just sat idle in the rain for the whole night. Some children now have fevers and colds." They said they urgently need clothing, blankets, sheltering materials and other food items.

I soon began to hear contradictory stories, depending on if I was talking to refugees or relief workers. A Burmese UN staffer in Laputta said, "We provide as much as we have. But one of the difficulties is that some refugees tell people they get nothing and don't receive even rice. Their attitude is bad. They seek food from strangers, thinking they can help. The closer you get to the coastal area, the refugees’ attitudes are worse and worse."

The man who spoke those words was a senior Burmese official working for the UN. I was shocked.