SUNDAY: New Job

After our first night in our new flat we set off for the office at 7.30pm (the working week here is Sun - Thurs). The office is in Mirpur 10, which is about a 30 min journey in Bangladeshi traffic.

The office is just off the main road, opposite the Dhaka sports stadium (where they recently beat New Zealand at cricket, if anyone's a cricket fan). It's been converted from an old flat.

When we arrived we were introduced to the team, which currently number about 12, excluding us. We then had a short thought, reading and prayer, which they do every Sunday. 2 teachers from the school in Duaripara also joined us (Duaripara is the slum just outside Dhaka, where Oasis has one of its community projects to include a school). We were also joined by a colleague, who is based in Nilphamari in the North of the country, about 5 hours from Dhaka. Oasis has a factory, flat and bamboo plantation there.

The team are really friendly and made us feel so welcome.

We were allocated desks, both in the same room but not directly next to each other. The Oasis Transformation Team (that's the business) are in one room and the Oasis Community Projects team are in another room. Nicola is spending half the week with each team, so will be hotdesking.

In the OTL room there is 7 people, then there are another couple of lads working the workshop at the back of the office and Dave (the boss) in another office. The OCP team consists of Nicola and 2 others - all ex pats.

The OTL team employs mostly locals, which makes for a really vibrant working environment and is particularly useful for our Bangla learning.

We had a bit of an introductory session with Sandie, Jo and Dave, which was really useful.

In the afternoon we came back early from the office to meet a man who was fitting internet in our flat and we also got some passport photos for our sim cards, which a local colleague is very kindly sorting out for us.

In the evening we went to Dave's house for some dinner and entertainment from their 2 children - most amusing! We then stayed in their lovely flat and Dave took us to the office the following morning.

All in all great first day - can't wait to get stuck in.