Fondue and Bangla

Well this is the next instalment of my blogposting just to let you know about my week.

So it's been a pretty busy week with having my Bangla exam on Thursday, putting the finishing touches on the Fondue parties, attending 2 fondue parties and going to an anti-trafficking workshop.

I'm not sure whether I've properly explained the significance of the chocolate fondue parties in my previous blogs but just in case I thought I would briefly summarise it now. Essentially during the last week of November Stop the Traffik are trying to raise awareness aboout trafficking in the chocolate industry. Nearly half the world's chocolate is made from cocoa grown in the Cote d'Ivoire in Africa. Over 12,000 children have been trafficked into these cocoa farms. The conditions they have they have to work in is appalling.

The Stop the Traffik website tells the story of a young boy who was trafficked from his home village in Mali to one of these cocoa farms. He was locked up in a shack at night with other boys where they would have to sleep amongst there own excrement with no light or ventilation in the shack. During the day he would work 12 - 14 hours lugging heavy sacks of cocoa. If he dropped one he would get beaten, if he asked for more food he would get beaten. This particular boy witnessed one boy die from overwork and too many beatings and this apparently is not an uncommon scenario. So, unless chocolate comes with the fairtrade mark, the likelihood is it will contain the blood of trafficked children.

The fondue parties are to raise awareness on a consumer level about trafficking in the chocolate industry in order to encourage everyone to eat fair trade (traffik free) chocolate. On a larger level the campaign is also to encourage the large chocolate companies to stop using trafficked cocoa in their chocolate and to demand traffik free cocoa from their suppliers.

Our first chocolate fondue in Dhaka happened on Wednesdnay night at a home mission group. We watched a really insightful DVD on the garment industry in Bangladesh, which we plan on brining back to the UK because it was so interesting and we discussed the trafficking issue whilst of course tucking into lovley chocolate fondue.

The next fondue was last night at the British ex pat club. The club had organised a bbq by the pool with loads of fairy lights round the place, a wonderful jazz band and chocolate fondues on all tables for the participants. It was a great night. I had loads of good conversations with people about trafficking, so hopefully there's a few more Fair Trade converts out there (although unfortunately not so freely available over here).

I would really encourage all of you to invite a few friends over and have a fondue. There's an organisers pack on the Stop the Traffik website and loads of resources to go with it. Even if you can't manage a fondue party you could make the decision not to eat chocolate unless it's fair trade.

Anyway, next week I'm doing a school assembly about trafficking, there's 3 more home groups having a fondue and I'm doing a youth group, so all in all a pretty busy week. I've also got a 2 day conference about tackling human trafficking in Dhaka, which should be really interesting because it basically involves everyone working on human trafficking at all levels, from government ministers to tiny little grass roots volunteers like me.

Also this week I had my Bangla exam on Thursday. I think it went ok and very glad it's over - just need to keep practicing what I've learned.

Andy's had a pretty good week in the workshop, designing, sanding and of course singing. I learned row, row row your boat at Bangla school the other day, so we were able to have a good sing along in the workshop.

Think that about covers it. Sorry for another long waffley blog. I'll try and write a bit more regularly now to reduce the length of these postings.

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Women's Conference

Hi all

As predicted my blogging has become a bit slack these past couple of weeks - many apologies. Anyway, due to my lack of blogs I now have lots to tell you, so thought I would put it in two separate posts.

As you will have read I went to a Women's Conference last weekend up in Shava, which is a lovely little village about 1.5 hours north of Dhaka. All the ladies from work went, so they were keen for me to join them, particularly because it was a good opportunity for me to build new contacts with other volunteers and especially those involved in anti-trafficking.

So, about 70 women left Dhaka on Thursday 13th November and travelled by coach to Shavar. I have to admit it was lovely to get out of thte city. Although we love being in Dhaka we have missed seeing some fields and greenery - concrete can become a bit monotonous after a while.

On route we passed the Bangladesh equivalent to Disney World, namely Fantasy Kingdom. It had a really good water park and quite a lot of rides but if you're trying to imagine what it's like, think more Skegness than Orlando.

The retreat centre was in a typical Bangladesh village, where all the shops are sort of huts with tin roofs, rather than buildings, the road is a rather bumpy mud/concrete track and the men sit in these open air kind of cafes sipping tea and watching the world go by. As you can imagine, 3 bus loads of white women turning up was quite an event for that sleepy little village.

The retreat centre was beautiful, very peaceful with lovely grounds and overlooked another water park (unfortunately I ran out of time to go but if I had have gone I would have had to wear my full Shalwa Kamiz; the 3 piece you may have seen me wear in the pictures).

As the retreat was predominantly Western women we were allowed to wear conservative Western dress, which I thought would be wonderful but actually when it came to it, it felt a bit odd and most of us ending up reverting back to the 3 piece.

At the retreat there was a mixture of worship, study, prayers, relaxation and lots of eating. The studies and some of the reflection/prayer time was led by a lady called Jackie Pullenger, who some of you may have heard of. She wrote "Chasing the Dragon" and has spent the past 42 years working in the Walled City in Hong Kong, predominantly with drug addicts but also with other vullnerable members of society. She was very inspirational and very relevant to the context we're in over here. She talking a lot about working with very vulnerable people and reaching out to them.

There was lots she said; far too much for me to recount in one blog spot but perhaps the main thing I have taken from the weekend is this: to see people and help the ones you see.

When you're surrounded by so much poverty it's easy to let a lot of it pass you by. We were encouraged, when someone really suffering comes up to you, or you see them as you pass by, not to walk by but to do an act of kindness to that person, whether it is simply looking them in the eye and noticing that they are there (making them feel valued), holding their hand, praying for them or giving them some food. We were also encouraged by how wonderfully Jesus enacted this in his own life.

I was hugely inspired by this, having been a bit overwhelmed by how much poverty and need there is over here and what we can possibly do to help but when you realise that it can be so simple as doing an act of kindness to the one you see, it makes the task seem a bit more manageable.

Earlier I mentioned all the wonderful food we ate. Besides our 3 Bengali meals provided by the centre we also had 3 tea breaks each day. We were wonderfully blessed to have lots of baked goods supplied by some of the women on the retreat and also lots of other lovely things provided by some women in America, such as flavoured teas, hot chocolate sachets, spiced apple sachets, scented candles (ummmm.....).

On Friday I took a walk into the village with 4 other women on the retreat. That was very exciting and we caused quite a stir - I think it was eventful enough having 5 Bideshi women walking through the women, particularly when one was a camera-happy loud Australian. They all loved having their photos taken and as soon as the cameras came out the locals insisted on having more photos taken. I'll put some on the blog for you to look at.

Anyway, I think I've probably gone on long enough.

I would encourage you all today to try and find one random act of kindness to do - even if it's just noticing someone you would normally pass by and please post any comments of the effects of these acts of kindness, or email.

Lots of love as always Nic x

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