Back to work with lots to do.....

Hi everyone,

Hope your all well and dandy?! We've had a good week back at work with lots and lots going on..

Most people in the office returned from their Christmas break on Sunday so we had a day catching up with emails and sorting out things for a big new years planning meeting on Monday.

Nicola and I were both involved in the meeting on Monday which took the whole day. We discussed how the business plan was progressing and what our aims were for the coming year, as well as ironing out a few kinks and details along the way. This is a big year for Oasis Transformation Ltd as we hope to start production of products around June.

So my design colleague and I need to finalise our products spending a lot of time considering how they can be manufactured in bulk. We're planning to use some machinery in our factory along with hand skills so key process and methods need to be well thought through. Our boss is heading back to the UK in a month so we also need to develop some more samples for him to show to investors and buyers.

Nicola is also hard at now looking at achieving Fair Trade status and dealing with some compliance issues for our factory and products. Shes also had two meetings this week relating to the anti-trafficking work she is doing. This is also a big year for our community programs as the school has employed some new staff and Stop the Traffik work is set to start after a long time researching and understanding the key issues and where we can best provide support.

We were also joined by a 'Global Team' from the UK. They're a group of students who are here for 3 months helping out within the Oasis, especially its school and also some other projects in Dhaka.

Away from the business of work we attended a home bible study group in someones home on Tuesday which was great although I had to keep running out to help my parents sort out some Visa issues!

On Friday we went to the wedding of one of the Christadelphian church members. It was at a local Bengali Church called St Thomas and was a really nice occasion. There were loads of decorations all over the hall and afterwards we all had our photos taken with the 'happy' couple before we shared a meal.

I say 'happy' couple as the bride was quite upset - as is often the case at Bengali weddings the bride has mixed emotions because she is often very sad to be leaving her family behind and moving in with a new family. The traditional custom here is for the bride and groom to live with the grooms family from here on in so it can be quite a change for the bride to cope with!!

After the service we headed on to the oldest church in Dhaka to see a carol service. This was situated in old Dhaka with its tight streets full of people, rickshaws, sellers of every kind and general chaos and mess!! We stopped the CNG close by and took a walk to get to the church. It was an impressive Armenian Church (who celebrate the birth of Jesus on Jan 6th) and was very traditional with pews and lots of candles and incense stuff.

Cantemus choir sang and we joined in on the Carols, afterwards sharing some food in the parsonage.

Today (Saturday) Nicola and I are hosting the team for some lunch to get to know them a bit better..

Love to all,

Andy and Nic

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