A boat trip from Old Dhaka

Last weekend we fully intended to write this blog and then with one thing and another we never got round to it.

Actually, it was getting to the end of the week and we thought we wouldn't have much to report on the weekly blog but then no sooner had we encountered those thought and we had a rather interesting weekend....

Let me start from the beginning. This blog covers the period 18th Jan to 25th Jan.

During that week our boss from the UK arrived (I think technically he's the commercial director, or business advisor or something anyway, he basically oversees the business side of what Oasis do). So, it was another hectic time in the office as we were preparing for meetings, attending meetings and getting products ready to discuss with the boss. Andy and his team were desparately trying to get the products ready so our boss would have some positive comments to take back to our customers in the UK. Our ultimate deadline for this phase of the design work has been 1st Feburary because that's when the country director here returns to the UK for more meetings with potential investors and customers and will be taking products with him.

So, despite it being hectic for us there's not a lot to report on the blog on that front.

However, when we got to the weekend it was shaping up to be a normal weekend; we went to church on Friday as usual for the morning study class, lunch and then the main afternoon service. On Saturday we were invited to lunch by a friend over who was soon to be leaving, so a few of us went for a bite to eat. We had planned nothing more other than maybe a swim and a bit of a relax before the evening study class. However whilst at lunch our manager and the UK boss decided to take a trip to Old Dhaka for a boat ride and invited us along.

Old Dhaka is one of those amazing places where it's a hive of small streets, lots of rickshaws and some interesting old buildings intermingled with them all. We drove down in the Oasis car, which was interesting trying to get through this sea of rickshaws.

Nevertheless we eventually made it through to the port. We parked the car up in what was supposed to be a car park but which was a long way from NCP standards and entered the port area. There were loads of big cargo ships moored up. We boarded one to get to a smaller rowing boat.

As we walked through this cargo boat it really was like something from 150 years ago. There were people sitting on the floor in the boat maybe selling fruit, or clutching a rolled up blanket, or selling some nuts or something. There were other folk using it as a passageway onto other boats. There were others loading and unloading cargo on their heads (it's the Banlgadeshi way). The one consistent thing amongst all this was that the majority of heads turned in our direction as we trundled through the boat to sounds of "Boss", "Bideshi", "your country?".

Anyway, when we reached the back of the boat we then saw our vessel. It was kind of like a gondala in shape - very close the water with a man standing at the back rowing using a long padel which went deep into the water. We clambered over the big boat's chains to get onto this little boat.

As we got on we couldn't help but notice the awful condition of the water - it was extremely dark, there was all kinds of rubbish floating in it and other less desirable things. In fact, right next to our boat was a large floating poo (not sure whether I can get away with writing that on a blog but I guess it's done now). You can imagine my concern as I set anxiously on the floor of the boat waiting for the other 3 in our party to get in, who all happened to be 6'3" men!

Anyway, despite some small rocking we made it out into Dhaka harbour and spent the next hour floating between all the big cruise and cargo ships. It was wonderful! So exciting to see such a large working port and there were so many contrasts. One minute we'd be passing the shore lined with rubbish with people looking for any useful remains in amongst it and then we'd see all this beautiful fresh fruit and veg being unloaded, or sorted through. We'd pass these water side slum houses and then see the large red setting sun shimmering over the water. We would pass these large, impersonal, grubby cargo ships and then see a bunch of kids playing around and having fun on one of the fishing boats. So much beauty in amongst so much yuk!

I guess that's the glories of God's creation shining through in spite of all man's rubbish around.

It was a real privilege to be able to see this part of Dhaka and to see it in this very authentic way. Everything about that part of Dhaka really seemed so antiquated it made me wonder how much it had changed since the Brits left and how much it would have changed if we came back in 50 yrs time.

After our tour round the harbour we hopped back on board the big ship again. Unfortunately in the process I dropped my flip flop into one of the engine holes, which was extremely embarrassing, since it is very difficult to do anything discretely around here and I of course caused a lot of fuss and attention. Anyway, the good news is I got my flip flop back and I made sure I gave my foot a good old scrub down afterwards.

After our eventful afternoon out we then went to a quiz at the Bagha club. I am ashamed to say we did extremely badly - clearly need to play trivial pursuit a bit more often to get into Quiz shape.

Think that's about all to bring that part of the blog up to date.

We'll write about this week's experiences in another posting.

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