What a jolly holiday.

Well we're back from our hols and feeling fully refreshed and raring to go.

The past few weeks have been pretty hectic, as you may have spotted from previous postings but after a mad rush to get everything completed before holiday we finally made it to India.

Prior to our departure on 19th February, Nic had a lot of work to complete following on from the anti-trafficking seminar and planning the anti-trafficking strategy for the next few years. Andy was also busy getting some designs finished to be worked on whilst we were away.

Also, at the last minute we became involved in sorting out a new flat for the local church we are involved with. As you may have picked up on from previous blogs, we have been supporting a study group from the church on a Saturday evening. Since the study groups seem to be addressing a certain need the church has decided to form a new church out of this study group, which we're really excited about. The study group, up til now, has been held in one of the members' tiny flats, with us all squeezed into their bedroom (which also serves as a lounge and dining room), so it was decided that the family should relocate to a bigger flat and the church would support them financially in order to enable room for the church to grow.

So, the flat hunting commenced a few weeks ago but right before we left a great flat became available in the right location, so Andy went to view it with another member of the church and the family who will be living there. After a mutual consensus it was agreed that this would be perfect, so it seems that our new church is on the move and ready to begin (how exciting!)

The following day we got up for our early flight to Kolkata. Once in Kolkata we met our driver for the day and headed off to the Bangladesh High Commission to get our visas renewed with tonnes of documents in hand to cover all eventualities. We went to the requisite booth, handed over our forms, had a nice chat with the guy in the booth and then were told we had to have an interview with the Deputy High Commissioner (standard practice apparently). Unfortunately Nic had another meeting to attend, so Andy was flying solo for the interview.

Sadly the interview didn't go as well as expected and our visa application got rejected (DOH!), so we've got until 21st March to figure out another strategy for acquiring a Visa. We think we might try applying in country but watch this space....

Whilst this was going on Nic attended a meeting in Kolkata with an orrganisation involved in the rescue of trafficking survivors and the prosecution of traffickers. It was a really useful meeting and gave a good insight into the laborious process of repatriating survivors to Bangladesh from India. Unfortunately the process of getting the survivors back across the border can be a long traumatic experience. Once the survivor has been found in India with no supporting papers they have to be "detained" whilst they go through a court process to determine that they are Bangladeshi nationals and should be taken back to their country. Gathering the evidence to support their claim that they're Bangladeshis isn't easy in a country where birth registrations are not common place, very few people have passports, the survivors may not remember their previous address (if they were trafficked as an infant) and the parents' full names may not be known. It can take a minimum of 6 months before the survivor is in a position to cross the border, during which time they have had to be detained in a shelter home. Not ideal as you may appreciate and definitely an area that needs improving.

Anyway, all in all a useful meeting - far more productive than the High Commissioner meeting.

Following our meetings we went for a bite to eat at a nearby shopping mall. We were very surprised to see Next, Marks and Spencers, Pumpkin Patch etc in this shopping mall and the majority of people speaking English - far more advanced than Bangaldesh, despite being only next door. There is clearly a lot of wealth in Kolkata and a significant number of educated people, having a good command of English and usually speaking at least another 2 languages (Hindi + Bangla).

After our shopping trip we drove for a couple of hours to our resort in Raichak, which is about 60km south of Kolkata, on the banks of the River Ganges.

The resort was absolutely beautiful - lots of space to relax, swim and totally unwind - just what we needed. Also, as the resort was mostly empty the staff were extremely attentive (to say the least), or maybe they were just bored but they were more or less falling over themselves to open doors for us, fetch a golf buggy to take us somewhere, call us at the end of the day to see if we'd had a nice day. Anyway, whatever the reason it was very nice to be tended to for the week.

So, after 6 days of total relaxation, good food and lovely hot sunshine we flew up to Darjeeling where we spent a couple of days exploring this post-colonial tea region.

It was a total contrast to our previous resort. For starters it was much much colder. So much so that we had to buy hats, gloves, scarves and fleeces on arrival (mainly to compensate for the lack of heating in our hotel but also because it was freezing). The area was well geared to tourists and there was a significant backpacking community up there, passing through on their tour of Asia.

Whilst we were there we: explored the local town, which was far bigger than we were expecting; took a ride on the "toy train", which is the old train which transported wealthy people from Kolkata to Darjeeling to escape the heat in summer; took a tour of various local sights - everything from a Buddhist monastry to the local tea gardens; sampled the wonderful Indian cuisine and of course drank lots and lots of chai (tea) - which was very welcome in the cold weather.

All in all a very nice, relaxing holiday and very enjoyable to see a few different sights of India.
However, it was a bit strange to see tourists again - living in a country like Bangladesh tourists really aren't common place as the country isn't geared to tourism, so it was very odd being with tourists again. There was a part of us that felt a bit uncomfortable with it and like we wanted to experience new things that most people don't get to experience (much like we do in Bangladesh) but then we had to remember that tourism has played such a major roll in lifting countries like India out of the severe poverty they were in only a few years ago, so really we shouldn't complain.

It was also odd seeing local people with such great wealth, since it really isn't as common in Bangladesh, although clearly there is wealth around. It seems that India has now become a country of two extremes - the extremely poor and the extremely rich. It's been said to me before that Bangladesh isn't a poor country but it is being kept poor by the minority of those who have wealth. It seems like this is even more true for India, which we find absolutely tragic.

Despite being in India only a short time, we were surprised by how different the cultures and people were from Bangladesh, even though the countries are neighbours. I suppose we naively assumed that there would be a lot of similarities between two countries that used to be the same country. Maybe it's something to do with the difference in religions, maybe it's because Bangladesh is such a young country, or maybe it's to do with the economic gap but whatever it is, it really showed us how wonderfully different and individual God has created us and how there is so much around us that goes into making us the people we are today. Sometimes we ponder where we would be now if we had been born in a country like Bangladesh and how we would view the world. Anyway, these ponderings are getting to be far too philosophical for a simple travel blog, so we'll leave it there.

After our return from Darjeeling we spent a night in Kolkata close to the airport then said goodbye to Andy's folks as we set off back to Dhaka and they spent the day in Kolkata awaiting their long journey back to the UK that evening.

Whilst it was lovely to be on holiday we are very glad to be back in Bangladesh and to be cracking on with work once more and we're looking forward to all the fun and challenges that lie ahead.

Oh, just before we go we should probably mention that there have been some fairly serious political issues here whilst we were away - basically one military group (the Bangladeshi Riffles) opened fire on Army officers, killing up to 100 and then burying them in mass graves. In case you've picked up on this in the English press, the problem is now over with very little impact to the rest of the country. In fact, we're told that people who were living here barely new it was going on, save for the reportings in the press the following mornings. It was all contained within the official army areas (cantonement) in the country, so presented very little threat to the general public. Whilst we are all safe, it was clearly very traumatic for the families of those involved and really shook the country up, so we remember the families and this nation in our prayers and eagerly await the day when peace will reign and the sight of guns, bullet holes and violence will be no more.

We'll try and write again soon.

Love, the Holiday-makersers x

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