Easter Break

I think it's been a little over a week since we last wrote, so there's a bit of catching up to do.

Over the Easter weekend the office was closed on Easter Sunday, so we took the opportunity to take a trip out of Dhaka to show Lucy the real Bangladesh.

We travelled overnight on a coach down to the South West of the country in an area called Cox's Bazaar. This area is popular with the locals and is apparently famed for having the world's longest beach.

We were actually staying in a mission guest house about 60km north of the beach in a hospital compound (there seems to be a running theme of where we take our guests on holiday!).

The bus trip down was good. It's a 10 hr journey to Cox's but about 9 for us because we got down before the bus reached the final destination. Since it was such a long journey we treated ourselves to Executive seats, which was a new experience for us - lovely wide seats, which apparenly had a massage setting on them but none of us could get working and they reclined almost horizontally - ahhh bliss! It's going to be tough reverting back to our standard means of travel.

We arrived at about 7.30am on Friday morning, just in time for breakfast.

The guest house was beautiful; very peaceful and relaxing nestled away on a slight hill amongst lots of lovely shady trees. Our rooms were very nice and typically twee and we were even fortunate to have Western food cooked for us, which was a real privilege. There was even a pool on the compound, which was great for taking a dunk after a hard afternoon of reading!

We were the only Brits staying at the guest house, the rest were American Christians either working at the hospital, or visiting from a nearby area.

On Friday we spent the day relaxing as we were still pretty sleepy after the bus trip. Andy was very excited to spot a full sized basketball court and even more excited when there were people to play with. So, Andy and a few Americans who either worked on the compound, or were visiting formed a team and had a good run around in the blazing heat! Sadly the game came to an early end when Andy got a whopper of a blister on is left foot, so couldn't carry on. A bit disappointing since he could hardly walk, so was out for the following 2 days.

In the evening we joined in with the church service they have at the guest house. This is mainly for the expats who live and work on the compound but those staying at the guest house are invited to stay.

On Saturday we hired a car to take us down to Cox's Bazaar. We spent the morning looking round a Buddhist Temple, which was really interesting, followed by some browsing around the Burmese Market. This area of the country is very close to Myanmar (Burmer) and in fact used to be part of Burmer, so there are a lot of Burmese living in that area and there is quite a high Buddhist population.

After that we had a leisurely lunch in one of the hotels by the side of the beach, whilst we waited for the temperatures to cool down a bit. The restaurant was alongside the hotel's pool, so there was a large glass screen overlooking the pool. This kept us very entertained during our lunch as we watched the locals "swimming" in the pool fully clothed. When we say swimming what we mean is some cross between doggy paddle and a pretend drowning manoeuvre - very amusing! Just to add to the entertainment there were some young men who obliged us with their "diving" acrobatics, which as you may have already guessed were perfectly formed belly flops! Needless to say the Bangladeshis aren't renowned for their swimming prowess.

After tearing ourselves away from the poolside entertainment we wandered across to the beach. The beach was vast and not too crowded - not like European beaches!

There were some sun loungers strewn across the beach in a single line, which we hired for a couple of hours. The sun lounger experience is not quite like in Europe - there's a distinct lack of scantily clad people trying their best to frizzle and instead people sit on them fully clothed and simply chat to their friends, or on their mobile phone.

We of course followed etiquette and sat fully clothed - Andy pushed the boundaries a bit and sat in shorts and t-shirt but Nic of course sat in her full Salwa Kamiz (although minus the scarf bit!)

The sand was beautiful. Not really the pure white sands of the Indian Ocean but instead lovely warm golden sands - the kind you would see in the Med.

The sea was also wonderful. Some really good sized waves to play in and soooo warm! I can't even begin to describe how warm the sea was; just like a bath. So, we spent a good deal of time playing around in the waves admiring the ocean. It was a little restrictive trying to jump the waves in a full Salwa Kamiz (trousers and dress) but I made do!

It was really fun to see lots of Bangladeshi families enjoying themselves in the sea and to watch groups of fishermen hauling their nets through the waters. It's so amazing that there is somewhere so beautiful that people can go and forget the cares of life - no matter whether your rich or poor.

As always we attracted a lot of attention being the only white folk on the beach. So, we got the usual street children come up to us asking for money, or trying to sell us things. There was one lad who was going round with his older brother and friend, who couldn't have been older than 6 or 7. His brother was making him sit on the end of peoples' sun loungers and sing songs to get some money. That was really upsetting - it seemed so degrading to have to sing pityfully to people to get money, particularly when the locals were kind of giggling in a very patronising sort of a way.

Anyway, the kid was very cute, so we sat and chatted to him and his brother for a bit, which was fun.

After our day at the beach we spent the next day at the guest house just lazing around the compound. As it was Easter Sunday they had prepared a special Easter meal, which was yummy and there was an Easter service, which we were able to partly join in with before our bus back to Dhaka.

All in all a very relaxing break and a really good opportunity for Lucy to see the beauty of Bangladesh - away from the big smoke of Dhaka.

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Lucy, Rain and Fire

Hi Everyone!

Things have been busy again here over the past week and a half with big product deadlines and the arrival of a special visitor.

Lucy arrived in the wee small hours of 31st.. we both met her at the aiport and got stuck straight into Bangladesh life with a walk around the local Bazar and a trip to the Orphanage we sometimes visit. She's settled in really well and seems to be enjoying her time here so far. She's proven to be very adventurous and keen to explore some parts of Dhaka herself.

We took her to church on Fri and had some friends from work round in the evening to have an evening of Pit! On Saturday Nicola and Lucy went back to the Hair salon run by the Orphanage to get their hair cut! The Salon has been set up as away of making money for the orphanage and offering training to some of the girls - which we think is a great example of some sustainable and wholistic development work!

The week at work as been a little bit hectic. Lucys visited a few times to help set up a database for the anti-trafficking team. Nicola has been having lots of meetings with a lady who's working for Stop the Traffik in India.

Andy's been in the office all hours trying to finish the Bamboo product for a Design Freeze at the end of March. He was involved in a big meeting on Monday (yesterday) to look at all aspects of the design with the rest of the team... so its had a thorough going over and some changes will need to be made!

The weather has also take an exciting turn with the humidity arriving rapidly leading to lots of storms. On Sunday last week (29th) we had hailstones the size of Golf balls!! Andy and Nicole were stranded at work until 7 and then it took them 2 hours to get home! We ended up walking down the central reservation with the water knee deep either side of us!

Yesterday(Mon 6th)disaster struck when a fire broke out in one of the local slums. The slum houses our house-helper(Halima)Jo's house-helper, works cook (Shuli) and one of our workshops guys (Massum - the zoo song guy!). Halima, Massum and Jo's house-helpers 'houses' were all completely destroyed... The rooms were made of bamboo and tin and were burnt to the grounds with them all loosing everything. Amazingly no-one died in the incident but the devastation it has caused is hard to take in. Their basic homes were literally gone.

We visited the slum this morning to try and offer our love, assistance and some food/clothing. These families had lost everything. All of the few possessions they owned. It was truly heart breaking to meet with them and see the devastation. We spoke to them for a while and was amazed to see the level of hope and positive attiude they carried around with them - even asking how the product deadline at work had gone!

I've been thinking a lot at the moment about all the 'stuff' that we often have. The computers, the TV's, all our clothes, gadjets, cooking appliances, books, dvd's etc etc... what drives us to need all these things in our lives... is my life any better for it? Am I just addicted to owning stuff - thinking that its going to make things easier, better, make me feel more secure?

And then you visit a family who only had a few pairs of clothes, a TV and some food living in a room 8ft square - and in half an hour they lose all of that - they literally have no 'stuff' whatsoever! Yet, they can still manage a smile and still want to know how you are, they're still grateful..... Kinda humbles you beyond belief and makes you think long and very hard...

Sorry for the waffle... please pray for Halima and our work colleagues in this very difficult time.

Love and Gods blessings to you all.
Andy and Nic

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April Showers (In March)

I was just reflecting on what we've done this week, since I last updated the blog and actually I'm not sure there's much to report but I'll give you a brief summary of our activities anyway.

On the work front it's been all systems go in the office and workshop as we're desperately trying to get the designs finalised by our end of March deadline. This week a new toy (I mean very important and essential power tool) arrived, which Andy and his design colleague have been playing with this week. I'm told that's it's actually a really important piece of kit and a massive help in producing a quality finish to the products in a relatively short space of time. It's quite a sight to behold when you go into the workshop though and see it in action. Initially you can't see anything because of the thick cloud of sawdust surrounding the machine (our cleaner is less that impressed with this new acquisition!). Then there's Andy and his colleague stood opposite each other, operating different parts of the machine - both wearing safety googles, gloves, aprons and backwards caps - covered in a thin layer of dust. Very entertaining for us onlookers.

We've also been spending time playing with eggs, milk and beeswax as we concoct various different natural dye and paint recipes - not as easy as you might think!

On the anti-trafficking front we've been trying to locate a girl who was trafficked from a garment factory in Dhaka at the age of about 11 into a brothel in Kolkata. She was rescued by an organisation in Kolkata and then brought back to Bangladesh. She was received by her father and is now married (aged about 16) and working back in the garment industry. We were asked to try and locate her to check on her safety and also to help her get back to Kolkata for a trial against her traffickers. I'm pleased to say that this week we managed to make contact with her and she appears to be safe at least but we are continuing to try to make contact. This week we hope to go and visit her as there's only so much you can get from speaking to someone on the phone. We suspect there's probably a lot she's not telling us about her current home situation, so hopefully we'll get a fuller picture by meeting with her.

Generally work in the office has been a bit hard going because of the really oppressive heat and quantity of power cuts. I think I've explained before about load shedding - how there's not enough power to go round, so the government distribute it to different parts of the city during the day. Where our office is located is classed as a lower priority power area, which means more power cuts for us. We have an IPS system (Like a generator) but it doesn't have a very high capacity and doesn't get enough time to re-charge between power cuts, which means that when we get a power cut we're running on no fans, definitely no AC, no lights etc. So, it can be a bit tough going, especially in the early part of the afternoon. Thankfully, as soon as we get home we can jump straight in the nice cool shower, which is wonderful after a sweaty day in the office!

This week was Independence Day in Bangladesh as the country remembers it's freedom from the control of Pakistan. So, Thursday 26th marked the 39th anniversary of the war of Independence. So, it was a national holiday and a definite feel of celebration in the air. As we walked down the street there was national flags hanging from balconies, people waving flags and wearing headbands with the flag on it. This was an important day for the local people - they are very proud of their independence and of course since it happened relatively recently it is still remembered by many people. When you talk to people you really sense their pride in their country - they are very keen to know what we think of their country and even more delighted when we respond with positive opinions of Bangladesh.

Unfortuantely, like any war, certain wounds have been slow to heal. There is still a deep feeling of hostility towards Pakistan (and for that matter any other country that is seen to support Pakistan). In addition, prior to the war there were Urdu-speaking Pakistanis who settled in Bangladesh. Following the war those that were unable to escape back to their own country got stranded and ended up living in camps across the country. Even today these camps still exist and there is one very close to our office. Because these communities (known as Bihari communities) are not technically Bangladesh nationals they have been denied the basic rights of a Bangladeshi - like education, health care, jobs and are very excluded from society. Over 30 years on they have technically been given citizenship but are still treated as an excluded community. This is one of the sadest oucomes of the 1971 war.

Anyway, since we got a bonus extra day of holiday we took the opportunity to have some people round from the church we go to on Saturday evening. We had the family round, whose house we use for the Saturday church and also the leader of the church we go to on Friday and his wife. As you can imagine, cooking for Bangladeshi's I was a little nervous. After much deliberation we chose to give them a taste of England and cooked the classic Spaghetti Bolognase with roast vegetables and banoffi pie for pudding.

Entertaining in Bangladesh is very strange because all the socialising happens before eating and then everyone leaves as soon as dinner is over - none of this sitting around over a cup of coffe and an After Eight. So, generally the woman spends the whole evening in the kitchen, serves the food, waits until everyone has eaten and then she eats when everyone's left. I fulfilled most of this etiquette but gave up when it came to serving out and waiting til later to eat (my appetite didn't hold out that long!).

We had a very nice evening chatting and playing with the two kids. We were also blessed to only have 1 power cut, rather than the usual 3 that we've been having of late. I think the food went down mostly okay although there was definite uncertainty to begin with - especially when we handed forks around to eat with!

Anyway, today saw the first rains of the season. We were told to expect storms in April, so today we got a taster. It all started yesterday with some very welcome high winds and then early this morning the winds were howling and there was a heavy downpour. Sadly it didn't last very long but it was lovely to have a refreshing breeze blowing through.

We're very much looking forward to some more of that kind of weather because this last week has been pretty toasty that's for sure.

So, I better sign off as it's time for church.

Have a great week and please keep us updated with your news - we love to hear what's going on back home.

Oh, just before I go, thanks to those of you who have requested a password - unfortunately we've had a bif of difficulty putting a password on but as soon as we figure out how to overcome the glitches we'll drop you an email.

Love Nic and Andy

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