Ways to See the World

--> One of the notable aspects of living in Bangladesh is the hospitality culture. Everyone we meet is incredibly welcoming and friendly. If we are walking around with a Bangladeshi man and he spies someone he knows, the three of us are always introduced to this ‘intimate friend’ even if this person is a mere acquaintance. If we also happen to be near a tea stall, we are almost always invited to come and take tea and talk about how we find beautiful Bangladesh, Bengali dress, Bengali food, and whether we are married or not. At the tea stall, it’s either rang cha (wrong cha - tea without milk) or dudh cha (dude cha – tea with condensed milk) both with plenty of sugar. It’s quite enjoyable sitting there with a nice glass of tea but sometimes I do wish we got bigger cups! If we visit each other’s host homes, food will almost always be offered, even it’s just fruit and biscuits. On hot days, our host mum will fetch someone to climb a tree to g...

--> I've been on placement for two and a half weeks now and I'm sure I'll eventually get used to being stared at as if I'm some sort of freak of nature with my pale, white skin and light, brown hair but at the moment I’m still finding it pretty awkward. There’s a young girl in our host home who wouldn’t come near me at first and used to hide when she saw me. She’s now got used to me and will run up smiling when she sees me although she’s still fascinated by my skin colour. When out and about, you know you’ve been spotted when you hear cries of Bideshi! Bideshi! (Foreigner! Foreigner!) normally accompanied by several running children. They run alongside the rickshaw van shouting ‘hi hello how are you fine thank you’ all in one breath. Admittedly, this can be quite sweet so it’s easier to just smile, say hello and wave back, although I still feel slightly foolish. Most of the adults however, just stare and continue starin...

--> One of the things I take most for granted in the UK is definitely electricity. In the village we are working in, 85% of homes do not have electricity and those that do, mostly generate it themselves from solar energy. Using the sun as a source of energy is obviously a sustainable way of generating electricity but the issue is that the whole village cannot access mains power and is not part of any national energy grid. Electricity is not one of the highest priorities for the village, so it is not something we will be working on in the short time that we’re here but it is something that the community could campaign on themselves now that we’ve started developing stronger links with local government bodies. Currently the more urgent issues are access to primary health care and a clean drinking water supply as well as getting the access road to the village paved. My host home does have electricity, which I’m very grateful for as it get...

--> In my first post I stated that I’d be working on a water and sanitation project in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Instead, I’ll now be working on primary health care in the Bagerhat district of Bangladesh due to a few team changes. The area I’ll be working in is close to the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to the Bengal tiger. The main crop is rice so there’ll be plenty of paddy fields. The area is known for being strongly affected by cyclones and for the arsenic contamination in its water supply. Aside from the lack of access to primary health care, there are many other issues in need of development. Of primary concern to the youth of the village are access to clean, arsenic-free water; road construction; the high illiteracy rate; and access to markets. Having now arrived in the area, the good news is that the government is going to pave the road so they can access the village to build a much-needed cyclone she...