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Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 12
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November 26th 2009
Hi Everyone It’s been a couple of weeks since our last update and we have been on some serious adventures since then so make sure you read. It’s worth it! OK so Bangladesh. WOW. What an interesting country it has been. Its hard to understand why so few tourists come here being so close to South East Asia and India etc. Bangladesh is seriously off the beaten track and during our stay here we only saw 6 foreigners in the whole country. This made all our experiences that little bit sweeter. First some random facts: 1. 32 people die in Bangladesh per day due to road traffic accidents. That’s 12 000 per year! The guide book suggests that during your stay in Bangladesh you will very likely be involved in an accident in one way or ... read more
November 26th 2009
THE ROCKET - KHULNA TO DHAKA After we were helped by Major Russell in Bagerhat to book our Rocket tickets we boarded the P.S. Ostrich (First class) to take us from Khula north to Dhaka. Now will probably be a good time to mention that Bangladesh is probably one of the cheapest countries in the world so our minimum budget in India was non-applicable here. We lived in the midrange bracket!!!! Food is cheap, hotels are cheaper (as long as you don’t mind blood stains on the sheets) and transport is stupidly cheap. Average meal: 60p 1 hr on public bus: 30p Midrange Hotel: 5.00p Pack of cigarettes: 65p 1 litre Bottle of water: 17p 1 Banana: 1p As we were welcomed aboard and shown to our cabin, one of the cabin staff mentioned that this ... read more
November 17th 2009
First and foremost. Drumroll please….. Kiva Fellowship!! You are reading the blog of a member of Kiva Fellow class number 13. Please visit my site (kivacharlie.wordpress.com) if you haven’t already done so to read about why I have decided to take an unpaid position working with Kiva, a microfinance nonprofit for a year+. Along those lines I am actively soliciting donations to make this commitment a possibility. I am targeting raising $20,000 and I know I can do it. I truly believe that the work I will be doing will make a positive difference and need your help. The direct link to donate via Paypal is here .At the moment I do not have a fiscal sponsorship and therefore cannot provide tax deductions for donations but I hope to remedy that in the next month. Many ... read more
June 29th 2009
What initially drew me to Grameen Bank was the potential of micro-credit to challenge traditional attitudes towards gender equity. The goal of the micro-credit summit campaign was not simply to reach women but empower them. This meant developing micro- and macro-level strategies to achieve gender equality in power, rights and resources. Yet, empowerment is a culturally specific word. A young female receiving a liberal arts education in the west has a much different understanding of empowerment as compared to an uneducated woman growing up in a rural village. Therefore, until I could answer the question does access to credit necessarily lead to economic, social and political empowerment, I first needed to learn how both Grameen and its borrowers understood the concept. First, I came up with my own working definition. I see economic empowerment as access ... read more
June 23rd 2009
Saying goodbye to a place is always a surprising revelation in the way that you feel about your experiences there. As the days leading up to my last trips to Barisal passed (and as my final days in Bangladesh slip through my hands now), I found myself wondering how I would react to the end of my time here. I arrived in Bangladesh just over a year ago. I stepped off the plane into Dhaka on the morning of June 5th and was on a boat to Barisal that same night, setting a pattern that would define the first few months of my work here. Until we left the country for winter holidays in December 2008, Parendi and I spent as much time in Barisal as we did in Dhaka. Our apartment was in the country’s ... read more
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June 21st 2009
Jake and I took a leisurely stroll through our neighborhood a few weekends ago. The humidity wasn't too high and so we decided to walk around for a bit and enjoy Baridhara. The highlights, among other things, were various colourful rickshaws, exotic trees and flowers, strange fruits, the garbage "truck", and a random patch of corn (yes, corn). We took some photos to share with you :) Enjoy!... read more
June 12th 2009
It is almost impossible in these parts to not take up a number of causes and issues outside of your official realm of obligation. In a beautiful country full of sweet and welcoming people, many of whom live in very challenging circumstances, it is inevitable that we end up investing energy in “side projects.” Ashley, for example, has a relationship with a community in the lake region of Rangamati, where she raised money to sponsor a handful of composting toilets for families who until then had been drinking water from the same shores that they defecated into. Now the families have self-composting EcoSan toilets (see photo), and have not only improved sanitation but been able to build small home gardens using the fertilizer from their compost. For many of us, these commitments allow us to engage ... read more
June 11th 2009
Initially, my plan for last weekend was to visit the Sundarbans and take a relaxing boat ride through the beautiful Bangladeshi jungle. But due to Cyclone Aila, which killed over 200 people and left thousands without homes or clean water, I knew I could not enjoy being a tourist amidst so much pain and destruction. Looking at the front page of the Bangladeshi newspaper, I grew frustrated that neither the government nor the private sector was doing much to help. Suffering has become such a daily reality for the people that the government no longer bothers declaring the country in a state of emergency. However, I suddenly realized that I was in a unique position to contribute to the relief effort. Rather than getting caught up in the bigger picture of conflict and poverty, I decided ... read more
June 4th 2009
(Brought to you by my once lost and now returned camera charger) Finally, the video of our sea plane landing. It's a decent view of the landscape, but hold out for the end of the video, when you can see children from the nearest village running along the banks to see what has just landed in their river. The second video is a new favorite of mine, and gives a sense of that enchanted-forest type feeling that I sometimes talk about in Bhola. You half get the sense that one of the boys (carrying pots of fish on their heads) will sprout fairy wings and fly off in the middle of the video. Listen to it in a quiet room and you can hear the birds chirping and the hay being raked across the path. ... read more
May 31st 2009
Biking Through the Tea Estates- 29/05/09 This morning I woke up thinking it would be a mellow day bike riding through the tea estates of Sylhet. However, I am quickly learning that nothing in Bangladesh is easy or relaxing. The bike shopkeeper was supposed to deliver fifteen bikes for the interns at 9 am to the Nirala Guesthouse. Of course, when we walked downstairs in the morning there was no one waiting. Two hours later, after much sweating and negotiation, we had fifteen shoddy bikes and a tour guide who neither spoke English nor knew the area. Heading out to Lowacherra National Park, we rode through lush forests, pineapple bushes, rubber plantations and beadle trees. Stopping at a little shop on the side of the road, I tried the infamous five layer tea. After finishing walking ... read more
