Blogger Dougo Today we headed off on another adventurous trip into the Bangla unknown. With our trusty Lonely Planet guide book and map (don’t get me started again!), we all piled into the school van and headed off to Tongi River, north of the airport on the outskirts of Dhaka. Our driver, Bilash, proved to be a god send. The Lonely Planet said the launches for the boats that would take us up river were 100m west of the bridge. They were to the east. Bilash managed to bargain us a boat (we had to pay the price of a [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Having collected Bec’s brother Owen from the airport last night, our posse had grown to five. A word of warning to anyone reading this blog: DO NOT FLY TO BANGLADESH WITH GMG AIRLINES if you want to arrive on time. We had heard stories from existing staff that GMG never depart and arrive on time, but until now we didn’t really appreciate them. Owen was due to arrive from Bangkok at 6pm. He walked out of Zia International Airport, Dhaka, at 2am. Delay after delay after delay. Totally dead to the world we all got home at 2:30am. [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Bec's Mum, Karen and Dad, Jim arrived yesterday evening. What better way to introduce them to Bangladesh then to take them into the hustle and bustle of Old Town? We left our place in a school van and headed into the heart of the city. Our school and where we live is in the north of Dhaka near the airport approximately 1hour from the 'old' town. As it was only a few days prior to Eid Al-Adha, the festival of sacrifice (more on that later), the roads were packed with people, rickshaws, cars and trucks. It took us [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Well it finally arrived. Christmas break, end of second term, the winter holidays. It is always a busy time of the year for anyone, but for international teachers this is particularly busy. It is a weird mix of total exhaustion having got through the first five months of a new school, report writing and getting to know everyone, and elation at knowing there is light at the end of the tunnel. Social commitments aplenty is the theme in the weeks leading up to any holiday break. Everyone is going somewhere (more often than not) and you are asked [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Everything is fine in old Dhaka town. We were warned to batten down the hatches Thursday night as the cyclone mad land fall down south classed as a category 4. It arrived at around midnight to Dhaka with 100km/h winds. Mates have told stories of seeing trees horizontal and the sky full of debris. YOu know me though. I slept write through it! [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo We have just returned from a trip to the Sundarbans National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of mangrove forest, jungle, tidal rivers and grasslands. It was with great anticipation that we left Dhaka at around 9:30pm on Thursday, with our tour company, The Guide Tours. After viewing a pride of 20 odd lions in Africa, I was so hoping to get a glimpse on the reclusive Bengal tiger on this trip. On a 20 seater bus with Bec and I were a bunch of other teachers from ISD including our French teacher Francois' mum. Having heard horror [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Last weekend, I played m third round of golf at The Army Golf Course. All the courses are owned and operated by the Bangladeshi Army. I am not sure why. Greg, Paddy and Mike, three teachers from school, and I played 15 holes before we had to get Mike's car back home. I wasn't complaining. Having played like shite for the first 5 holes, I won the next 2 holes for me and Paddy and dropped my first birdie on the 8th. It was all downhill from there though and by the 13th I was dragging my feet [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec I apologise for the lack of photos which would no doubt give a much better idea of what I have just seen than my words but as it was my first visit, I didn't know the cultural norms and felt it would be insensitive to photograph until I understood the area better. In order to best understand how I can be of best use to the less fortunate in Dhaka, I needed to see first hand what the situation was like for the poorest of the poor. I have it in my head that I want o set [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo For those of you who haven't packed up your entire life and left your home country, this is a big deal. Imagine arriving in a foreign place, moving into a new apartment, beginning a new job and socialising with your new colleagues with the contents of just one suitcase. Airlines out of Oz are very strict nowadays about how much you are able to actually check in and carry on. 20kg checked, 7 kg carried. Now imagine you arrive to work with nothing except some soft copies of resources on a laptop. No books. Nothing physical that you [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Good news here in Dhaka, our government imposed curfew has been lifted during daylight hours. The trade off is that during these times, the internet and telephone lines are disconnected. (yet, we are still using the net now and it's 9:10 in the morning.) Yesterday was a bit hairy. We got up at the usual 5:45am ready to catch our 6:40am bus from the front of the apartment block. We waited and waited but still no school van turned up. Anxiously looking between my watch and my not-working mobile phone, Paula's voice ringing in my head - "nothing [View Full Entry]

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