Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 13

As you can tell by the title, it has been raining, a LOT! The past three days it has pretty much rained constantly. Now, in the UK, i would probably be moaning about that. But here, it is great. It has dramatically cooled down (to a positively chilly 25 degrees), the sun hasn't been beating down on us, and listening to the rain is so relaxing! Obviously, if it keeps raining this much, maybe I'll get tired of it - but for now im positively ecstatic about the complete downpour! I spent last weekend teaching poor children, who speak barely any English, 'Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes'! It meant two early mornings, but it was so worth it. One was at the play park where Isa had his birthday party, the other was at a hospital ... read more

Well my second week is gradually drawing to a close. I cannot believe i've been here that long, it seems like only yesterday that i was holding back the tears saying goodbye to everyone. Strange how quickly you settle in somewhere, and i am definitely starting to settle in. On Friday, the 3rd birthday party was incredible!! We had a 40 minutes journey out of the city, heading through a military zone and ending up by a golf course in a really lush area of Chittagong. We turned up at the Play Park, where there were 120 poor children all dressed up very beautifully waiting to greet us. The whole place had been spectacularly decorated for little Isa's birthday party, with balloons galore. We played pass the parcel with the children, 20 at a time, and ... read more

I'm here! Had a spectacularly long journey but i arrived in Chittagong yesterday at about 7pm and was brought to my flat to settle in, see Bonny and generally relax! So...the journey. The flight from Heathrow to Dhaka was actually really nice, it was pretty empty so i had a row of three seats to myself. So set myself up a bed and tried as much as i could to sleep - probably got in about 3/4 hours. There was a screaming child, but the flight attendant (a pretty formidable woman) managed to shut him up! She was really lovely and managed to make me feel really happy and welcome. The food was really nice - a chicken curry with rice for dinner and some omelette thing for breakfast. The inflight entertainment was not up to ... read more

We were invited to a wedding celebration out in the village, just past Tongi. It took us a few hours to get there, but once we were there it was really nice to be out of the city and outside in the fresh air. It was our first time attending a local wedding and we were really excited! The traditions that go along with weddings here are so numerous and intricate that we are still learning about them all! We got to witness a few of these in person, including the eating of sweets and the wedding marching band. Mitu looked absolutely beautiful! Her family warmly welcomed us into their home and made sure we ate and danced as much as possible. We had a good time! We will try and post a video on here ... read more

For more of my photos, or to buy my book, please visit www.nickkembel.com Upon hearing ‘Bangladesh’, most people will naturally ponder various images, which come to them primarily from the media. I did once too. Natural catastrophes that take tens, even hundreds of thousands of lives, over, and over, and over again. The most crowded nation on earth. One of the poorest too. The country is viewed essentially as a write-off by much of the world, a forgotten land where human and natural suffering exist on a scale so grand that few of us can handle the burden of even imagining that we could in some way help, or even worse, actually want to go there. But I want to ignore those ideas, tell you a few things that you probably don’t know about the ... read more