First week in Bangladesh

Well we are here! Sometimes I wish we could escape the noise and the smells and heat for just a little while. We are very very thankful for the airconditioner in our bedroom. It blocks out the noises and cools the room. We sleep well. It is amazing when we rise in the morning how hot the rest of the house is.

But the place is full of beautiful people and beautiful places. What are some of my early impressions.

There are people everywhere. Even in the remotest places that have no electricity and there local government officers do not want to know about them, and we turn up, and as white people, and attract a crowd. Mostly they are smiling and staring! It is not rude to stare and apparently, we are interesting! They have amazing smiles.

They are very helpful people. We had to catch our first Rickshaw alone to our language class. The first Rickshaw wallah would not take us nor the second. A passing fellow passenger stopped to help. He told the wallah where to go and that we would need 2 rickshaws as he could not cross one road. He also told both the Wallah and us what the fare should be! 5Tk cheaper than we paid the day before. Two other English speakers helped along the way. Now we will know what to do tomorrow!

Little things are different too; like you cannot buy disprin or vitamin C at the supermarket. You must go up lift 3 to the little medical shop that has all you could want. We had totally missed floor 3 earlier because it had different stairs and used the lift not the escalators. It was one of the nicest lifts I have ever been in. The bags you are given at shops are either a plastic netting or brown paper. If you have brought any other goods you leave them with the security guard who puts them on a shelf and gives you a tag, so you can collect them when you are done.

The traffic is unbelievable. Horn and bells ring all the time. You will pass within centimetres of other vehicles (often on both sides at once) numerous times in one trip. In the country when you pass another vehicle you will be facing an on-coming truck and miss them by the normal few centimetres. Most buses and trucks have more scrapes then paint! The decorations on the trucks are just so beautiful and very individual. Steve noticed one diff with a soccer ball painted on it.

People carry around so much stuff... lots of it on their heads or heavy loads on manual trolleys. So much is done manually.

Electricity goes for at least an hour a day... on a good day. I am typing in the dark and we lost power in our language class today.

The countryside is just so beautiful. Green and lush. And everything is used. Some much stuff is sorted into piles and sold beside to road!

So many things are so different. I guess that is what makes this an adventure!

Mrs Banu - House help