Six months in a leaky boat

Three things I love about Bangladesh (right now):

· My job: I’m back from a week in remote Kishoreganj mixing it up with Early Childhood Centres and Women’s Empowerment Groups and loving it. Now I get to spend the next couple of weeks turning these hours into case studies, articles, fact sheets and monitoring and evaluation assessments. All while wearing aqua and lime green pyjamas, Birkenstocks, and belting out renditions of “We Are One, But We Are Many” off key. There are worse jobs (and many of them are here).



Getting in amongst it: a women's empowerment group in an urban slum

· The random factor: Ben the Backpacker has been and gone, and it was great to experience the weird and wonderful of Chittagong through fresh eyes. In three days Ben had near death experiences, got married to someone he’d never met before, donated money to a coffin, found out turtles have toenails, discovered the wonders of Mini Bangladesh, had more photos of himself taken than he took, played cricket, found out his choice in sunglasses is closely linked to Bangladesh’s political history, ate at the best restaurant in town on a backpacker’s budget, and learned the usefulness of the Bangla word “shesh” (meaning finished) when discussing public transport. Oh, and got drunk; he is Australian after all.

Ben the Backpacker and I rickshawing through the streets of Chittagong

· Watermelon: it’s cheap, everywhere, and unlikely to kill me. Especially good when chilled. Mmmmm.

Three things I don’t love about Bangladesh (right now):

· The Dhaka-Chittagong highway: three (relatively minor) traffic incidences in three months makes me a very nervous passenger these days.

· The bug factor: living alone and having a job which sends me out and about frequently means the cockroaches and rodents can have quite a field day in my place while I’m gone. I suspect this is what some parents feel like when returning from time away while entrusting the family home (and the liquor cabinet) to their teenagers - albeit without the advantage of the extermination process. I must look like a bit of a mix between a character out of The Terminator and Ghostbusters each time I come back home – can of bug spray in each hand, jumping out of my skin at every movement I catch out of the corner of my eye, and cautious when opening cupboards.


watching kids de-lice each other - a great way to make the scalp crawl

· Power outtages: No power means no fan. No fan means one very hot, sweaty and inappropriately dressed bideshi (foreigner). It’s really quite impressive how much sweat one can generate while not moving a muscle. Impressive, and gross.