Mar
18
2008
The buses in Bangladesh are seriously dented and you only need to ride on one to know how they got that way. Bangladeshi bus drivers are maniacs, barrelling down the roads with little regard for anything else that might be in the way. It doesn’t help that I’m the most cowardly bus passenger in the world, nearly crapping my pants at the slightest hint of speed.
So logically, I’ve taken to riding up on top of the buses to truly scare myself to death. The first day I rode on top of a bus I was kind of wedged in between baskets of jagged tin that seemed to want to stab into my sides anytime the bus went over a bump which was pretty much all the time. My next ride up top was far more comfortable with plenty of room to stretch out. We even had some tea and biscuits sent up from the shop next to the bus stop while we waited ages for the thing to decide to move. At one point a young guy was balancing precariously on the front of the bus trying to snap some photos of the crazy white folks on a Bangladeshi bus roof rack and nearly did a back flip off the front when the bus came to a halting stop on a bumpy road.
On another journey I also had to think of molestation avoidance tactics while perching precariously at the back of the bus nestled uncomfortably between some Bangladeshi dude’s legs. Given the tight circumstances, I was willing to let his leg hold slide but when he decided to strategically relocate the position of his hands while deciding to rest his head on my back, I had to bring things to a grinding halt and find a new position. Unfortunately, after an awkward, painful and death defying re-shuffle, I pretty much found myself in the exact same position except this time I was facing him and had to do some mild contortions to stop his face from inching ever closer to my boobs.
Riding inside the bus is marginally more safe but it may cause you to lose the will to live as you try to find some breathing space while avoiding the stares of pretty much everyone on board. Plus Bangladeshi men seem to like to beat up their bus drivers for reasons that have yet to be established. I’m definitely not going to complain about the commute in London ever again!
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Mar
04
2008
Today was one of those days that reminds me why I really love this volunteering thing. The day was pretty ridiculous but we still managed to get a lot done, get dirty and laugh a lot in the process.
Hands On have committed to building five playgrounds in communities outside Rayenda and today we got cracking on the first of the lot. We loaded up a boat in the morning with bricks and most of our wood only to discover that there was no way it would be able to take the rest of the wood and six volunteers. We wrangled another boat and tried to offload some of the stuff from the first boat but boat guy assured us it would be ok. We relented, boarded the new boat and watched nervously as the overloaded boat floated precariously down the river beside us. It made it there but, damn, it made the journey interesting.
Our journey was about an hour and a bit and I think I was totally duped. We were promised a nice boat ride in the morning, and it was nice. The scenery was stunning and we even had realy cool, massive bats flying overhead at one point. The duped part is that I totally forgot that at the end of the boat ride we’d have to unload and transport craploads of heavy wood. Damn.
One thing I can say about Bangladeshi school children is that they’ve got a lot of energy. They were right in there with us during the transporting of our wood. Some of the little buggers were carrying beams on their heads that I could barely lift! Their help got the job done a million times faster though so yay again to voluntary child labour! Another, unrelated, pretty nasty and totally irrelevant thing I can say about them is that when they pick their noses, they really go for it. There’s no shyness about going for a good ol’ dig up there with an audience.
After our massive wood relocation session most of our day was spent digging holes. Child labour came through again as they got their hands dirty scooping up dirt into bags for us as we dug the holes with some crazy shovel type devices. I’d guess that we had about 100 kids around us as we dug, sang badly and generally acted silly while getting some beams and stuff up in the process. I had a massive crowd around me watching me do… absolutely nothing. Everyone seemed fascinated by my lack of earrings and lack of a nose piercing. Why this attracted a fascinated crowd of over 60 I will never know.
So all up it was a great day. I’m not sure how I feel about this hard work thing but I’m sure I can get used to it. Dealing with a zillion excited kids who want to hang out with you as you swing tools around takes some serious amounts of patience but seeing them so eager and excited to help and knowing that they’ve never even seen a playground before makes me fight the urge to kick them. Just kidding. Sort of.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
Mar
01
2008
I’m still amazed each day at how well the internet works here in rural Bangladesh. Power up my computer, plug in my phone and away I go. In theory.
In reality, working here is quite difficult partly because the power goes out for several hours each night and flying bugs attack my computer screen leaving rather offputting smears across the screen when I smoosh them. The main problem, though, is that I haven’t been able to find a work space that suits me.
There’s a recent post over on Working Nomad that talks about being able to work better with people around. I’m the opposite as I tend to get distracted pretty easily when interesting people are around and find myself preferring to join in on conversations rather than sit in front of my computer typing madly. The place I’m staying at the moment houses about 25 volunteers in a relatively small space so finding a quiet space to work is pretty much impossible.
Even worse for me though is the lack of comfortable places to set all my stuff up. There aren’t really many tables around and the ones they do have are all really low to the ground and awkward. I’ve either got to hunch over in a ridiculous position or sit on a cold, concrete floor to be at the same level as the table.
The uncomfortable setup is more of a hindrance because I really like to work in long spurts and being forced to contort into some bizarre position will just leave me sore and fed up after an hour or so.
Crap, the power has just gone out again and I have bug guts all over my screen from squashing mosquitos so I think I’ll call it a night. Another unproductive night… damn.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
