Hazelnut Praline Lovers Rejoice!

13 December 2007 - Wednesday

Low key day. Prepped volunteer information, announcement postings, etc. Internet is dialup here, (aughh! who knew such things still existed!) so we try to stay organized and squeeze as much out of our online time as possible.

We 're at the UNICEF office, mooching their wireless. They're in the process of expanding their office, so desks and chairs are being assembled around me as I tap away. They gave us tea, water, and biscuits. I like this line from the LP guide "in a country where it is a privilege and an honor to welcome you, it is indeed a privilege and an honor to be welcomed." The people here truly are kind and helpful.

Pruned my email. When I get here, I get in this mindset and expect to focus and just be surrounded with HODR and disaster stuff. Of course, regular life continues on, and my email reflects that. I get updates from my sister ("new season of Project Runway, volume is IN!!!") and newsletters from SF Rechiutti Chocolates ("Hazelnut Praline Lovers Rejoice!"). Yes, I still want to know about Project Runway, but hazelnut praline? Not so much. Delete.

Curry hand

12 December, 2007 - Tuesday

I'm starting to enjoy eating rice (and food in general) out of my hand, but there is one side effect that I'm not such a fan of, what I'll call curry hand - the staining of the nails and fingertips a bright yellow color. I'm not sure if this is just me or what, but no matter how much I scrub, my hand still smells vaguely of lunch.

We finished our tour of Patuakhali district. While there is damage here, we didn't find a density of work in the areas we looked at. And so, Sharonkhola/Rayenda it is! We did get to watch the installation of a deep tube well though, which was quite interesting. I'd like to do some water projects as part of our deployment, but am not sure exactly what form that would take. Need to do some research on that.

SLOPB/Patuakhali

11 December 2007 - Tuesday

Today was an amazing day. We left Barisal for Patuakhali, another heavily damaged district in the south. I called another NGO rep from Mohon's list, an Ismael Shakir from SLOPB. Was curious about the NGO name. We arrived at noon and met Mr. Shakir, who gave us an overview of SLOPB's programs and history with impeccable English.

SLOPB, or Stichting Land Ontwikkelings Project Bangladesh, has a pretty interesting story. The founder was born in Bangladesh to a family that couldn't support him; he ran away from home at age 6, lived as a street boy in Dhaka, and then was adopted by a Dutch family. He grew up in the Netherlands, and returned to Bangladesh in the 90's to search for his biological family. Upon finding them (and with the encouragement of friends who believed in his capacity to do something like this), he started SLOPB, to improve the lives of the community he was from. Makes me feel like I've been rolling around on pillows all my life. SLOPB has an impressive list of active projects, including water and sanitation work, community health and education, two orphanages, and small-scale livelihood programs.

Mr. Shakir gave us an overview of severely affected but underserved areas of Patuakhali, and we set off to visit the first community. This group of 300 families lives on an island that emerged from the river about seven years ago. People began to cultivate rice paddies on it (the silt from the river that floods over Bangladesh is what gives the land its fertility, imagine what could grow out of a pure mound of the stuff), and began to live here one year ago.

As the island pulled into view, I could make out tiny shack houses on an otherwise electric sliver of green. Because the island is so new there are few trees, and those that are there are quite small. The landless people who moved to this island built homes with wood and metal sheets, but they were cleanly swept away in the storm. The makeshift houses that have sprung up utilize a variety of salvaged mats, plastic, bedding, and saris. (I do wonder what the people here would make emergency shelters with if their women didn't wear such fantastically long sarongs.) There is basically nothing else on the island. I want to plant trees!

After a brief tour of the island (pretty easy, at only 1,300 acres with no trees, you need only rotate your head 45 degrees to the left and right), we headed back to the launch against a sunset backdrop. Of course the boat motor broke. As we bobbed in the water while our boatman tried to get the engine started, we flagged down a fishing boat that was passing by, and hitched a ride with them instead.

And so we chugged upstream, the river reflecting the swirls of peach, pink, and yellow that smoldered above. It was quiet, peaceful, beautiful. I thought about how crazy, how lucky, how strange, that in one year I could be in both the mountains of Tibet, source of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and in the deltas of Bangladesh, where those very waters spill into the Bay of Bengal. I didn't expect either. I will treasure both.

That would have been a satisfying enough day in itself, but on the way back to SLOPB's center, we stopped by one of their projects, a community drama educating about hygiene and health. The power had gone our right before we arrived and light from a hundred phones and flashlights darted about the field. When a stray light would illuminate us here or there, the kids would get quite riled up to see foreigners. It sounded like 300 kids shrieking in the dark. Unfortunately we didn't get to stay for the performance; we visited SLOPB's girls' orphanage. The 20 girls who live here (aged 5 to 15) are incredibly intelligent, charming, and poised. I felt a little awkward imposing on them, but they all introduced themselves in English, recited poems and sang songs for us, and served us milk fresh from the cow they keep at their center! I don't think I've ever had milk straight from a cow before.

Then the girls asked us questions, culminating in an invitation for me to sing a song. Ugh. I needed something short and with hand motions (better than standing there with arms awkwardly splayed), and all I could think of was this little Chinese ditty about meeting and making friends. Well, they were polite enough to act like they enjoyed it. After some more questions, it was time to go.

I can make videos! (kind of)

10 December 2007 - Monday

Bangladesh is a go! I made my first ever video clip today, an update on our assessment which also announces the project. I used iMovie, which was pretty simple and fun. Now I can spew my homemade video craps to the world on YouTube!

The Book

1 December 2007 - Saturday

It's always handy to have a country guidebook before landing. I planned on picking a Bangladesh guide up in New York (as park of the Amazon order I made), but since the package was never delivered, we made it all the way to Dhaka without the book. Not critical, but it gives you basic information on communications and how to get around, and also has a language primer, all useful before you hook up with someone local.

After looking in a couple bookshops, time was running short. We had two last leads, the tourist office and the bookshop at the Dhaka Sheraton. Both were a bust. Oh well, time to hit the ferry to Barisal. As we waited in traffic on the way to the docks, a vendor walked by. There are lots of people selling snacks, trinkets, and all varieties of stuff in traffic. We picked up our map of Bangladesh and some tasty popcorn this way. This guy happened to be selling books. I saw a flash of yellow cover, and started yelling "the book, the book!" The guy had bootleg Lonely Planet guides. How random.

It was also cheaper than Amazon. Granted, it was also fake. But we got the book!

Sleeping in Airports

It's Saturday afternoon and I've finally made it to Dhaka! It only took us from Monday until Saturday...

Monday departure from Lima. Tuesday AM arrival in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. 1 hour in the customs line in Ft. Lauderdale. After finishing with customs, 20 more minutes waiting for luggage. Got a Spirit Air employee to take us through security after calling the gate to hold our connecting flight to New York. Arrived at the gate to find that they closed boarding anyway and wouldn't let us on. Rebooked, 3 hour wait in Ft. Lauderdale.

Landed in New York City! Rushed to the Bangladesh consulate general, at East 43rd Street. Taxi dutifully took us to West 43rd Street. Stood in Times Square with all my bags, feeling annoyed. Hopped another taxi to the consulate. Met up with Karen, HODR volunteer who lives in New York, who had gotten money orders for us to pay for the visas (no cash accepted). Asked the man at the counter nicely to issue our visas then and there. Ding!

Found a hotel close to my friend Nick's place. Met up with Nick for dinner. Ate a burger with not-so-processed, not-so-questionable meat! Drank non-bottled water at the restaurant, which I didn't have to pay for and which didn't give me stomach fireworks! Threw toilet paper into the toilet! Understood what everyone around me was saying! Checked Nick's apartment for my Amazon.com package (Bangladesh guidebook, power adapters, Teach Yourself Bengali, etc.). Nothing. Boo.

Wednesday - Checked Nick's apartment again. Still nothing. Emailed Amazon. Picked up supplies and Reese's Peanut Butter Cups at a drugstore. (Did you know they have peanut butter Twix now too? Crazy.) Rushed down to Wall Street for lunch with my friend Nabo. Nabo speaks Bengali, so I asked her to teach me the word "thank you." Said I thought it was probably the most important word to learn first. She thought the most important word would be "water," so taught me that as well. Raced back to hotel to pick up bags. Checked Nick's apartment one last time, still no package. Three UPS trucks parked in front of his building, no drivers to be found. Bet that my package was sitting on one of them. Left for the airport.

Flew Finnair from New York City to Helsinki. Finnair flight attendants very tall, very blond. Landed in Helsinki at 7:00AM on Thursday. Looked very cold outside here. People in terminal drinking beer, at 7:00AM! Bent myself onto airport bench, slept. Woke up to board connecting flight to Delhi, only to find it was canceled. Rerouted to Mumbai instead. Felt alarmed, as Mumbai arrival time meant we would miss our flight from Delhi to Dhaka. Finnish Finnair staff a bit curt. No phones in terminal either. Grumpily took my free food vouchers and bought tiny, expensive packages of European snack food.

Flew from Helsinki to Mumbai. Arrived 7:00AM on Friday, with no India visa and no actual onward flight. Oy. Amazingly helpful and friendly Indian Finnair staff took us to transit lounge, sorted out tickets for us. Slept. Beginning to feel like my job is just to ride airplanes and sleep. Left Mumbai at 7:00PM.

Arrived in Delhi at 9:00PM on Friday. Security checkers wouldn't let us pass into actual terminal, since our flight was nine hours away. Just as well, went to a lounge instead, stuffed myself with finger sandwiches and curry vegetable puffs. Not so healthy at 4:00AM. Didn't care.

Saturday morning, Delhi-Dhaka flight scheduled for 7:00AM. Wait, no, 8:00AM. Wait, no, 9:00AM. Finally landed in Dhaka at 11:00AM on Saturday. No problems with immigration! All our bags arrived! Made it to the hotel without a hitch and met up with David, the ED.

It's green here! It's colorful! I'm back in Asia! I do miss Project Pisco though. Hopefully we start moving into the affected areas in the next couple days, and I'll have more interesting stuff to write.