Dewali!

A strange and weird thing about living here in Bangladesh, is that I am somehow perceived as more important than I actually am. People call me "Madam", I get waved through security check points and I get invited to the Indian High Commissioners Diwali party! Now this, I can get used to! 

Dewali is the Hindu festival of light, a sort of light overcoming evil celebration. The High Commissioners residence (the party venue!) was filled with thousands of sparkling fairy lights, they let off some pretty average locally made fireworks, and also let off these awesome and HUGE lanterns! They were so big, they were almost like hot air balloons! It was pretty magical watching them float up into the night sky.

 Fabulous outdoor decorations!

The party was the most party like party I've been to here, there were non-dry drinks available(!!) and also a band, with Bollywood music AND DANCING! Like, lots of full body hands and hip jiggling dancing, and that was just the men! It was this part of the evening that reminded me the most the differences between the Bangladeshi and Indian culture. India is a huge country and has such a mix of cultures and religion, whereas Bangladeshi culture seems to be more heavily dominated by their conservative religion. I miss public displays of dancing.

Glenna and the High Commissioner launching the lantern

Thanks to the fun party, I'm also and have been invited for chai at the Indian High Commissioners house! Oh, and did I mention that I also met the French Ambassador? Happy Dewali!

Glamorous!

In preparation for Lindsey's visit I compiled a list of the ultimate Bangladeshi experiences. During the 12 days she was here we proceeded to tick them off the list.We rode on top of a local bus, drank cha at a local stand, took rickshaws, visited the markets, spat paan juice onto the dusty streets and ate with our hands. But we saved the very best for last. For a woman, pretty much the ultimate Bangladeshi experience is going to the parlour.  Nowhere else outside of 1964 can you experience the hair teased, set and sprayed routine that a Bangladeshi parlor can offer! And you too can proudly walk out made up with eyes that Cleopatra herself would be proud of! 

We decided that the Bangladeshi make-over parlor experience needed a motivation, (this was Lindsey's last night in the 'desh after all!) we needed a reason to be looking so extra special. So we teamed up the outlandish hair and make up, with bright coloured saris and headed to the photo studio for ....GLAMOUR SHOTS! 

Bangladesh know how to do Biryani and they sure know how to do posed non smiling photo-shopped fake background glamour shots! Most middle/upper class Bangladeshi's have wallets full of  pictures of family members glammed-up in front of fields of tulips or snow capped mountains. It's so popular that the photos can be taken at any of the 563 photo shops in Chittagong! 

So on a regular Sunday night in Chittagong, Lindsey, my housemate Glenna and I embraced the ultimate of ultimate of Bangladeshi experiences; hair, makeup and sari wrapped at the parlour, followed by glamour shots in the back room of a little photo dorcan!

I think Lonely Planet need me to help them write their next Bangladesh book update, because they seemed to have missed this ultimate experience off their list!

Enjoy the evidence of this hilariously glamorous evening! 

Global Hand Washing Day!

Oh dear, I know, I've been terrible! It's been weeks since I last posted! But I'm back into home life now post holidays in Nepal and Bangladesh adventuring with Lindsey, so I now have a bazillion photos to ensure future blog posts can't possible dry up until 2047. 

Before I left for my Eid break to Nepal, I celebrated Global Handwashing Day at a local High School! We organised an afternoon session at a Chittagong High School to demonstrate effective handwashing practice in a fun and interactive way!

It would sound like a strange thing, going to an Australian high school to teach children to wash their hands with soap and water, don't parents teach that kind of thing? In most developing countries, where good infrastructure is a given, that's usually true. But here in Bangladesh, poor water and sewerage infrastructure and access to and knowledge of soap means that training children (and adults!) on hygiene can be life saving!

Handwashing with soap and water is the most effective and inexpensive way of preventing diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of one third of child deaths in Bangladesh each year! Isn't that figure astounding!

Below are some pics showing the fun handwashing demonstrations and set up at South Patenga High School in Chittagong.

Eid #2

photo credit 

It's Religious festival central here in Bangladesh in the coming weeks. The Muslims are celebrating Eid #2 (Eid-al-Adha officially) and the Hindus are celebrating Durga Puja. And I am celebrating having a few days off work :)

I'm sad to be missing the colour and animal sacrificing on the streets of Chittagong for the festival week, but the call of the Mountains is too strong! Yes, I using my four days off and the weekend and heading to Nepal! Ahhhhh. Mount Everest out of the plane window here I come!

It's just a short break, but the plan is to use my new found fitness (ha!) to spend a few days trekking in the Shivapuri National Park, and also a few days exploring Kathmandu and the markets! Yey! And the really good news? I just checked the weather forecast for the next week and it's sunny, Max 28 Min 10 pretty much the whole week! I'm excited for some sunshine on my (always salwar kameez covered) snow-white legs and cool evenings! Hooray!

And since good news is better when there is more of it, when I return to the 'desh next Sunday it's only 3 more sleeps until my gorgeous friend Lindsey is coming to visit! Coming to visit you in Chittagong, Bangladesh? Yes, i know! She's fabulous.

Eid Mubarak!

Page 2 Star!

You're looking at a local Chittagong celebrity right here!

I made it to the local paper - again! ;) Although this time, it was the local Bangla paper, so I don't actually have a clue what it says!

That grainy figure second from the right is me!

It's a write-up and picture of a forum I attended (and spoke at without prior warning!) for the first International Day of the Girl Child. The forum was to encourage local women and the community to uphold rights of girl children.

You know, just another day in the office ;)

Arsenic removal

I'm six months into my assignment as a Water & Sanitation officer with World Vision here in Bangladesh. Six months!

I realised that I haven't really updated on here too much lately, and from the content of the current posts, you may have forgotten that I actually am working while I'm here too! I promise I am working, and things are actually picking up and I'm feeling a little bit productive! Woo! After feeling a bit lost in the first few months it's a nice feeling :)

even the village kids are excited for me

A few weeks ago, I was in Laksam, about 180km north of Chittagong (in Bangladesh this equals a horrid 5 hour drive!) Laksam is an area where the shallow groundwater is highly contaminated with naturally occurring arsenic.

In Bangladesh 95% of drinking water comes from tube wells, these are wells that are bored (or hand dug) into the ground and a hand pump pumps the groundwater to the surface. In Laksam 98% of the available water is contaminated with arsenic. Arsenic contaminated water is a huge concern in many areas of Bangladesh, and about 38 million people are currently at risk. And for people in those communities there often aren't any other water options, so they drink the arsenic contaminated water. This can lead to Arsenicosis. Bad news.

But in Laksam, World Vision has been working with several communities to install a community-based arsenic removal unit to replace the old contaminated tube well. These units are designed in Bangladesh, and very easy to operate - just pump like a regular tube well, then the clean water comes out a tap. It also requires minimal maintenance and zero electricity, which is essential for sustainability in ultra poor communities!

I met with two different communities who have have the arsenic removal unit installed. The most exciting part was seeing how with the help of World Vision, the community had mobilised to form a committee to oversee maintenance, and each user pays a fee, according to how much they can afford to pay into a fund for future maintenance. I was so encouraged by the sustainability of the project, and how the community had taken ownership of the unit and their health and livelihoods!

And then I had a go! Of course everyone thought it was hilarious.

In one community I was the given the very honoured job of drinking the first glass of arsenic free water from the unit! I felt pretty special... until I found out that everyone else was just waiting until they had dedicated the unit to the gods the next morning. yep.

It's baby steps in community development, but sometimes these baby steps can lead to significant changed circumstances in communities health and future. It's a total blessing to have the opportunity to witness just a part of it.

Ok, let's hug! x

Bangla Wedding!

Last weekend I went to my very first Bangla wedding! And I actually knew the couple! ...which is not a weird as it sounds when a standard reception here has 500+ guests. Raihan (the groom) worked for the AYAD program in the Dhaka office, and I had met his lovely bride Archi once before. As you can see from the photos, Archi looked so beautiful! The henna and jewellery and saree - all gorgeous!

I just happened to be in Dhaka for the night of the wedding, and as it was my first Bangla wedding, I decided to go all out and have my hair and makeup done and saree wrapped at the parlor! (a very Bangladeshi woman experience!). And even though I felt overdone, once I arrived at the wedding, I felt like I fitted right in!

The actual evening was an elaborate affair that consisted of people taking photos with the happy couple, and photos with us.  And eating. Eating a lot. There was no dancing, drinking, music, speeches or cake, but there was a whole lot of biryani!

And that dear Internet, is a very Bangladeshi evening!