Hey crew,
Well I thought I’d share with you some of my first impressions of Bangladesh. I am sure I will look back on this entry in 12 months and cringe, because
a) I do so when I look back on my first impressions of Uganda and realise how naïve I was;
b) My time so far has mostly been spent in a bubble of staying in a nice hotel, driving around in an airconditioned car and generally being moddy-coddled by our in-country support team; and
c) I have only been to a couple of areas in Dhaka.
But anyhows, so far - and hopefully I’m not speaking too soon - I love it here. Dhaka is huge, with high rise apartments and tall buildings everywhere – which I guess explains how Bangladesh fits a population of 150 million into the size of 2 thirds of Victoria (Australia). It is also chaotic with the roads full of traffic – buses, bicycle rickshaws, cars, CNGs (motorised three wheeler vehicles), pedestrians, etc. My goal for by the end of this week is to be able to cross the road by myself – which will be no mean feat! The pollution is nowhere near as bad as I envisaged – probably thanks to the three wheelers and buses running on Compressed Natural Gas. There is also a lot more trees and parks than I imagined (which I guess is not hard as I didn’t expect any) and thanks to the recent monsoon season they are all extremely green. The high numbers of beggars and street children is hard to deal with and they are much higher in number than anywhere I have ever been. I am still in mixed minds about how to deal with that – but have taken to carrying leftover food with me as I am told money does not go to the kids but to their “pimps”. I guess I will learn a lot more of the ins and outs once I start work…
The weather is nice and hot which is fabulous – I think around the 30 degrees mark which is perfect but the humidity is draining and taking me a while to get used to. Such weather though also means an abundance of mangoes and pineapples – so I am in paradise.
The other thing I love about being here is all the “life” noises – the music of the bicycle bells (even when interrupted by the constant horn honking), the calls to prayer from the mosques, the sounds of people on the streets and just general sounds of people living their lives…
Will leave you with a couple of photos from my first week – I’m not really confident or savvy enough yet to venture out with my camera but here are a couple of snaps to give you a bit of an idea (note the attempted photos of myself, Elise and Zaneta in our snazzy new outfits failed due to my lens fogging up because of the humidity).
Ciao for now,
Amy
Well I thought I’d share with you some of my first impressions of Bangladesh. I am sure I will look back on this entry in 12 months and cringe, because
a) I do so when I look back on my first impressions of Uganda and realise how naïve I was;
b) My time so far has mostly been spent in a bubble of staying in a nice hotel, driving around in an airconditioned car and generally being moddy-coddled by our in-country support team; and
c) I have only been to a couple of areas in Dhaka.
But anyhows, so far - and hopefully I’m not speaking too soon - I love it here. Dhaka is huge, with high rise apartments and tall buildings everywhere – which I guess explains how Bangladesh fits a population of 150 million into the size of 2 thirds of Victoria (Australia). It is also chaotic with the roads full of traffic – buses, bicycle rickshaws, cars, CNGs (motorised three wheeler vehicles), pedestrians, etc. My goal for by the end of this week is to be able to cross the road by myself – which will be no mean feat! The pollution is nowhere near as bad as I envisaged – probably thanks to the three wheelers and buses running on Compressed Natural Gas. There is also a lot more trees and parks than I imagined (which I guess is not hard as I didn’t expect any) and thanks to the recent monsoon season they are all extremely green. The high numbers of beggars and street children is hard to deal with and they are much higher in number than anywhere I have ever been. I am still in mixed minds about how to deal with that – but have taken to carrying leftover food with me as I am told money does not go to the kids but to their “pimps”. I guess I will learn a lot more of the ins and outs once I start work…
The weather is nice and hot which is fabulous – I think around the 30 degrees mark which is perfect but the humidity is draining and taking me a while to get used to. Such weather though also means an abundance of mangoes and pineapples – so I am in paradise.
The other thing I love about being here is all the “life” noises – the music of the bicycle bells (even when interrupted by the constant horn honking), the calls to prayer from the mosques, the sounds of people on the streets and just general sounds of people living their lives…
Will leave you with a couple of photos from my first week – I’m not really confident or savvy enough yet to venture out with my camera but here are a couple of snaps to give you a bit of an idea (note the attempted photos of myself, Elise and Zaneta in our snazzy new outfits failed due to my lens fogging up because of the humidity).
Ciao for now,
Amy
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