Message

Bangladesh

Elly, 21 February 2010
Bangladesh , Dhaka 29°

Leasure time!

Many small trips.

In Nepal there is a 6 day working routine, from Sunday to Friday with Saturday off, but with the regular Hindu festivals and strikes there is enough time to do other things besides working. We have been in Tamel already several times, where there are more than 1000 souvernir shops and we ate twice already at Binods place. We went to Bhaktapur, another beautifully restored old kings city 8 km outside Kathmandu and we visited the biggest Budhist Stupa in town, Bhudanath.
We visited an old kings palace of the 17th century, now museum, at Patan Durbar Square. We pass it every day on our way to work, but had to see the inside of course as well. There is a rich variety of religious hindu objects and there is a nice cafe, where you can order tea and Dutch Apple Cake [imagine!].
Then we also visited the last kings palace. In 2001 King Birendra was killed here together with most of his family. His younger brother, Gyanendra, took over, but made such a mess of it that he was forced to step down in 2006 and Nepal became a Republic. All that happened when we were in Nepal last time.
As a logical step, new bancnotes were printed, but when there was a shortage in 2009 [just before Dahsain, the biggest Hindu festival] the old bancnotes came back into circulation! Funny that they were not yet destroyed. Would anybody expect the king to return?? One thing is certain, Nepal is the only Republic where you can still find 2 formar kings on the bancnotes.

We still are walking a lot, because we cannot get enough of all the temples and stupa’s on almost every corner of the city. We walk to the riverside, where the public cremation area’s are. On our way back we buy spinage for 20cents.
Also we went for walking to a hill just outside Patan, Chobbar, with a gorge through which the holy river Bagmati passes. The river has also created many caves and the people built temples on this holy spot. We crossed a hanging bridge and found a Buddhist monastry and a cuite little hostel on top, with a very nice vieuw on snowcapped Himalaya mountains. The same we can see on clear days from our ‘ own’ rooftop. When we take our breakfast there, we can wave to the neighbours, who also come to warm themselves in the morning sun, after a chilly night.
We did another hike to Nagmati valley in the big Shivapuri National Park, north of Kathmandu with some newly made friends and had a lovely picknick at a riverside after a huge climbing of stairs and walking downwards again to the riverbed. But it was 100% worth the effort.
We try to avoid all souvenir sellers untill we know a bit more about reasonal prices. The first time I bought a small bag for € 2, while for that same amount I got 5 of the same bags a few days later. That was probably the correct price, because we saw them as well in a small teashop for about the same price.

Our trip to Bangladesh!

In 2006 we already planned it, but due to all strikes in Nepal we could not make it. When no taxi, bus or plane is available, you cannot go anywhere. We certainly intended to go to Bangladesh this time to visit our friends there after 13 years! It proved to be a very special and relaxed visit in which we visited some of the projects our friend Salam is involved with.
Salam is advising a local NGO, RSC [Rights and Sight for children]. Most activities are in Shoula, Patuakhali District in the south of Bangladesh. For it you have to make a 15 hrs trip by passenger launch and that we like very, very much. We left at 18 PM and arrived at 7 AM and in between we saw sunset, sunrise and a lot of activities when the ship moored. Absolutely beautifull! We were accompanied by Salam and his wife Mamtaz and had all time to catch up.
We found the activities we visited impressing. They are called Sun Child Project [to bring a smile on children’s faces] and started 4 years ago. Children of poor families are selected and sent to school. All costs are covered by the organisation who asks people both inside Bangladesh and abroad to adopt the children [and their family] financially. Next to that the Sun Children have tutoring class. Salam and RSC could motivate a group of students to volunteer and now there are 31 groups! Also the mothers gather in 33 female groups for education in health and family income generating activities. They save some money every week and the group decides what to do with it. This is a successful saving system that exists in Bangladesh already a long time. Very poor families sometimes recieve extra gifts from their sponsors. We directly took it upon us [on behalf of Perspective 3000] to adopt a single mother with 3 retarded children who even have less chances than other children.
Also we promissed a boy of 10 years old an operation. He has a physical defect from his birth. His neck-muscles on the right side are shorter and therefore his head is growing sideways. With a relatively simple operation this can be put right and he can lead a much more normal life.
Salam will sent details and we will keep you informed at our website. OK for now I leave it at this as you have enough to read. I recently also put a newsletter on the website fo Perspective 3000 with pictures, so just have a look!

Love from Elly and Mart

Donor NGO DCI website: www.distressedchildren.org;
RSC website: www.rscbd.org;
Our own website: www.perspective3000.org

Pictures from message

Previous

Next

P1100475

P1100591

P1100485

React to this message

Reactions to this message