Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Back in Dhaka - Part 2

As we discussed earlier, we visited various farmer’s fields and the villages near them. We were thinking that Bangladesh wasn’t the cleanest, or nicest country, until we went to the villages. The people of Bangladesh are a people of great industry and are very resourceful. Let me use the example of rice. Rice is a staple in the lives of the Bengali people. The farmer plants seedlings of rice into rice patties, weeds it at least 1 time, fertilizes the patty, then harvest’s it – all work is done by hand. After harvesting the rice, it is placed on a threshing floor where it is dried evenly then it is milled. After milling the rice, the rice husks are not put to waste – any whole bran pieces are mixed together with cow manure and squeezed onto a 3 foot long piece of jute. They are then sold in bundles as firewood. Any part that is leftover from the bran – bran that is not whole, is then used for feed for the cattle. Yes, the Bengali people are very resourceful.

On one particular village that we visited we had quite an unexpected event happen… We originally thought that we would go to different fields, look at the lentil plants, get in the car and leave to the next field. Nothing could prepare us for what we were about to encounter… We turned from one small town down a long narrow dirt road with fields and palm trees on either side. As we bumped along, we were amazed at the beauty around us. Occasionally people would cross the road in front of us with a load of firewood or sugar cane strapped to a rickety cart. Adorable children with dark inquisitive eyes played along the road, some with a bike tire & a stick as they ran along trying to keep up with the rolling tire. It was like a dream, seeing the carefree, somewhat simple lives of the villagers. As we rounded a bend, heading toward the lentil field we were to visit, a schoolyard came into view. In the schoolyard was a big tent stretched over bamboo sticks and at least 200 school-aged children forming a line facing each other. Laughter & pure joy radiated from their voices as we drove by. When we got to the field (about 1 km away from the school), we heard that the children & teacher had prepared all day for our arrival and were waiting for us to arrive so they could properly greet us. Wow, what a thought. Children preparing all day to greet us? …
After looking at the various crops of lentil, chickpea, sugarcane, marigold, banana, rice and wheat, we got back into the vans & SUV’s, and headed back toward the village and the children… We got out of the van and I noticed the girls were wearing their nicest dresses/salwar kameeze’s and had their jewelry on and some with make up and the best shoes they had and their hair was done just a certain way. The boys were standing with the girls with their hair slicked down and their nicest shirt & pants. It was quite a sight. As we started walking down the “isle” that they had created, they started to toss marigold petals on us while grinning from ear to ear. It was the neatest experience that we have ever experienced. We were escorted to sit on chairs facing the “audience” of village men (the women were behind the “stage” watching from there). After our group was seated, the children came over to us and place marigold wreathes around our necks. The girls then started crowding around us wanting to shake our hand and they stood all around us as our group talked to the farmers about their crops. As the “meeting” went on, Shauna could feel little fingers touching her back of the children trying to feel if she was real, and she kept taking pictures of them and showing them what they looked like. They were the sweetest children, and all they wanted was to touch us and have us touch them. We shook as many hands as we could reach. It was amazing, and an experience that we will hold close to our hearts for a long time to come…

Friday, February 16

The next adventure we got to experience was a trip to the Mangrove forest. We left in the morning and drove down toward the delta where the people have limited growing opportunities for their crops as they only fresh water they have to water with is during the rainy season. The rest of the time it is saline water that they have, so they grow prawns, fish & shrimp during those times, and rice during the monsoon season. After driving through the farmland, we arrived at part of the delta (the exact name of the town has left me for the time being) where we boarded a large boat and went down the river/bay of Bengal toward the mangrove forest and Shercon (you know, the tiger from The Jungle Book). We were hoping to be able to see the Great Bengal Tiger, as the Mangrove forest is where the tiger makes his home. We had lunch on the boat (oh my goodness a gecko just freaked me out as it skittered down the wall beside my head, sorry for the interruption… back to the story) as we went upstream to see the mangrove forest on one side of the river/bay and quiet villages (just like on The Jungle Book) on the other side. It was interesting to see that not much has changed over the past thousands of years. As we were moving upstream, a dolphin swam & jumped just a head of the boat on the water. Jesse, Blaine & Bert spent lots of time standing at the bow of the boat watching for Shercon, while I was amazed by the villiages. It was so interesting, and yes, like a dream to see such a village emerge from the mist. I almost had to pinch myself and say “yes, it is 2007” although it didn’t seem possible with such simple lives… We didn’t get to see Shercon, although we did get to see a spotted deer eating peacefully along the water… (we did read in the paper the next day that a man was killed that day around noon because he made the mistake of stepping into the forest to get some honey from a hive there, so the tiger is definitely in there).

Sunday, February 18th

We drove down to Kuakata which is a small beach town on the Bay of Bengal – the Indian Ocean. Sally and Shauna were quite excited to swim in the ocean, not thinking that maybe the locals would be surrounding us again, and a bathing suit wasn’t the best plan. So they headed to the market and bought the sarongs that the male population wear over here, tied them on with their t-shirts and had their bathing suits underneath. They hired a “speed boat” to take us “North Americans” out on the ocean. When we got out away from the nets, Bert, Jesse & Sally jumped out of the boat and started swimming. Blaine & Shauna weren’t sure what to think, and same with the guy from the United States. After some thinking, Shauna jumped in, and although the water wasn’t clear enough to see down, she figured that she better do it anyway. Blaine, on the other hand, decided that someone better stay in the boat and take pictures… besides, who was going to tell people at home about it when the rest of us were eaten by a shark? It was quite an experience, and the water was so warm! We swam for about 10 minutes then it was quite a lot of work to get back into the boat. Especially the girls with their skirts on! They felt like beached whales trying to get back in the boat. We watched the sunset on a fishing boat with the rest of our group, after throwing out the nets and catching a couple fish and a bunch of little crabs. Sally & Shauna had a lot of fun with the women from India & Nepal, and one women was explaining the art of palm reading to them, it was quite funny to hear the way they read lines on the palms, and what they think they mean. They said that they don’t believe that much of it… and only do it for fun, so it was amusing. After watching the sunset, we went back to our hotel room and slept well. It was quite a lot of fun swimming in the Indian Ocean, but tiring.

Monday, February 19

So the last day of our trip consisted of 12 hours in the SUV. Jesse & Blaine were adamant that we get to ride in this one SUV due to the leg room. Blaine’s legs are so long that some of the vehicles he practically has to tie his legs around his neck to get in! So Jesse, Blaine & I got into this SUV – which had the sweetest driver & he was the best driver (until he hit a guy on a bike that day, but that’s another story). So we got comfortable for the long drive home. Did I mention that the 12 hour trip was covering 400kms? Yes, that’s right. 400kms!!! That’s how much congestion the roads have with people and carts and cows and pigs and many other things. Plus we had to cross 6 ferries to get back home.

Well, now you are so tired from reading that your eyes are probably bugging out of your head… I know that I am so tired of typing that my fingers are still going when I stop. J We love you guys, and are quite excited to see you again, although we are having a blast over here (if you don’t count the curry 3 meals a day)! We head to Nepal tomorrow afternoon, so I will close with this from Bangladesh… may God bless!

3 comments:

Mike and Janet said...

Thank you for the updates. You write so very well. I was hoping you could get a picture of "jujubes" growing on a tree/vine whatever- I would love to try the red or licorice flavour ones!! I hope you have pictures of all those various fields you describe so we can see what marjoram,jujubies...looks like growing!

B&L Orellana said...

Hi guys, love reading your reports.. Sounds like those bathrooms are really out of this world...(-: Nice to hear about what the people are like especially the kids...
Hey, nothing like a fresh green coconut to kill your thirst! Becky drinks a whole one herself.. of course you don't want to overdo it.. it will send you running for the bathroom, and over there that wouldn't be a very enjoyable experience!! (been there... done that!:-) keep in touch.. God bless!

R & T B said...

Your accounts are so well written that we feel as though we are there. I can visualize what you are saying so plainly. (a journalist in the making). We printed your account off this site and gave it to grandma and grandpa B and they loved it. We will keep printing your accounts for them as they come.
It is so good to hear from you. All is well here, warm weather, sunny...
Love you and miss you.
Dad and Mom B