Down river

I just got back from a trip down the river (actually about 3 rivers, but more on that later) to another school about 4 hours down river from Dhaka that I will be working in a bit this year.

It was an incredibly interesting trip, travelling by boat is great as you can see what happens on the great waterways that are the lifeblood of this country in relative comfort. Driving is almost always semi-uncomfortable and can take an exceptionally long time!

The river teems with life, there are a bazillion boats of all shapes and sizes and in varying degrees of disrepair and factories spewing out crap into the air and into the river. It seems like such a travesty, that this country, which was once so beautiful, has been turned into a filthy wasteland. The brick kilns are horrendous, they burn everything to keep them going and in a ever growing ring around Dhaka there are masses of brick kiln chimneys spewing out foul smelling black smoke (their only benefit is that the smog makes for beautiful sunsets!). And the rubbish is also disgusting; everything is simply thrown off the boat to sit in the river, such a shame that this massive waterway that in some ways sustains this country has been defiled so badly.

Apart from that, the trip was fascinating, Bangladesh is basically a river delta and the rivers are absolutely ENOURMOUS! We took the boat down a ‘small’ river (about the size of the Waikato or bigger), which met another bigger river, and then turned into the biggest river I have ever seen. I honestly thought we were going out to sea; such was the expanse of water. It doesn’t seem right that you can be on a river and not be able to see the other side!

The further you get down the river, the cleaner and greener everything gets as well which just lifted my spirits greatly. You can actually smell the river when you get about an hour away from Dhaka and it’s foul, so to get away from that for a few days was awesome. I was very excited to see trees and flowers, and to be able to walk to school was awesome. I also made friends with a couple of puppies which was lovely-I miss having a pet to fuss over!

I’m looking forward to spending more time down there, to get my fix of trees and flowers and puppies and also to build some good relationships with the new teachers in the school down there. It’s a great break from the madness of Dhaka…

Coming out of Dhaka...

The beautiful clean air! There are millions of these chimneys spewing out smoke. 

Brick, bricks, bricks

Pollution makes beautiful sunsets! And this is a river that you can't see the other side of!

Coming into Chandpur, just a little river.

Unloading boats

Sunset and the boat

Beautiful flowers and trees :)