Motorbike!

I have always hated riding on the back of motorbikes, something about clinging on and having to lean the right way and not being in control just scares me. So it’s pretty funny, or ironic really, that I recently had a trip on the back of a motorbike, on the streets of Dhaka, the streets which scare me at the best of times, let alone on the back of a motorbike, you’d think I would have been a shaking wreck of fear right? Well, I kinda was, the thought of having to go on the back of a motorbike to the ghat (port) to go down to Chandpur filled me with dread and I spent a day or two contemplating ways that I could get around not going! When the bike arrived on Friday morning, and my bag was strapped to the back, the bike was turned on and I was instructed to get onto the back and make myself comfortable, I did so with great fear and trepidation. I was of course, sitting on the bike sideways, or sidesaddle, as women would never sit astride in this country, which made me feel even more precarious, I had no helmet on (not sure what my insurance company would feel about that!) and I was wearing my normal clothes and jandals, no safety rules here! I think the rule for bikes is that one person (usually the driver) has to wear a helmet, that’s all, and it’s not uncommon to see motorbikes with 3 or 4 people on them, they are a very practical mode of transport in Bangladesh.

As we took off over the Kilgaon flyover (a crumbling overpass which is now restricted to cars, cng’s and motorbikes because it is slumping in the middle and can’t handle the weight of trucks and buses) I prayed to God to keep me safe!! But it was surprisingly much less terrifying than I thought it would be. The bike was comfortable, Kenny drove very well and I felt almost completely safe (apart from when we went beside or in front of buses and I was reminded that I was in jandals with no helmet, on the back of a motorbike, in Dhaka!), safer than going by rickshaw anyway.  As we sped down yet another narrow street filled with fruit stalls, rickshaws and people I smelled the unmistakable smell of the filthy black water in the river and knew we were close to the ghat, and although I was thankful to get off the motorbike, it is definitely not the scariest mode of transportation in this country that I have experienced so far. Although in saying that, it was a Friday (the Muslim day of worship) so there was much less traffic on the roads, making them less manic than usual so it may be an entirely different story the next time I do the trip! I’ll be going down to Chandpur fairly frequently and probably quite a bit by myself, so I’ll probably get a ride on the motorbike quite a bit in the next few months. The guy that drove me is an awesome guy who does quite a bit of work for the school, his wife is a teacher there and their kids are both there as well. I very much appreciated his careful driving around bumps in the roads and the sedate pace that he drove!!

I’m now back in Chandpur after an uneventful boat trip and appreciating the cleaner air and the fact that it is cooler down here.

That’s all for now, no photos sorry as my internet modem thingy can't handle photos and dies a quick death every time I try. I can almost hear it sigh and say to me "Carley, you know I can't handle these large photos, why do you even bother?". Also, its nigh on impossible to take photos while you are sitting fairly precariously on the back of a bike holding on with one hand and holding a bag with the other!  

Gratefulness

On the drive home today I saw a woman cooking lunch on the side of the road for her family who live under a tarpaulin on the footpath, this heartbreaking poverty is a pretty common sight here and it alone would be worthy of a mention. However, the part that surprised me about this woman was that she had, on the footpath, a couple of flowers in a jar and a cloth set up, such an incredible sight among the dust, noise and filthiness of the road. The sight filled me with hope, and also made me feel pretty bad about all the things that I complain about in this city.

I have been inspired by this woman, as well as by a wonderful friend of mine in Cambodia who recently wrote a blog post about staying positive, and I am going to write about the things that I am grateful for. Seeing this homeless woman on the footpath making the best of her situation made me realise just how blessed I am-so here goes, a list of things I am grateful for and that I love about this country. With pictures of course!

1. The colours. I just love, love, love the fabrics, the patterns and the colours in this country. They are so beautiful and are also as comfortable as wearing your pj's, some of them even look like pj's which is even better!

2. The fruit and veges at the moment are great, we are just coming into watermelon and pineapple season which fills me with great joy as they are pretty much my two favorite fruits and are exceptionally cheap!

I also love the markets and the way people carry enormous loads on their heads, it's incredible!

3. Buses. I am grateful for buses, because even though they terrify me sometimes, they are easy to catch, they are usually the biggest vehicle on the roads and you are therefore less vulnerable to being squashed, and people on them always surprise me with their friendliness and willingness to give up their seats for the poor white girls! 

4. Electricity! Every time the power comes back on I am so grateful for electricity, the ability to sleep under a fan at the moment as it gets hotter and hotter is something that I am well and truly grateful for. You can understand why the power goes off so much when you see the power lines! There are too many people in Dhaka and not the infrastructure to deal with it, but there is power most of the time, and wonderful inventions such as IPS and generators which mean that the power keeps going.

5. Beautiful kids. It seems that everywhere we go we get trailed by gorgeous kids yelling at us (admittedly, it's pretty annoying, but I'm focusing on the good here!). But they are beautiful and the ones I'm getting to know are awesome, you can communicate with kids even if there is a language difference!

6. School. This follows on from the beautiful kids, I love the kids at school (even the naughty ones) and they make me being here completely worth it, every day that I walk through the gate at school and get greeted by multiple students with big smiles, it makes me realise why I am here. Their enthusiasm is infectious and I enjoy teaching them a lot!

7. Food! Every morning we get breakfast from here, 2 borota (like roti) and fried egg with large chunks of chilli in it. It sounds odd, but it's really good! I really love being able to buy food from roadside stalls and the price is awesome, very cheap. I haven't been sick yet from any food I've eaten yet (and I've eaten from some fairly dodgy-looking places!) so another thing to be grateful for! 

That's pretty much it for now, there are many other things that I'm grateful for, these are just a few. I'll finish with a beautiful picture which shows just how gorgeous pollution makes sunsets, there is a silver lining to every cloud...

Rain!

I don't generally like the rain, but the other day it rained in Dhaka and it seemed like the most wonderful thing on earth!

It has been so dusty here and the pollution has been awful, but as soon as it rained, the air instantly seemed cleaner. It probably wasn't cleaner at all but it just felt so much better. All the dust was washed off the trees and their leaves were green again, there were less people in the street, no one was burning rubbish by the side of the road, it was a bit cooler and it made me very, very happy! I must remember to be grateful for these small things as here it can be very easy to focus on the things that annoy or frustrate me, of which there are many. But there are also loads of things that are beautiful and amazing in this country, one of which is rain in the middle of the dry season! I am sure that when the monsoon hits I shall be complaining about the excessive rain, but at the moment, a small amount of rain does wonders for my mental health!

I think that the Bengali people are made from sugar, as they seem to think that if they go out in the rain they will melt. On our way to school I saw rickshaw pullers with plastic bags on their heads to keep off the rain, their passengers covered in tarpaulins, and umbrellas springing up like mushrooms along the street, all this for about an hours worth of drizzly rain. (nothing compared to New Zealand's recent 'weather bomb' I'm sure!)

Since the rain it has been dry again, and the dust has settled back onto everything, and I look forward to the next time it rains! However, since the weather has been getting hotter, the pollution is less and my horrible 'smokers' or pollution cough has been getting better by the day, for which I am truly grateful. Life is good.

Here are some photos of the rain-it was so exciting I took my camera out while waiting for our breakfast to be cooked at the roadside stall just down from school.

The leaves are GREEN!

If you look closely you can see a guy with a plastic bag on his head.

Umbrellas, scarves...it wasn't even cold!