A long time coming

Has it really been almost 6 months since my last post!  We've now entered the dry season in Bangladesh - the drains have some time to recover! There is one drain I walk past on a daily basis which I am going to take a picture of as its really quite a sight. When it rains the contents of the drain flow all over the road. Nice.

I recently went on a field visit with our then Minister, Lynne Featherstone. We went to see solar lighting which is being rolled out across Bangladesh for those communities who don't have access to the grid. Bangladesh has one of, if not the largest solar home system programmed in the world. It was great to get out of Dhaka again after a bit too long stuck in the office. But more importantly it was great to see the impact that lighting can have for women and girls! Not only can they make more money, they have a light on their way to the toilet which means they feel a bit safer when they wee at night!

And on the wee note, I was talking to women in the office here about public toilets in Dhaka. What do women do when the want to wee while they are out? The response - hold it in. Not ideal that is it? It made me think of the quote by one water and sanitation related organization on the day that they landed that space probe on the comet - "we have landed a probe on a comet millions of miles from earth, yet 2.5 billion people still don't have access to an adequate toilet". Makes you think!

On a lighter note, the kids and I have been making cakes. Spooky cakes, mango cakes, parsnip cakes.....parsnips. I miss parsnips.

One more Deshi activity - I went on a tour in a factory a few months ago. It made all sorts, from ceramics to clothing and pharmaceuticals! Quite an undertaking and an amazing insight into how they make the clothes you wear and the plates you eat from! This is a smart factory mind. Clean and with basic facilities in place. Not totally representative! 

So, it appears the drains don't work that well in Dhaka

Wonder Woman! The joys of visiting Singapore when you are older...

The rainy season has started.  So has Ramadan.  The rainy season in the desh is full of contrasts - baking hot one moment, dust blowing everywhere and then ridiculously heavy rain and cooler temperatures the next!  The rain, when it comes, it quite special.  It comes down hard.  Not necessarily for that long but very hard.

Now you might be aware that the roads near where we live in Dhaka recently had some new 'storm drains' added.  They dug the holes in the road - by hand.  They moved the new drains into the ground - by hand.  They covered it over with some rubble - by hand.  Then it rained.  And the rubble all disappeared and massive holes appeared - which obviously you can't see when it's been raining and there are a few feet of water on the road!  Result - a number of cars driving into them and getting a little bit stuck.

So, next step in the process?  Covering the holes and rubble in the road with tarmac - by hand.  Picture the scene, old metal barrels on their side with a kind of metal tray on top. Underneath a fire made from burning old bits of cloth and rubbish.  On top, bits of stone and hot tar.  People all around adding to the fire or to the hot tar - and all in a pair of flip-flops and a longi (or a sari for the women). Payment for a days work on this - approximately 500 BDT per day (for the men - which is about 3 UK pounds) and less than that for the women.

So, the new road and the new drains, they should stand up to the rainfall yes?  Well, no.  The rain at the weekend flooded the road outside the British High Commission - approximately 1 - 2 feet of water after about 1 hours rain.  We now have more pot holes appearing - kindly marked out by a bit of tree so that drivers and rickshaw wallahs don't drive into it!

Meanwhile, down in Old Dhaka, markets were still under 1 - 2 feet of water the next day.  Why is this?  Now some will argue 'oh it's climate change' and yes, with climate change we can expect the rainfall patterns to change and intensify.  But this is a multi-layered problem.  It involves corruption, it involves lack of planning and budgeting, it involves land grabbing.  Oh the list goes on.

Moving onto more lighthearted issues, Isobel and I went to Singapore for a long weekend.  When I was young, Singapore was a little bit dull to be honest.  It was so clean and functional.  I wanted chaos and excitement.  Now when I went to Singapore from Dhaka I thought - oh my, this is paradise.  It functions, there are pavements, there is public transport, there is a cable car (with Wonder Woman no less), there is Ben and Jerrys.  It was a great visit.  And happily in the airport on the way home I found some Belgian chocolates....which tasted lovely with a bottle of Belgian beer back here in Dhaka!

Thinking of beer, one of the many conversations amongst expats here (apart from 'where can I buy food without formulin in it' and 'where is good to go for a weekend break from Dhaka and how long will it take?') is around which of the many expat clubs has the best beer.  Bangladesh is a dry country- so as an expat you can only get alcohol through diplomatic missions (if you are a diplomat), through a 'warehouse' (if you have what they call a passbook) or through some of the clubs.  We have the Dutch club (complete with little climbing wall and bitterballen), the German club (good pizza), the Nordic club (good cinnamon buns) and so on.  But the beer vote goes to......the American club.  What a range of beer! In fact as one colleague of mine said 'thats the fridge I long to sit outside'.

A selection of the beers at the American Club Dhaka

In addition to beer, the other industry which is growing in Dhaka is that related to bread and baking!  I love a good bake.  I'm looking forward to the next Great British Bake Off which I'll be watching thanks to modern technology.  An English guy has moved to Dhaka and is helping train up a group of bakers who are going to open a new bakery for all to enjoy.  Bread and baked products in Asia are often disappointing if what you are after is a croissant or western type product (obviously, Asian roti and other such breads are easily available and incredibly tasty!).  However, growing middle classes in many Asian countries are looking for these western baked goods.  And so Dhaka has now launched the Holey Artisan Bakery.  So far we've only tasted almond croissants, pain au chocolat, sourdough and fruit loaf but they were very very tasty!  Let's hope the Bangladeshi bakers can keep it up when they realise that most bakeries bake through the night and early morning to have bread ready for breakfast as opposed to 7pm at night! I'll be supporting them.

And whilst on the baking theme and before signing off for the day, I have still been baking!  This time, baked doughnuts with cinnamon sugar!  Baked! Yummy.  So much healthier I'm sure (if you ignore the sugar).  Did you know you can get a book just about doughnuts - it's good, look it up - by Rosie Reynolds.  It's small but full of lovely recipes!

What's the weather like out there? "It's hot! Damn hot! Real hot!

The weather the other day made me think of that classic film, Good Morning Vietnam!

Yes, funnily enough, it's hot.  Damn hot.

Arthur's nursery organised a little 'graduation' for those who are moving on to big school (we hope Arty will - more on that in a moment or two).  And there we were sitting out in the garden at 10am, sweating.  Sweat pouring off.  I wanted to go and lie under an air-con unit and not move!

The seasons are changing.  My last blog was about this.  The humidity levels are increasing but pleasingly the mosquitoes are decreasing in number.  For the time being anyway.  Soon the dengue season will be upon us and then the risk of another few visits to hospital will increase again. 

Thinking of tropical diseases, I was contemplating a number of ones I've not heard of before, including the Chikungunya virus and Nipah virus.  As a matter of public health information, I thought I would share the symptoms of these as well as dengue and malaria (dengue being more of a problem for us in Dhaka than malaria):

Dengue (from CDC website):
The principal symptoms of dengue are:

• High fever and at least two of the following:
  • Severe headache
  • Severe eye pain (behind eyes)
  • Joint pain
  • Muscle and/or bone pain
  • Rash
  • Mild bleeding manifestation (e.g., nose or gum bleed, petechiae, or easy bruising)
  • Low white cell count

Malaria (from CDC website)

More commonly, the patient presents with a combination of the following symptoms:

• Fever
• Chills
• Sweats
• Headaches
• Nausea and vomiting
• Body aches
• General malaise

Chikungunya (from WHO)
is a viral disease transmitted to humans by infected mosquitoes. It causes fever and severe joint pain. Other symptoms include muscle pain, headache, nausea, fatigue and rash.

Nipah Virus (from CDC) - apparently the risk here is from bat wee on fruit.
After exposure and an incubation period of 5 to 14 days,illness presents with 3-14 days of fever and headache, followed by drowsiness, disorientation and mental confusion. These signs and symptoms can progress to coma within 24-48 hours.

So - what's the common symptom?  Well, mainly fevers and headaches.  Hence the slight anxiety when Arty has a high fever and a temperature!

And on the subject of Arty, he had an assessment to get into 'big school' the other day.  It was really quite entertaining.  Now before I start this, I should say that his sister recently went through a phase of coming home from school and calling everything (and sometimes everyone) stupid.  So the assessment goes like this:

Teacher: Can you tell me your name?
Arty: Arty
Teacher: Is that your nickname?
Arty (who is three and never heard the word nickname before): stares blankly.
Teacher: What is your middle name?
Arty: Mummy
Teacher: What is your full name?
Arty: Arthur Mummy
Teacher: Do you have another name?
Mummy: Arty - what do we call you when you've been a bit naughty (thinking he would repeat his full name - you know, when you say 'Arthur Thomas Brian Medway' in a stern voice)
Arty: Stupid

Ha ha.  How I chuckled...and how I wait for the letter from the school to have me arrested!

Finally, I've been inspired by some photos up on the wall in a friends apartment.  They are of an old cinema in the heart of Old Dhaka.  It's made me want to go when the weather is cooler and so I have a plan to visit some of the old building of Old Dhaka.  To maybe inspire others here is a link I found to some similar photos:

http://thebigindianpicture.com/2013/02/shonar-cinema/

A photo only blog post

United Airlines Bangladesh - complete with dead cockroaches inside the windows...but we took off and landed and are home safe.

A passenger boat crossing the Padma

At the start of the great Bangla run....13 miles in 30 degree heat.  Only 1 toenail lost

And the winners - clearly managed it far faster than me!

A birthday cake for a 3 year old boy - guess what is was meant to be (and name the book!)

Sorting rubbish by the side of the outflow from the Dhaka water pumping station - designed to help keep Dhaka dry(ish) during the monsoon.

Want to vote?  Pineapples, inkwells, swans - all for elections and all to support people who can't read or write

Thai 'hot wheels'.  Brilliant.

Poo sticks.  Literally.  For fuelwood.

And back to United Airlines.  

Cyclones, salt water and the surface of the moon

Some of the women in Koyra who had homes washed away during cyclone Sidr and Aila

 So we are now in the summer season in Bangladesh.   

There are 6 seasons overall:

• Summer consists of Baishakh and Jaistha and lasts from mid April to mid-June.  It’s hot and dry.  There can be cyclones as the weather heats up.  Last year was cyclone Mahesan.
• The monsoon consists of ‘Ashar’ and ‘Sravan’.  Basically hot, cloudy and wet. Roughly June – August/September.
• Autumn. Bhadra and Arshin – roughly September – October.  There is another (higher) risk of cyclones during this time.  Dengue season is peaking around now.
• Late autumn which consists of ‘Kartic’ and ‘Agrahayan’
• Winter which consists of ‘Poush’ and ‘Magh’ – roughly December and January
• And Spring which consists of  'Falgoon' and 'Chaitra' – roughly mid February – mid April.  The weather is lovely.  Temperature is good.

So soon there will be the risk of cyclones associated with the first cyclone season of the year although the main season is later on, towards the end of the monsoon.  Cyclones hit the south of the country and have caused mass loss of life and destruction in the past.  As a result, Bangladesh now has a relatively well developed early warning system (for example, it has extended the warning time from 2 to 5 days) and is investing in a wide range of structures and other approaches to help reduce the risk to people living in the cyclone belt.  Cyclone shelters are part of this. 

I went to Koyra in South West Bangladesh to visit some cyclone shelters under construction.  This area was the subject of a very good recent NY times article on Bangladesh in the face of climate change:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/world/asia/facing-rising-seas-bangladesh-confronts-the-consequences-of-climate-change.html

A review after Cyclones Aila and Sidr showed a need for more than 2000 cyclone shelters in this area to provide refuge for those at risk of cyclones.  A visit to the area shows a landscape like the moon.  The land is barren and little appears to grow.  Salt is clearly visible in the soil.  On the other side of the river from one location you can see the green lushness of the sundarbans which is in stark contrast to the desolate landscape in which people are surviving.  Cyclone shelters are being built to provide multi-purpose structures which the communities can use during normal conditions.  For the most cases they are used as schools, complete with water, electricity and sanitation.  An improvement on what went before but obviously also with additional costs associated with maintenance. 

The surface of the moon...

A kids selfie - I love this one

Below are some pictures to help illustrate the conditions and also give some ideas as to what a cyclone shelter actually looks like:

A small house in Koyra

A finished cyclone shelter - complete with school upstairs and solar panels

It's hot in the city

Kids on a boat in Bairsal - the woman charges 1 Taka per person to journey across

So I write this from the Apollo hospital in Dhaka.  Visit number two for our little boy.  We think he must love the nurses!  Last time they thought it was typhoid.  This time – who knows!

The positive from all of this is that I have some time to write.  I am not sure what happens to time but clearly I’ve not written for a while.  I think it’s the fact that we’ve been watching all those TV series we never used to watch – Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, and a bit of Downton.  Ah, Downton.  So very relaxing in comparison with the chaos of the streets of Dhaka.

Anyway, now is time for some updates as a number of people have been commenting to me on the lack of blogs.  We are now entering the summer in Bangladesh – it is hot.  Very hot.  And very dry.  When you hear of Bangladesh in the UK you hear a few things.  Firstly, it is usually talked about in the context of floods so I would argue that most people think of it as a country of too much water.  However, there are parts of the country where lack of water is the challenge, especially during the dry season.  Groundwater is used for agriculture as well as domestic use.  In  parts of the country, including Dhaka city, the water is being drawn from the water table faster than it is being replaced during the monsoon.  The water table beneath Dhaka is dropping between 2 – 3 metres per year.  In other parts of the country there is saline water coming up into the groundwater.  So people are either drinking saline water with associated health risks (hypertension for example), or drinking water from other sources which are unsafe.

Fishermen on a boat on the Padma

Sunset on the Padma - waiting for the ferry

 The other thing I think people would associate with Bangladesh is the ready made garments industry.  Last year, on 24th April, more than 1000 people lost their lives after the collapse of Rana plaza.  There is much debate in the media as to whether this has changed the attitudes of those in the UK and other countries who purchase clothing made here.  A few links to some interesting articles, including what the UK Government is doing, below:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/19/rana-plaza-bangladesh-one-year-on

https://www.gov.uk/government/world-location-news/alan-duncan-visits-rana-plaza-survivors-in-bangladesh

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/16/rana-plaza-factory-collapse-bangladesh-change-fashion-shopping-habits

http://www.vogue.co.uk/news/2014/04/01/bangladesh-rana-plaza-anniversary-fashion-revolution-day

So, flooding and garments.  Two things we all know about in the UK when we here ‘Bangladesh’.  Bangladesh is incredibly varied though.  I have been able to get out and about quite a bit over the past few months, to the North and near the border with India where they grow a lot of tea (and apparently a little bit of coffee!) and to the south and south west where the cyclones hit but also where the fish and shrimp industry is huge.  I thought I would write a few short posts about these trips to give you a better sense as to what Bangladesh is like once you escape the grasp of Dhaka.

Strawberry season!

Strawberries are here! Apparently the season is short, very short.  So we have been jam making, ice cream making and generally enjoying them!  The jam has been a little bit of a mixed bag - either a bit too solid or a bit too runny....


And the advance of the strawberry has raised the other conversation which is relatively constant amongst expats in Dhaka - the level of chemicals in the fruit and vegetables.  So, the chats on the expat exchange boards go something along the lines of:

- where can I get fruit and vegetables which don't contain formaldehyde (formulin)?
- have you seen the colour of the pomegranates? Did you know it's all food dyes which are used to make them red?
- all the chemicals are keeping the birth rate low, they are poisoning the population;
- have you purchased food from the organic fruit and vegetable shop?
- I tested the fruit from the organic fruit and vegetable shop - it takes just as long to decompose as that from the normal shop.

Something safe - Great Granny's Ginger Snap Recipe!

So, the question is - is there a risk, what is that risk and what's worse - eating fruit and vegetables with some dodgy chemicals in them or not eating them at all.  Personally, I'm more concerned about the air quality which is fairly shocking and which you can't avoid at all and which is often reported to be amongst the worse in the world.  External air pollution (particulates) has now been linked to cancer in humans - see WHO from 2013 for more on this (http://www.iarc.fr/en/media-centre/iarcnews/pdf/pr221_E.pdf).

Formulin and other chemicals are reportedly widely used in Bangladesh - it's hard to separate the rumour from the fact though.  Professors of post-harvest will say that it's the imported produce which is more likely to be treated, NGOs will say that it's almost everything.  Others will point out that between 20 - 40% of the food produced in Bangladesh never reaches the market.  43% of children under 5 are stunted and a similar number malnourished.  Some would argue that use of chemicals can help reduce the loss of fruit and vegetables and contribute to helping address some of the major problems with stunting and malnutrition.

Anyway, moving on to more positive stories....we went to the Old Capital of Dhaka at the weekend.  It was quite an adventure - it took almost 3 hours to go about 25 km and then when we got there it was, how can I put it, a little on the underwhelming side.  The sheer numbers of people who all came along to watch us have our picnic was slightly overwhelming but otherwise it was quite a long way (or should I say, long time to spend in the car) for not a huge amount. We did however see some interesting things:

One example of the traffic - all waiting for this colourful lorry to go past

(a) a field - which was green;
(b) some cows - which were relatively healthy looking;
(c) one of the many rivers and the lovely bright boats;

One of the rivers - believe it or not it was a lovely sunny day!

(d) a massive rubbish dump at the side of the road;

Rubbish Dump, Road, CNG, houses....

(e) brick kilns (I was particularly interested in these since they are one of the main contributors to the state of the air at the moment and they attract a lot of finance to help try to make them more efficient and cleaner).

It's basically been a busy few weeks, in addition to our excitement at getting out of Dhaka, Peter participated in the second ever Rickshaw Relay a couple of weeks ago.  

This was part of him building up to the Dhaka half marathon which we're both doing in March (yes, I know, with this air quality?  and the dodgy potholes/holes in the pavements and roads which go straight down into the drains!).   He did pretty well, although Isobel points out often that he crashed on the second time round....

Rickshaws are apparently very difficult to cycle.  If you go too fast they fall over.  If you turn too sharply, they fall over.  If you crash into a moving or stationery object, they fall over.  So, lots of falling over basically.

Not Peter but you get the drift!

We have been baking. Yes, lots of baking.  I've started the sourdough up again - we've started the Dan Lepard started and made a couple of good loaves - thank you Dan!  Shame that the weevils had invaded my rye flour so it's been a choice of white, white or white recently!

The Dan L bread...oh, and some Jam!

And finally, in addition to the strawberries, two other things have arrived - road digging up (to put new drains in apparently - all done by hand, women carrying baskets of broken bricks on their heads, men using pickaxes with no protective clothing whatsoever (including shoes) to dig up the tarmac, and lifting of the big pipes with ropes and a lot of man power.  

And recycling is the other thing which has arrived.  We now have four bins in which to sort our waste.  What this means for the waste pickers and other people who make money from the informal waste management system isn't clear - although at least they won't be rummaging through broken glass and battery acid (in theory - whether it all goes into the same pile of rubbish is of course another question!).