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!

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

Stock cubes called what?? Chilly Willy?

Chilly Willy - brilliant

I was looking through the receipt from Peter's first Dhaka shopping experience today and I saw a reference to "Chilly Willy". What has he been buying I wondered.  The answer? Beef stock cubes. What a great name.








In my last post I promised a few facts and figures about Bangladesh for those who are wondering what it's like. So here goes:

- it has a population of 150 million people (in a land size approximately the same as England and Wales);
- 1 in 3 live below the national poverty line;
- over 3 in 4 live on less than $2 a day;
- it has been referred to as the most vulnerable country in the world to climate change;
- 1 in 19 children die before the age of 5;
- 44% of the population lack access to adequate sanitation; and on a positive note
- GDP has averaged 6% per year since 2003;
- numbers living in poverty has reduced from 63 million in 2000 to 47 million in 2010

So there we go.  A small snapshot of Bangladesh.  The picture I managed to take the other day doesn't really do justice to the sheer numbers of people as you can see:

A wierdly quiet road when out walking with Arty

I thought I would also share a few family stories from the past few days.

Firstly, Isobel started school.  The excitement was building all day yesterday.  She has even been practicing her American accent! She posed nicely in front of the map of Bangladesh Peter purchased from someone at the side of the road, climbed into the school bus and whoosh, she was gone.  At home trying to get any details out of her regarding her first day at school was like trying to get blood from a stone.  Apparently she had soup for lunch though!

Secondly, we have bee undertaking some water related hygiene processes which I thought I would share.  Basically the advice is to soak all your fruit and veg (and eggs) in a Milton type solution for 15-30 minutes:

Hard to do justice to the size of those mangoes!

Amazingly it doesn't appear to make it taste too foul which has to be a good sign. Then we have been filtering our water in this large water filter - a candle filter (see http://www.safariquip.co.uk/brands/british-berkefeld/faq-british-berkefeld-gravity-water-filters/ if you want to read more about how they work).  For those who are unfamiliar, here are some pictures of the device itself:




Finally, we have experience the sewage - rainwater mix.  Walking home the other night after a really heavy downpour left us trying to negotiate the roads, or more precisely where the road ended and the drains began. Mmmh. Nice.  Still, no poorly tummies yet so let's see how much longer that continues!

Can't wait for the shipment of our stuff to arrive. Sourdough Dhaka style is calling me.....

  

  

  

We're moving.....to Dhaka!

So, it's been a while.  Life has gone a bit bonkers.  The weather remains cold and depressing - I've been wondering if it's a conspiracy by British Gas and the like to keep our bills high!

Anyway, I was going to start writing some blogs about my sourdough attempts.  There have been many and varied. 

This is how my starter started (thank you Mr HollyWood).  Contents - a festering organic apple, some flour and some water:

This is a more recent success (i.e - it actually rose and was light and airy!):

However, times have now moved on and it's time to reinvigorate this blogging m-larky.

In fact, I'm going to change the name slightly, a play on words.  From now on I think it should be known as 'Tales of Sundarban motherhood....' after the Sundarbans (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/452) which represent the world's largest stretch of mangrove forest.

We are moving to Dhaka.  Why I hear many people ask?  Well, in terms of work it's one of the best places for me - I'm a climate change and environment nut and so to work in one of the main countries which is going to feel the full impact of climate change it makes such huge sense.  For the kids, well, OK it's going to be a shock (the sheer numbers of people, the air quality, the new schools etc) but I am hoping that it will open their minds to the world, the realities in which so many people have to live and give them opportunities to travel to places beyond most people's wildest dreams (Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Bhutan....the list goes on!).

Anyway, I thought it would be good to start documenting this process.  And my is it a process.  My first visit in almost 10 years is next week.  For Peter it's his first visit.  He's hard core though.  I don't have any concerns.  After all, he has picked up dead bodies post-genocide in Rwanda.  Here's hoping he can find some sort of job - I'm not sure how long he could really cope with playing tennis at the club and going for tea with the spouses......

The kids aren't coming with us on this trip. They are staying at home with granny and papa.  Granny and Papa have got a house full of gin to cope with the aftermarth! Isobel seems relatively interested in the notion of moving to 'Blangladesh' although I'm not entirely (well, not at all) convinced she really has a clue what it means.  I say that, she understands she has to go on a plane - and then completely freaks out at the thought of them shutting the doors on the plane after she has got on!  Which makes me chuckle, especially as she asks in the same sentence whether the plane 'goes upside down' to Blangladesh.

So, from now on this blog is going to focus on the trials and tribulations of moving to Dhaka and living there with a small family.  The things we see, the smells, the tastes, the chaos, the frustration and the happiness.  I hope it will give an insight into life overseas not only for us but also and in particular for those for whom Bangladesh is home.

And of course, I can always try to make sourdough in Dhaka....and maybe branch out to make sourdough bagels for the expats?

'Mums aren't allowed to be ill'

So said the doctor last week when I took Arthur in covered in spots.  Luckily, Arthur is now better - he has stopped pooing and is back to his normal, Henry VIII feeding style self! There was me worried he was wasting away (well, not really - he was 10lb 12 when he was born after all!).  Now Isobel is poorly and Peter is poorly too - both with high temperatures, coughs and generally moping about.  As with most mums, apart from my little mental health issue (which I feel is almost dealt with), I battle on, fighting off high temperatures and dosing everyone with calpol and lots of water!

Yesterday I made some lovely pink bunting for Isobel - she was poorly and I thought 'I know what will cheer her up' - and I was very pleased.  My sewing wasn't straight but it's getting a bit better.  Tonight I put the fruit in to soak, all ready to bake a fruit brac which my mum used to make for us when we were little - I still remember it, wrapped in baking paper, with a small spread of butter and eating it on the train in France.  Looking forward to baking it tomorrow.

We were meant to be on 'holiday' this week.  A last week of fun before I go back to work (not that work isn't fun - well, the people are fun, the work is generally interesting, stressful and at times quite depressing).  Instead, Peter has been in bed, Isobel has been miserable and I've been washing and ironing!  I did get out for a lovely run today though - it was so lovely and warm and I ventured out into the woods for the first time.  It made me long for Spring when it will be slightly lighter in the evening.  The woods are so good for the soul - all the birds singing and no cars.  Really really enjoyed it.

In preparation for my return to work (the countdown has started - 10 days to go), I've been thinking about the plus points (as well as the negatives - mainly the stress involved in trying to get both kids to nursery, on the train, into the office and out again to pick them up whilst also doing a full days work....oh and the fact that my salary will basically be eaten by nursery fees, train fares and the council tax!).  So, plus points so far include (a) it's only 3 days a week; (b) I will be able to have a cup of tea/coffee and hopefully drink it without it going cold; (c) going to the toilet without a little voice hurrying me up; (d) talking about something sensible (whilst trying not to refer to myself as 'mummy'); (e) maybe even reading a book on the train if I can sit down!

I have also been trying to train my brain again to think in an office work way.  Obviously, one of the things which has annoyed me is that any mother (and many fathers too) probably have exceptionally strong organisational skills (get the kids ready, have some food in, have nappies and other necessaries to hand at all times etc.), negotiation skills (dealing with a toddler), management skills (managing children and husband and trying to fit in a bit of time for 'me'), planning and delivery skills etc - but these are basically seen as non-existent in terms of office work and the sometimes slightly 'down on stay at home mums' media.  Anyway, in terms of my office work brain, these are the things I've been doing:

- not reading the papers they have sent me as I can't quite bring myself to but instead reading 'Chasing the Devil' by Tom Butcher who is retracing the steps of Graham Greene in his book Journey without Maps which is all about walking through Sierra Leone and Liberia;
- reading about Somalia on Wikipedia and the BBC after watching the news about the Conference today and kind of wondering what difference it will make;
- watching Brian Cox on Horizon this evening about the search for 'peaceful' nuclear fusion (see here - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00hr6bk).  Now this interests me.  I have a real interest in the climate change, peak oil, sustainability debates etc.  I recall a talk by Kevin Anderson from the Tyndall Centre on 'dangerous climate change' and whether we were already on a pathway which nothing can stop.  Not necessarily the most uplifting but it had links tonight with the Horizon programme which included some Professor calculating how the world might be able to achieve equitable energy use for everyone by 2030.  Basically it was quite depressing listening to him talk through how many wind turbines needed to be erected every minute, biogas pools every second, solar panels every second and so on - for the next 25 years.  (For more info on K Anderson check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Anderson_%28scientist%29)

And then I think - oh, yeeks, this is all far too serious.  Time to sit and look at fabric websites instead to consider what fabrics I can use to make some storage boxes for out lovely new cupboards (thanks to Mark at A1Class Joinery!).

What is it with the weather - climate change?

Oh my, I have an energetic and crazy toddler.  'Is she always like this' the health visitor said at her 2.5 year review.  Yes. No stopping her.  Busy busy busy.  At the moment she is excited by trying to make a 'capapino' with hot milk and chocolate bits and is most distressed when you don't join in! Then there is the mini-bites tray I recently purchased, to make mini banoffi pies and other such lovely things....Isobel uses it to make cakes and then decorate with pink peppa pig icing (all pretend of course...I haven't got the energy to have baked 24 by 7.10am!).

Heard some shocking things yesterday - firstly that apparently there are people who blend/puree up cheeseburgers and chips and give it to their babies as part of the weaning process (hoping I'm not alone in being shocked by this!) and then that someone in France apparently has been jailed for putting their 3 year old in the washing machine on a cold rinse cycle because they had been naughty at nursery.  What happy news.  That and the state of the economy had me feeling really chirpy yesterday (.!?).

Had a poorly Arthur today.  A lot of crying and vomit which is most unlike him. He's in bed now.  And it's given me time to ponder the wonder of nature which is going on outside in the garden.  I planted some bulbs in October in the hope that we would have some lovely new colour in the spring (can't afford to get the drive redone so bulb planting is the way to go to make it look nicer!).  Anyway, there they are - little daffodils trying to grow.  I couldn't believe it - definately green shoots from daffodils. 

We need a good hard frost to stop them (and to kill the weeds which appear to be growing from the manure in the new vegetable patch).  The weather has been too warm I think and so the poor bulbs are confused.  It's perhaps a more local illustration of le changement climatique which they (they being officials and NGO reps and consultants and researchers etc) are all talking about in Durban at the moment as part of the latest Climate Change negotiations.  You can read all about it here:

http://www.cop17-cmp7durban.com/

as well as getting updates from various NGO organisations including WWF and Oxfam:

http://www.wwf.org.uk/news_feed.cfm?5467/Durban-climate-talks-a-chance-to-end-political-posturing

http://www.oxfam.org/en/grow/climate