What we have been doing so far Hello everyone! Here's just a quick post to tell you all the things we have been doing in Bangladesh since we arrived. We have mostly spent this month teaching English in a school in Dhaka. It's a fee paying school in the morning, and that pays for the children from slums to come in the afternoon. The kids are so lovely and so happy to be at school (even though their english isn't so good- I've heard "I am a Mango" too many times!) and although we can't speak too much Bangla, we are making progress. The Bengali system of not planning anything and doing no preperation can be frustrating, we just want someone to tell us what to do! So, we have also been enjoying the city of Dhaka which is very crowded. We've had some completly Bangladeshi experiences : hearing the call to prayer blasting from the Mosques, eating with our hands, wearing Shalwar Kameezes, learning the national anthem, travelling by rickshaw and of course catching the bus to school which is much more exciting (and scary) than it is in Scotland and England. But Dhaka has other nice things : eating classy Movenpick Ice Cream, going to coffee world (the Bangladeshi Starbucks) and Harry Potter t-shirts that we purchased for 80 taka. On Tuesday, we set off to Chantragona Hospital which is about 6 hours away by car. The roads should be bumpy after the cyclone and it's a lot more basic over there - we are expecting lots of cockroaches, rice for breakfast and maybe a chance to dress up at the hospital centenary. All in all, nothing is ever boring. Even with the disaster of the cyclone, the Bangladeshis are so resillient (not sure if that is spelt right!) and the goverment is delivering aid as fast as it can. At the moment we feel like we are learning a lot more than we are teaching anyone! Bye everyone, From Anna
