Dhaka to Saidpur via Lalmonirhat

What an adventure and on the eve of my departure from Saidpur I hope I can recall the details for those of you who remember and can describe them visually for those of you who have never had the chance of the experience.

We left Dhaka at 8am on Wednesday, Tuesday being the original date of departure but due to a national strike called by the Opposition noone is allowed to travel on that day. Leaving Dhaka went on forever and at one stage when I asked where we were and the response was Savar, where all the old and new brass came/comes from and many of you would have seen much of this in Shore Cottage (by the way there is some under the wash stand outside downstairs bathroom feel free to polish!). Well in the 80's Savar was in the countryside and where there was a dairy farm, nowdays it is well and truly a part of Dhaka. Eventually we did get to the countryside and it was beautiful with that early morning air which at home resembles a lovely October day with many different crops being cut and new ones planted, they can get 3 crops a year in some areas.
Now for those of you who have had the privilege of accompanying me in my car I realise where I acquired my road sense and am finally among my own after all this is where I learned to drive!  The journey took about 8/9 hours before we reached Lalmonirhat, but I was never bored.  The whole way I appreciated all the changes and development though in doubtful taste much of it and yet alongside all of this nothing of much of the living conditions for many have changed at all.  For those of you uninitiated think back to an old film about Jesus or those times and many of the homes I saw and visited would still reflect that way of life.  Another thing that was in evidence was  the appearance of healhier people/children and not too many beggars, mainly peddlars, but if you think of the changes in our own society over thirty years there is still abject poverty here but they handle it better than us.
Anyway we arrived in Lalmonirhat and drove to a dubious looking hotel, Lovely tried to warn us but for some reason it could not be changed.  Now I can handle a lot, my accomodation tonight brings me back 30 years and is not even up to those standards but I'm a big girl, I won't go into some of the more intersting of God's creatures that passed me by this evening in the house!  Anyway back to the only hotel in town, I was offered the choice of 4 'en suite' bedrooms none of which really took my fancy.   The rooms I could have coped with but Nurul knew I was not going to go to sleep in the bed and so insisted we looked for something else which we finally found and was 4 star by comparison at least the beds were bug free, fresh would stretch the imagination but they were clean and I was relieved.  Sleep came dripping slow but it did come!
That evening we walked around the town/bazaar some of it by candle light and we came accross many dogs a couple of them getting nasty with each other and the thought did cross my mind of how wise was I to have left the rabies vaccine back?!! 
The next morning bright and early we went to the office of Concern's partners in this area and had breakfast and then headed of to the Chars (pronounced chawrs) for the day.  Now I need to explain what a Char is for you to understand my sceal.  90% of river water in Bangladesh originates in India and Nepal and India has a dam that keeps the water for irrigation during the dry season and when the rains come they release it and it floods Bangladesh especially the area I was visiting.  Think of sand bars when the tide is out and during the dry season these are islands that people move to, live on and cultivate, the silt from the flood water is very fertile.  Now these Chars may be safe for a few seasons and other Chars are created but the uncertainty for households is difficult.  The area we visited was about the size of Inishowen and if you can imagine water the width of Lough Erne flowing through it with it broken into different Chars you get a rough picture.
We headed of on a lovely early drive to where we got a boat, many of these photos will follow later so hopefully that those will also help.  The boat trip was beautiful if a bit doubtful in places as the depth of the water was less than knee deep at some moments and I did think I would be asked to evacuate to do a Ryan air on it, I was the only female but could give any of the men a run for their kilos unfortunately!  By the way Dave Allen is reincarnated and alive and well in Bengali camouflage and even got his finger back.  After about 45 minutes we arrived at our destination which was one of the many island chars we passed all flat and at eye level from my sitting position on the boat so you can see any rise in water is a threat.
We were met by a 4 woman welcoming committee who were very enthusiatic and delighted to see us.  We walked for about 20minutes and this was not easy walking as it was soft sand in places and we all know what that is like to walk on or otherwise on a path about a foot wide in between the crops as land is of the essence.  We ended up in the middle of one of many different community groups of women and boy were they assertive, able to talk, get their point accross and generally great fun. What amazed me was, gone was the deference to foreigners which I think is great, instead there is a mutual respect and an acknowledged equality between support workers and the women and ourselves.  What really astounded me was the equality shared at a later meeting with representatives from other women's groups and the local 'council' made up of men and other male workers, something which would never have happened when I was working here.  This was an enlightening and wonderful day and great to see the resilience which a 5 year project has helped develop and hopefully there will be support to enable these groups further without taking away this wonderful empowerment they all have achieved together, there was great community spirit and generosity towards each other.  The rest of the afternoon followed on as above with a lot more walking and that is the main difficulty there is no possibility of building roads in shifting sands so they need to develop good coping and health care skills to survive.  Any really sick person has to be carried in a 'sling' over this land.  I was a tired but happy girl afer the day and the market that greeted us on disembarking was just the final perfect touch, the smells that assailed us from a fusion of spices that I could not name but my memory has banked so well.  A variety of fresh vegetables that we never see and many other aromatic scents that I will never know but in the dusk of the evening and literally hundreds of people milling around in an area the size of the diamond it has just added to a calender of events that I hope I can recall at times when I need an injection of eastern delight.
Ok I have to leave Saidpur to another day as I am too tired and must get my beauty sleep.