Feb 28 - Dubai and Ritchie Bros.

Ralph went off to work today, to help with the Ritchie Bros. auction here in Dubai, yesterday we drove to the sale site and checked it out.  He met some of the auctioneers here at our hotel, and we had supper with a couple of really nice guys last night. They should be back soon.  I'll put on some photos of the sale site.

We were told that the lower the number on the license plate, the closer the person who owns it is to the Sheikh and the Royal family.  We saw one yesterday "57", that's the lowest number we ever saw in our time here, thought the boys would appreciate that.

I went to some crazy beautiful malls in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.  The one today in Dubai has a ski hill for skiing, tobogganing, sliding and even walking through the snow. I didn't capture a veiled woman walking in the snow, somehow it doesn't match very well.  You rent the winter gear and head into winter, even though it's 25 C outside.  The shops were all fancy brand names, Rodeo Drive, Tommy H, Pierre Cardin, etc, so didn't do much shopping, just window shopping.  I later headed down to the gold souq, that was more my style, hopefully later I'll find the spice souq and the covered bazaar.  I took their really nice metro down to the souq's and en route I took a photo of the Burg Al Arab, the sail shaped hotel...

 

Feb 26 - Abu Dhabi

Hello everyone, We have had a great introduction to Abu Dhabi, it is a nice sized cosmopolitin city, with many different nationalities and very organized and well laid out.  Each new fancy office tower or hotel tries to outdo the last, so the buildings are unique and really eye-catching. The people are quite nice, with lots of people from the Phillipine's working in restaurants and stores.  We did some siteseeing over the last few days with our friends Joanne and Dick (fish market, looking at the dhow boats, etc), and today we went off on our own. 

We toured the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque, kind of a modern day Taj Mahal (so inspired) built by the founding father of UAE.  UAE is a country made up of 7 emirates (provinces or states), some have oil wealth, but not all. This mosque was stunning, as you'll see from our photos.  The women had to cover up with abaya's (provided), the structure was truly beautiful. The chandeliers (7 of them) weigh 9 tons each.  Then we went out for lunch and went to see the Emirates Palace Hotel, a 7 star wonder..... very elaborate. Obviously this grandeur is in sharp contrast to Bangladesh.

Off to Dubai tomorrow, we may take the long road around and stop a few places "less city" like along the way.

A family walking along the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, many miles of boardwalk along the Arabian Gulf

 
The dhow boats (used for fishing) along the harbour

 
The Sheikh Zayed Mosque, completed in 2007, given to the country by the founding father, Sheikh Zayed.

 
Women in abaya's, one was our guide.
                                               

Joanne and Dick Kellie, standing in front of Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi (where Joanne works), it will be completed in 2013 and is expected to bring in lots of funds and treatments, as it was built with the support of the royal family.

At the Palace Hotel, Gold to Go, just put your credit card in and order your gold in ounces or larger.... anyone want to give us a loan to try it out?

Feb 23 - Changing Countries

We have left Bangladesh and have a brief layover in Doha, Qatar.  We had an interesting flight from Dhaka to Doha. They asked for a Health Professional to come to 1st class, I was the only one who responded.  A fellow in his 80's was sick, vomiting, cool & clammy, he was diabetic, had high BP and had been ill in the am before the flight.  I checked his BP and pulse and luckily he had no cardiac symptoms, although he told me he had a stent.  The ambulance met the flight and he was pretty good on arrival, but in the 20 minutes before landing again he felt ill, so I checked in on him again.

We have a three hour layover here in Doha (Qatar), then we are off to meet our friends Joanne and Dick in Abu Dhabi.  The College in Bangladesh had a really nice send off, after a few speeches, we were given some gifts and then Ralph called a Virginia Reel for the staff, nobody is very good at listening, so it was kind of crazy initially, with everyone swinging and laughing, but we got it under control. We had to laugh when they ended it off doing the hokey pokey, and joining hands and crashing into the middle of the room..... memories that will stay with us for quite a while. We'll post some photo's later.

 
Prof. Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.  We went on a short tour at the Yunus Center (just beside our College) and posed with the Prize Medals, then Ralph and a Bangladeshi fellow who worked at the College (lost his arm in a rice processing machine accident) stood for a photo.

 
Nursing students playing a game, the staff at our farewell party, having a crazy time!

We brought over 2 soccer balls to give away, this one we gave to two nice boys who lived near us, nice kids!

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Incredible architecture, clean streets, beautiful grounds keeping, fantastic scenery.... almost unbelievable after our time in Bangladesh. We arrived on Feb 23, and today (24th) did a drive tour through the key areas with Dick and Joanne, they live in a beautiful apartment on the 20th floor, lots of high rises and so much opportunity for international work, it makes your head spin. Nothing like our Saudi days, this is luxury and comfort, with lots of interesting work opportunities.  They both work in the health sector, but so much is here - finance, business, the oil industry, education, healthcare, you name it, it's a growing industry here.  Life is expensive here, but it really is the total opposite to Bangladesh.  We can appreciate both for what they offer.... such interesting places! 

Palace Hotel entrance (with some construction)

 A golf course that Dick and Jo belong to, spectacular course with a falcon shaped clubhouse. We're posed in front of some beautiful ingraved glass doors!

The special golf carts are from here.
                   A building like a coin on it's side!

The architecture is so unusual and stunning.

Feb 21 - Vegetable market photos

Hi, Ralph went down to the vegetable market at 6 am, here are some photos.  He enjoyed seeing the people and produce.  It's cauliflower season, so they look so good and fresh. Locally grown produce is really cheap, 2 green peppers are 15 cents, 2 cucumbers are 25 cents, and tomatoes are 30 cents for 4 or 5, we often shopped in a local grocery store where the workers want to push your cart for you, it'll be hard to go back to IGA or Super C and have to look after ourselves! Food here has been really good, lots of rice, vegetables and curried dishes. Our bags are mostly packed, we will finish off our goodbyes tomorrow and head to the airport bright and early on Thursday.

Meat anyone (this is bound to make you vegetarian)?

Feb 20 - Final days in Bangladesh

Where has the time gone? Our time here is coming to an end and we have mixed feelings. The highlights have certainly been the people we have gotten to know (Bangladeshi's and Westerners), and the complete strangers that so warmly smile and welcome us to Bangladesh. Life here is hard, it certainly makes you aware of the value of education and how so much depends upon where in the world you were born or raised.  Most of you reading this, like us, are the fortunate 20% of the world's population.

Today we had the pleasure of visiting CRP (Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed), an interesting facility that provides OT, PT, Nursing Care, Proshetics, Speech Therapy, Rehab, etc to persons with serious injuries that have led to paralysis or amputations. Most injuries are related to work injuries, carrying 100 kg weights causing cervical trauma, as well as construction injuries, and motor vehicle accidents. It was founded in the 70's by a UK physiotherapist, she had come out here after she graduated and saw the enormous need in Bangladesh for care of these patients.  We met her today, Valerie Taylor, such a sweet, soft-spoken woman, highly respected and regarding in the country.

We also finished up some shopping (see the photos's of the women making the baskets with us) and had some excitement on our way home.  A tall highrise university building had smoke coming out of the top (like a rooftop exit or small bulding on the top) which quickly turned to flames. I was rushing to get out of the way, in case anything came down from the top, meanwhile Bangladeshi's were rushing in to see the excitement. I also saw a full bus nearby with about 10 well-dressed school boys on the roof, aiming their cell phones toward the burning building to snap photos, it was one of those moments that really doesn't seem real.

Luckily, they got the fire out and we were able to finish up our shopping and head home (to our friends apartment) with a story to tell.

 
 An ingenius wheelchair design! Nothing is wasted here.

A patient in a stryker bed, made in the CRP shops

Women working on baskets in the Tarongo workshop, they wanted a photo with us!

A big crowd formed (the burning building is on the right), see the firetrucks blocked in by the crowd!

Feb 19 - Tea Estates and Hospital visit

Hello everyone, We have returned from our northern adventure, with wonderful  memories.  We travelled to Srimongal by train (Second class) leaving Dhaka at 7 am and arriving at noon.  We met other Bangladeshi's on the train, everyone curious about us.  When we arrived we then had to buy our return train trip, and we had to be back on Saturday, so we could visit the hospital on Sunday.  But, no tickets for any trains on Saturday, all sold out, so the only tickets we could buy would have us leave at 12:10 am on Sunday, arriving in Dhaka at 5 am, then we would need to go to the workshop at the hospital from 8 am to whenever.  We bought this route. Then we rode out on our bikes, about 5 km to find our guesthouse didn't exist (not a good start), luckily we found another Eco-cottage that had room for us, thank goodess. Lovely spot. We enjoyed the speciality of the area, 7 layer tea.

We were so impressed with the tea estates, beautiful manicured tea bushes with rubber trees interspersed occasionally, which made it quite a photogenic site.  We saw lots of tea workers, and other workers rebuilding a bridge, hauling sand or cement.  Because we rented 2 wheeled bicycles we were able to get into very remote areas and meet the people.  One highlight was arriving in a Hindu village, descendants of the original tea workers brought from India in the 1800's.  One fellow spoke quite good English and he encouraged 2 girls to do a Hindu dance and song for us. We were invited into 4 homes, for Cha (tea) and biscuits throughout the weekend.  It seemed to be quite an honour for them (but we were the lucky ones). On our travels we met families drying grain, one woman with a newborn baby and lots and lots of beautiful children.  Enjoy the photos.

                                                                   

 
Beautiful homes, painted so nicely

                               A typical tea worker, heading out to trim the bushes
Twins that were clearing the grass under the lemon trees.                                                                 

 


Children at the Hindu temple, all excited to be in the photo!
                                                                                         She carried a heavy load of sand

 

After 4 hours sleep in a train cabin, today we visited a private hospital with 100 beds, with 45 of them critical care beds (an unusual proportion). We had about 30 - 40 nurses at our workshop, and the leader asked them to show us how they now transfer patients then we showed them the recommeded way, to provide safe movement and prevent back injury. Everyone wears flip flops, and when they showed us how they transfer from the stretcher to the bed they jumped up, barefoot on the bed to help with the transfer.... Quite a laugh. Our tour of the hospital showed higher standards then the previous hospital we visited. Some of you at CVCEC will recognize the movements the nurses are doing in the photos.  A great day that went from 9 am to 3 pm, so now we are ready to soon see our beds.