We finished officially at the College, but we'll go in any day we are here. The people are so nice, it's going to be hard enough to leave. Ralph has become quite good friends with Rakesh, the Nepali male nurse who did the workshops with us. Today we did some shopping, visiting some fair trade shops, seeing their workshops, they were really interesting. Many of these projects focus on women's empowerment, giving employment to widows, the handicapped and prostitutes, to get them out of the brothels. We have enjoyed the shopping, we picked up some really nice things from here. The hospitality by the college has been amazing, our accomodation is such a treat, with Barbara, David and Freya.... such interesting people! Barbara has certainly made her mark in the international nursing scene.
We've kind of become oblivious to the craziness around us in Bangladesh, we no longer are bothered by the chaos that is all around us. You just wouldn't believe the number of people all around us all the time. There are more then 16 million people in Dhaka, driving is wild, people usually stop and stare at us. We stopped at a school today and were immediately surrounded by hundreds of children. We also stopped at a sawmill, where the fellows were working in barefeet. We have enjoyed giving away the occasional Canadian flag pencil, pin or Izzy doll, but we are careful where and when we do it, to avoid a crush of people on us. It'll be nice to be out of the craziness for a few days by going up north. We met a Carleton University Int'l Business Student today, doing an internship with the Grameen Bank.
On Sunday we'll visit one or two hospitals, to do some teaching. Ralph enjoys meeting the people so much, he's got friends all over Bangladesh! One nurse-teacher has a brother who is hemiplegic after a stroke. She said the nurses complain when they have to move him, so we're going in to meet him and give the staff some pointers on helping patients to move safely, it should be interesting. She is really appreciative. We'll be back in touch after our trip north.
Workshop # 2 participants
A Bangladeshi rickshaw schoolbus, with just one passenger at the moment!
We've kind of become oblivious to the craziness around us in Bangladesh, we no longer are bothered by the chaos that is all around us. You just wouldn't believe the number of people all around us all the time. There are more then 16 million people in Dhaka, driving is wild, people usually stop and stare at us. We stopped at a school today and were immediately surrounded by hundreds of children. We also stopped at a sawmill, where the fellows were working in barefeet. We have enjoyed giving away the occasional Canadian flag pencil, pin or Izzy doll, but we are careful where and when we do it, to avoid a crush of people on us. It'll be nice to be out of the craziness for a few days by going up north. We met a Carleton University Int'l Business Student today, doing an internship with the Grameen Bank.
On Sunday we'll visit one or two hospitals, to do some teaching. Ralph enjoys meeting the people so much, he's got friends all over Bangladesh! One nurse-teacher has a brother who is hemiplegic after a stroke. She said the nurses complain when they have to move him, so we're going in to meet him and give the staff some pointers on helping patients to move safely, it should be interesting. She is really appreciative. We'll be back in touch after our trip north.
Workshop # 2 participants
Women working at basket making
A Bangladeshi rickshaw schoolbus, with just one passenger at the moment!
Your posts are all so interesting Debbi! I just heard from Marj.so was able to read about Day 15...Enjoy the North!
ReplyDeleteA few people were sitting in my office the other day complaining about stuff going missing around the Barrie. I happened to mention that in Bangladesh the nurses keep track of all the stuff or it gets deducted from their pay. I don't think we'd have many nurses left if we put in this policy!
ReplyDeleteIt's great getting your regular updates, loved the photo of the traffic. jb