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.
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