Feb 15 - Off to the North

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

 

Women working at basket making

 
A Bangladeshi rickshaw schoolbus, with just one passenger at the moment!

Feb 13 - A day of work

Hello, We have just finished day 2 of the second set of workshops.  Today was teaching the skills of drawing blood and starting IV's using the 2 pieces of equipment I brought for this, a venipuncture board and the "arm".  We ended the day with realistic situations (scenario's) that three participants at a time had to do, using their new skills.  All in all it went very well. I'll attach some photos.  Ralph has been getting along well with the dancing, some of the students are really shy, and watch their classmates have fun.

After work we went with our apartment mate, Freya (a young woman from Scotland) and Barbara (the director of nursing) to the tailor to get some things made up.  It will be fun to see what these fellows can do with a bit of fabric.

We've been asked to come to a local hospital to do a workshop for hospital staff, when I asked how many would attend, I was told maybe 20 or 40 or 60.  It's to be a moving and handling workshop, so it should be interesting.  Anna, Rakesh, Ralph and I will do it on the 19th. Tomorrow we have our final day of formal workshops at the college, then on the 16th we'll go up to the tea growing region of Bangladesh.  The tea here is wonderful, Marj and Carolyn would love it!  I think my Dad (Ron) and Mom (Jean) would have enjoyed the river trip, seeing life along the way.  Thinking of all of you!

Photos from the Workshops

 

And you think you've seen traffic, can you count the rickshaw's?

At the tailor (Freya and Barbara above, Freya, the little tailor and Debbi below)

Feb 11 - Our Nat'l Geographic Experience!

Hello everyone, I'll go ahead and start the blog, as Ralph just walked up the road to see if he can get into a Cricket Match at the nearby stadium. Since we last wrote, we finished the first two-day workshop and it was a great success.  Such fun to work with these women, so interested in Nursing in Bangladesh.  Standards in hospitals are low, hygiene is non-existant in some, but they try to do their best.  After our training, the smallest of nurses (about 100 lbs) was able to move Ralph (a giant by Bangladeshi standards) quite easily.

We then took off for a 3 night/ 4 day trip to Morrelganj, a distant village that required 2 nine - twelve hour boat rides to get there.  3 of the boat rides were with an old paddlewheel boat (The Rocket) that had lots of charm, but a bit rustic in other ways (held about 800 in 3rd class, 400 in 2nd class and 30 in 1st class).  We then took a small motorboat (loud and fast) to reach the village.  There were about 25 women gathered on straw mats waiting for the 4 of us (Ralph, myself, Semina and Dr. Nazmul) to come, to interview them on their perspective of nursing in the villages. One girl from the village, Ruma, is in her 2nd year of the nursing program at Grameen, so her parents quite proudly gave their opinions first. The colourful dress, head coverings and jewelry were stunning.  We were the highlight of the village and had dozens of people following us everywhere.  After our discussion we were served fresh coconut milk, then off we went to see a local hospital. 

The hospital was very primitive, 2 nurses for about 60 patients, used syringes in boxes on the floor, no accessories in the large ward, just bed, after bed, after bed. I'm sure infection control is seldom considered, and while we were there, the power went out so we were in darkness.  The nurses shared their perspective of nursing in their present situation.  Then we walked in the dark with flashlights to the Grameen Bank Building in the village and were served 4 different platefuls of fruit, bori (like a small apple), banana's, cuc's, carrots, papaya's, sofadu(a bangladeshi fruit) and then tea.  We slept on boats each evening, large boats with first class cabins (about $ 12 ea cabin).  It was really an unforgetable experience.  Ralph said "Straight out of Nat'l Geographic".  So interesting, and so informative.  We had breakfast at a typical Bangladeshi stall, chapatti's and dal, so good!  Riverlife was really so interesting, everything is carried by boats, so spectacular.  I'll now attach some photo's, we took hundreds, so I'll just add a few.....

     Women in the Workshop                      The Rocket Paddlewheel boat

Our smaller motorboat, we took to the village              A typical crowded boat on the river!

 
                                            Women at the outdoor meeting, very talkative and excited!

 Women watching themselves on the laptop after the interview

                                                            A beautiful young girl

Breakfast anyone?

Life along the river!

Feb 7th - Time to work

 

A woman and her child, smiling because we gave them an Izzy Doll, and a fellow carrying 32 bricks!

Hello again, We had a terrific couple of days, getting to know the staff of GCCN (Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing) and doing the last minute things for today's workshop.  We had a great day, Canadian nurses don't complain, Bangladeshi nurses have 2 nurses on the ward for 80 - 100 patients!  Partly because of a shortage of nurses, and because the system has always been this way.  Families must come in to care for their family member, doing all personal care for the client.  The nurses do procedures and give out medications only.  They also have to count stuff, if a pillow is missing it gets deducted from their salaries, so they are busy counting pillows, wheelchairs, etc. Our two partners are Rakesh and Anna. Rakesh is a Nepali nurse, educated with a Masters in Public Health and now working in Bangladesh.  Anna is here from the UK, volunteering, since her husband is on a engineering project here, building low cost housing.  In our apartment lives the Director of Nursing, Barbara, a volunteer Freya from the UK teaching English at the College, and Ralph and I.  Great experience.

Feb 5- Visit to Comilla

We just enjoyed a few days in Comilla, a rural area about 2 hours from Dhaka, on the Indian border.We travelled there with Nazul, Semina and Moyna.  Semina is a 32 year old lawyer from the UK of Bangladeshi heritage. She wanted a change, as she was a fraud lawyer in the UK and got tired of working in the business fraud area.  She is also volunteering with Grameen, looking at the legal description of the role of the nurse here.  Very interesting young lady, I think we'll do some more travel with her before we leave.  Moyna is a shy Bangladeshi young woman, studying to be a Paramedic, because she was too old for the nursing program.  I guess you have to apply right out of high school.

You have never seen wild traffic like this... Imagine a two lane road (roughly paved and part dirt road).  We are heading in one direction and our driver wants to pass a truck, so now two vehicles going in one direction, then a public bus passes us, so 3 going the wrong way, and then on the inside is a tuk-tuk, so everyone pushes over a bit more to make room, while blareing their horns!  Then of course, there is a bus or truck bearing down on us, so now everyone speeds up to get past the vehicle they were passing, to avoid being hit by the bus!  Crazy, crazy, crazy.

 

In Comilla we saw a WWII cemetary, with 12 Canadians buried there along with 400 other Allied graves and about 25 Japanese graves.  Very well cared for.  We also saw the guest house that Queen Eliz stayed at during her coronation tour, we stayed  next door. We  saw some newly uncovered Buddist temples from the 7th - 12th century.  Men were carrying large bowls of dirt on their head to carry it away from the archiological site, Ralph joined the procession of men, with a bowl of dirt on his head, all the men chuckled and even the local security came out to take Ralph's picture. Lastly we stopped at a brick factory,such hard physical labor.  Many are slaves to the work (from what we have been told), but the process is so interesting to see.

The local people are so happy and so curious about us.  What a great place to be!

D & R

Photos Day 1

We went for a walk to see life on the streets of Dhaka, and we create quite a sensation.  Wherever we paused to take a photo or to look at something, a crowd soon developed around us.  You mostly see men in the streets, working as vendors, carriers (with loads on their heads), street sweepers, tea sellers, mechanics doing repairs, etc.  We saw a few women, so I'll add their photos, but society here seems to be run by men....

Rickshaws are a common way of transport, the streets are noisy and busy 

A lovely family inside a CNG (Commercial Natural Gas) vehicle (Tuk-tuk in Thailand)

The Rice Vendor, on the same street as our hotel

Vegetable stall, everything placed so nicely!

Women on the sidewalk, happy to see their photos when I showed them

A typical crowd that formed whenever we stopped, rickshaws, walkers, shoppers.....

 
A big basket to carry on your head!

Peter, we heard they were looking for retired firemen, to help out in Bangladesh, interested?

Feb 2- Day 1 in Bangladesh

Well folks, we finally arrived.  Our flight from Dubai to Dhaka was in an enormous plane with 99% Bangladeshi workers returning home to see family.  These fellows had 'duty free' packages, suitcases, roped up bags, you name it, they carried it.  They tried to force everything into the overhead bins, Ralph helped the flight attendants close bins because they were too full and too heavy to lift.... when we landed, as soon as the tires touched down you heard "click, click, click....", they were undoing their seatbelts and jumping up to get their items out of the bin, it was really mayhem.... We sat near a woman from Ohio, whose husband retired from US airways and now flies for a local Bangladeshi airway.  He also flew in Afghanistan and Dubai since retirment.  She had lots of stories to share, she does like it here.  We may meet up with them while here.

It then took 2 1/2 hours to get our bags, 3 out of 4 arrived.  Ralph and I were escorted through the VIP doorway, into a lounge. Our passports were quickly stamped, we had a "Ministry of Health" representative meet us, with Dr. Nazul Hada.  Nazul works for the College of Nursing, has his medical degree, then a Masters in Social Health and then did his Phd in Public Health at University of Alberta in Edmontorn (he was there for 4 or 5 years)  He does alot of research on the health issues in Bangladeshi society. He told us about a study he did on the brothels in India, since they have 40% Bangladeshi girls in them.  I'll save you the details, but.... some young girls are given steriods at 12  years of age to enhance their appearance.  He wondered if these girls return to Bangladesh with HIV and other diseases, so his study looked at diseases in regards to these women. It caught national attention, and then international health partners also got involved to stop the trafficing of women, and if the women are there by choice, then to do some health screening and care.

While we were on our 1 1/2 ride to our hotel from the airport Nazul got a phone call from a researcher with Columbia University in the US, asking about the payscale for nurses with the BScN in Nursing versus RN grads.  Columbia may become involved in funding the Nursing program here.  Nazul explained that they have been trying to recruit girls into nursing from the poorer regions, to help a village understand that a nursing education for their daughters can open up new opportunities for the whole family.  He mentioned that although families may think their daughters have good jobs in Kolkuta (was Calcutta), they appreciate the money the girls send home to their families, they ignore their suspicions that the girls may work in brothels by choice.

The garment industry here is now partially regulated by the gov't.  Before regulation, workers were paid $10 a month ($2, went for makeup, $4, toward their housing, and $ 4 for food (for the young girl workers)), now they are paid $50 a month and standards are improving too.

I'll post pictures in a bit and I'll try not to be so long-winded.... it is a little overwhelming the standard of life here.  We both slept well last night, it took about 45 hours of travelling to finally arrive at our little hotel.  Breakfast was superb, chapattis (like pita bread), vegatables cooked in a spice, samosa style paddy stuffed with spices and veggie's, coffee, juice..... so so good.

We're going to go out for a walk and see the local life. It's Friday here, their day off, so the streets are a bit quieter.  Watch for photos coming soon.