Hey there Sinister, Yes, just what youve all been waiting for my second big update. The idea is that I aim to write them at the start of a new month. My track record at that hasnt been so good yet but thats because its all busy, busy here. SIX-DAY WEEKS As I finished off my last message not saying much about my work placement, Ill start this one going into it in a bit more detail As part of my work induction I went out to visit some of the slum areas of Dhaka, as this is where my main project will be concentrated. It was so eye opening to go and see the areas where so much work has yet to be done to make sure that slum dwellers can have clean water and sanitation against the odds. In case you were wondering, the deal is that my NGO motivates the slum community to participate in getting access to legal water supply and hygienic latrines. The community are keen for this progress and are willing to fully pay for the installation. This is achieved by my NGO outlaying the initial money on a micro-credit scheme and providing technical input. The community are involved in all of the planning, getting construction labour etc. and they manage the water points etc. themselves. To go with this the community participates in hygiene education. There is a lot more I can say about all of this but softly, softly Another great part of this field trip was going to visit slum areas where my NGO has already worked on installations (now fully owned by the slum community payback takes about two years). It meant that I got to see the positive effect of the project first-hand and speak to some people in the community. Thankfully I had another engineer from work to translate for me my Bangla certainly isnt fluent yet but its improving. Of course, not everything is plain sailing. I also visited sites where the water points etc. had to be permanently closed due to the authorities evicting those particular slums. Starting work during Ramadan meant that things got off to a very slow start. After the Eid holidays the pace and responsibility picked up tremendously and Im really enjoying it! Ive got a good mixture of doing documentation & information systems stuff along with chemical engineering work such as setting up a chlorination procedure for the NGO. The people at work are great which makes all the difference. You get to meet all sorts of additional people involved in water and sanitation. Its an ongoing education for me meeting staff from donor and partner organisations etc. My favourite visitor of the last month has got to be the journalist who came to get the low-down on Bangladesh as part of the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) campaign. Its great when you meet someone with interesting viewpoints. His parents turned out to be the founders of the New Internationalist which explained a lot. SHELF LIFE People here are still trying to marry me off! I now live with a young Bangladeshi couple (who are great and so is the flat) and I spent Eid with their families. You learn a lot about Bangladeshi families by going to these gatherings and I enjoyed them. The Grandmas of both houses have earmarked cousins that I should meet as they dont want me to be left on the shelf (I like to think Ive got a couple of years before my expiry date). Eid although enjoyable, made me a little homesick. Being at big family gatherings obviously made me think of my own loved ones sniff! FOR THE LOVE OF SPORT As Im sure youre aware the most loved sport in Bangladesh is cricket. Some of you will also be aware that Im not terribly keen on it. Still, I thought it was absolutely necessary to take one of the afternoons off work to go to the last one-day international Bangladesh v England. It has to be said that it wasnt the most exciting game in the world due to team tactics (and of course England slashed Bangladesh he he) but the atmosphere was phenomenal! The energy of the Bangladeshi fans is something to aspire to, with non-stop bouncing, clapping, and singing etc. for hours on end. Theyre a bit too quick with the old Mexican wave though and theyre SO HARSH to the Bangladesh team if things go horribly wrong. No wonder Bangladesh never do well on their own turf, theyre under so much pressure! I should also add that Im not too keen on the crowd pyrotechnics. People with flares in crowded spaces ggrr. (ASIDE TO ENGLISH FOOTIE FANS) Are those two pathetic Shef Utd fans still in prison? I went to the Boro v Shef Utd pre-season friendly and every time I looked at the part of the stand that is shut down (for the whole season) because of them idiots I growled. Being the girl that I am I did gush when the whole of the England cricket team turned up at the BAGHA (British pub in Dhaka) when I was there with some other volunteer mates. Just, there to you know chill and watch the game. So yes, in case you were wondering, I did manage to keep up to speed with other important sports events over the last month or so. I supported England through the footy and Rugby all the way (when I wasnt working), watching other matches as well when possible. Ive even managed to catch Boro on the T.V. a few times. Although, its not why Im here Im finding that people and events at BAGHA are a good support system to keep me going. I certainly dont live in there but its good for relaxing at times. TRAVEL AND VISA Im having visa complications so Im confined to Bangladesh for another two months. Ive now got myself set-up so that I can travel around Asia more than just here and India lets hope Ill be able to do some crossing borders soon. So much for catching my mate in Dubai before Christmas boo I do have a lot of travelling left to do in Bangladesh though. Visitors are welcome to come and see me so I can show off the countryside here. Please send me news! I check my emails most days Amy _________________________________________________________________ Send a funky MSN Messenger Christmas card http://www.msn.co.uk/christmascard +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. 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