Sinister: more news from Bangladesh...

[Amy Skelton]

Hey there Sinister,

Yes, just what you’ve 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 hasn’t been so good yet – but that’s because it’s all busy, busy here.

SIX-DAY WEEKS
As I finished off my last message not saying much about my work placement, 
I’ll 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 isn’t fluent yet but it’s 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 I’m really enjoying it! I’ve 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. It’s 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. It’s 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 don’t want me to be left on the shelf 
(I like to think I’ve 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 I’m sure you’re aware the most loved sport in Bangladesh is cricket.  
Some of you will also be aware that I’m 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 wasn’t 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. They’re 
a bit too quick with the old Mexican wave though and they’re SO HARSH to the 
Bangladesh team if things go horribly wrong. No wonder Bangladesh never do 
well on their own turf, they’re under so much pressure! I should also add 
that I’m 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 wasn’t working), 
watching other matches as well when possible. I’ve even managed to catch 
Boro on the T.V. a few times.

Although, it’s not why I’m here I’m finding that people and events at BAGHA 
are a good support system to keep me going. I certainly don’t live in there 
but it’s good for relaxing at times.

TRAVEL AND VISA
I’m having visa complications so I’m confined to Bangladesh for another two 
months. I’ve now got myself set-up so that I can travel around Asia more 
than just here and India – let’s hope I’ll 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

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