Poland meets Bangladesh

So it was much to my surprise when I got a plane to Khulna earlier this week and discovered that all of the signs on the plane were in Polish (well, English and Polish).

The plane only had rear loading capabilities, but otherwise seemed to be a perfectly safe and reliable aircraft. It was definitely a bit strange flying over the Ganges (Padma) and thinking of the much cooler climate this plane was probably more accustomed to flying over in its previous life.

Bangladesh brands

So there are definitely some interesting takes on brands here in Bangladesh.
Coca-Cola has managed to keep its signature look even in Bangla. This is what the can looks like here (in its special Eid holidays commemorative can):

 And similarly, this is what Sprite has done to keep the look the same but adopted to Bangla:

 Even American TV shows have taken off here. "Bangladeshi Idol" premiered a few months back and has done very well so far. It has all the same features as its American equivalent, down to the intro music and titles.

 I've recently learned that my name is actually easy for people to grasp, once I mention the very popular local store "Aarong". I tell them it's like the store, but without the final 'g'. Aarong is a for-profit store run by the world's largest NGO, BRAC - a Bangladesh NGO that works on eliminating poverty and working with people who are illiterate, ill and/or have other handicaps. The profits from this store go to furthering the NGO's work.

 There are also the few brands that seem to not care that they are direct knock-offs of other international brands. This is "Sun Chips":

 And these are "Doreo" cookies, described as 'black chocolate sandwich cream biscuits". :-)

Field visit to Barisal

This last week I traveled down to the division of Barisal in Southern Bangladesh to visit some of the sites where we are working. We were hosting a VIP from Washington and got to spend two full days in the field, visiting a lot of different villages across this division. We took an amphibian plane, taking off on land and "landing" on water in Barisal.

This is a view of Dhaka as we were flying out.

I took this picture in a remote village where we are working with the local farmers and villagers to encourage them to consume indigenous and highly nutritious fish to improve their overall nutrition, especially that of women and children. This little boy was very excited about the fish they had caught!

This was in a different village, quite some distance away. These women were being taught about fish culture and how to tend to their ponds.

 Another thing we teach the villagers that we work with is about raised beds for their gardens. Because this part of Bangladesh gets so much rain, often crops are washed away, leaving them with limited access to food, given how little money they make. The simple technique of raising beds allows the crops to remain protected and continue growing. This woman was proudly showing off her raised plot and how the plants had survived the recent heavy rains.

This is a picture of the Ganges River, known as the Padma in Bangladesh. Bangladesh is both blessed and cursed by its water. It was a beautiful flight back from Barisal as we came into Dhaka. And a really nice trip all around.

Finally found an apartment

I'm happy to announce that, as of yesterday, we are now the proud owners of a set of keys to an apartment in Dhaka! It's walking distance to the office, in a nice part of the city and has two nice balconies. I'm excited!

This is the front of our new place. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to move in early next week, after they install the air conditioners and a few other needed furnishings (fridge, etc.).

Today I'm heading out to find a few needed kitchen appliances and basic necessities so that I can transfer from the hotel to our new place next week.

I'll definitely post more pictures soon!
 

What I've learned so far from apartment hunting...

So I've learned some interesting and random things these past few weeks as I've been apartment hunting. First, kitchens are TINY here. Usually "the staff" works in them, which is a whole other topic, so they are poorly ventilated, never have A/Cs, are always adjacent to the staff room and have very little counter space. I've also learned that typically in Bangladesh the floor (a clean one!) is used for preparing and cutting vegetables, so there is no real need for the counter top. Also, related to the kitchen, ovens are very rare. Most people just have two burners and that's the extent of their cooking equipment. I guess not much baking or broiling is needed in Bangladeshi cuisine.

The second thing I've learned is that everything is negotiable. Whether it's the service fee, the amenities or even the rent, it can all be negotiated. So you never want to assume that anything is fixed or off the table.
The third thing I've learned is that you have to go to the area of town where you want to live if you want to be in a particular place. There are no online sites really or listings that you can consult. So it's all either word of mouth or street by street searching, which can be exhausting, let me tell you!
Finally, randomly, I've learned that apartment units are letter and number based instead of just sequential in number. So instead of 101, 201, 301, etc. as you'd see in Europe or North America, it's B-1, B-2, B-3, B-4, etc. which can be very confusing.
So those are my random factoids!

First trip to the field

Well I had my first trip to the field as chief of party, which was very exciting. It was nice to be part of the visit not as a visitor but as the host. We had some VIPs from Washington, DC visiting and we were showing them around our sites in Southern Bangladesh.
We flew from Dhaka to Jessore (pronounced joh-shore), which is about a 30 minutes flight from Dhaka. Bangladesh has about 4 airlines that fly domestically and apparently we flew on the most punctual of them, so I was pleasantly surprised with the efficiency and punctuality of our trip.

Jessore is a relatively small town in the division of Khulna with about 30,000 people. The division's main city, Khulna, is about a two hour drive south of Jessore and is where our main office is. We stayed, however, in and around Jessore for this trip. Like most parts of rural Bangladesh, it is predominately agrarian so the countryside consists mostly of rice fields and villages with farms.

 For our VIP guests, we took them to see some of the work we're doing in a few of these villages. Our first stop (pictures below) was a group of women who participate in what we call a 'farmer field school'. This is a new group we are working with near Jessore. We work with these women to teach best practices in kitchen gardens, proper nutrition during pregnancy and poultry rearing. Here we're showing a more efficient way to encourage hens to lay more eggs and our field rep (the guy at the front) is demonstrating how this is done.

The rest of the afternoon went well, though it was very hot! In addition to this farmer field school, we also showed them some home gardens, hand washing stations and a nutrition counseling session that our health extension worker was providing to new mothers in a nearby village. The visitors seemed very happy with how the visit had gone, which of course made us happy too! No problems or delays coming back to Dhaka. So it was a good first trip to one of our divisions!

Exploring Banani

Well - it's official: I survived my first official week on the job! Hooray! I don't think I messed anything up too badly, either!
Friday was my first day off so I slept in a little bit, had a late breakfast and decided to go explore the neighborhood where my hotel is, Banani. Banani, you might be surprised to know, does not have a lot of bananas, I was sad to discover. :-)
One of my colleagues from the office lives in Banani and offered to walk me around the neighborhood a bit and show me what's there. Banani is one of the neighborhoods where we're looking to move, so I was also curious to get to know it better for that reason.
We started at one of the few places I did already know in Dhaka, a great place called Jatra. Jatra has beautiful handmade fixtures and artwork for the home. Last time I was here I visited it with my boss and was completely blown away by all the incredible things they had. So, it was a nice place to start. I ended up buying myself a local outfit, since their clothes are so nice (and affordable) and it seemed like a good thing to do.

From there we walked to the Banani market, a smellier but very lively version of Pike Place Market. Let's just say you wouldn't want any of your lovely new produce to fall on the floors there, though. Doesn't do much for the appetite. In addition to beautiful fresh veggies and fruits, there was a bloody array of chickens (the cackling and post-cackling type), goats and even cow heads. Yum! From there we walked over to the Banani Supermarket, a sort of multilevel mall with lots of great shops. Here you can buy any fabric you want and have a tailor turn it into whatever you want. Most nice things you see people wearing here were probably tailored. People take their clothing very seriously. I also visited Dhaka's latest department store, Uni-Mart, a Thai owned Fred Meyer or Walmart style grocery store with appliances and other electronics. It seems we can buy nearly everything there, so that should make getting set up a whole lot easier.

From there we found a few more fun shops and restaurants, such as the Australian and American stores as well as KFC and Pizza Hut. Apparently they have Domino's here too.
Then we walked down to Road 11 which is the fancier part of Banani. It's a stretch of great cafes, bakeries and restaurants. I saw Korean, Turkish, Indian and Italian places, as well as a Thai place called "Western Ireland" (??). Yeah. There was even a Mexican place called "Quesadilla" where we had lunch - and I have to say it was a damn good quesadilla! We stopped in some amazing bakeries and even found a great gelato place. Needless to say, I'm sure Road 11 is in our future!