This past week we took the 8th grade to Hong Kong for an outdoor adventure. This trip has been in the making since the first week of school and I have a huge amount of respect for our trip leader and my mentor, Rachel, as well as the other adults on our trip. It was such a fun group to go with but I felt stressed living overseas and then traveling with all these students to a different foreign country. That is a lot of responsibility! We are so lucky that our students are so amazing though-and they are used to traveling a lot, which really helped. They were where they needed to be on time and with all their info. Amazing.
We got off to a rocky start, teaching a full day and then meeting back up at the school at 9 at night with our plane leaving at 2 in the morning. The kids barely slept and we arrived in Hong Kong at 7 in the morning (they are 2 hours ahead of us) greeted by 2 very awake and enthusiastic members of Asia Pacific Adventures-the company we were rollin with. Then an hour long bus ride to Sai Kung where I got to see a little taste of Hong Kong out of the bus window. There were tall sky scrapers everywhere and it was gray and overcast and a little misty as we drove. Even though Hong Kong is a super packed city, it felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the concrete crowded jungle that is Dhaka and this is saying a lot. Even though it's a crowded city, the harbors with a mix of new boats and old Chinese junks and fishing boats were so refreshing and there was still tons of green everywhere-at least compared to Dhaka where grass doesn't seem to grow. We stayed in a sea scout camp near a small town called Sai Kung for 3 nights.
When we got to the spot we were staying it was a sea scout camp and it was dormitories with a little kitchen and showers. Very basic stuff and everything was wet and a little mildewy. The beds we had to sleep on were like boards covered in vinyl like you would have on motorboat seat covers. After 36 hours of very little sleep, I was missing my cushy bed and duvet at home. The kids were kept plenty busy this first day with team building activities and games while we got a little downtime. It is so funny to be on the "adult" side of things for pretty much the first time in my life and I almost felt like I should be mixed in with the students playing games and doing map activities but was glad I wasn't. I didn't even notice how uncomfortable my bed was that night because I was so tired and passed out early.
The next two days the kids were divided into 2 groups; one group did a full day trek through a gorge in this park about 45 minutes away and the other stayed at the site and did sea kayaking and map skills and a little scavenger hunt. I went with the group to the gorge. We drove up the mountain in thick dense fog so we couldn't see anything much.
The trek was awesome-it was so nice to be out in nature and see moving water that wasn't toxic green and skanky. We had to scramble over rocks and go up this waterfall zig zag and shimmy across a wet rock face. It was not easy stuff, it was very very challenging for a lot of our students. We got to a deep swimming hole and they all jumped in a swam after sweating all morning. On the hike down the mountain the fog had finally lifted and we could see all around us. It was sunny and you could see right down into the harbors below. The kids were tired after a long day of hiking but every night one group was on kitchen duty and another group was on clean up duty. The kids were responsible for cooking meals for everyone and then washing dishes. It was so good for them-some of our kids have grown up in the Bangladeshi and ex-pat culture and had maids and servants (which are incredibly cheap on this side of the world) and have never had to cook or clean a dish in their lives. There was very little complaining though, I were having fun cooking with their friends and laughing. They were so proud of the meals they cooked and kept asking us if we liked it, which was cute. The next day the students switched groups and did the opposite.
There were 6 of us chaperones on the trip and 3 people hung back at the dorms while the other 3 of us went out that night to the seafood markets and bars in downtown Sai Kung. The seafood markets were amazing-these plastic tubs stacked in layers with crazy looking seafood in them. So cool! We had a delicious dinner of clams in oyster sauce, breaded craps, a shrimp linguine, and steamed bok choi-kind of like an Asian tapas. We had cold beers that tasted absolutely delicious. We found a sports bar that had a lot of loud Brits and Aussies watching some rugby match and got few more beers on draft. Things I miss living in Dhaka-this. Sitting in a bar and enjoying a beer. The night ended with a 1:30 am McDonald's run-chicken McNuggets and french fries. Last time I had this I think I was 15-it was delicious. We got in a sketcky taxi who took us in the wrong direction and there was a total breakdown of communication. We finally got back to the sea scout camp where they had locked the gates on us. So our 2nd night of the 8th grade class trip ended with us hopping the fence into the sea scout camp after a night of seafood, beers, and McDonalds. Sooo glad I went on the gorge trek that first day because the next day was a little painful.
When it was time to go to the island we took a Chinese junk boat ride early in the morning that was an hour long. It was so incredibly foggy that we couldn't see anything. We reached the island and unloaded the gear. It was a 15 minute walk to the campsite and I was surprised by how much litter and trash was around. There are a few people who live on the island and then people from the mainland take trips out during the weekends. It's expensive I guess to get things off the island so there was just so much trash around. The campsite was nice though and litter free. The students had an excercise in putting up their tents and setting up the site so it was usable and then they did one activity of the four rotations leaving the other 3 for the next day. There was rock climbing, repelling, terrilion, and a survival skills challenge. I did the repelling with one group that first day-absolutely terrifying! You have to repel down a sheer cliff face with crashing waves at the bottom in dense fog. You can't see how far down it is either until you're on the edge because you're clipped onto a line. Some of our students really overcame some fears doing this stuff and surprised themselves. Even the students who didn't complete every challenge fully made huge strides in their own ways.
Camping outside was really nice and I was not missing my bed at home any longer. I loved waking up in my tent (adults had our own tents, students shared with 4 to 6 people) early with the sun and hearing nature sounds and passing ships in the water. The island was once the site of an old Chinese fort from the 1600's and 1700's and they had restored the base of it. It was a really cool place and while not all our students were thrilled about sharing a small tent with 6 people, roughing it, and peeing in a hole in the ground or out in the woods, they all took something out of it and bonded with each other, which was the goal.
The trip ended with the students doing an adventure race for 2 hours around the whole island where they had to apply all the skills they had learned throughout the week. We took a boat ride back a different way and were picked up by a bus to go to the airport. The whole trip I was so impressed by the APA staff-they had both technical skills and were so incredibly patient with our students and good natured and made it so fun for them. This is an experience that they will never forget. At the airport, the students got their Burger King and Starbucks that they had been craving. I got a Chai Tea Latte and was a happy girl :). Now back to Bangladesh and real life.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Shaheed Day and Green Village, Mirpur
This weekend we had a 3 day weekend because of Shaheed Day. Shaheed Day is Martyr's Day in Bangladesh and commemorates when the Bangladeshis fought to keep Bangla as the official language of the region when they were under control by Pakistan, who wanted the official language to be Urdu. Many students at universities demonstrated and several died for this cause. We wore black and white at school to honor the day and people were celebrating the day on Sunday all over the city. It was also International Language Day, which is celebrated all over the world.
On my day off, I took a CNG ride out to Mirpur, which with good traffic is a half hour away and with bad anywhere from an hour to an hour and 45. I visited a local school called the Green Village, which is run by two impassioned people; Lata, a teacher and film maker and Parvez, an international environmental lawyer.
The school was tucked back away from the street and just had a small tin sign outside of it and a tin fence, painted green all the way around it. Mirpur is a poor, noisy, congested area of Dhaka but the street that the school was located on was pretty tranquil and low-key. Stepping through the gate of the small school I got the best earthy feeling. The school is in a U-shape with a simple open court yard in the middle with trees and terra cotta pots and bells everywhere. It seemed like a very tranquil place in this crazy city.
We took a tour of the classroom and it was filled with all kinds of native artifacts like drums and flutes and masks. The children that attend the school are all from around the area and most have other jobs and go to school when they are able to. The school is very resourceful and it was evident that they were inventive in their materials and teaching methods. The school also had another location that was a short rickshaw ride and about an hour boat ride away, which we went to. The school also has another segment in southern Bangladesh in the Hilltracks. Parvez has set up a school for a native tribe there called the Murong. His focus is educating these people in their native language, which has its own alphabet because these people will most likely remain in their own culture for their entire lives and this will be more beneficial to them. He is currently working on putting together a book that will help the children learn the alphabet with colorful pictures they've drawn themselves.
Lata lived in an apartment behind the school and invited us in for a delicious meal before we left for the other location. The meal consisted of homemade roti, which is like a flat flour cake and some kind of vegetables and shrimp that I have never had in Bangladesh before, a fried egg and fresh ginger tea. It was delicious, spicy, and made my nose run! Lata's mother had died just a week earlier and so she was showing us pictures of her as a young girl. She was so honest and upfront with her feelings about this personal loss to complete strangers.
We took a rickshaw ride down to the river and then waited for a long flat boat. When I got on, the man motioned to me "do you know how to swim because this shit might sink" by making swimming motions with his arms. Umm, not a great start. The boat was full and there was a small boy bailing water out of the small hull the entire time. Now I understood why I might be required to swim. It was a beautiful day though and I tried to enjoy the day and scenery and not think about our half-submerged boat.
We made several stops along the way-just like making metro stops or bus stops, we picked people up along the shore like it was no big deal and our full boat got even more full. The whole boat ride cost 10 Taka a person, about 15 cents for one hour. It makes you wonder how they could afford a boat to begin with when they charge that little. It may explain the over-crowding to turn a profit.
We got off when we reached a small village an hour later, only accessible by boat. There was a tiny market going on with fresh veggie and fruit. We walked to the village that Green Village helps run. The first thing that I noticed was a ginormous Banyan tree with a massive root system. Parvez said that there are about 200 people in the community and they are predominantly Hindu. We could see this from the small Hindu temples scattered about. Along with a school where they can learn to read and write, Parvez is trying to bring these people legal services, health care, and solve the community's shared problems like providing clean drinking water. Again, the village had such a nice feel to it; simple, earthy mud huts with outdoor "kitchens" (a mound of earth where you light a fire and set a pot on top of). Some had jute sides and some had tin sides and tin roofs. This was such a nice change from the cold cement apartment buildings of Dhaka. There was even a rose garden with beautiful red roses-something I haven't seen in a while!
We saw a well that was being dug with a filter that is supposed to filter out the arsenic, which is a big problem in Bangladesh. I got such an overwhelming sense of community and shared interest in finding solutions to these problems.
After touring around the village we had another huge meal of rice, spinach, and curried vegetables. I wasn't hungry at all from our first meal with Lata but Bangladeshis take such pride in being hospitable and the food again was delicious so I managed to eat!
Of course everyone that we met was very nice and smiled at us strange people. One girl was so happy to see us and gave us a gift of roses because her Uncle owned the rose garden and tried to use her English to talk to us, which was pretty good. She said she was very eager to get better at her English and that she hopes we'd come again.
The ride back was pleasant and a little less tense with less water in the bottom of our boat and less people, landing us safely back on shore! I was so impressed by the dedication of Parvez and Lata to their school and to this community. Lata has made several movies about the community, which I hope to see soon. Both highly educated and with the potential to make a lot more money, they have dedicated their lives to the cause of providing these disadvantaged people with more opportunities in their own lives.
On my day off, I took a CNG ride out to Mirpur, which with good traffic is a half hour away and with bad anywhere from an hour to an hour and 45. I visited a local school called the Green Village, which is run by two impassioned people; Lata, a teacher and film maker and Parvez, an international environmental lawyer.
The school was tucked back away from the street and just had a small tin sign outside of it and a tin fence, painted green all the way around it. Mirpur is a poor, noisy, congested area of Dhaka but the street that the school was located on was pretty tranquil and low-key. Stepping through the gate of the small school I got the best earthy feeling. The school is in a U-shape with a simple open court yard in the middle with trees and terra cotta pots and bells everywhere. It seemed like a very tranquil place in this crazy city.
We took a tour of the classroom and it was filled with all kinds of native artifacts like drums and flutes and masks. The children that attend the school are all from around the area and most have other jobs and go to school when they are able to. The school is very resourceful and it was evident that they were inventive in their materials and teaching methods. The school also had another location that was a short rickshaw ride and about an hour boat ride away, which we went to. The school also has another segment in southern Bangladesh in the Hilltracks. Parvez has set up a school for a native tribe there called the Murong. His focus is educating these people in their native language, which has its own alphabet because these people will most likely remain in their own culture for their entire lives and this will be more beneficial to them. He is currently working on putting together a book that will help the children learn the alphabet with colorful pictures they've drawn themselves.
Lata lived in an apartment behind the school and invited us in for a delicious meal before we left for the other location. The meal consisted of homemade roti, which is like a flat flour cake and some kind of vegetables and shrimp that I have never had in Bangladesh before, a fried egg and fresh ginger tea. It was delicious, spicy, and made my nose run! Lata's mother had died just a week earlier and so she was showing us pictures of her as a young girl. She was so honest and upfront with her feelings about this personal loss to complete strangers.
We took a rickshaw ride down to the river and then waited for a long flat boat. When I got on, the man motioned to me "do you know how to swim because this shit might sink" by making swimming motions with his arms. Umm, not a great start. The boat was full and there was a small boy bailing water out of the small hull the entire time. Now I understood why I might be required to swim. It was a beautiful day though and I tried to enjoy the day and scenery and not think about our half-submerged boat.
We made several stops along the way-just like making metro stops or bus stops, we picked people up along the shore like it was no big deal and our full boat got even more full. The whole boat ride cost 10 Taka a person, about 15 cents for one hour. It makes you wonder how they could afford a boat to begin with when they charge that little. It may explain the over-crowding to turn a profit.
We got off when we reached a small village an hour later, only accessible by boat. There was a tiny market going on with fresh veggie and fruit. We walked to the village that Green Village helps run. The first thing that I noticed was a ginormous Banyan tree with a massive root system. Parvez said that there are about 200 people in the community and they are predominantly Hindu. We could see this from the small Hindu temples scattered about. Along with a school where they can learn to read and write, Parvez is trying to bring these people legal services, health care, and solve the community's shared problems like providing clean drinking water. Again, the village had such a nice feel to it; simple, earthy mud huts with outdoor "kitchens" (a mound of earth where you light a fire and set a pot on top of). Some had jute sides and some had tin sides and tin roofs. This was such a nice change from the cold cement apartment buildings of Dhaka. There was even a rose garden with beautiful red roses-something I haven't seen in a while!
We saw a well that was being dug with a filter that is supposed to filter out the arsenic, which is a big problem in Bangladesh. I got such an overwhelming sense of community and shared interest in finding solutions to these problems.
After touring around the village we had another huge meal of rice, spinach, and curried vegetables. I wasn't hungry at all from our first meal with Lata but Bangladeshis take such pride in being hospitable and the food again was delicious so I managed to eat!
Of course everyone that we met was very nice and smiled at us strange people. One girl was so happy to see us and gave us a gift of roses because her Uncle owned the rose garden and tried to use her English to talk to us, which was pretty good. She said she was very eager to get better at her English and that she hopes we'd come again.
The ride back was pleasant and a little less tense with less water in the bottom of our boat and less people, landing us safely back on shore! I was so impressed by the dedication of Parvez and Lata to their school and to this community. Lata has made several movies about the community, which I hope to see soon. Both highly educated and with the potential to make a lot more money, they have dedicated their lives to the cause of providing these disadvantaged people with more opportunities in their own lives.
Monday, February 1, 2010
A Small but Impactful Gesture
This weekend we witnessed something pretty amazing. My friend Kristen lives right next to a mosque and on Fridays (the Muslim holy day) there are a lot of beggars who wait outside of the mosque hoping to get food and/or money from recent mosque-goers when it lets out. The beggars are mostly all old, very frail looking old women, hunched over in their beautifully colored but dusty cotton saris. Their skin is brown and tough like leather and their faces are lined with wrinkles from a tough life. It is all men who attend the mosque. We watched as a passing man handed a couple of scrunched 100 Taka bills to a few of the ladies. Instead of these few lucky individuals pocketing the money, they distributed it evenly amongst the group of women. Other women brought out smaller bills to make change and everyone got a piece of the pie. This is obviously a tight-knit group who takes care of their own. The women who were handed the money in the first place would not have felt right taking it for themselves while others went without. This simple gesture of giving and putting the group before the individual was beautiful and made us all think hard.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)