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Off to Bangladesh!

Were on our way shortly to Bangladesh - leaving within hours! A bit of nerves building, but I think were pretty well set up. Were flying “Biman” - the Bangladesh national carrier - from Singapore direct. Its actually a four hour flight - the distances around Asia can be deceiving (or the planes are slow!). We’ll arrive likely around 1:00AM, when we’ll (hopefully) get picked up by our B&B - the Green House. Were splurging - will be around 40-50 USD per night, but the airport pickup makes it worth it. Additionally, it comes recommended by another volunteer who just shipped out to Rayenda (the town where our volunteer group is based) - apparently the b&b staff were instrumental in getting transporation, mobile internet access, and everything else - so we don’t mind paying a bit for the help.

So - Saturday, we’ll figure out how quickly we can get on the road for Rayenda. We’ll do the first leg of the journey (24 hours!) on a Rocket Steamer - which is essentially like the Paddlewheel queen with private sleeper cabins. When we get into our transfer point the next day, its either a bus or a tramp steamer to get to our final destination. Then - a 20 minute walk across town, and were home for the next two months! That walk should be interesting - apparently foreigners attract large crowds wherever they go once you’re outside of Dhaka. However disconcerting the crowds may be at first, they’re just friendly and curious, and apparently one becomes used to them very quickly.

Below is a map of Bangladesh - see Barisal? Apparently Rayenda (which is too small at 50,000 people to show up on the map) is somewhere around there:

View Larger Map

The weather in Rayenda is surprisingly cool - it seems to be topping out around 25 in the day, going down to 10 at night. Believe it or not, I’ve actually packed long johns to sleep in - not ordinarily something one packs for south east Asia!

Anyway - if you’d like to know more about what we’ll be up to in Bangladesh, you can read all about it on the Hands On Disaster Response website, and check out their Flickr stream.

Alrighty - there’s packing to finish, so I’m off - next writing from Bangladesh!

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