In July 2007, we left for Bangladesh, a trip which had taken months of careful planning.

 

The party included:

 

Carole Elliott

Terry Elliott

Fred Dove

Raju Choudhurry

Marge Wilkinson

The Students: Liam Wedderburn, David Cox and Theo de Vies.

 

We arrived smack in the middle of the monsoon season and were all astonished at the vast swathes of water as we approached the airport. While there, we learned that it was the worst monsoon for sixty years. The authorities estimated that around 60% of Bangladesh was under water while we were there.

Travel was OK in the city, but very difficult in the vast rural areas. Bridges and roads were washed away and we often took to boats.

 

The first couple of days saw us in planning meetings with Clinic staff and arranged a number of visits to projects, including a charity eye hospital and two other villages with on-going sanitation projects.

 

The weather was uncomfortable, hot and very humid with frequent torrential rain. The initial task was to take the three lads to the village. That is a 2 hour car journey. We were dropped off at the end of a very muddy and smelly 2km track to the village.

 

We spent the day in the village and had several meetings with staff and friends. The three students were left in the village for the next five days, while we adults returned to the relative comfort of our guest house in Sylhet. In fact, the boys were bedding down in the spare room in the Clinic, which has the only flush toilet in the village. (This was installed at Carole’s request when the Clinic was built)!! They were looked after by the teacher (Shahida), Doctor Aziz and the caretaker (Azgor Ali).

 

The focus of this trip was to look at the serious sanitation and hygiene problems. The villagers have no toilets, or any concept of hygiene and disease. For centuries, drinking water was taken from the large, stagnant pond. The same pond into which drained the faeces washed into the soil by rainwater.

 

So, during our stay, we met with Bangladeshi sanitation experts and also visited two villages with sanitation projects already in place. We did learn that Boroudha was in a district that was never going to receive Government aid. Any improvement would have to be at our expense!

 

Our three students left the village after five days, having had a unique and life changing experience. They got out just in time, as the monsoon worsened and the village became totally isolated the day after they left. They were able to accompany us on the visits to other villages. These were a real experience, Journeys by boat across a vast, flood ridden landscape. Tiny isolated and bedraggled hamlets, marooned like little islands. No sign of Government aid at any time during our visit.

 

 

After two weeks, we returned to the UK, leaving the boys to another couple of weeks of visits and excursions in Bangladesh. They then had to return home for their “A” level results and University in September!

For the whole of our visit, the weather was appalling and there was little we could do of a practical nature this time.

We did return with lots of ideas and plans to try and put into place for the next trip, which will NOT be in the monsoon. Still, it was a journey that none of us will ever forget!