Sunday, March 11, 2007
Home...
Well... It has been an amazing trip, and I will write some more when I get a chance. I added a Flickr site to this site here on your right. If you click on that, you should be able to see the 72 pictures that we put on here. Unfortunately, we ran out of room for free space until April 1, when we are allowed to download some more pictures. Also, you can check out www.vailgirl.blogspot.com for Sally's blog. She wrote a lot, and her Flickr website has a bunch more pictures as well. We will write more as soon as everything work wise is organized again. Thanks for keeping in touch with us on our trip! love, Jesse & Shauna
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
So we are alive over here in Delhi, India. Sorry that we haven't been able to write for so long, we have been literally RUNNING since our feet hit the ground on Indian soil. We flew from Kathmandu, Nepal to Delhi, India on February 28th. We arrived at the research station here in Delhi late that night, and had to catch the train at 6:15 the next morning to Kanpur. The train ride was 5 1/2 hours long, but it was quite comfortable. It was Jesse's first train ride, so it was interesting. The part of the train that we were on was quite nice, it had nice seats that reclined, and they served us meals and tea. It was nice to ride on the train, also, because it allowed us to see some of the countryside. They have a real nice looking wheat crop coming.
We arrived in Kanpur in the afternoon and went right to the research buildings and had a formal meeting with the directors. They have a really nice facility there in Kanpur. It's only about 3 years old. After checking out the facility, we were taken back to our guest house to unpack. It was really nice there. Although all of us got new rooms except for poor Blaine, his room was in the old part of the building. He didn't have a very nice room to stay in. But, on a brighter note, Jesse and I had a great room... the bathroom was actually clean! We spent the day in the field, but Sally wasn't feeling so great, and didn't want to be in the middle of a field, so Shauna went to "keep her company" while she went back to her room. It was nice that she didn't have to tag along in the field for the rest of the day. Sally & Shauna spent the next couple of hours playing skip-bo and laughing at the Bollywood music videos.
So we got up the next day, and were on the road again at 6am (yes, we were exhausted by this point)and headed out to a farmers field. It took us around 2 1/2 hours to get there, and the roads were not smooth in any way... so we bumped along out to a villiage where we spent a couple hours meeting with the farmers and looking at their crops. One little girl (who was 7 years old) was smitten with Shauna, and came up to her after the meeting with the farmers, and told her that her mother wanted to meet her. So this little girl took her by the hand, and led her into the courtyard of a home in a villiage where women and children, who could only say "hello" in English, surrounded her and were smiling pretty big. Sally joined her, and it was quite a neat experience. So we got back to the research station in Kanpur in time to eat a quick lunch and head to the train. We told the people that our train left at 4pm (it left at 4:45) so we would be there on time, and it's a good thing we did that, because we didn't arrive at the train station until 4:20! Our train would have been good and GONE had it left at 4!
We got back to IARI (India Agriculture Research Institute)here in Delhi around 12:30am, and had to be in the car again for 7:30am... so we were definately still racing pretty hard! We had a quick sleep and got up in time to jump in the van to drive off to another extremely interesting part of our journey - Agra. Home of - The TAJ MAHAL! It took us 4 hours to drive 200 kms but it was so amazing. We first stopped at Sikandra which the 3rd Mughal emperor - Akbar - built. It was amazing. He was an emperor who saw a future of joining all religions. So he married 4 wives (Budist, Muslim, Hindu & Christian). He built Sikandra with four entrances and four focuses on the 4 sides. Each side had the theme of the 4 religions. It was really amazing. The next place we stopped at was Agra Fort which was built by an early Mughal emperor, but the 5th Mughal emperor - Shah Jahan - lived and died there as his son emprisoned him there after he nearly put the country into bankrupcy by building the Taj Mahal. It was pretty amazing, and is right across the river from the Taj Mahal.
Now... The Taj Mahal (The Taj as they call it over here)... Wow! It is probably the most incredible piece of arcitecture that we have ever seen. It was funny, all we have ever wanted to see was castles in Europe, we didn't dream that the Taj Mahal would be so breathtaking. The construction started in 1631 and was completed in 1653. It took 20,000 people 22 years to build it! Amazing! They brought marble from all over to build it, the black marble all the way from Belgium! And the marble was inlaid with semiprescious stones. There are so many details that were thought out when it was built. The 4 pillars (representing his 4 wives) that surround the Taj are all designed to lean out 3 degrees so if there ever was an earthquake the pillars would crumble out instead of in on the building. We have some amazing pictures, and a couple souveniers from Agra as well, as it's known for it's marble work. Rachelle, your birthday present is from Agra. :) We got home after midnight again (by the time we drove back and changed a flat tire), but it was such an amazing day, it didn't matter.
Sunday, March 4th (today)... Another amazing experience... it was "Holi" today. Holi is, in a nut shell, the Hindu religion's way of celebrating spring and "new beginings". Another name for it - the festival of colour. SO COOL! We bought the supplies for it yesterday on our travels. Powdered colour. I bought magenta pink, grass green, bright yellow & red. We woke up this morning to beating drums in the distance. People were celebrating already! So we hit the street 5 strong (Blaine's stomach had picked up another bug, so he was laying down in his room) and the custom here is... Someone will walk up to you and take a bit of the powder with their finger and say "Happy Holi" as they put the colour on you... and you resiprocate with putting colour on them. It was so fun! By noon, we were literally COVERED with colour. Our hair, our entire face, everything was covered with colour! It was so cool! It took a little while to wash the colour out, but we only have a bit of hot pink on our hands where it stained a bit.
Well, I believe that I have written long enough, and I am tired of typing. So I will sign off for now and tell you guys that we love and miss you a ton! We are counting down the days until we are home, as it's been long. Hope all is well, and we will write more when we can! Love to all!
We arrived in Kanpur in the afternoon and went right to the research buildings and had a formal meeting with the directors. They have a really nice facility there in Kanpur. It's only about 3 years old. After checking out the facility, we were taken back to our guest house to unpack. It was really nice there. Although all of us got new rooms except for poor Blaine, his room was in the old part of the building. He didn't have a very nice room to stay in. But, on a brighter note, Jesse and I had a great room... the bathroom was actually clean! We spent the day in the field, but Sally wasn't feeling so great, and didn't want to be in the middle of a field, so Shauna went to "keep her company" while she went back to her room. It was nice that she didn't have to tag along in the field for the rest of the day. Sally & Shauna spent the next couple of hours playing skip-bo and laughing at the Bollywood music videos.
So we got up the next day, and were on the road again at 6am (yes, we were exhausted by this point)and headed out to a farmers field. It took us around 2 1/2 hours to get there, and the roads were not smooth in any way... so we bumped along out to a villiage where we spent a couple hours meeting with the farmers and looking at their crops. One little girl (who was 7 years old) was smitten with Shauna, and came up to her after the meeting with the farmers, and told her that her mother wanted to meet her. So this little girl took her by the hand, and led her into the courtyard of a home in a villiage where women and children, who could only say "hello" in English, surrounded her and were smiling pretty big. Sally joined her, and it was quite a neat experience. So we got back to the research station in Kanpur in time to eat a quick lunch and head to the train. We told the people that our train left at 4pm (it left at 4:45) so we would be there on time, and it's a good thing we did that, because we didn't arrive at the train station until 4:20! Our train would have been good and GONE had it left at 4!
We got back to IARI (India Agriculture Research Institute)here in Delhi around 12:30am, and had to be in the car again for 7:30am... so we were definately still racing pretty hard! We had a quick sleep and got up in time to jump in the van to drive off to another extremely interesting part of our journey - Agra. Home of - The TAJ MAHAL! It took us 4 hours to drive 200 kms but it was so amazing. We first stopped at Sikandra which the 3rd Mughal emperor - Akbar - built. It was amazing. He was an emperor who saw a future of joining all religions. So he married 4 wives (Budist, Muslim, Hindu & Christian). He built Sikandra with four entrances and four focuses on the 4 sides. Each side had the theme of the 4 religions. It was really amazing. The next place we stopped at was Agra Fort which was built by an early Mughal emperor, but the 5th Mughal emperor - Shah Jahan - lived and died there as his son emprisoned him there after he nearly put the country into bankrupcy by building the Taj Mahal. It was pretty amazing, and is right across the river from the Taj Mahal.
Now... The Taj Mahal (The Taj as they call it over here)... Wow! It is probably the most incredible piece of arcitecture that we have ever seen. It was funny, all we have ever wanted to see was castles in Europe, we didn't dream that the Taj Mahal would be so breathtaking. The construction started in 1631 and was completed in 1653. It took 20,000 people 22 years to build it! Amazing! They brought marble from all over to build it, the black marble all the way from Belgium! And the marble was inlaid with semiprescious stones. There are so many details that were thought out when it was built. The 4 pillars (representing his 4 wives) that surround the Taj are all designed to lean out 3 degrees so if there ever was an earthquake the pillars would crumble out instead of in on the building. We have some amazing pictures, and a couple souveniers from Agra as well, as it's known for it's marble work. Rachelle, your birthday present is from Agra. :) We got home after midnight again (by the time we drove back and changed a flat tire), but it was such an amazing day, it didn't matter.
Sunday, March 4th (today)... Another amazing experience... it was "Holi" today. Holi is, in a nut shell, the Hindu religion's way of celebrating spring and "new beginings". Another name for it - the festival of colour. SO COOL! We bought the supplies for it yesterday on our travels. Powdered colour. I bought magenta pink, grass green, bright yellow & red. We woke up this morning to beating drums in the distance. People were celebrating already! So we hit the street 5 strong (Blaine's stomach had picked up another bug, so he was laying down in his room) and the custom here is... Someone will walk up to you and take a bit of the powder with their finger and say "Happy Holi" as they put the colour on you... and you resiprocate with putting colour on them. It was so fun! By noon, we were literally COVERED with colour. Our hair, our entire face, everything was covered with colour! It was so cool! It took a little while to wash the colour out, but we only have a bit of hot pink on our hands where it stained a bit.
Well, I believe that I have written long enough, and I am tired of typing. So I will sign off for now and tell you guys that we love and miss you a ton! We are counting down the days until we are home, as it's been long. Hope all is well, and we will write more when we can! Love to all!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Himalaya Mountains
Well... Let's just start by saying that the Himalya mountain range is so beautiful, that we can't find the words to describe it. In the last blog, we made a mistake when we wrote that we were going to see Everest from Pokhara, if we would have looked on a map, we would have seen that Everest is in the other mountain range. In pokhara, we saw the Annapurna mountain range. Anyway, we are sitting in the Kathmandu airport waiting to get on the plane to fly over both mountain ranges. So yes, we will see everest today! We are SOOO excited! It's hard to imagine that we get to take in such amazing sites! We are flying on Air Buddah flight 203. It should be quite amazing.
When we fly back from the mountain flight, Jesse will go with the group of pulse researchers to see some more fields and to see the NARC (Nepal Agricultural Research Council) office, and I get to go with one of the ladies from here to shop a bit and to get a massage! I told my students that I would be getting a massage over here, so I am pretty excited! There are lots of things to buy over here, and Jesse is going to be getting a North Face winter jacket, as good quality clothing is really inexpensive over here. We were actually able to find a North Face authentic dealer, so we are excited about that. There are many things to buy, now we have to decide what we can fit in our suitcases, and how much a new bag will cost :) The Nepalese Rupees is 67 - $1 US dollar, so it's pretty inexpensive here. We heard that it was expensive to stay in Pokahra, but it only cost us 600 Rupee's for the night (around $10. There is a lot of cloth that is hand woven over here.
Anyway, my time is running out here on the computer, so I will sign off for now. Love to all and trust me, there are TONS of pictures, I just haven't been able to get them on here!
When we fly back from the mountain flight, Jesse will go with the group of pulse researchers to see some more fields and to see the NARC (Nepal Agricultural Research Council) office, and I get to go with one of the ladies from here to shop a bit and to get a massage! I told my students that I would be getting a massage over here, so I am pretty excited! There are lots of things to buy over here, and Jesse is going to be getting a North Face winter jacket, as good quality clothing is really inexpensive over here. We were actually able to find a North Face authentic dealer, so we are excited about that. There are many things to buy, now we have to decide what we can fit in our suitcases, and how much a new bag will cost :) The Nepalese Rupees is 67 - $1 US dollar, so it's pretty inexpensive here. We heard that it was expensive to stay in Pokahra, but it only cost us 600 Rupee's for the night (around $10. There is a lot of cloth that is hand woven over here.
Anyway, my time is running out here on the computer, so I will sign off for now. Love to all and trust me, there are TONS of pictures, I just haven't been able to get them on here!
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Namaste - Peace Be Upon You (from Nepal)
Well, we realize that it has been 5 days since we wrote last... but oh my goodness there has been lots happening! We haven't had a chance to write or call, as the internet has been unavaliable, or we have been too busy. Since we wrote last, we flew to Kathmandu, Nepal on February 22. It has been amazing! We stayed the night at The Mountain Inn in Kathmandu, and then headed out to Chitwan National Park. We stayed at the Tiger Resort there. That evening we went to a cultural program of different dances, and the meanings of the dances. It was SO interesting. They were quite amazing dancers! The only one that was hard to watch, was when they did a traditional dance of mourning, only they didn't have enough women dancers, so they used men dressed up... with nose rings and everything! It was pretty hard to watch... The next morning (at 6am) we all climbed up on elephants (in a box on the top) and we went into the jungle to rangle us up a Rhino! We found 2 rhinos and monkeys and deer and peacocks... and many other things... it was amazing, and it lasted for 3 hours! When we got back Sally & Shauna rode bareback on the elephants (both on the elephants that they rode on all day)down to the river where they bathed the elephants! It was SOOO cool! Shauna's elephant aimed well when given the command to spray water with his trunk, and found his mark - right in the middle of her face!She then scrubbed the elephant with a piece of cement and he LOVED it! He would stretch out his leg and almost kick it out like a dog (yes, he was laying in the river on his side). Jesse took lots of great pictures, and we will post them when we can. After the bath, we went for a 5 hour jeep safari through the jungle and saw even more animals! It was pretty amazing.
Today we left for Pokhara, Nepal. It was around 400kms, but it took us all day! We got stuck in a road block because there was a protest. The protest was as a result of a grade 9 boy who got hit on his bike by a bus. He was taken to the hospital, and the report was that he was fine, but the bus driver didn't stop. The law here is that the driver pay for the expences for injury incurred, and there was no driver, so it turned into a road block. It lasted for 4 hours! Let us just say that there isn't a whole lot on top of a mountain to do for 4 hours! As a result, we got here to Pokhara late.
Tomorrow we plan to meet at 7am to eat breakfast and head to a high point where we should have a good view of mountains and especially - Everest! It should be amazing. We hear that people come up here many times to see it, and don't get to because of the lack of visibility up here. It turns out that the sky cleared as we were pulling into town and there are stars and a moon right now, so hopefully it will be perfect! After the lookout, we are supposed to be on a boat for a couple of hours to see the range, it's where many famous pictures are taken of the mountain range and Everest. On our way back to Kathmandu, we are supposed to be taking a gondola ride up to a famous temple. It sounds like Tomorrow will be really busy but so fun! We will write more, and hope the weather holds for the 27th when we are supposed to fly around Everest on a specific chartered tour! Love and miss you guys! look for pictures soon (hopefully)!
Today we left for Pokhara, Nepal. It was around 400kms, but it took us all day! We got stuck in a road block because there was a protest. The protest was as a result of a grade 9 boy who got hit on his bike by a bus. He was taken to the hospital, and the report was that he was fine, but the bus driver didn't stop. The law here is that the driver pay for the expences for injury incurred, and there was no driver, so it turned into a road block. It lasted for 4 hours! Let us just say that there isn't a whole lot on top of a mountain to do for 4 hours! As a result, we got here to Pokhara late.
Tomorrow we plan to meet at 7am to eat breakfast and head to a high point where we should have a good view of mountains and especially - Everest! It should be amazing. We hear that people come up here many times to see it, and don't get to because of the lack of visibility up here. It turns out that the sky cleared as we were pulling into town and there are stars and a moon right now, so hopefully it will be perfect! After the lookout, we are supposed to be on a boat for a couple of hours to see the range, it's where many famous pictures are taken of the mountain range and Everest. On our way back to Kathmandu, we are supposed to be taking a gondola ride up to a famous temple. It sounds like Tomorrow will be really busy but so fun! We will write more, and hope the weather holds for the 27th when we are supposed to fly around Everest on a specific chartered tour! Love and miss you guys! look for pictures soon (hopefully)!
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Back in Dhaka - Part 2
As we discussed earlier, we visited various farmer’s fields and the villages near them. We were thinking that Bangladesh wasn’t the cleanest, or nicest country, until we went to the villages. The people of Bangladesh are a people of great industry and are very resourceful. Let me use the example of rice. Rice is a staple in the lives of the Bengali people. The farmer plants seedlings of rice into rice patties, weeds it at least 1 time, fertilizes the patty, then harvest’s it – all work is done by hand. After harvesting the rice, it is placed on a threshing floor where it is dried evenly then it is milled. After milling the rice, the rice husks are not put to waste – any whole bran pieces are mixed together with cow manure and squeezed onto a 3 foot long piece of jute. They are then sold in bundles as firewood. Any part that is leftover from the bran – bran that is not whole, is then used for feed for the cattle. Yes, the Bengali people are very resourceful.
On one particular village that we visited we had quite an unexpected event happen… We originally thought that we would go to different fields, look at the lentil plants, get in the car and leave to the next field. Nothing could prepare us for what we were about to encounter… We turned from one small town down a long narrow dirt road with fields and palm trees on either side. As we bumped along, we were amazed at the beauty around us. Occasionally people would cross the road in front of us with a load of firewood or sugar cane strapped to a rickety cart. Adorable children with dark inquisitive eyes played along the road, some with a bike tire & a stick as they ran along trying to keep up with the rolling tire. It was like a dream, seeing the carefree, somewhat simple lives of the villagers. As we rounded a bend, heading toward the lentil field we were to visit, a schoolyard came into view. In the schoolyard was a big tent stretched over bamboo sticks and at least 200 school-aged children forming a line facing each other. Laughter & pure joy radiated from their voices as we drove by. When we got to the field (about 1 km away from the school), we heard that the children & teacher had prepared all day for our arrival and were waiting for us to arrive so they could properly greet us. Wow, what a thought. Children preparing all day to greet us? …
After looking at the various crops of lentil, chickpea, sugarcane, marigold, banana, rice and wheat, we got back into the vans & SUV’s, and headed back toward the village and the children… We got out of the van and I noticed the girls were wearing their nicest dresses/salwar kameeze’s and had their jewelry on and some with make up and the best shoes they had and their hair was done just a certain way. The boys were standing with the girls with their hair slicked down and their nicest shirt & pants. It was quite a sight. As we started walking down the “isle” that they had created, they started to toss marigold petals on us while grinning from ear to ear. It was the neatest experience that we have ever experienced. We were escorted to sit on chairs facing the “audience” of village men (the women were behind the “stage” watching from there). After our group was seated, the children came over to us and place marigold wreathes around our necks. The girls then started crowding around us wanting to shake our hand and they stood all around us as our group talked to the farmers about their crops. As the “meeting” went on, Shauna could feel little fingers touching her back of the children trying to feel if she was real, and she kept taking pictures of them and showing them what they looked like. They were the sweetest children, and all they wanted was to touch us and have us touch them. We shook as many hands as we could reach. It was amazing, and an experience that we will hold close to our hearts for a long time to come…
Friday, February 16
The next adventure we got to experience was a trip to the Mangrove forest. We left in the morning and drove down toward the delta where the people have limited growing opportunities for their crops as they only fresh water they have to water with is during the rainy season. The rest of the time it is saline water that they have, so they grow prawns, fish & shrimp during those times, and rice during the monsoon season. After driving through the farmland, we arrived at part of the delta (the exact name of the town has left me for the time being) where we boarded a large boat and went down the river/bay of Bengal toward the mangrove forest and Shercon (you know, the tiger from The Jungle Book). We were hoping to be able to see the Great Bengal Tiger, as the Mangrove forest is where the tiger makes his home. We had lunch on the boat (oh my goodness a gecko just freaked me out as it skittered down the wall beside my head, sorry for the interruption… back to the story) as we went upstream to see the mangrove forest on one side of the river/bay and quiet villages (just like on The Jungle Book) on the other side. It was interesting to see that not much has changed over the past thousands of years. As we were moving upstream, a dolphin swam & jumped just a head of the boat on the water. Jesse, Blaine & Bert spent lots of time standing at the bow of the boat watching for Shercon, while I was amazed by the villiages. It was so interesting, and yes, like a dream to see such a village emerge from the mist. I almost had to pinch myself and say “yes, it is 2007” although it didn’t seem possible with such simple lives… We didn’t get to see Shercon, although we did get to see a spotted deer eating peacefully along the water… (we did read in the paper the next day that a man was killed that day around noon because he made the mistake of stepping into the forest to get some honey from a hive there, so the tiger is definitely in there).
Sunday, February 18th
We drove down to Kuakata which is a small beach town on the Bay of Bengal – the Indian Ocean. Sally and Shauna were quite excited to swim in the ocean, not thinking that maybe the locals would be surrounding us again, and a bathing suit wasn’t the best plan. So they headed to the market and bought the sarongs that the male population wear over here, tied them on with their t-shirts and had their bathing suits underneath. They hired a “speed boat” to take us “North Americans” out on the ocean. When we got out away from the nets, Bert, Jesse & Sally jumped out of the boat and started swimming. Blaine & Shauna weren’t sure what to think, and same with the guy from the United States. After some thinking, Shauna jumped in, and although the water wasn’t clear enough to see down, she figured that she better do it anyway. Blaine, on the other hand, decided that someone better stay in the boat and take pictures… besides, who was going to tell people at home about it when the rest of us were eaten by a shark? It was quite an experience, and the water was so warm! We swam for about 10 minutes then it was quite a lot of work to get back into the boat. Especially the girls with their skirts on! They felt like beached whales trying to get back in the boat. We watched the sunset on a fishing boat with the rest of our group, after throwing out the nets and catching a couple fish and a bunch of little crabs. Sally & Shauna had a lot of fun with the women from India & Nepal, and one women was explaining the art of palm reading to them, it was quite funny to hear the way they read lines on the palms, and what they think they mean. They said that they don’t believe that much of it… and only do it for fun, so it was amusing. After watching the sunset, we went back to our hotel room and slept well. It was quite a lot of fun swimming in the Indian Ocean, but tiring.
Monday, February 19
So the last day of our trip consisted of 12 hours in the SUV. Jesse & Blaine were adamant that we get to ride in this one SUV due to the leg room. Blaine’s legs are so long that some of the vehicles he practically has to tie his legs around his neck to get in! So Jesse, Blaine & I got into this SUV – which had the sweetest driver & he was the best driver (until he hit a guy on a bike that day, but that’s another story). So we got comfortable for the long drive home. Did I mention that the 12 hour trip was covering 400kms? Yes, that’s right. 400kms!!! That’s how much congestion the roads have with people and carts and cows and pigs and many other things. Plus we had to cross 6 ferries to get back home.
Well, now you are so tired from reading that your eyes are probably bugging out of your head… I know that I am so tired of typing that my fingers are still going when I stop. J We love you guys, and are quite excited to see you again, although we are having a blast over here (if you don’t count the curry 3 meals a day)! We head to Nepal tomorrow afternoon, so I will close with this from Bangladesh… may God bless!
On one particular village that we visited we had quite an unexpected event happen… We originally thought that we would go to different fields, look at the lentil plants, get in the car and leave to the next field. Nothing could prepare us for what we were about to encounter… We turned from one small town down a long narrow dirt road with fields and palm trees on either side. As we bumped along, we were amazed at the beauty around us. Occasionally people would cross the road in front of us with a load of firewood or sugar cane strapped to a rickety cart. Adorable children with dark inquisitive eyes played along the road, some with a bike tire & a stick as they ran along trying to keep up with the rolling tire. It was like a dream, seeing the carefree, somewhat simple lives of the villagers. As we rounded a bend, heading toward the lentil field we were to visit, a schoolyard came into view. In the schoolyard was a big tent stretched over bamboo sticks and at least 200 school-aged children forming a line facing each other. Laughter & pure joy radiated from their voices as we drove by. When we got to the field (about 1 km away from the school), we heard that the children & teacher had prepared all day for our arrival and were waiting for us to arrive so they could properly greet us. Wow, what a thought. Children preparing all day to greet us? …
After looking at the various crops of lentil, chickpea, sugarcane, marigold, banana, rice and wheat, we got back into the vans & SUV’s, and headed back toward the village and the children… We got out of the van and I noticed the girls were wearing their nicest dresses/salwar kameeze’s and had their jewelry on and some with make up and the best shoes they had and their hair was done just a certain way. The boys were standing with the girls with their hair slicked down and their nicest shirt & pants. It was quite a sight. As we started walking down the “isle” that they had created, they started to toss marigold petals on us while grinning from ear to ear. It was the neatest experience that we have ever experienced. We were escorted to sit on chairs facing the “audience” of village men (the women were behind the “stage” watching from there). After our group was seated, the children came over to us and place marigold wreathes around our necks. The girls then started crowding around us wanting to shake our hand and they stood all around us as our group talked to the farmers about their crops. As the “meeting” went on, Shauna could feel little fingers touching her back of the children trying to feel if she was real, and she kept taking pictures of them and showing them what they looked like. They were the sweetest children, and all they wanted was to touch us and have us touch them. We shook as many hands as we could reach. It was amazing, and an experience that we will hold close to our hearts for a long time to come…
Friday, February 16
The next adventure we got to experience was a trip to the Mangrove forest. We left in the morning and drove down toward the delta where the people have limited growing opportunities for their crops as they only fresh water they have to water with is during the rainy season. The rest of the time it is saline water that they have, so they grow prawns, fish & shrimp during those times, and rice during the monsoon season. After driving through the farmland, we arrived at part of the delta (the exact name of the town has left me for the time being) where we boarded a large boat and went down the river/bay of Bengal toward the mangrove forest and Shercon (you know, the tiger from The Jungle Book). We were hoping to be able to see the Great Bengal Tiger, as the Mangrove forest is where the tiger makes his home. We had lunch on the boat (oh my goodness a gecko just freaked me out as it skittered down the wall beside my head, sorry for the interruption… back to the story) as we went upstream to see the mangrove forest on one side of the river/bay and quiet villages (just like on The Jungle Book) on the other side. It was interesting to see that not much has changed over the past thousands of years. As we were moving upstream, a dolphin swam & jumped just a head of the boat on the water. Jesse, Blaine & Bert spent lots of time standing at the bow of the boat watching for Shercon, while I was amazed by the villiages. It was so interesting, and yes, like a dream to see such a village emerge from the mist. I almost had to pinch myself and say “yes, it is 2007” although it didn’t seem possible with such simple lives… We didn’t get to see Shercon, although we did get to see a spotted deer eating peacefully along the water… (we did read in the paper the next day that a man was killed that day around noon because he made the mistake of stepping into the forest to get some honey from a hive there, so the tiger is definitely in there).
Sunday, February 18th
We drove down to Kuakata which is a small beach town on the Bay of Bengal – the Indian Ocean. Sally and Shauna were quite excited to swim in the ocean, not thinking that maybe the locals would be surrounding us again, and a bathing suit wasn’t the best plan. So they headed to the market and bought the sarongs that the male population wear over here, tied them on with their t-shirts and had their bathing suits underneath. They hired a “speed boat” to take us “North Americans” out on the ocean. When we got out away from the nets, Bert, Jesse & Sally jumped out of the boat and started swimming. Blaine & Shauna weren’t sure what to think, and same with the guy from the United States. After some thinking, Shauna jumped in, and although the water wasn’t clear enough to see down, she figured that she better do it anyway. Blaine, on the other hand, decided that someone better stay in the boat and take pictures… besides, who was going to tell people at home about it when the rest of us were eaten by a shark? It was quite an experience, and the water was so warm! We swam for about 10 minutes then it was quite a lot of work to get back into the boat. Especially the girls with their skirts on! They felt like beached whales trying to get back in the boat. We watched the sunset on a fishing boat with the rest of our group, after throwing out the nets and catching a couple fish and a bunch of little crabs. Sally & Shauna had a lot of fun with the women from India & Nepal, and one women was explaining the art of palm reading to them, it was quite funny to hear the way they read lines on the palms, and what they think they mean. They said that they don’t believe that much of it… and only do it for fun, so it was amusing. After watching the sunset, we went back to our hotel room and slept well. It was quite a lot of fun swimming in the Indian Ocean, but tiring.
Monday, February 19
So the last day of our trip consisted of 12 hours in the SUV. Jesse & Blaine were adamant that we get to ride in this one SUV due to the leg room. Blaine’s legs are so long that some of the vehicles he practically has to tie his legs around his neck to get in! So Jesse, Blaine & I got into this SUV – which had the sweetest driver & he was the best driver (until he hit a guy on a bike that day, but that’s another story). So we got comfortable for the long drive home. Did I mention that the 12 hour trip was covering 400kms? Yes, that’s right. 400kms!!! That’s how much congestion the roads have with people and carts and cows and pigs and many other things. Plus we had to cross 6 ferries to get back home.
Well, now you are so tired from reading that your eyes are probably bugging out of your head… I know that I am so tired of typing that my fingers are still going when I stop. J We love you guys, and are quite excited to see you again, although we are having a blast over here (if you don’t count the curry 3 meals a day)! We head to Nepal tomorrow afternoon, so I will close with this from Bangladesh… may God bless!
Monday, February 19, 2007
Back in Dhaka Part 1
Hello All! We are back online! Sorry for the lapse in time from the past post to now. No, Devone, Jesse is not stranded somewhere in the desert with a rag on his head... We just didn't have access to a computer on our trip. We finally got access at Jessore, but the connection was so slow, that it was only possible to type quick e-mails to our family to let them know that we were safe.Picture 1 - Pigs on a wagon
So now bear with us as we try to catch you up on the past 7 days of our lives in Bangladesh... We left Dhaka on the morning of the 14th and made almost a question mark from Dhaka, north, west, then south to Kuakata. We will begin with the description of what we saw on the road between our stops. For starters, we have a new respect of what a 3 wheeled bike can handle. We saw things like a load of logs (yes, Dad, logs... do you want me to pick one up?), sugar cane, sacks of grain (so high it was at least 3 feet higher than the man riding the bike), 30' long pieces of bamboo, a huge pile of straw... and the best thing we saw was 4 pigs "hog tied" (sorry for the pun) in a stack laying down on the back of the bike (see picture). We saw virtually no wildlife, just lots of other animals like pigs (a whole herd of black bristly pigs running in the ditch), very skinny cows, water buffalo, ducks & geese (Shilo, there were some very interesting loo
king ducks) and lots and lots of gawking people. Picture 2 - Shauna in a villiage
I bet it was quite interesting for them to be walking down the road in time to see 7 vans/SUV’s drive by with their horns blaring… but when they saw the white people inside a couple of them… then it was open faced STARING. Yes, we felt like celebrities when we would walk anywhere. We even got asked for our autographs. Shauna enjoyed the women & children wanting to talk and get their picture with her, but the men drove her crazy. Sally & Shauna are constantly being harassed with men taking their picture or taking a “group” picture with the lens being aimed at them… It’s frustrating. 
Jesse is helping with providing “shelter” as she ducks in beside him just before a photo is taken.
Picture 3 - Jesse, same villiage, Milling Lentil
Jesse is helping with providing “shelter” as she ducks in beside him just before a photo is taken.Picture 3 - Jesse, same villiage, Milling Lentil
We stayed in research station guest houses & hotels along the way. It was funny. When we arrived in Dhaka, we thought that the Rigs Inn wasn’t that nice of a hotel, but then when we got back. WOW this hotel is the ritz! The bathrooms are so gross over here. First of all… there are hoses beside every toilet with little spray nozzles on the end that they use instead of TP. So it’s luck if you find toilet paper. It’s even luckier if you find a toilet!
Yes, you heard me right… over here there is a toilet in the floor with grips on each side for your feet… hehe… lots of fun! So thankfully, our hotel here is a really beautifully clean bathroom with a full seat and nice pink toilet paper.Picture 4 - Bangladesh traditional toilet
We have gotten to see SO many different crops over here in the fields. Some of them are sugar cane, rice, wheat, lentil, chick pea, tobacco, field pea, jute, marigold, mungbean, blackgram, grass pea, peanut, onions, garlic, coriander, mustard, bananas, coconuts, date palms, jujubies, mangos, papayas, pineapple, guava, jack fruit, among other things.
Anyway… we need to let Bert have his computer back, however, we will write more tomorrow (or later today as it would be for you).
We love & miss you guys, and hope all is well! Check out for a new posting soon as we have LOTS more to tell!
Picture 5 - Shauna, Sally & Blaine drinking green cocount juice (yes, Jason, it is so refreshing!)
Picture 6 - Jesse " Drink! Drink! Drink!"
Picture 6 - Amusement (mr. Unibrow - Blaine made me take this picture just so he could have a record of this unibrow!)
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Bangldesh Day 2
Picture 1 - Jesse & Bert looking across the River
Today was quite interesting. After sleeping for 9 hours, we got up feeling very rested. We were afraid that we would be waking up at all hours of the night, but we were so exhausted, that we slept until 5:45. Our room here at the Rigs Hotel is actually quite nice. It is located right on a street with poverty surrounding it. There are rickshaw drivers outside of the gate waiting to take anyone where they would like to go. These rickshaws are tricycle pedal bikes with bench seats on the back with brightly decorated canopies. Jesse and I are on the 5th floor, and Blaine, Bert & Sally are on the 3rd floor. We have to climb 10 flights of marble stairs to get to our room on the 5th floor. We are fortunate to have airconditioning and a comfy bed with decent pillows (and no visible cockroaches yet).
Picture 2 &3 - River, Boats & Shanties
This morning Jesse and I went for a walk just down 1/2 block from our hotel. Nearby is a tributary of the Gangese river. Across it, is a slum/low income community made of tinned shanties like you would see in National Geographic. Crossing the river are many boats laden with goods bound for the market. On our
side of the river, there were a few shanties as well. These were made of blankets stretched over poles. The poverty and filth is stunning, but the people seem to be very very happy and so friendly. The children were having fun practicing their English on us with short phrases like "how are you" and "Good Morning". It was so fun to talk to them and observe how happy and carefree they were.
Picture 4 - Children playing with the bricks - little girl waving at us
After Breakfast we drove to Gasipore to the BARI - Bangladesh Agriculture Research Institute, where we stayed all day listening to research seminars from researchers around the pulse producing world. Everywhere we go we are treated like royalty. The people are always saying "Please" as they escort us to a seat that is better, or food that we should eat, etc.
Vehicle travel is harrowing. Imagine 5 lanes of traffic packed into 3. Ok, so you are imagining that... now times that by 10 million people (Dhaka's population) and no traffic lights/signal lights/stop signs or driver courtesy. The constant honking has brough Jesse to cursing a blue streak and have had to be reminded that appropriate language is needed by Shauna.
If we had one complaint, it's the smell of Dhaka city. The pollution is staggaring. We blew our noses after just driving through the city in a van with the window open, and it was black. It smells like (as Jesse explains it) butchering chickens & pumping sewage (which runs freely down the gutters).
We haven't figured out if its the jet lag, or the food, or the combination, but Shauna has had a bit of a harder time adjusting. Her stomach is pretty weak (although no major reprocussions) Blaine & Jesse seem to be doing fine, although we are all exhausted.
Well, it's 11pm here, and we have to get up for 6. I hope this gives you a look of the life in Dhaka city, as we are heading out of here tomorrow on the pulse tour across Bangladesh.
We love and miss you guys!
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