I’m here and I have no idea what I was ever worried about. I was met at the airport by a guy called Jewel who runs a beautiful place called Greenhouse B&B. He picked me up, got me settled and then this morning he pretty much became my personal assistant. He sorted me out with a mobile phone (I am finally the reluctant owner of a camera phone after fighting the power for years), an internet connection, and he even went to the bus station for me and waited three hours to try and buy me a ticket!
The phone and net connection means that I can get my laptop online from anywhere and I don’t even need a contract or anything, I can just pay by the month. It was the easiest thing ever to set up and I can’t imagine things ever going so smoothly in the UK or Canada. I am very impressed so far and really looking forward to heading down south and getting started with some work.
So what am I doing in Bangladesh, anyway? I’ll be working with Hands On Disaster Response (HODR) which is an American organisation that was started up to help out after the tsunami. They’ve done work in The Philippines after a typhoon, Peru after the earthquake last year, New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina and I think they’ll be helping out in the US again in the region hit by tornadoes recently. In Bangladesh they’re working in the area hit last year by Cyclone Sidr which flattened homes and left well over 3,000 people dead.
I learned about the organisation while I was researching The Philippines and decided to try and volunteer with them if they ever had a project near to where I was. Bangladesh isn’t exactly on the way to China from The Philippines but it is a great opportunity to help out with what seems like a wonderful organisation and I’ll get to know a lot about Bangladesh, a country I’ve really never considered going to in the past. What’s travel witout a bit of spontanaeity and adventure, anyway?
According to HODR’s website, it costs $425 US to build a house for a family and I’m going to attempt to raise that amount. I’ve chucked in $50 towards the cause so that leaves $375 to be raised. So if you want to help out a family and get that warm, fuzzy feeling you can make a donation on their secure donations page. It might even be me who helps build the house! Although in that case, I fear for the family!
If you’re a computer nerd like me and have a website you want to promote, I’ll add a link to your site on a sponsors page for a donation of $25. If you’re an American then I think the donations are tax deductable. Just make sure you email me once you’ve made a donation so I can keep track of the total and post a thank you to you on my site. No amount is too small… or too big.
Ok well that’s it for now. I’ll check in again from a place called Rayenda. Can’t wait to get there and get my hands dirty. Not sure what they’ll have me doing but the main requirement for working with them is a sense of humour so I’m sure I can manage that.
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