Exploring Nature in Downtown Dhaka

Peaceful spot at the zoo

This weekend, Kim and I decided to explore the Botanical Gardens and the Zoo in Dhaka.  Dhaka is a pretty crazy city with at-times overwhelming traffic, pollution, and overcrowding, so it's especially nice to find quiet, green, and beautiful spaces.  These kinds of attractions are also a lot less commercial than zoos and gardens at home.  Admission to the gardens cost about 6 cents, and admission to the zoo cost about 12 cents.  They are next door to one another.  I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Lily pad pond in Botanical Gardens

There were young couples canoodling in quiet corners of the botanical gardens and families having picnics on blankets in the zoo.  It's fun to see those customs that are present in almost every culture.  In the botanical gardens there were people fishing and young boys playing and showing off in a small lake. They were eager to demonstrate their swimming skills for us.

Children playing in a small lake in the Botanical Gardens

At the zoo, there was a surprisingly large variety of animals, and most seemed be treated relatively well.  The barriers between people and humans were totally different than what you would see in an American zoo (I actually watched a man hand a soda to a baboon through the wide set bars; to be fair, the baboon seemed to really enjoy it.); security in general here is just a completely different concept.  There was even a hippo munching on his food only a few inches from gate.  I could have reached through and petted him!  The picture below is not using any zoom at all on my camera.

Hippo at the zoo so close I could have touched his snout!

We even got to see a Bengal tiger napping in the shade.  When we go to the Sundarbans in the south of Bangladesh, we might even see them in the wild, but there are only a few hundred left in Bangladesh and only a few thousand in the world.  

I'll definitely be returning to the gardens.  It's such a peaceful and beautiful spot.

Napping Bengal Tiger

In other news, today and tomorrow are hartal days again, meaning we are not permitted to go anywhere by car or leave the neighborhood where we live.  The opposition party is stil missing one of their leaders, and there is definitely some political tension.  In my personal opinion, the hartals are damaging to the economy, the people, and the image of Bangladesh, so I hope they stop soon.  I don't think it will be anything to be concerned about as far as our safety; we're just watching the news and trying to be flexible!

Shuvo Naba Barsho!

Shuvo Naba Barsho!  Happy Bengali New Year!  Last weekend was the big New Year's Celebration.  Vanessa and I braved the crowds to get a look at what everything was about.  It's basically a big carnival (Bangladeshi style of course).  There was apparently also a parade, but we never made it that far through the crowds!  There were so many people it was pretty unbelievable.  The games and rides reminded me of festivals at home, but they definitely had their own local flavor.

Ring toss to win soap and cigarettes- the public health person in me was hoping everyone won soap, of course :-)

Throwing a ball to knock over 3 bottles of energy drink (you win the bottles if you knock them all over)

A semi-mobile concert in the middle of the street

Small wooden ferris wheel operated manually by a sweaty, shirtless man

Last week the preliminary data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 was released at a big event.  The data showed improvements in fertility and family planning, exclusive breastfeeding, and child health.  Nutrition and infant and young child feeding practices are still a major concern, and the percentage of children receiving Vitamin A supplements declined, but for the most part, the news was positive.  Bangladesh is one of not too many countries that is actually on track to meet some of it's Millennium Development Goals.  It's also positive for me and our team to be able to link health communication with the needs that still exist in Bangladesh.  Families who have access to coordinated and accurate health information can make better decisions with regards to family planning, nutrition, and delivery and child care, etc.  Our project is working to improve access to and use of health information by providing tools and resources to frontline health workers.  We'll be doing a pilot targeting a small number of health workers in distinct low-performing areas of the country.  Insha'Allah, our pilot will show that our approach is effective (at least in some ways) and we'll be able to scale it up to include more health workers in more parts of the country.

Today was a pretty slow day because unfortunately there was a nation-wide hartal, or strike, organized by the opposition party.  I won't go into the details, and I definitely don't understand all of them, but a government official with the opposition party was kidnapped, and his party has blamed the current government and is demanding his return.  Their primary tactic for getting attention seems to be calling a nation-wide strike in which they prevent transport of buses and private cars, so shops don't open and people can't travel.  The official was not found/released today, so the strike was also extended for tomorrow.  The strikes have very negatively affected an important workshop we had planned for today and tomorrow, but we're trying to make due by postponing and shortening it.  If you're interested, you can read more here: http://bdnews24.com/details.php?cid=3&id=222984&hb=top

It's been a while!

Hi everyone,

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted!  I've had a lot of distractions lately.  I met Darren in Barcelona for spring break the first week of April and am now catching back up with work.  Barcelona was simply amazing.  I have not traveled in Europe much, and it was Darren's first time, so it was a lot of fun exploring the city.  I took hundreds of pictures, but here are a few of my favorites.

Plaça de Catalunya

Beach!

Barcelona Cathedral

ICE BAR

Selection of Iberian Meats at Cerveceria Catalunya

At Nadal Vineyards in Vilafranca del Penedès

Park Güell

Park Güell 

Amazing Seafood Paella

Before I left for Barcelona, we went on a short field trip a couple hours outside of Dhaka to pretest a tool we developed.  There, we were able to talk directly with several health and family planning community workers and learn about the resources that are useful to them.

This week, I’ve been working on some activities to support journalists writing about public health issues in Bangladesh and focusing on eLearning courses for community health workers about family planning

This morning I ran an 8k charity run.  Teachers at the American International School of Dhaka organized a run the first Friday of every month, and each month the runners donate a few dollars to a charity.  This month, the run benefited the “Bangla-Dash,” an event in which two ex-pat teachers will run from Kolkata to Dhaka (291km) over 4 days to raise money for schools and education for poor Bangladesh children.  If you are interested in donating to this cause, I encourage you to do so on their website: http://www.bangla-dash.com/.

After the run, I was pretty tired and just had brunch and relaxed by the pool at the American club for most of the afternoon.  Tomorrow is the Bangla New Year, so I hope to share some pictures of art and festivities soon.

I hope all is well with you!  Talk to you soon!