Day 1Arrived in Dhaka at approx 4am after a mammoth journey. Set off from home at 5pm on Friday and arrived at YMCA Savar (Dhaka) at 6am Sunday morning.Had an extremely long day after that but heard some really moving life stories from all the participants. There are people here from all over Asia including Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan, India and of course Bangladesh. These guys are doing some amazing work in their respective countries.
Day 2, really needed the sleep after a long journey and a long day but still not used to the time difference. Another exhausting day but have learned a lot about Bangladesh, its culture, history and challenges. I went for a walk with Miguel, Chemu from Thailand and Noel from India. We ended up in a small village around the corner from the YMCA and met some amazing people. We were getting some strange looks at first but that soon changed as we came across a group of kids playing football and joined in. Sport is the universal language and after this everyone was extremely friendly (even though we could not understand each other). We even had our own little fan club following us through the streets. The things we saw were both inspiring and heartbreaking. So much poverty yet the people are getting on with their daily lives, smiling and spending time with total strangers like us. Around every corner was another surprise and we have seen some amazing natural beauty.
Day 3, another long day at the workshop where we heard from a number of countries about the issues and challenges they faced. These guys are working with people with some serious problems and in challenging conditions which makes my role at Y's Up seem a doddle. In particular the problems the people in Thailand/Burma are having brought a tear to many people’s eyes. It’s almost embarrassing that we in England allow trivial matters to affect us so much. We do not have much free time as the workshops finish at 5 and dinner is at half 7. As there are no streetlights (and no road rules) its a bit dangerous going out at night but the guys play a movie every night and there are so many people to talk to here that we are staying busy. As a group, we still went out for a look around Savar city centre but again and again people just wanted to stop and talk to us all. The people in Bangladesh are amazing, so friendly.
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