Today’s blog entry is from volunteer Dan Miller, who describes some of the sights and activities from his time in Bangladesh:
The first impression that you get when you get out of the airport in Dhaka is that Bangladesh is very crowded. You would be right. A country slightly smaller than Louisiana has almost half the population of the US, and everyone in Dhaka seems to be on the street at the same time. The only saving grace is that most people are being moved in either rickshaws or small motorized vehicles called Easy Bikes (battery operated) or CNG (natural gas operated). If they were all in cars, the city would come to a complete halt.
Once you get out of Dhaka, the country side is verdant, at least now that the monsoons are almost over, and the fields are flooded. This isn’t necessarily bad because the fields are rice paddies, but they are still too deep in most cases to be planting rice. Any place that isn’t covered by houses is covered with plants. They even plant a tree called dhoincha (Sesbania spp.) that they use for fuel and goat fodder. Since it’s a legume, it helps put nitrogen in the soil so people don’t have to buy fertilizer. (more…)