Bangladesh One

Impossible to do full justice to the experience of being there - those of you who have been to that part of the world will remember the noises, colour, smells and press of humanity. Wonderful, generous and educated people.
Along with another teacher I was a guest of the government girls' and boys' schools in Bogra. As well as spending time in those schools we accompanied the girls' school on a relief trip to a flood affected area about 25km away taking pencils, books etc to the children. A humbling experience. here too people were very welcoming, generous and curious about the world. We were asked about the referendum and told how lucky we were to be part of the UK!
Everyone wanted to speak English to us, know where we were from and to hear how we liked Bangladesh.
A mainly muslim country but with a female prime minister and a female opposition leader. The value placed on education is enormous - pressure to pass exams but also a sense that without it life cannot get better.
Here is a small selection of my pictures:

Girl guides on the bus out to the flooded village

With the girls' school janitor

Rickshaw

colourful truck

Loaded truck

Buying fresh fruit

Riding in a tuk tuk

Inside the boys' school

Girls line up for assembly

Dancer from the girls' school

Another dancer

Villagers come out to meet us

Shaquille shows us the water pump

Flood devastation in the high school

Inside the village secondary school

Freshly pressed uniforms

Handing out school equipment

Temporary post flood housing

Flooded primary and secondary schools

Shaquille and friends by the Jumana river

Mother and child

Cloth shop

How true

Having spent a day in the flood affected village I hope to organise some fund raising here to help them rebuild and re-equip the school. We all know there is poverty in the world but having a personal connection really brings home how lucky we all here.