I'm in Bangladesh!

As I left you yesterday I was in the sky hurtling towards Dubai - well, we arrived early, or to be more exact we landed a little early, sadly we took so long to make it from our plane to the terminal building that it was a bit stressful as to whether I would make the connection to say the least. A sincere thanks to God for air-conditioned buses though!

The Dubai - Dhaka flight left conveniently late - I don't think I was even on the plane before the official flight time, and being right in the tail I was one of the earlier groups to board. It wasn't helped by strong headwinds and some very unpleasant turbulence, I've not seen it before when the crew are ordered to sit down and put their seat belts on as well as the passengers. We arrived about an hour late, and going through passport control took a long time (though John, who is showing me around here tells me for that flight that is almost early as it is regularly 2 or 3 hours late).

Several of my colleagues had been telling me I might find the airport in Dhaka and Chittagong a bit basic, but they in many ways are very similar to Russian domestic airports, so I felt right at home. The only real difference was that Bangladeshi passport and customs staff smile and are polite, which was a bit disconcerting I have to admit!

I immediately went to check in to the Chittagong flight, and had a long wait because the luggage labelling machine was playing up, so the lovely man on the desk upgraded me, which was very nice of him, as I was in no rush. That flight ended up being late too, due to the weather apparently, though they didn't say where, as it was lovely in Dhaka and in Chittagong, but I think the plane had just come in from Oman, so it may have been there. I eventually arrived in Chittagong the full hour late, so poor John and Manosh, the driver (a man of awesome driving skill, and deserving of huge respect for not killing us or anyone else in the madness that is the roads here), had been sitting there waiting for me the whole time.

So we headed straight off to work, initially visiting a nutrition seminar in an area called Tiger Pass, which has huge tiger statues along the main road through it which are rather fun. How many people in the UK have to face the kinds of decision that those ladies do, which runs more or less like this: 'this month to make my family's diet more nutritionally balanced - for our one meal in the month when we can afford more than just rice and vegetables, should we choose meat or fish'? In the photo Ruby, a Leprosy Mission staff member in Chittagong, is explaining vitamins and nutrition using pictures.

After that we visited two leprosy patients and their families with the leprosy control staff, which was really interesting. I felt very much for one of them, who is currently experiencing severe and repeated leprosy reaction, to a thankfully very unusual extent. Leprosy reaction (pain and swelling when the body has trouble getting rid of leprosy bacteria) is treated with a drug, and as it improves the drug is reduced until it is no longer needed and the patient stops taking it, but for this patient every time he stops taking it, it returns. His leprosy has given him a slight clawed hand and muscle weakness, meaning that he can't work, as he is a welder to trade. As soon as the reaction stops completely he will be able to have reconstructive surgery, and either go back to welding if his hand regains enough strength, or at least be able to learn new skills through a local Self Help Group, but he is currently very disheartened as he has no idea when that might be. Manosh had a lot of 'fun' taking us to that house, as it is a long way down a very narrow road. The 3 point turn by his house was quite something, as the road there was about 1 metre wider than a single track lane with shops and buildings all along it, so it was technically more of a 10 point turn, but he did it - and in a minivan, not a car!

So after that I checked in to my hotel and went to bed!