Far Pavilion Guest House Dhaka

... Nordic Club and here you can go swimming, play tennis, use the gym, do aerobics and drink alcohol. Alcohol is illegal in Bangladesh so if you want that ice cold beer you need to head down to the club. Last weekend Lorinda and I headed into Old Dhaka.... this is where the true staring began and I saw the real poverty. Dressed in traditional clothes, which to me felt like comfy pajamas! In 5 hours we did not see one westerner. Sitting inside the palace ...

My past memories of Grameen Bank I visited Grameen Bank during Nov-Dec 2007 as a part of 52nd Grameen International Dialogue Program. More that 20 participants from many countries attended that program. We were sent to village branch stay during the program which helped us to thoroughly understand operations ...

... credit programme, called Dabi (Daridra Bimochan), gives to poor borrowers. Dabi borrowers can graduate to the next level of the programme called Unnoti, which provides a higher range of micro-credit facilities. A third credit programme, Progoti, provides larger loans to micro-entrepreneurs to finance and develop existing businesses. The ladder also extends to reach the extreme poor with non-credit programmes such as the Targeting the Ultra Poor ...

... s Sanitary Napkin Manufacturing Centre (I have created a separate entry on this) and BRAC's Horticulture Nursery. BRAC has many entities to see. I think 3 days will not be sufficient enough to visit all the programs and enterprises. I will update this entry or write additional enrties as I explore further. Also visit Marty's blog entries on BRAC. Watch Podcasts on BRAC & Interview of Dr. Abed

... is why Bangladesh has become Mecca for Microfinance industries across the globe. Now, let me go back to ASA. My exp**ience with ASA was wond**ful. Undeniably th**e are many lessons to learn (and many to replicate aft** appropriate modification). ASA has achieved amazing scale and outreach in last one decade. One prominent feature of ASA is it is a microfinance focussed institution. ASA thinks and breaths about credit and saving s ...

... of waking life in the squat. Here are some examples of when the squat can be useful and even necessary. A- My job on the third day at the HODR house was to complete building a shelving unit to store volunteers' things. The shelves had already been half built and whoever the builders were had started at the top allowing me to finish the bottom shelves, forcing me to fit myself into a 3 foot high by 3 foot wide space for multiple hours. How is it easiest to work hammering ...

... the attention of Mr Useless again, and hearing the now familiar cry of "Wait there! Wait there!", I burst a critical fuse. Slamming hands on desks, shouting what I thought of the "service" peppered generously with expletives, I was now the centre of attention for the whole arrivals hall. But rather than getting chucked into a 2 by 3 cell for insulting a flight attendant on duty, things rather picked up for me from here. I was escorted by a series of important ...

... of the airport and a commander in the airforce and hence why he got us through without problems. oh connections... His name is Jafar Nana and he's very funny and full of stories which is cool. What else... well. the city is a city, the traffic jams are unbearable and being in a car feels like a roller coaster ride. It's difficult seeing all these people living in the streets, especially the children begging everywhere and having to tell them we don't have money ...

... once again on your right is a wall and over that wall are be rice fields turned into a housing boom and along the wall is a water hazard and there is plenty of water on the left as well. direction is everything on this tee-off. i watched my mates and then picked my direction and went for it. got lucky. a 50-yard chip this time and two putts for par. hole number 3: 394 yards, par 5 there are three ponds lined up before you and there are divers waiting in those ponds waiting for your ...

... then we followed the massive pipes to four holding cylinders all with a capacity of 400,000 liters, trust me they looked huge. We were then taken to the control room, and explained how the gas is filtered, stabilized and extracted form the source. It's a tricky process; the gas extracted here is then piped to the North-South national grid which supplied most of Bangladesh. Day 17 - Madhobpur Lake This was quite a surprise, a ...