I Did It!

I have a headache.  It took me all afternoon.  I'm exhausted.  But it's done.  I finally booked the airline tickets to Bangladesh and am so excited (and to be honest, nervous).  My friend Kim and I are now set to go. 

You might think we just get on a plane and go from Toronto to Bangladesh, but oh no - it is much more elaborate than that.  Since we have to stopover somewhere along the way to get to Bangladesh from Canada, hubby and I decided that I would make that stopover in France.   Then he would come along for the first part of the trip and we could spend a little over a week together in France in celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary (from this past February).  We will be staying with our French friends for most of the time and see the sites in and around Normandy.   

So here is how the summer is looking:

First I go to France for a little over a week.

Wikipedia

Then I'll be flying to Bangladesh via Abu Dhabi, where I will  meet up with Kim who is travelling directly there from Toronto.

Traffic Jam in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Indiamike)

We will be teaching at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed just outside of Dhaka in Bangladesh for a month. 

CRP

Then Kim's husband and daughter will be joining us and the four of us will travel to India for a week. Our plan it to go to Darjeeling in the Himalayas - for a cup of tea (haha).  Seriously though, we hope to travel on the Darjeeling-Himalayan Railway, which is a narrow-gauge steam train built in 1880 and is now a UNESCO world heritage site and do some hiking in the Himalayan foothills.  

Photo by Arne Huckelheim (Wikipedia)

Then for the last two nights we hope to stay at the Glenburn Tea Estate, a working tea estate and boutique hotel, just outside of Darjeeling.  When Malcolm saw the pictures of the Glenburn Tea Estate on a previous post (see here) he asked if we would be going there, because that is where the tea shop he goes to near the University of Waterloo purchases some of their tea.  I was flabbergasted that Malcolm would have heard of this tea estate that I will be going to half-way around the world - amazing!

Glenburn Tea Estate

It looks like it's going to be a busy summer - but an amazing one!

What a Difference Six Months can Make

Today I went skating for the first time this season and it was lovely.  I went with my friend Kim and I realized that almost exactly six months to the day we will be going from this - 

to this -

the wild streets of Bangladesh,

 complete with rickshaws, cattle,

and monsoon rains.

Although, in actual fact, we will be staying at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) which looks like this -

I'm excited and nervous at the same time.

Photos source

Paypal Donate Button

Let me introduce you to my new blog button.  You can read more about the Bangladesh or Bust fundraiser in this post here and how you can help send my friend Kim and me to Bangladesh next summer to teach in the new Speech Therapy department.

I also want to introduce you to the Paypal Donate button over there on the sidebar under the new blog button.   Let me just say that some honest sweat went into sorting out that Paypal thing!  I persisted because I thought using Paypal would make payments easier for international purchases.  You will still need to email me to let me know which photos you are ordering.  It costs about $1 per transaction to use Paypal, so if you could kindly add that amount to your total, it would be appreciated.   Also, any payment above the amount that I have listed goes directly into our Bangladesh fund.  

Kim and I appreciate the response so far.

Help Us Help Bangladesh

Trust me when I tell you that it is a bit of a personal stretch to write this post. I'm not one to self-promote, but I'm going to put myself out there in the hope of helping others. If you recall, my friend Kim and I are going to Bangladesh for a month next summer to help teach in a Speech Therapy program. The program is only four years old and at this point it relies on foreign volunteers to teach the courses. Kim and I are both Speech-Language Pathologists and we are offering our collective wealth of expertise to help train some of the first Speech Therapists in Bangladesh and to supervise student placements.

Plans are progressing, but one of the things we urgently need to do is raise the money. We need enough for airfare, for accomodation, and for teaching materials. I have pondered and pondered how best to raise the funds and what I could do to contribute. I have received a lot of positive comments about the photos on my blog and so I thought that maybe, just maybe, some of you would be interested in purchasing a photo or two.

Since this is a fund-raiser, I'd like to tell you exactly what it will cost me to print and post the photos.  Anything you contribute above and beyond my costs will go directly to the trip.

My costs are (in Canadian dollars) $6.00 for Canadian orders, $12 for international orders:

• $3 for printing an 8 x 10 photo
• $3 for shipping to anywhere in Canada
• $9 for shipping to everywhere else

With a donation, say, of $5 per photograph, the cost to you will be (in Canadian dollars):

• $11 for Canadian orders ($6 costs + $5 donation).  Please add $3 for each additional photograph.
• $17 for international orders ($12 costs + $5 donation).  Please add $3 for each additional photograph. 

(The Canadian dollar is almost exactly on par with both the Australian and United States currencies.)

I have selected the photos below as ones that I thought you might be interested in purchasing. If you would prefer any other photo I have taken just let me know and I will print that one instead.  I have sized the photos so they are all 8x10 inches. I had them printed to ensure that they reproduce well as good-quality photographs.  The ones I selected are some of my personal favourites or they are ones that some of my blogging friends have said that they like.  Any of the photos can be printed in full colour, in black-and-white, or in sepia tones.
I still haven't worked out the payment details.  The simplest way for my to process payment will be a money order in Canadian Dollars sent to the address I will supply when you email your order.  If enough of my blogging friends request it I could set up an Etsy store or try and put Paypal on my blog.  Any thoughts?

My thanks to all of you who encouraged me to go out on a limb like this and I'll say ahead of time that I really appreciate whatever support you can give.


To order a photograph, please send an email, quoting the photograph's number, to: aliasgracie@gmail.com. 

FLOWERS AND PLANTS AND FRUIT

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NIAGARA FALLS

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 BIRDS

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LAKES AND TREES

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WINTER

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AUTUMN

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OTHER

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Bangladesh Here We Come

As I mentioned many months ago in this post, my friend Kim and I are making plans to go to Bangladesh next summer to teach in the new Speech-Language department in Dhaka. 

One year from today is our planned arrival date in Bangladesh.  I'm very excited that progress is being made.  Recently, Kim and I met with a group of fellow rehab specialists (physios, occupational therapists, and other speech-language pathologists) all of whom have already been to CRP (Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed) and they gave us great information about what to expect and let us ask millions of questions.   A young Bengali couple, who are both occupational therapists, brought presents for everyone at the meeting which was so sweet of them.  I included some photos of my presents on this post as these are tangible reminders of where we hope to be one year from today.
 

Kim and I submitted our applications to CRP a month ago and within days got emails back letting us know that we would be met at the airport and they have a rooms for us to stay in.  It's kind of funny to know those details before we know important things like what we will be teaching.  Oh well, baby steps.

The other thing we have done is start collecting discarded therapy materials and tests from work and buying good quality toys from thrift stores to take over with us.  Kim and I sat for a few hours recently and sorted out all the things we have collected so far - pretty impressive lot isn't it?  We may try and ship some of it over in a crate ahead of time.

We also need to start fundraising.  We have a year to raise the money we need for the airfare and costs when we are in Bangladesh.

 Exciting developments in our big project, although there is still a lot to do.