Dinajpur Again - Farewell to Anna
December 9, 2007

After I spoke with the owner of the property that I liked, I was excited to start work on the project again. I called Anna to give her the good news. She congratulated me and told me that she was going to be leaving Bangladesh in a couple of weeks. I really wanted to see how the bamboo work is done on her project, so I decided to go back to Dinajpur to say good-bye.

After a grueling 10 hour bus ride I finally arrived at night. When I got there Anna explained that there was a mela the next day and that the workers would actually be off of work. Unfortunately, that meant that I would only have one day to observe the workers as I had a meeting to go to on the 10th.

Because it was dark when I arrived, I couldn't see the progress that they had made on the school since I was last there in early October. When I woke up the next morning, however, I was absolutely amazed! Foundations had become walls and they had already completed a lot of the bamboo work. Anna said that mud and bamboo construction goes up fast, but this was really incredible! (See the photos below.)

I got to see Stephan and the workers again. I also got to meet several of Anna's Bangladeshi students (they were off for Eid the last time I was there) and a few Germans and Austrians who were visiting the project site. The mela was a lot of fun. I even bought some great village pottery - two banks and a cookie jar (well, I am using it for a cookie jar.) All three items only cost me 80 cents too! Pottery is really cheap in Bangladesh. I think that I am going to have all of my dishes for the resort made by a local potter...

The next day I observed the crew building the ring beam on one of the small houses that Anna is also building. The ring beam is the foundation that all of the bamboo work is built off of. I watched all day and took many pictures and movies.

That night I had to take the bus home, so I said "goodbye" to Anna and her crew and headed home. Unfortunately, about two hours into the trip I got terrible food poisoning and was vomiting out the window of the bus the entire ride back. There was a huge traffic jam too, so it took 12 hours to get back to Dhaka. I don't think I will be riding on a bus again anytime soon!

The Second School
This is the second school! They had just finished the first layer of mud on the left section and had just started to build the right section when I was last here.


Front of the School
In this shot you can still see the mud pits on the left side of the photo.


Veranda
This is the veranda that separates the two wings of the building. Isn't it beautiful?


Second Floor
This is the second floor of the school. They are just starting the mud walls for the second floor.


Bamboo
Here is a close-up of some of the bamboo joins.


Cook's House
This is a view of the small house for the cook that Anna's students are building. Anna designed the second school for Dipshika and teams of her students (Austrian and Bangladeshi) designed three small houses for the villagers to demonstrate that her construction techniques are an affordable building method for the community.


Ring Beam
One of the workers standing on the ring beam.


Building the Ring Beam
One of the workers assembling the ring beam on the cook's house.


Bringing Hay
There is still mud work going on, so the workers need to continue to bring hay to the mud pits.