hodr karma continues

from marc in bangladesh..........

we have a house!! this one was a little more difficult (although it is always a challenge to find a facility suitable for a volunteer base in close proximity to a natural disaster area) because of the extreme level of poverty in the affected areas and the issues raised by access. BUT, WOW, 5 big rooms with 3 (yes that’s THREE) bathrooms and a kitchen AND a great out door balcony that is big enough for meetings and socializing! ok, so there is no roof, but we have paid up our lease in advance and the construction repairs have already begun. also, the family that owns the house and lives on the level below has 2 sons that speak pretty good english.
my concerns over water were valid, for most of the areas we scouted had no water available on-site, but our new volunteer base has 1 deep tube well for drinking water and 2 shallow wells for clean water suitable for bathing!
at our first inspection of the house we were told that the electricity would arrive in a day or two. "oh, i see, wow that would be great!" all the while we knowingly snigger 'yeah, sure power in a few days when we havent seen anyone working to restore the power grid. when we returned to express our desire to let the house we curiously found trees downed in the yard. when we spoke with the owner we were told the power company had come to connect the house. when we arrived the following day to sign our lease agreement .......sure enough, the house was wired in! after dark i visited our beautiful large balcony where i found not another electrified neighbor.
the next step is to get the base set up for volunteers to arrive. we have contracted a banner maker to hand paint our signage for the front of the volunteer center and hired a local woodworker to construct the first bunk-bed. it will be exciting to return from dhaka and see what they have created.