Culture show

The 20^th of December one of the physiotherapists proudly pronounced that there will be a culture show the next day. A culture show in Dhaka, for entertaining the disabled children and all the performances were also by disabled children. This was planned in the world disability day, but was canceled last minute.
Aylin and Roos wanted to go to this culture show! Roos doubted if she would go but Aylin couldn’t go because she was still too ill. Eventually Roos went on her own to Dhaka with a bus full of disabled children.
Since the bus also carried some of the children that would perform, we arrived very early. This way Roos could have a look on the Dhaka University, where also the culture show took place. The best university of Bangladesh looked very ‘old school’. Furthermore Roos did not have the time to look around since the debate was going to start.
There was a lot of press present which surprised Roos. Eventually she ended up in two news programs. But the most important thing was that the children seemed to enjoy themselves (except for the debate part). The culture show contained singing, dancing and a fashion show. It was nice to experience, and it made Roos a bit proud.

Aylin & Roos are back on track

Aylin is still recovering from her illness, but Roos feels much better. Together they entered their design studio and started designing.

As said before, Roos her focus lies on the user and helper and Aylin her focus lies on the materials. And in the end, the different aspects will be integrated into one model.

The design studio

The research part is almost finished. Since the project follows the Bengali tempo, not all the data are collected yet. For example: the home visits Roos planned to do, are already 3 times rescheduled!

Though the girls entered their design studio. They have collected enough data to start the designing process and they could not wait for restarting the project again.

Aylin already made a few models which contain different kind of materials. And Roos is busy with making her helper- and user-friendly models.

In a few days Aylin and Roos will start their vacation. With Christmas they will be in Dhaka visiting the touristic places and eating non-Bengali food.  And after Christmas they will started their journey to the Sundurban: the largest mangrove forest in the world.

Sick

After the world disability day, Roos became sick. She thought she would give the street food a try; it didn’t work out that well. She lay in bed for more than a week. When she was sick for 3 days, the bacteria also found Aylin. She became very sick and after 3 days we decided to go to the diarrhea hospital in Dhaka (with an ambulance). The doctor over there told with pride that the hospital was specialized in cholera patients. A “you have it, or you have it not” hospital. Aylin had it. After 3 hours in the hospital we went home. Aylin should be in bed for 5 to 10 days, today is her 5^th day.
Roos is starting to feel a bit better and she is ending her user research now. But still the project lies a bit behind schedule. Next week we hope to start (finally!) the designing process.

So this is a short message with a big experience.

Time

Tapra

The time that you have an arrangement is the moment when perhaps you might consider to decide if you leave to that certain appointment. Our days exist of appointments that suddenly are no appointments anymore, take place at a different location and are suddenly arranged in the morning instead of in the afternoon. Time plays no role. Do what you like and see where you end seems to be the rule.

Wednesday the 1^st of December we planned to visit the daycare center in Ghior. At 9AM Roos and Aylin were ready. Suddenly, the team heard that particularly that Wednesday, there was a monthly meeting of all the employees of Niketan. So unfortunately, there was no daycare visit for us that day. As an alternative they went to the Ghior market to find materials for low-fi models.

World disability day

 Thursday Roos and Aylin scheduled a visit at the daycare center in Tapra, followed up by a visit at a factory and the day was planned to be wrapped up by a visit to Manikganj. When the team was waiting for the one who had to pick them up, they heard that he was waiting for them somewhere else. Eventually Roos and Aylin arrived at 11.30AM at the Tapra daycare center. Both collected their data and then waited for the next person who had to pick them up after lunch.  Two hours passed by and eventually at 3.30PM he arrived. Finally the team was able to visit the factory. After the visit, they did not go directly to Manikganj. Of course not. First Roos and Aylin had to sit down, drink tea and eat muffins. 

Friday the 3^rd of December can be seen as World Disability Day. The plan was to go with all the children (of all the daycare centers) to Dhaka. In Dhaka a culture show was set up which Sheik Hassina would join too.  
A couple of days before, it turned out that the Sheik was not available. Never mind.. The organizers still planned to go and celebrate this culture show. Thursday was decided that the children, Roos and Aylin went to Manikganj instead of Dhaka.

World disability day

Friday morning the organizers scheduled to leave at 9.00AM. Of course 9.00AM became 10.00AM and 10.30AM the children, Roos and Aylin were in Manikganj. When arriving they could immediately join a group protesting disabled people which lead them to a conference room where they had to sit down for one and a half hour and had to listen to Bengali speakers.  Here, time is hard to define.
 

Batexpo

The past few days we were at the Batexpo. This is a world fair for fabrics and everything around fabric. Here we collected a lot of business cards of people that would like to do business with us. We also were invited to visit a few factories. One of those factories is the Bangladeshi leading yarn maker. So this is interesting for us to visit, since here we can see how the process, from cotton plant to yarn, would look like.  

Some facts[source: Batexpo]
Principal crops of Bangladesh: Rice, Jute, Wheat, Tea, Tobacco, Sugarcane
Major import of Bangladesh: Wheat, Oil seeds, Crude petroleum, Raw cotton, Edible oil, Petroleum products, Fertilizer, Stable fibers, Yarn, Iron, Steel

We also figured out that such kind of fair is very corrupt. We were not invited to the Batexpo night program, but since we were foreigners, we could get in. There were only rich people inside that were invited to this program. Plus, the enjoyed free drinks and snacks during the performances of India’s best pop artists. We asked someone why there were no Bengali performances. He answered that they were too cheap and the buyers, investors and partners who exhibited the fair have a lot of money, so they had to have the most expensive artists.

Ghior

In Ghior is also a day centre from Niketan. We visited this place to do some user research. We also visited the Ghior market. This is a very big market where they have all kind of things. You name it, and they have it! 

Progressing

Niketan has 4 projects: 3 daycare center (one in Baniajuri, one in Tepra and one in Ghoir) and one permanent home called Afroza's place in Jabra. In future, Niketan will build another permanent home for the female disabled children, a home for the employees and a new home for the daycare center of Baniajuri. 

At the moment it is quiet here at Afroza's place - our home is for the next three months. This in fact there is a Muslim vacation going on called Eid. But tomorrow the 7 disabled kids that live here, will come back. These children live here since they want to and most of the parents are too old to take care of them.
Previous days we performed a lot of project work. Mainly material research and user research. We already know that the children here need a product and we figured out a certain design direction.
Next week we hope we can go to the Batexpo: a world fair for fabrics. This is a great opportunity to meet possible stakeholders and investors. Besides, it is a good place for researching the fabric innovations in Bangladesh.

We looking forward to the 3rd of December; World Disability Day. This is a great festivity in the environment we live in right now. Since Niketan is a leading project for whole Bangladesh some of the children will do a dancing and singing performance for the prime minister. We are invited to and would love to experience the event.

As you can see, there are many things going on right now, and we will keep in touch!

Hartel

On Sunday 14th of November 2010 there was a Hartel in Bangladesh. A Hartel can be described as a country wide strike and results in no traffic in Dhaka or on the other roads in the country.
The government pronounced the Hartel in the newspaper and on the radio. A Hartel can be compared to a ‘car free Sunday’ in the Netherlands. The difference is in the fact that people stick to the idea of no traffic in fact they are afraid that there car will be set on fire.
The reason for this Hartel was that the old government gave one of the (old) ministers a second house for just one taka. So actually he gave himself a second house for just one taka. This house is built a very big piece of land. The new government would like to build apartments on this piece of land since there is a housing shortage in Dhaka. But the old minister won’t give up his second house and that is why there is a Hartel. To convince the old minister that he needs to give up his second house.

Eid

Eid is one of the most important festivities in Bangladesh. Family from all over the country and from outside the country will join each other during Eid. Although the Eid is just for one day, it is a whole week of festivities and a whole week of joy. This all because of the many marriages that will take place in this week.
When family is in town, it is a great opportunity for forced marriage and to marry in front of your whole family. And since the forced marriages are done during the Eid week, it is common that you will marry a family member.

Hierarchy

Small aspects of the high hierarchy in Bangladesh are already noticeable. This can be illustrated the best within a situation in Old Dhaka. Old Dhaka can be seen as an overwhelming intense neighborhood in the capital city in Bangladesh. Project managers and volunteers went out there for shopping traditional clothes. For basically every article you want to buy it is normal to try to reduce the price by bargaining. Set prices are not common. By bargaining a price was set for which one of the shoppers did not agree with. The volunteer did not want to buy the garments and walked away.
Suddenly an assistant ran after her and begged to come back to continue bargaining. In this situation it can be seen as interesting that the shop owner which tried to make a deal with the volunteer sent an assistant to get her back. In the Netherlands the one who would try to make a deal also would try to get the customer back and would not send an assistant. Hierarchy shows that the shop owner is standing on a higher grade than the assistant. Silly jobs are not solved by people with a high level of respect.

Infrastructure

Transport

In Dhaka you have got several ways for transporting yourself, we tested them all. You have got the boat, car, bus, riksja and car riksja. In Dhaka there is a 24/7 traffic jam all over the city. So it is hard to transport things and yourself inside Dhaka. And since there is no sidewalk, as a western, you prefer not to walk.
The rules are simple: the bigger the better. The larger you car, the more you got priority in traffic. In general drivers  prefer to move out of the way instead of bring their car to a standstill.
In and around Dhaka there are asphalted roads, outside Dhaka there are just 5 highways. The other roads outside Dhaka are small and it is almost impossible for two cars to pass each other. Though there are a few asphalted highways in Bangladesh, it is still difficult to reach each other. For example, it takes approximately 2 hours to travel from Dhaka to Baniajuri (80 km) with a bigger car. And inside Dhaka, by car, it is possible that it takes 1 hour for 2 km.
A good alternative is transport by boat. Bangladesh already has some import product from India. These product come by boat.

Communication

There has been a mobile revolution in Bangladesh. This means that almost everybody has a mobile phone. Though the communication is not that good. The Bengali people may have a mobile phone, but use them for other purposes as Western people do. Phones are largely used for games and when they call, they barley exchange information.

Electricity & water

There are few places in Bangladesh that do not have electricity. Though, it will not work all of the time. It switches on-off-on and off again. It is not reliable. This makes the water facility also not reliable since that water needs to be pumped up.
Besides, the Bengali electricity net is not built in a save way. Electricity cables with a voltage of 220 are hanging every where without any protection. Most of the time they are hanging at the height of the head, but the team already have seen them at even knee height. There are a lot of children who have injured themselves at the these cables.

Kom lekker eten!

Volgende week, week 43, is het weer Dutch Design week in Eidnhoven. Een hele mooie kans om het project te promoten en uit te leggen! Kom daarom vrijdag 29 oktober avondeten in de Smalle Haven te Eindhoven. Hier zullen Aylin & Roos met behulp van de staff het eten en drinken uitserveren. Het salaris van Aylin & Roos dat ze die avond verdienen, gaat naar het project. Maar omdat ze het slechts hiermee niet zullen redden hebben ze ook jullie steun nodig! In ruil daarvoor zullen zij die vrijdag al jullie vragen beantwoorden omtrede het luier project.
Super leuk, gezellig en lekker dus! Tot dan.

Project description

Roos & Aylin are two students from the Technical University Delft and the Technical University Eindhoven who are currently participating the minor International Entrepreneurship & Development at the Technical University Delft. A Dutch foundation called Niketan is supporting a Bangladeshi initiative to take care of mentally disabled children. Roos & Aylin are working on a design project under supervision of Niketan. The students have to face the problem that children are not toilet trained and there is no possibility to make use of diapers in case this would introduce a waste problem. An extra problem is constituted by the fact that the Bangladeshi culture deals with the caste system in which disabled are part of the lowest grade. This means when local helpers clean diapers of disabled children they are acting below their grade. These norms and values make exist a situation in which local helpers refuse to clean the disabled. Children are walking around naked which leads to an unhygienic situation. With both hands Roos & Aylin accepted the design case and immediately booked a trip to Bangladesh from the start of November till the end of January. With their design background they will investigate the country, foundation and user group with the intention to work towards a successful prototype.