Songsmith ROB HALLIGAN journeys from his Midlands comfort zone to learn a little of life, and mission, in Bangladesh

We were staying at the Pashur Hotel, which boasted on a sign coming into the port that it was a member of the National Tourism Council of Bangladesh. A sign inside suggested you visit Bangladesh before the tourists come. If the hotel was anything to go by, tourists to Bangladesh may be biding their time a little longer. The hotel was grand looking on the outside but when you went in you got the feeling that it was seldom used. The staff were impeccable, bending over backwards to carry cases, bring bottled water, order food and any other service you might have required. In fact, for the record, let me state that the local people in Bangladesh are some of the kindest, generous, welcoming people I have met. Only the Scots come close in welcoming.

We opened the door of our air-conditioned van and the heat and humidity hit us like a train. I honestly found it hard to catch my breath for 20 minutes or so until I got to my room. I had the delight of sharing my room with a gecko and a large jumping insect. The room itself was air-conned with an old and noisy unit rattling away in the corner. I had two beds each with an incredibly beautiful but heavy blanket on which was obviously going to be ridiculously hot to sleep under. I checked out the wardrobe and decided that it's great living out of a suitcase, why bother hanging stuff up.

Although it's hot there they get a lot of rain and when it's not raining it's humid. It had been 89 degrees, with humidity at 34 per cent. The Pashur Hotel showed the wear and tear of the Bengali climate. With some tlc it could be grand but remember, this is luxury to most people living in this neighbourhood. Dinner was curry, rice and fried fish. I have no idea what the fish was but it tasted good. I headed to bed convinced that after a 24 hour journey I would sleep well but it wasn't until I'd convinced myself that the gecko and jumpy thing weren't going to eat me that I dropped off sometime around 2am.

Tuesday 15th September
Up at 7:55am and down for breakfast of omelette and bread, followed by a team meeting. Global Care is a Christian charity and prayer is central to its life. Believe me, with journeys similar to the one we had just undertook you need prayer! Global Care work with some of the most vulnerable and forgotten children on earth and it's something that would be hard to do without the grace of God.

The journey to the project in Horintana took us another 45 minutes and was just as eventful but somewhat more likeable. It was all the way on public transport, starting with the local bus. The bus was packed but they found room for the nine of us and our cases while some obliging locals chose to go upstairs onto the roof to ride. 20 minutes later we arrived at a ferry crossing, this time for passengers only across one of the myriad of rivers that wind their way through the Sundarbarns. The ferry terminus was a mile or so from the road but there were flat bed tuk-tuks on hand to take us down a bumpy path to the shore. I tried filming the ride but it was pretty bumpy going.

The boat trip was smooth though the diesel engine kicked out a bit of smoke and drowned out any conversation. Our destination was Horintana, a market village, only busy on market days. It was a market day and it was busy. We were met at the ferry station by workers from the Love Bangladesh Ministries School and each given a garland of orange carnations to wear.

There's a bit in the C S Lewis book The Horse And His Boy where the Narnians walk through the streets of Carlorman and there's an air of celebration about the whole thing. That's what it was like. We walked through the narrow market streets for about half a mile when we heard singing; "Good morning, it's good to see you," over and over. Then through the trees we saw a line of blue and red uniforms before seeing the entrance to the school, decorated to announce our arrival. We were given more garlands and showered with petals as we made our way down the path, children saying, "Good morning, happy to see you!" as we went. It was all rather overwhelming and incredibly humbling.

Teachers sang us a welcome song

We walked through the entrance to the buildings and I got my first glimpse of the fish pools. Having talked about the pools for a year now at gigs up and down the country, to see them was amazing. There they were, two pools. Fantastic! We had an official welcome where the staff sang a song and one of the teachers made a short speech. Then we were asked to introduce ourselves. I couldn't help but tell them how exited I was to see them at last. It really was an amazing feeling.

Once the welcomes had finished the children went to their classes and we met together with John to decide what we were doing. Keith and Paul had come on the trip to deliver some child protection training to the staff and so it was decided that they would start that straight away. John and Chris wanted to look at some of the sites' infrastructure to see how well things had been built and maintained, Stu and Jared had bought a case load of footballs to play with so they got to work unpacking. I went for a tour of the site with a keen group of lads who knew no English but were determined to talk to me all the way around. Phrasebooks are wonderful things! I wanted to see the fish pools first so I made my way down past the building to the far end of the project site. They have two pools, bought with money donated by people who came to my gigs last year. I know I keep saying it but it really is amazing to see them in the flesh, as it were.

By the pools we funded

They have had some problems with the pools, largely to do with contamination after the recent cyclone season damaged the banks around the pools letting salt water in. We are discussing what measures are needed to ensure the pools are safe. The small pool contains shrimp that is sold in the local market. The larger pool holds carp, used for food for the school and orphanage.

Next we saw the chickens, another Global Care funded project providing up to 2000 eggs a week. This really helps the project to survive and gain some self-sustainability. Around the back of the chicken shed we came across a tiny corrugated iron hut. "My grandfather sleep here," said one of the children and they all fell about in hysterics. They have avocado and marrow growing behind the shed and a garden with other vegetables growing. It was all very impressive and such a simple setup.

We made our way back and my tour guides were distracted by Stu and Jared playing football. I suggested we should stick with football and leave the cricket to the Bangladeshis.

After lunch (more curry) John and Chris tried their hand at teaching. I walked in on them trying to learn how to count in Bengali. Then they turned to English and seemed even more confused. I successfully distracted a whole class of seven year olds with my cameras. There's something very satisfying about interrupting a school lesson and not getting told off! The next lesson was letters. On 'B' John and Chris were stumped for something starting with 'B'. It was a lesson indeed!

Marg seemed to have spent all the day colouring in and had a big crowd of children waiting to join in and laughing at her Bengali, cheering when she got it right.