Deep and meaningful

Today has been spent in Dhaka, attending what is called the Annual Country Learning (ACL) for The Leprosy Mission Bangladesh. This is a chance for senior staff to bring together all the reviews of the projects they have been doing with their colleagues, and to look at the overall progress of TLM Bangladesh, and the head of TLM Canada and I are attending as support country representatives. I've heard some wonderful success stories, and also some significant challenges to the work, some of them medical, others social, practical or financial, The real work starts tomorrow when we look at how we can work as efficiently and effectively as possible to build on our successes and achieve the task that TLM Bangladesh has set - that of seeing a leprosy free Bangladesh.

Here Parach, Project Manager for the Chittagong Hill Tracts project, one of the guys who looked after me so well over the last few days, and Labio, TLM Bangladesh Corporate Support Coordinator discuss something very important. And no, I really don't think it was lunch (which was excellent). Any day I get prawns at lunch and dinner is a very good day!

All the photos from the ACL are full of sweaty people, as the venue we are using isn't air-conditioned - some other NGO (one we would normally like and probably work with, but today we strongly dislike) had already booked the other room here that is air conditioned! Thankfully there are ceiling fans, but hot air moving is still hot air (and no, that is no comment on what was being said!). My other comment on the day is I wish I spoke Bangla! I am so used to being in Russia, and understanding everything that is going on that it seems even harder to not understand, and it's less the sessions, where there is translation available, and more the chat over meals and the frequent jokes I would really love to understand! A few words does not cut it! I also made life very difficult for poor Sumon, who is not only the man in charge of this whole event, but also happened to have the unpleasant task of interpreting for me when I did a wee presentation on TLM Scotland and spoke in long sentences when I really do know much, much better!