Home

Friday 16th December

We jumped in the rickshaws and visited the Shahid Minar in Sylhet, were people had been laying flowers throughout the evening and were still arriving to lay them as we arrived. There were huge patriotic chants happening on all sides of the street, and people laughing, dancing for joy and making political speeches. Being from London, we naturally attracted the attention of the local people and media and some people did an interview for Bangla TV. We then headed to the markets and picked up our gifts and memorabilia of Sylhet. Then we visited the local Mosque and prayed Jummah, which was a nice experience, and headed to the airport to fly back to Dhaka.

Friday evening was an evaluation evening of the programme, and as you can hopefully tell from this blog, there were lots and lots to talk about, and our evaluation can be found separately.

The group had been threatening a game of Kabbadi all week, and at 11.45pm we took to the street to play a game. Our excitement and enthusiasm attracted the attention of local residents who came out of their homes to watch us play, getting involved in the laughing and joking.

Saturday 17th December

Six members headed home today. Four stayed on to watch the Bangladesh cricket match, and the rest of the members will be visiting family members over the next two weeks.

To conclude

Writing a blog is very difficult as there is so much to talk about and reflect upon, so it is very hard to fit it all in. Words make it difficult to define our experience of this programme, as it has been an emotional and heart -warming experience, giving us new knowledge, new wisdom, new friends, new contacts and new skills.
If you are interested in taking part or finding out what social action projects are taking place in East London please contact Helen Jones at CYEC. (helen@cyec.org.uk)

Hope you enjoyed our read!

Phil Long, Ruzina Begum, Suaad Jama, Aks Ambia, Shah Rahman, Shah Mahmud, Habiba Khatun, Shamina Begum, Bilal Ahmed, Carlie Barnes