Bangladesh Archives - SciencetoyMaker

‘Fessin Up

I could write many more pages about Bangladesh, but perhaps you have seen enough to understand why I included the pictures and comments on a site about science toys. The Creator of our world put 96% of the human population in countries other than the one I was born in. I was lucky enough to have stepped completely out of my culture for awhile. Having my base assumptions about how things ought to be done stripped away was jarring, but revealed the world in a new light. Living in Bangladesh was pivotal to my education.

I do have to ‘fess up about one thing. I was supposed to research a needed technology, then develop and adapt it to the conditions that exist in Bangladesh. The idea worked before. Other people in my organization developed a reliable water pump for wells that was so inexpensive that even poor people could afford it. It became very popular in Bangladesh and even spread to other countries, providing clean water for millions of people as well as jobs for the people who made them.

So I was off! I was going to save the world—or at least Bangladesh—single-handedly in the three years of my term. There was the project to make paper out of weeds. There was the project to provide a mechanism to wind up twine as it was spun, for a women’s cooperative so they could work inside during the rainy season. There was the project to determine the most effective way to dry everything from spices to grated coconut, so farmer’s cooperatives could sell to the international market, and so on.

After a year in Bangladesh I was stricken with some severe health problems that were not necessarily related to being in Bangladesh. But I had to return home to get more specialized medical care. I never finished my work. Another person picked up the torch and carried on in my place.

I’ve harbored the wish that I could give something back to the people of Bangladesh for the education I got. Perhaps the preceding pages are my chance, even if it’s only to dispel some of the ignorance about them and pique some admiration for their resourcefulness.

I’d like to say a little more about the organization that sponsored me to go there, too. Although I had to leave before accomplishing my mission, there have been thousands of people who dedicated years of their lives to relief and development work throughout the world with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC).

MCC is a productive and cost-effective charity because most of its workers are volunteers who commit to at least a three-year term. Some are just out of college with up to date skills and the energy of youth. Others have years of solid experience. Peace and social justice issues are very much on their radar, and they help people help themselves in practical ways.

I am not a card carrying Mennonite. Nevertheless, I have spent many hours trying to succinctly convey the respect I have for that organization of people who shared their vision with me. But there is just too much to say. For now, here’s the link to their home page. Poke around some. Their photo galleries are especially good. If you have gained something from this free science toymaker site, consider giving back by making a contribution to MCC.

I had to leave Bangladesh before I got all the pictures I wanted. Many thanks to the Dirks, Brubaker, Bergan and Wilce families, as well as to Dan Belgum, George Horlings, Kurt Wenger, Amos Showalter and Roger Waley who sent me slides for my collection. Umm, they got a little mixed up guys...contact me if there's a problem.

Mr. Sharifus Salekin is a small business owner who exports garments to the European Union. His wife--now a homemaker with their twin sons-- used to work for a British non-government organization. He has kindly provided some interesting information. (Note: That was back in 2004. We added some recent data for comparison) :

Toilet Hygiene in Bangladesh

A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous.

It is true that throughout Asia--most people in the world, actually--use squat toilets rather than sitting toilets. Westerners quickly acclimate to them and appreciate not having their cheeks pressed against a seat that thousands of other people’s cheeks have warmed before them.

Then there is the revolting urban legend about South Asian toilet habits. Like all good lies, this one has an element of selective truth. Here’s how it goes: “People over there eat with their right hand because they don’t use toilet paper, cleaning themselves instead with their left hand.” Yuck.

Here’s the real story. Instead of toilet paper, there is a source of water and a water container with a spout. After you have finished a bowel movement, you pick up the water container with your right hand and pour water out of it. You use your left hand to guide the water to your butt and do what everybody should do in the shower anyhow, only before it has become difficult to remove. If you wash your hands after—as everyone should in any case—it is a formula for hygiene that is not equal to the Western practice of using toilet paper, but superior.

Do you think their way is gross? Try this for revolting: You can’t possibly clean yourself with dry toilet paper. That’s why everybody in America who does laundry tries not to see the brown spot on underwear. That’s why our swimming pools have enough chlorine to pickle our eyes. A few minutes in a pool will clean your butt just fine, only what washed off floats around in the pool until the filters get it. I won’t even talk about bathtubs.

We often wonder why some countries don't adopt our ways of doing things. But here it's quite obvious that the question isn’t why haven’t they adopted our superior system of hygiene, but rather, why haven’t we adopted theirs?

P.S. There is a middle way. If the toilet is right next to a sink, you can wet the TP a little and do a much better job. This is confirmed by Dr. Tahera Islam from Bangladesh, but living in Saudi Arabia. "About the toilet, it is actually part of Muslim culture which is practiced in all other Muslim countries of the world including Pakistan and Middle East. Even in sitting toilets we have water source sometimes like shower or the same as you saw. My relatives who go to western countries soak toilet papers in the sink then enter the toilet. "

P.P.S. Europe, too. Wikipedia bidet and more. Also in Japan.

Finally, if you are planning a journey to South Asia, here are funny—but detailed and helpful—instructions for using a bodna by a Canadian MCC worker who preceded me to Bangladesh and left before I got there. Russ Toevs was a legend.

This tongue in cheek article was written by Russ Toevs for the ‘OH’, the in-country newsletter for MCC Bangladesh volunteers. Although this was written a long time ago, the substance of the article is still valid.

Using the Bodna

Upon receiving the July issue of the "OH" I was rather shocked to read that a certain person in Saidpur, who shall remain unnamed for reasons of propriety, seemed ignorant about the use of one of the most basic and essential items in South Asia. What I am referring to, of course, is the bodna, that slender-spouted water pot found beside millions of squat plates throughout this subcontinent.

Anthropologically speaking, this lack of knowledge--whether feigned or real--regarding the bodna's use, is especially disturbing considering that it comes from one who is as well acquainted with the ins and outs of squat plates as is any MCCer in Bangladesh. If such a wise sage has questions, what of the other MCCers here, especially those just newly arrived from the elevated West? What mental anguish must be theirs as each day this unanswered riddle sits staring back at them in silence? Little do they realize that so easily within their grasp, this aesthetically pleasing little pot with the slender spout sits ready to soothe aching, tired, overworked muscles, and to free one from the economic bondage of the international paper merchants.

The East, in fact, has much to teach the west, not the least of which is the use of the bodna, and the superiority of water over mere paper. Are dirty dishes cleaned with paper towels? Are muddy hands cleaned with a rag? So then why should we presume--with apologies to Mr. Whipple--that a few flimsy sheets of paper can adequately suffice when that "universal solvent", water, is so readily at hand. There are, in fact, millions upon millions of people in this part of the world for who water and the bodna fulfill a sore-felt need, especially for those on the run.

Admittedly, for those of us brought up on porcelain thrones in the West, there is a certain psychological stigma or mental loathing that must first be overcome before one can become accustomed to the habit of using a bodna. This writer well remembers his biggest fear while in orientation at Akron namely, the supposed lack of T.P. in Bangladesh. And when that fear turned out to be unfounded, it took considerable resolve and determination to learn to use water anyway. Similar to diving off the high board at a swimming pool, the first time is by far the hardest, with each succeeding attempt becoming easier and easier, until one becomes accustomed to it. Eventually, one can even see the merits of the bodna, and wonder how one ever got along otherwise. For in actual fact, water does clean better than paper, as one who does the laundry can quickly verify.

A final word to the squeamish: the mother of a new baby learns to live with soiled hands, as does the farmer manning the `honeywagon'.

While overcoming one's initial reluctance is the first and probably hardest thing to learn, there are a number of other more practical lessons which, when learned, facilitate the use of the bodna. The practical steps given below come from this writer's many years of experience as well as from the helpful suggestions of fellow

First of all, after finishing one's movement, grasp the bodna firmly and fixedly in front of one's person with the right hand. The left hand is used for the dirty work. Then wet the left hand (this may seem trivial, but this is one of the most helpful suggestions I received from a fellow MCCer in 1976. Suffice it to say that it is analogous to oiling the skillet before frying an egg. As an aside, there is also advantage in thoroughly wetting the squat plate basin before even beginning, for a similar reason). Next--this takes some practice--pour water into the cupped left hand and splash one's 'odious rumpus' (well, what did you want me to call it?). This is repeated, and after the first or second time a wipe is added in conjunction with the splash, and then this splash-wipe stroke is repeated until clean (the use of the water left in the bodna to dislodge anything left in the basin usually prevents the need for using a brush later on). Next, the toilet is flushed by pulling the over-head tank chain if available, or by dumping in a full bodna of water, after which one proceeds to wash up thoroughly with soap and water. With a view towards cleanliness and sanitation, one should, of course, not touch water spigots, flush chain, bodna, etc. with the left hand until one has washed.

It would be wise to first practice the procedure, as outlined above, in the privacy of one's home. There is a tendency to feel a certain amount of paranoia upon emerging from a bathroom into a roomful of people, certain that everyone is staring at you with the knowledge of what you've just done, as you walk about the room with your left arm hanging lifeless at your side.

Hopefully this article will not be too offensive to the erst-while readers of this tabloid. It is most assuredly written with everyone's well-being in mind, for who knows when or where that flimsy roll of white might vanish--whether on a crowded train hurtling towards Madras in the dark, or at
15,000 ft. on a much traveled trail in Nepal, or even in a small village set amid lush paddy fields on the Gangetic flood-plains of Bengal.

Occupations in Bangladesh

I’ve said it many times already, but living in Bangladesh is like going back in time. Blacksmiths have all but disappeared in America, though artisan smiths are making something of a comeback. Every little town in Bangladesh has a blacksmith. The smiths in this picture are making a multipurpose “kodal” which is sort of a cross between a shovel and a hoe. The air bellows—partially blocked by one of the blacksmith’s head—is made out of an old truck inner tube.

I’ve also repeated that nothing is wasted in Bangladesh. Tin cans of all sizes are cut up, shaped and soldered into useful articles. In this picture, the tinsmith has made a funnel. His other hand is operating a fan that forces air into charcoal to heat up the soldering iron.

The tinsmith was in the market place in Feni, a fairly big town in southern Bangladesh where my wife and I spent three months learning the Bengali language. I was encouraged to spend time at the market place to practice the language. One day I took some old, dull scissors along with me because I was told there was a professional sharpener somewhere there. I asked around and finally found him.

As soon as I saw him I knew I had made a mistake. As you can see, the setup was very crude. The man’s son would pull a rope to make the grindstone go around. Oh well, it was a lousy pair of scissors anyhow. He used the grindstone, then it turned out he had some other tools in the wooden box he was sitting on.

After he’d worked on the scissors for awhile, I thought he said to give him my hand, but I wasn’t sure. Seeing my hesitation, he reached for my hand and turned it so the back faced up. My heart skipped a beat as he extended the scissors toward me. In a single, quick stroke he used the scissors to shave a patch of my hairy arm so it was as bare as a baby’s behind. Next day I took him all the knives from the kitchen I could find. I have never seen sharper knives, and try as I might I have not been able to find scissors that I could shave the back of my arm with. I gotta go back to Bangladesh someday and get those scissors.

The tinsmith and the sharpener occupied a few square feet at the marketplace. Like the sandal makers, locksmiths, guys who recharge “disposable” lighters and a lot of other people, their shop is wherever they plunk down their tools. Then they take the tools home with them at the end of the day. The extreme form of that portability might be this skilled bus transmission mechanic who just sets up on the side of the road and somehow gets the job done.

The importance of bricks extends beyond making walls. Wherever there is a major construction project you will see workers breaking bricks into chips. That’s because there is nothing else to make gravel needed for concrete mixes from. No rocks, stones boulders or pebbles. Sometimes rocks are imported from the hill areas, but it costs money to transport them. So as often as not, it’s cheaper to break imperfect bricks.

The people who do the brick breaking are the poorest of the poor. Although this family is working in the most prosperous area of Bangladesh, they still have a difficult life. The umbrellas are to shade them from the hot sun. Consider this “working mother” who has a sleeping baby in one hand and a hammer in the other. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. These are some of the poorest people in Bangladesh.

Eric Sloan authored and illustrated a fun book about early American technology titled Diary of an Early American Boy. In it he showed how pit saws were used to saw out boards by hand before sawmills took over. Pit saws are still used in Bangladesh in remote regions.

Before I went to Bangladesh I kind of figured snake charming was something dreamed up by South Asian tourist bureaus. Not so! It’s traditional form of entertainment for ordinary people.

The best of the snake charmers put on a wild show. My brain was pretty sure the handlers took the venom out of the cobra snakes somehow. But my autonomic nervous system sent lots of adrenaline coursing through my veins in preparation for the fight or flight—more likely the later. Did you notice that these kids are quite interested, but they are not exactly pushing to get to the front of the crowd for a closer look?

Transportation

Car ownership is extremely rare in Bangladesh. In fact just having an adult bicycle in an extended family is a sign of some wealth. People do have other ways of getting around. One way to get to another town is by bus. I was a little taken aback when I saw carpenters make the frames of the buses out of wood. They do cover the frames with sheet metal and install windows and seats inside, so the buses look familiar when the bus is finished.

Some of the ways they actually ride the buses might not be so familiar. When the inside of the bus fills up, well, there’s still plenty of room on top. This picture should allay any lingering reservations about the strength of the wooden frames. I think there was a law about not riding on top, but it was only enforced in the capital city. When a big holiday was coming up, everybody would return to their home place. The buses then were completely covered with people—on top, on the sides, on back.

Tricycle rickshaws provided shorter-range transportation. The rickshaws driver was also the engine. Although primarily used to transport people, I have included a picture showing that the people are skilled at piling on and moving furniture as well. The topography of Bangladesh—no hills except on the fringes of the country—makes it well suited to rickshaws. I even saw a rickshaw school bus that held 6 young (privileged) kids.

There are many concrete bridges in Bangladesh that carry buses, but for the hundreds of thousands of small villages separated from the road by a canal, the people have to use a material they can afford: bamboo. I never heard of anyone slipping and falling in the water. I speculate that they are like gymnasts who use a balance beam from an early age. They become very good at it.

I crossed one of these bridges to and from work every day if I took the shortcut. The difference was that instead of there being just one bamboo pole to walk on, there were two lashed together, so you could jam your feet in-between and not slip even in wet, slippery weather.

The cargo in this boat is bricks. Have you ever heard the expression, “Don’t rock the boat”? Literally how much can these guys rock the boat before it swamps and sinks like a ton of bricks? In every aspect of life it seems people in Bangladesh live on a knife’s edge, without a safety margin.

In Bangladesh, riverboats are still used to transport people. To visit projects in remote parts of the country I rode riverboats and felt some of the magic of the river. The stories about Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and life on the river came back to me with a new depth.

It was on the riverboats that the paradox of Bangladesh solidified. On one hand, Samuel Clemens (AKA Mark Twain) captured the nostalgia for a simpler time when kids could be free and active. They didn’t spend hours on end in front of TV and video games. Instead, they fished, hunted, hiked, helped out on the homestead and amused themselves. Kids in Bangladesh still live like that. Even girls, when they’re young. People had a greater awareness of nature and relied on religious faith more. Families, neighborhoods and traditions were more important. That’s still true in Bangladesh.

On the other hand, safety regulations were nonexistent and accidents on riverboats were common. Clemens’ brother died in one. All but one of Clemens’ children died in agony, of diseases that have now been eliminated in industrialized countries, but not Bangladesh. Twain noted glaring social injustices of his day. Child labor, illiteracy and gross scientific ignorance were widespread, which is still the case in Bangladesh. Social structures could be intolerant of diversity. Sometimes the good ol’ days weren’t.

It’s a two edged sword, isn’t it? I don’t take the blessings of modern life for granted, having seen life without them. Aren’t we fortunate to have vaccines, education, swift transportation, food in abundance, the internet and so on? At the same time, I want to keep some old fashioned elements of life that will never be too old to be worth holding onto.

Clothing and Shelter in Bangladesh

When I first went out of the capital city into the countryside, it seemed that a lot people must be living in Smurf huts. My heart went out to them, because it seemed like there wasn’t enough room to even lie down. Then somebody kindly informed me that those were in fact haystacks, not houses. They set a bamboo pole in the ground, then pile rice straw around it in a way that sheds rainwater. The cows eat it. The house in the picture above is actually off to the left. The kids insisted on being in the picture.

My wife and I spent the first three months we were there studying the Bengali language. We hired a babysitter to look after our one-year-old daughter during classes. One day we visited our babysitter’s “bari,” or village. The men were all out working the fields so only the women and children were there at the time.
The house walls here were adobe, with a thatched roof. Having a corrugated metal roof is something of a status symbol, and no doubt it lasts longer than the 3 or so years a thatch roof lasts. On the other hand, thatch keeps houses much cooler because it insulates from the hot sun. Most of the time house walls are made out of split, and then woven bamboo hung on sturdy bamboo poles. I know it doesn’t sound very strong, but those houses survive hurricanes.

That is not to say that everybody in Bangladesh enjoys good housing. Some poor people live in what amounts to not much more than a cardboard box. This picture of a severe flood is near a construction site.

A hurricane has dumped a huge amount of water. The hurricane is gone, and the people have thrown the wet clothing and bedding on the roof to dry in the sun. The big problem is that it might take a couple of weeks for the water to recede. In the mean time, they are living on stacks of bricks.

The great danger to the kid is not that he would fall in the water (his mother is actually directly behind him, holding one of the pans). Ironically, the problem is finding drinking water. In any country--industrialized or not-- flood water is not safe to drink. The usual sources of clean water are knocked out . Boiling the water will make it safe, but many people in Bangladesh can’t afford the extra fuel. MCC, the organization I worked with, distributes water purification tablets, emergency food, blankets and other things to tide people over. Because MCC has been in Bangladesh many years—not just during disasters but always doing agriculture extension, job creation, medical programs, co-op forming etc.--they are poised to jump into relief work quickly and effectively when catastrophes does strike.

On a lighter note, here is a picture of a barn. One of the recurring themes is that nothing is wasted. Not even the sunlight falling on this thatch roof. Squash vines are trained to climb up onto roofs and spread out and soak up the sun. Squash vines are also trained out onto trellises over ponds, where the fish seem to prefer the shade.

Food, Farming and Fishing in Bangladesh

Farming

Like other river deltas, Bangladesh is a very fertile place. There are no rocks, stones, boulders or pebbles. It’s all silt and mud washed down from the Himalayan mountains over millions of years. Most people farm. Though I saw people farming every day, I never ever saw a tractor. Of course they can’t afford them, or even the fuel for them. Cows used as plow pulling devices, on the other hand, eat weeds and straw for fuel. Before wearing out, they make replacements. And they don’t require spare parts shipped in from some place. The yellow flowers are mustard, grown for their oil. During the rainy season, these fields will grow rice.

Being a river delta, you can’t walk very far in any direction without hitting water: a river, canal, rice paddy, pond or lake. This is especially true during the monsoon rainy season, when it rains almost every day. All houses have a pond near them where dirt has been scooped out to raise the base of the house several feet to be above flooding. Likewise, every road has a canal dug out next to it for the same reason.

Fishing

The water is teaming with fish, which (along with lentils) provides most of the protein for people. I rarely saw people using a hook and bait and a line except on the big rivers. Instead, they have about 6 other ways to catch fish.

Weighted throw nets are one of the most common fishing tools. The weights are sewn in around the edges. As soon as they hit the water, they sink fast, trapping fish below between the muddy bottom and the net. Then they carefully pull the net closed with a drawstring. I have been told –though I don’t know how to confirm it--that it was such throw nets that the fishermen were using two thousand years ago in Jesus’ time. There is an account at the end of the Gospel of John of a stranger advising the fishermen to throw the net on the right side of the boat. They do, and the net is so full they can’t get it back into the boat. Didn’t I say that living in Bangladesh is like traveling back in time?

There is another kind of net that is normally left on the bottom of a canal. When they think fish are swimming over it, they raise it suddenly, scooping up the fish.

I also learned how to catch fish with my bare hands. There was a pond right outside my house in Bangladesh. Friends would come over and swim in it. One guy splashed the water in front of him, then dove in. A few seconds later he came up with a small fish in his hand. My mind refused to believe what my eyes had just witnessed! Sure that he had a bag of fish somewhere down there, I demanded that he repeat the feat in another part of the pond, a part of my choosing. Once again he splashed the water in front of him, dove under, and this time he came up with a small fish in both hands! He insisted that his hands were as fast as lightning.

I pestered him day after day. I wore him out. How had he had done it? Finally he told me. When he splashed water in front of him, the fish took evasive action because they thought the splash was a net descending to trap them. Remember that the ponds have been heavily fished with throw nets for a couple of thousand years and only the clever fish survived. One small kind of fish evades capture by diving straight down into the muddy bottom. With only a bit of its tail sticking out, there is a good chance the edge of the net will pass over without scooping him up. My friend would dive under and feel the bottom. When he touched a fish, it would betray its presence by wiggling and trying to bury itself even more. Being embedded in the mud, it was easy to grab with one hand. Mystery solved! By the way, that kind of fish never exceeded 3” and it was bony and not worth eating. However, our ducks (yes, there are ducks in Bangladesh) loved them, so we threw the small fish to them on shore. We were rewarded with lots of delicious duck eggs.

Green Coconuts

I was intrigued at how easily people in Bangladesh could climb trees when there were no branches or other toeholds for the first thirty feet of trunk. You might think it’s easy to just shimmy up, but actually it’s very hard. They climb palm trees to tap the sweet sap of date palms that is boiled down to sugar, and they knock down still-green coconuts out of coconut palms. Green coconuts —called “dab”—have a liquid inside that is a perfect formulation for oral re-hydration solution for someone for someone whose stomach is in bad shape. Furthermore, I have been told by medical people that it is sterile and can be used as an intravenous (IV) drip.
So how do they climb up so easily? They loop rope around their ankles. It allows them to get the traction they need with their feet. Back in the U.S. as a teacher, I had a student who had grown up in South America. He said they use the same trick there.

I get a little embarrassed when I reminisce about the food in Bangladesh. I didn’t know much about the country before going. I was going to sacrifice 3 Spartan years of my life to helping the starving masses. When I got there, I enjoyed the sensual pleasure of eating “Bangla kabar” (Bengali cooking) every day. My passion lead me to learn food and cooking vocabulary first, and those are the words I’ll never forget even though I don’t speak much Bengali anymore.

Fish, chicken and beef can all be made into a rich “torkare” (curry). To say that curry is a sort of stew does not do justice to it. It’s the harmony of the freshly ground spices that makes it so delicious. Turmeric, hot pepper, garlic, onions, coriander, cardamom…also spices like ginger and cinnamon that we associate with sweet baking all combine to stroke your taste buds. Even ordinary potatoes become a feast when curried, as does spicy lentil “dal” and stir fried vegetable “baji.” The price of spices is a current event you read about in Bangladeshi newspapers. A person would be considered to be virtually starving if they could not afford spice for their food. You eat lots of rice with the meal.

The word “chutney” comes from South Asia. In Bangladesh, it takes the form of spicy mango pickle. You might be able to find some in well-stocked grocery store.

There are lots of tropical fruits in Bangladesh, too, like mango, guava and jackfruit. The bananas were small and had one or two hard seeds a little smaller than a cherry pit. But they had a better flavor and were sweeter than ones I buy in the grocery store now. I won’t even go into all the “mishti” (sweets). I don’t usually eat deserts, but I was helpless to resist Bengali sweets.

Village Technology in Bangladesh

Introduction

Going to the South Asian country of Bangladesh is like traveling back a century in a time machine. Animals pull plows. People still travel by boat. Electricity is rare. I lived with my wife and baby daughter, worked, partook in the language, food and music, and made friends there. I learned a lot.

I don’t mean to minimize the problems that exist in poor countries like Bangladesh. But when our national attention only shifts there for 30 seconds every few years to note some calamity, we don’t know that country. It is no more fair to see the rest of the world just in terms of “current events” than it is to represent our country only as a place where crazies with automatic rifles randomly gun down strangers. Does it happen? Yes. The sum total of our life and culture? Hardly. Don’t we owe it to the rest of the world to assume that is more going on than disasters?

There’s a certain symbolism in this picture of a kid who has practiced his (Bengali) letters with charcoal on dried palm leaves because he can’t afford paper and pencil. The kid considered himself to be privileged what with having a shot at literacy. So why should we pity him? Don’t we all know that Abraham Lincoln grew up dirt poor, the son of clever, hardworking... and illiterate parents? Didn’t Abe have to struggle for his education, using charcoal to write on everything but paper? Didn’t he work hard and become a great thinker, writer and leader of his country?

The scarcity that produces grinding poverty in Bangladesh also forces its people to substitute ingenuity for abundance. I like to think some of that spirit rubs off into this web site.

Join me for a bit and I’ll show you some cool ways people in Bangladesh provide for food, shelter and clothing. How they get around for short and long hops. And then check out some unique occupations—from brick breakers to snake charmers. I’ll even unravel the mysteries of the Asian squat toilet.

Note: It has been almost two decades since I lived in Bangladesh. If you visited the country you still will not mistake it for Kansas, but things are changing. A large textile industry has taken hold. When I was there we would hear of people drilling wells for water and encountering dangerous flammable gas. Now natural gas is starting to fuel the economy. I hear that certain powers are trying to ban the bicycle rickshaws. If some of the things you see in the following pages are outdated, then that is all the more reason I want to document the ingenuity that was, just as I love to read Eric Sloane books about early American technology and architecture. The last page has some updates.

Category: Bangladesh