Dear Friends,

It is by now a tradition that I write this ‘one for all’ letter after coming back from my visit to Bhola’s Children home; I can already assure you it was a very special and intense journey. Incredible! but true, this time Josè-Luis and Eleonora were not my travelling companions (remember? .... the ‘Three Musketeers’) but this time we were a Quartet, the famous ‘Chapati Quartet’ (I will explain later about this inusual name) composed by the incredible webmaster Holger Sigmund, the talented film director Jelena Gernert, the debutant Isabella Spiegel and me, ‘Mammi’ Bruna.

It was at the beginning an intense, difficult and frustrating journey because of our luggage problem. Holger and Jelena flying from Frankfurt, Isabella and I from London, had to ‘fight’, ‘plea’, ‘beg’, ‘cry’ to get all our 17 pieces! with us with no charge as we had been promised before by Qatar Air office because of our humanitarian mission! Aaaahh! but at both airports nobody knew anything about it and everybody in Qatar organization (except for the wonderful Amira that tried everything possible) refused any help, collaboration, support and forced us in London to pay an obscene amount of overweight luggage and in Frankfurt to send 5 pieces with a special cargo company that later will become the protagonists of an hilarious, unbelievable, impossible! story of their collection in Bhola.

We all left angry swearing never to fly Qatar again, but were very happy to get finally together in Doha to catch the connecting flight to Dhaka. It was the first time that Holger and Jelena, Germans living in Switzerland, met the very young and courageous! Austrian Isabella (20ys) and it was the birth of an inusual Quartet that after its living experience in Bhola became the ‘Chapati Quartet’. Having forwarned Ali about our luggage, he came to pick us up with the Toyota van stripped of all the back seats!

Dhaka was a cultural shock for my new companions: the traffic and noise, impossible to believe and describe!; the dirt and the heavy polluted atmosphere, incredible!; the millions of men around the streets doing nothing, shocking!; being always surrounded and stared at as rare ‘extraterrestials’ disturbing and surprising!. But with the help and guidance of very happy and smiling Ali, Shamin (student/teacher in our home) and Sumon (Ali’s son) we all got involved in the ‘Bangladeshy way’ and went around Dhaka to buy the special items for the newly built kitchen in Bhola (‘European’ cooker, extractor, water-heaters, ecc) and the new computers, printer, projector, ecc. with money donated from Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany.

It was an incredible experience! Holger couldn’t understand and believe! the time it took to buy ‘anything’; the many people in charge in the shops that didn’t know anything about what they had, how much it cost, ecc... Jelena kept filming the ‘event’ making us feeling even more important in the eyes of the local people. I felt like a Bollywood star talking to the camera surrounded and watched by so many eyes. Good for my middle age ego but very unnerving for young Isabella... eh eh eh.

Two days later, at six o’clock in the morning we packed our Toyota van with all the things we managed to buy in Dhaka and our twelve pieces of luggage, fortunately at this time the five pieces from Frankfurt hadn’t arrived yet! We were very crammed and not so comfortable but so happy to leave Dhaka, excitied of our driving trough the country and the three ferries we had to take, looking forward to arriving at our home in Bhola.

Ali, to make sure we could catch the first ferry, drove the Bangladeshy way, very fast, blowing the horn constantly, avoiding people and rickshaws by centimetres! Mind you, Ali drives always like this unless I ‘beg’ him to slow down so we can admire the beautiful scenery around us .....”Mammi ......am I going slowly enough? ......” - 30 km .... eh eh eh

After a long journey full of pleasant and amusing encounters on the ferries; waiting for the last ferry three hours! because of a ‘government bus’ that never arrived!, Isabella and I sitting inside the local barber shop watching shaving only with the cut-throat razor (my dream to do it!), 2 Jelena and Holger sleeping in the van screened from the sun by the national ‘lungi’, Ali bathing in the river, we finally arrived at Bholas Children Protibondi School where we were welcomed by all the children and staff like a reception commettee with bouquets of flowers, lots of clapping, hugging and cries of ‘mammi ...mammi’. I saw many new children, some very young (6yrs), recognized the beautiful smiling faces of Laily, Pitul, Hafsa, Rozina, Sophia, Hamran, Maksud, Anthu; the always serious Montu, discreet Dipok, giggling Faruk, the gentle and elegant Ranozid and many more familiar faces. I was finally home!

Jelena filmed the unpacking of the van (to be seen to be believed!), everybody eager and excited to carry things, at the same time flabbergasted by the quantity!! Our personal luggage was taken to the top floor of the new building where we could unwind, refresh and settle in the two rooms for visitors with a big terrace overlooking the surrounding area of ponds, palm and betel nut trees, rice fields, banana plants giving my new companions the impression of being in a holiday resort!

As usual when visitors come the school timetable is disrupted, the children following us everywhere, this time also more intrigued by Jelena filming, surprised and amused by seeing themselves on the little screen. The opening of the suitcases always a ritual with Ali getting very excited only when he sees drilling machines, mechanical tools and the big tubs of honey! This time the star was an Italian welding machine that was taken very fast to the workshop and used immediately with proud and joy! Ah! .... men are the same everywhere!

At the beginning, for me, it was strange to be in Bhola with new people, I missed Josè-Luis and Eleonora, I was worried my new companions were not comfortable enough (uuuh! ..... just like Ali), I was worried that they would find it difficult to be surrounded by so many deaf-dumb children eager to talk, waving their hands so fast, making funny faces; being always followed and touched; worried by the lack and confused verbal communication because the level of English is still very poor in our home; I was worried about the same type of food everyday; about the continuous power cuts and ‘no connection’ that made it difficult to use the computer to keep the ‘web journal’ of our adventure. 

But Bholas Children Protibondi School is a real magic place. Within two days we all seemed to be in such a natural harmony all together, Jelena kept filming the everyday life and activities surrounded by many fans and eager ‘actors’; Holger became immediately very popular among the girls (crazy about this dashing young European man!) learning very fast their sign language, but also the boys felt he was ‘one of them’. Our young teachers excited to talk and learn with him how to use the computers and projector hoping to communicate in the future with him via email. Isabella at the beginning found it hard to relate to so many ‘complicated’ children, but very soon she was playing with them, communicating in sign language, laughing, teaching them games, rowing the boat on the pond. After a few days saying to me: “I really like them everyday more and more”. One evening we played special domino for blind people with Rozina and Sophia (both blind), Isabella playing keeping her eyes shut all the time!

After four days, miracle!, the missing five pieces of luggage arrived in Dhaka at the cargo area. Ali and Holger flew with the small seaplane hoping to collect them and return that night by ferry. It turned out not to be so, giving Holger the chance to really experience the Bangladeshy way:three days! of waiting going from one office to another; getting to know so many very friendly ‘middle men’; paying so many Takas here and there; filling so many forms!; seeing so many ‘men in charge’ that didn’t know what to do; having to go to a special building where they kept the parcel containing the ‘dangerous’ small generator still not completely assembled! (I had the missing pieces with me).

It was a good way for Holger and Ali to get to know each other, even sharing the same room in the hotel! In the boundary (as Ali always refers to our home/school) Jelena kept filming showing even blind girls sewing, disabled children making furniture, deaf-dumb learning to cook; Isabella and I tought the children to play UNO (card game), every night organizing two big tables with most of the children wanting to play and believe me! shouting UUUUUNOOO with their hands and growls, being so happy and clapping whenever someone won! In the kitchen we kept watching with interest how the chapati were made wanting to learn to make them ourselves.

Finally an early, dark and misty morning we went to collect Ali and Holger at the ferry. It was like in a film, we three girls, surrounded by the usual big crowd, waving sheets of paper with colourful drawings of flowers and Holger – Ali – Welcome written on them. Then in the mist a tall figure dressed in the national lungi, walked slowly towards us. I actually thought of Gandhi (a bigger Gandhi) coming slowly to his people; it was still dark but we immediately recognized Holger, our Holger but with a very Bangladeshy Look! He never planned to be in Dhaka so long, therefore he had to buy a change of clothes, decided to ‘go native’ and started to wear the Lungi like most men do in Bangladesh. Until we left to go back to Europe, Holger wore different coloured Lungi, looking definitely sexier and more stylish, like men wearing the Scottish kilts. A much younger Sean Connery .... eh eh eh

It was an instant success! he became even more popular! Our children love when we dress the Bangladeshy way. Isabella was so popular not only because of her gentleness, sensitivity, willingness to play and be part of the family, but also considered even more as a sister because she was always wearing the native dress, also one of a beautiful blue made by our wonderful Asma.

To celebrate Holger’s return, Isabella cooked Spätzle with a special spätzler we brought with us to teach Laily. Oh! it was so good ...... even Laily liked it and the next few days she made Spätzle again all on her own and Isabella said they were better than hers! We inaugurated the new kitchen using the new European cooker when Lars-Erik and Ronald came to visit from Sweden. It was a very special reunion for Lars-Erik and me, the first in Bhola, in the project we started together nearly five years ago.

Extraordinary, Ronald had been living for three years in the ‘70s in one of the old houses; he was so impressed by the changes we have already made and we discussed a lot of the present situation and future plans. With Lars-Erik we also looked at some problems that needed to be addressed with Ali to help and guide him to solve them in the near future. Not everything is always magic and good, even in our project. Lars-Erik, Ronald, Ali and I had a meeting discussing about the growing of the project and the need of a more structured organization with the old problem of Ali not delegating enough; of having someone in charge of the cleanliness of the boundary (at the moment still poor); giving Ranozid 5 more managing responsabilities; recruting better and more specialized teachers (some already arriving in January 2010); we discussed the habit of keeping all the toys and stationery always locked, introducing instead a more liberal policy of teaching our children to take and tidy up any material they use.

We studied the future plans to build a much bigger wood/metal workshop and tayloring department for our boys and girls to learn very useful and needed skills for their future jobs once they leave our home, building also better accomodations for the married staff one floor above the new workshop, deciding to start first draining and filling half of the big pond, to prepare for the foundations of the new building.

Laily was so happy to learn new recipes shouting always ‘fantastic’! But we wanted to learn how to make chapati too and finally Isabella and Holger had a ‘go at it’, making at first unusual shape chapatis! We started dreaming of funding the ‘Laily’s Chapati Co.’ – London, Paris, Zurich, Berlin, Barcelona, ..... serving chapatis with all different stuffings, sweet (ah! nutella) and savoury with the cry ‘Fantastic!’ coming up everytime a special one was selected! It was the birth of the ‘Chapati Quartet’ with plans to tour the world in aid of Bholas Children Protibondi School!

Our time in Bhola kept flowing like a smooth river, full of activities, excitement and fun sharing with the children school lessons, singing and playing the keyboard with Rozina and Sophia; swimming and playing water polo in the pond, with Ali the referee blowing the whistle and waving signs language. The last day Mammi Bruna went in the water too to the delight of all! In the evenings some of the children and staff, Isabella and Holger played bedmington, while others watched television or some of the many DVDs that Mammi Bruna brought last time in January. 

One evening we watched, using the new laptop and projector, the film made by Jelena of the event in Liechtenstein of ‘Ein Schiff für Bhola’ about the thousands of boats made by the youngsters in FL to help our children in Bhola, raising more than CH 2500! Ranozid and Shamin were attentive ‘students’ when Holger was explaining and showing them how to use the new machines we had just bought in Dhaka thanks to the donation of a German company.

One of the most beautiful days we had was when we all went to Valumia, the land we bought two year ago where we cultivate most of the vegetables and fruits, teaching the children agricultural skills for their future. In Valumia we have also a big canal and pond where we fish. It was really emotional to see our boys and girls swimming together, fishing together, throwing their nets and then slowly pulling it ...... at one time the girls catching the bigger fish! While we were watching them being so happy together, so excited, so free, I explained to Holger, Jelena and Isabella about the uniqueness of our project. In a Muslim country, where there is always a division of gender and capabilities, in our beautiful land and home, our children whatever is their disability and gender are all together, they play together, they work together, they learn together, they fish together, they cook together, they enjoy together, they really ‘live’ together, appreciating anything we give them, any amount of time we spend with them. They are genuinely and infectiously happy.

In Valumia we plan to build the first BHOLAS CHILDREN FARM where the grown up children that cannot be integrated into the local society can live and support themselves having always our help and guidance. Lars- Erik and Ronald were very impressed when I showed them the area we are planning to clear and prepare for the future building. We obviously need to do a lot of fund-raising for this project too, hoping also to bring to Valumia some friends specialized in the field to help building it.

Jelena has taken hours of film of our visit there, she will obviously edit it preparing a version for the website, planning also to make a DVD that we would like to give to friends so that they can experience, at least virtually, the wonderful atmosphere and achievements we have all contributed to this special project, hoping to inspire some of them to go to Bhola in the near future.