Today I visited the MAF hangar, which is on the edge of Dhaka International airport. On the way to the hangar, we got stuck in a traffic jam - the level crossing barriers were down, and we were waiting for the train to pass through.
Interestingly, the railway line is completely open and anyone can just walk across it - the only place where there is a barrier is across the road which crosses the line. Health and safety issues are definitely not a priority here!
As we were waiting for the train to pass through, I watched the throngs of people milling about - some selling their meagre wares on the pavements, others just seemingly wandering about aimlessly. Amongst these, I spotted a small girl maybe aged about 3 or 4 and a boy, who I suspect was her brother, maybe aged about 6 or 7. They seemed to be on their own. The children were shabbily dressed, with no shoes, but the little girl stood out in particular in her bright pink (but dirty) outfit and her shaven head. Seeing girls with their heads shaven is not an uncommon site in Bangladesh - I understand it has something to do with head lice! These two children were standing on their own, side by side, on the edge of the railway line amongst the piles of rotting rubbish, but with their arms around each other - it just felt so poignant.
The train slowly rolled out of the station - the seemingly endless line of carriages were literally full to capacity, with people standing inside and in the open doorways, hanging out of the side. There were people on the top of every single carriage, either sitting or even lying down, together with their piles of belongings in big what sacks. There were even some people sitting on the tiny ledges on the side of the engine!
Once we eventually crossed the railway line, I suddenly became very aware of the air pollution, even though I was inside a car with the windows closed. The fumes from the traffic were clearly visible outside and it is not unusual to see people wearing masks over their noses and mouths.
On the entrance road to the hangar there were some people repairing the road. All building and road work is very labour intensive and is done by both men and women. I saw one lady carrying what looked like a very large container of cement on her head. She had wrapped a piece of cloth around the top of her head, which gave her a sort of level ‘platform’ on which to place the container.
There has been some building since I last visited the MAF hangar - with 3 new hangars being built adjacent to MAF. These hangars are owned by private individuals/businesses, and in one of them they were even repairing some Bangladeshi army aircraft. Despite the fact that the airfield is secure ie there are security guards at all the entrances to the airport and you need special permission from the Bangladeshi authorities to go to the hangar (which I had!), it did strike me as odd that at an international airport, you could have army aircraft being openly repaired, soldiers wandering about, Bangladeshi airforce planes taking off regularly from the same airstrip, international flights coming and going regularly, and people wandering about the airfield shooting birds! I might add that the birds are a nuisance in this instance - I saw hundreds upon hundreds of birds, which, of course, are a very real danger to aircraft. But where else in the world would this happen...?
We've lost the electricity several times in Dhaka today - so I'm posting this now just in case we lose it again!!
- Carolyn
