Summer Interns Are Here Again!

This is the third summer now that I have been fortunate enough to have interns. This year I have two Cornellians and a student from the University of Edinburgh, all architecture students keen to learn about mud buildings.

The interns spent their first night at my house in Dhaka. I immediately put them to work on an arts and crafts project, but jet lag caught up with them and craft time soon turned into nap time.

Jet lag catches up with the interns as craft time turns into nap time...

I usually take the interns on a field trip for orientation week; this year we went to visit Dinajpur, Anna Heringer’s mud school in Rudrapur, and the Teatulia tea estate in Panchagar. It was a long nine hour ride to reach Dinajpur, but the interns enjoyed seeing the Bangladeshi countryside. The next day we toured the Dinajpur Rajbari and the interns were astounded and delighted that we were allowed to wander without restrictions around this old mansion.

Millie, Bradley, and Jen at the Rajbari mansion in Dinajpur.

Jen Grosso takes photos of the Rajbari.

In the afternoon we went on to visit Anna’s mud school in Rudrapur. Bradley had read extensively about Anna’s building before arriving and was quite excited to see it in person. We all had a lot of fun playing in the METI school and we got a tour of the DESI school from one of the teachers.

Summer interns at Anna Heringer's METI school in Rudrapur.

The interns enjoyed playing in Anna's school as much as the kids do.

Millie Tennant in the reading caves at the METI School.

In the evening we headed to Panchagar. The next day we visited the Teatulia tea estate and got a tour of how the tea is processed. The trip was a great overview of Bangladesh and got the students’ creative juices flowing.