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English Lessons Resume in the Local Village

Posted by on July 17th, 2011

Through our days documenting the village neighboring Panigram, we have come to know many of the local children quite well.  As we walked through the village, they would follow us energetically and inquisitively, watching us sketch, listening to us speak, and examining every little move we made.  The children would point to animals, plants, food, or anything else that might (or might not) interest us, and relay its name to us in Bangla, laughing at our poor pronunciation a few times until we said the word correctly.  In exchange, we would teach them the word in English, which they were so anxious to discover.  These interactions were the first days of our English lessons, which have now officially located to the village school on Friday mornings.

We taught the kids the names of the body parts by singing "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes".

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Categories: Community Outreach, Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Responsible Hospitality, Social Responsibility | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | Comments: 2

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A Comprehensive Guide to the Bangladeshi Transport System

Posted by on July 6th, 2011

Our arrival into Dhaka on a hartal (strike) day left us naively optimistic about the state of Bangladeshi roads. 36 hours spent in the car over the following few days, on the edge of our seats whilst our driver casually avoided numerous head-on collisions, quickly set us straight. Native Bangladeshis, it seems, have an uncanny sixth sense for dodging, weaving and horn-honking: skills that are all entirely necessary on the narrow, overcrowded roads. Until fairly recently, however, our transportation methods have remained relatively luxurious, in comparison to the wide range of two, three and four wheeled contraptions that we have seen. Most vehicles resemble something close to a three wheeled car or a bicycle, with either seats or a trailer tacked onto the back, depending on what needs to be transported. Cars are a rare sight; the one lane roads are occupied by hordes of highly decorated rickshaws, auto-rickshaws, Easy Bikes (electric auto-rickshaws), trucks, buffalo-drawn carts, bicycles, buses, vans, nosimons (auto-vans) and pedestrians.

Bangladeshi trucks are usually painted in very bright colors.

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Mud and Mangoes

Posted by on June 24th, 2011

Now, after almost two weeks of settling into our humble abode in Jessore, we interns, have become quite adjusted to our new lifestyle abroad.  We eat our egg and ruti in the morning before our hour-long autorickshaw ride to the project site; a ride which often makes me think of getting pulled down bumpy sidewalks as a child in my little red metal wagon.  Here, though, the sidewalk is eight feet wider and trucks stacked twenty feet high with local goods like hay, bricks, or goats (though not usually all three together…) fight at top speeds for the extra sliver of road beside me.

Millie waits for our driver Rafik in the autorickshaw.

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Categories: Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Sustainable Design | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments: 4

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Introducing the Interns…

Posted by on June 13th, 2011

We have a great group of interns this year, all architects who will be helping us construct our site office to test out our mud building techniques.

Bradley Kinsey

Bradley Kinsey

Raised on steak, potatoes, and public pools, Bradley was your quintessential product of the American midwest. While the suburbs of Chicago offered him a side yard and picket fence, the idea of  varying topography and open space was all too alluring, so he packed up for the University of Colorado. While at C.U., Bradley’s appetite for new cultures was heightened as he studied abroad in Italy and traveled throughout Europe with the university’s snowboard team. When it was time to move on, Brooklyn, New York came calling to him with a similar lure as Colorado, being the pursuit of architecture and the excitement of a foreign land. Read the rest of this entry »

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Summer Interns Are Here Again!

Posted by on June 13th, 2011

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...

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Categories: Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | Comments: Be the first to comment..

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Winter Interns Work on Alternative Energy Project

Posted by on January 23rd, 2011

A couple of months ago a student from Cornell emailed me. She said that she had applied for the summer internship last year at Panigram, but unfortunately was not selected. She said that she really wanted to work for my company and was wondering if she could come do a winter internship with me. I thought that three weeks was too short for an internship, but I was impressed with her initiative, and I always enjoy working with students, so I agreed. Her friend Cat (another Cornell engineering student) decided to join her. Read the rest of this entry »

Categories: Alternative Energy, Interns, Internships, News, Photos, Responsible Hospitality, Sustainable Design | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments: 1

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English and the Environment

Posted by on July 9th, 2010

Last Friday’s class was the last session of Panigram’s English Lessons for the summer. The pavilion was plentiful with kids, this time about a hundred. When we arrived the kids were already waiting, cross-legged, in rows, chattering about in anticipation. The theme of this session was Plants and Recycling.

Katrina illustrates the different parts of a plant and how it grows.

Katrina illustrates the different parts of a plant and how it grows.

Prior to the class, I wanted to demonstrate how to plant a seed, which required another trip to the crazy Jessore market. Trang and I scurried through damp allies to get to a kiosk selling all kinds of seeds. From pumpkin to mango seeds, the owner’s store was lined with packages of ready-to-grow items. (Except for the expired cabbage seeds he tried to sell me!) In addition to papaya plants, which we heard are fast growing, we also bought four baby ready-to-pot papaya plants.

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