The highlight so far...

This evening we visited Sabbi and Martin's driver Mijah's house and family. They live in Kilketh which is an area quite close to the airport. Coming to the area and their house really gave us a close-up of a normal family's life in Dhaka. Deep in to alley ways with little shops tightly squeezed in along the sides with not much light at all. The streets where muddy and extremely uneven. At the end it was impossible to drive the car and we had to walk in mud and puddles.

Mijah and his  family lives four people in one small room. There was no real door to their house. One big bed in the room and a small kitchen. One flourescent tube of light on the wall. A fan in the ceiling and a tv. That's pretty much it. In this room Mijah lives with his wife and two daughters. Amazing family! While we were there more family kept coming over. Children, men and women all squeezed into the little room smiling and laughing. We all sat on the bed and played with the kids, ate food (samosa, pori, shingara, piaji, mori, misti, rashmalai, jarda mm), drank coca-cola and tea and the room was filled with such warmth and hospitality.

We had brought a huge suitcase with things to donate. Toys, clothes, things for infants, shoes, glasses etc. Many things were donated by collegues in my office. Every single item was so appreciated. It went to a family who very well needed this but also were very grateful and never would have even asked for anything.

They had fun with posing for the camera so here comes a lot of fun memorable pictures. This was the highlight of this trip so far. By far!

Taking off from the main road...

It's getting tighter and darker...

Bumby road in a tight rickshaw... Cars cannot drive on this road...

And now we are deep into the alley ways with not much light to guide us...

At Mijah and his family's house. Here are his two daughters (above and below)

We are invited to sit on their bed to eat

Mijah and his wife

                                         Mijah and his wife and his sisters

Cousins

So much happiness for the gifts we brought

Posings

We were also invited to Mijah's brothers house for a visit:

                                                    The brother and his family
                                             

                                          We got well escorted in the rain when it was time to leave
                                       

Bye! Thank you for everything!

Back in the "bubble" (safe zone) with impressions and memories for life...