Thanks to Eileen, my fabulous colleague, I got to hop on a sessna sea plane, and go to Bhola for a location recce. It was fabulous! We went to Bhola and Barisal, two island-ish districts of Bd. On the pic on top (from left), Chad (the pilot), Wahid bhai, (my boss), Babu (co-pilot, and also my classmate from primary school), me and David (photographer/friend)
It was a bit freaky to see the pilot taking snapshots while we were on the air.
We landed on water at the Bhola river bank, which looked scary.
The plane was parked next to a paddy field while we went for work. Then we flew to Barisal for an hour of planning there.
And at the end of the day, the runways of Zia Int'l Airport looked very welcoming. If you look closer, you could see the track lights on the runway.Two funny things happened during the day. I didn't recognize Babu (of Babu and Chonda, the first couple among us to get married way back in 1990) till the afternoon when we were in Barisal and he was talking to someone about being in a band (he's a guitarist of Nagar Baul, a famous folk-rock band here). To my credit, he didn't recognize me either.
Second, the pilot, while chatting in Bhola, mentioned that he has five kids. As much as I admired his skill as a pilot, I couldn't get over that fact for the rest of the day, and wondered what his wife's health might be like. In a project where we promote reproductive rights, birth spacing, and planning for your offspring, it was the ultimate irony, to have a first world companion proudly mentioning this.
The trip was otherwise great, and I'll try to put up more pics when I get a chance. But, right now, I'm off to a lunch date i've been looking forward to all week.
