Bangladesh to PEI travels

I am home in PEI! Jon will be leaving Bangladesh tomorrow.  My travels were a little more eventful than I would have preferred. There were a few hurdles to overcome before leaving Bangladesh:  a delayed then cancelled domestic flight from Cox's Bazar, a race back north to Chittagong, a scramble for a new ticket, terrible traffic jams, and 8 hours on the road with motion sickness.  Despite arriving at the exact minute of the scheduled departure time of my new ticket, the counter was still open.  I had accepted that I was going to miss the new flight so I was very thankful to arrive in Dhaka in time for my international departure!

First meal on Canadian soil - Kale smoothie and gluten free cookie

I have been enjoying some sun and the much lower humidity.  The weather has been amazing so far except for Hurricane Arthur who caused some damage last weekend.  I am getting in lots of visiting but I have many more to see!  We are heading back in August.

Cavendish Beach West

Heading down to Grammie's farm

 The women herself
 

Rice Point during Hurricane Arthur

 Swimming at the pool with my nieces and nephews

The kids are learning to dive and Jamin is entertained

 

An old photo of Jon on the beach by out house

Holly

MCH Project Photosphere - July 10, 2014

Photosphere of the project site as of July 10, 2014.

Views: MCH Building Project by Jonathan Barrett

The rainy season has thankfully calmed down over the past 9 days with more sporadic rain vs the constant heavy rain that the season started with. It's helping construction progress, but also great conditions for weeds and grass to grow.

Ground Floor

 

Southwest wing - two more slabs remaining above this wing

Jon Barrett

Second Floor Slab (West) - Complete

After a marathon of a cast the second floor slab (West) is now complete.  The workers started at 4:30am Sunday morning and finished 5:30am Monday morning (25 hour continuous casting).  I found it quite impressive that the workers were able to continue doing such hard labor for this long period of time. Although by hour 22 the pace of progress started to quickly drop.

Site Overview on Casting Day - July 6, 2014

Despite being a very wet start to the monsoon season we were blessed to have a perfect casting day. NO RAIN, often overcast, humid, light breeze, and comparably not too hot - great for the concrete curing and mainly great for the workers (except the humidity). This was a huge blessing as once we start casting it is costly and provides many technical difficulties if heavy prolonged rain occurs.

Second Floor Slab

There is now 58,000 sq ft of slab cast so progress continues at a steady pace. Two more slabs remaining on this West wing before we move to the East portion of the building.

Moving, Mixing and Lifting 

 

Jon

MCH Project Progress - Photo Log

A photo log of the progress on the site over the past year. 

Current progress is slow due to strong ongoing rains over the past 5 days (well over 12"). These rains are actually worse than any sustained rains received during the 2013 monsoon season.  Hopefully once this storm front move on things can dry up somewhat to help progress.

Feb 5, 2013 

(Prior to any site work)

April 25, 2013 

(After clearing the site)

August 30, 2013

(Foundation pile works)

November 4, 2013

(Pile cap and excavation/fill work)

January 25, 2014

(Basement slab pour)

February 15, 2014

(Basement column/wall casting)

 

April 12, 2014

(West ground floor casting)

May 19, 2014

(West first floor casting)

 

June 16, 2013

(West second floor form works)

Jon Barrett

First Floor Slab Casting (West Wing) - Complete

This past Tuesday/Wednesday we just completed the first floor slab casting (west wing).  Despite being on the verge of the rainy season - with heavy rains the day before and after - we had relatively clear days (only a few short rains early on the second day of casting). It took roughly 28 hours of casting with three mixers, three cranes and 230 laborers to complete the 15,000 sq ft (11,000 cft) slab. Now we move on to the second floor slab above - our aim is 40 days and counting. At the same time we will be working on completing the ground floor slab on the East sections of the building.

View from the West on casting day - three mixers and lifts to get the concrete up the 22' to slab height

 

 

Jon & Holly on casting day
 

Unloading the concrete onto the slab to be transfered by head load

Workers headloading

Site overview from the South - May 27, 2014

Moving the concrete

A bit of rain on day two so we were covering the concrete to ensure no damage

Jon

Guye Holud Ceremony - take II

Work remains busy on the construction site with prep work for the ground floor ceiling casting (planned for this week) and soil filling to raise the grade in east section of the building before the rainy season hits hard. A construction post is coming soon.  Meanwhile, here is an example of some of the interesting cultural experiences we have in Bangladesh.

The son of the one of the hospital drivers got married a few months ago.  The day before heading to Chittagong for the wedding ceremony, the Guye Holud (tumeric smearing ceremony) was held for the groom locally.

The groom's niece displaying her henna.

Preparing fruit and vegetable snacks to feed the groom.  The gourd on the right is carved as a local dugout canoe.  Nice T-shirt!



Five women crushing a large bean

The crushed bean pieces resembled a ceramic

Holly adding to the groom's tumeric facial.

The party goers getting in on the fun.

Not surprisingly, the ceremony did not start on time.  The kids were quite patient, although the little guy on the right seems to be feed up with the waiting.

Holly

The Great Barrier Reef

While in Australia, we were able to fly North to Cairns to see The Great Barrier Reef.  We also connected with my brother Zach and his camper van gang as they were travelling the east coast before heading home.  We did a day trip snorkeling at the outer reef about 60 km from shore. The morning ride was really rough and I (and many others) became quite seasick. Thankfully I felt much better once we stopped and were able to get into the water.  We saw incredible coral with tropical fish everywhere, great trip.  Photos of our time in Australia have been uploaded to our photo gallery (Australia 2014).

 

Our boat

 

 

One (of three) of our snorkeling locations

 

Holly swimming through a channel

 

 

Jon diving down to get a better look

 

Large clam

 

Clown fish

 

 Coral

 

 Napoleon Wrasse (Humphead) Fish (several feet long and friendly)

 

A view of the reef from our flight to Brisbane

 



Eating out with Zach and April in Cairns

Holly

Sydney Layover

On my way to meet up with Holly in Melbourne, I had a day stopover in Sydney. It was fun to play the tourist (which I most definitely was) for the day and go see a number of classic Sydney locations. It was such a huge change from being in Bangladesh. Simply put... ORGANIZATION vs the typical chaos - uncrowded metros/busses, crosswalks, working street lights, almost no honking, English, high prices, cooler temperatures, no litter, no aggressive beggars...

We had a great time away to refresh. Now back to construction.

Jon checking out the Sydney sites just after landing

Sydney Opera House and Bridge

View from the Bridge Pylon

Sydney Harbour Bridge

The Opera house is actually tiled on the exterior, which I found interesting

Jon