A Journey to Bangladesh: Burns Conference 2011

EPISODE 1

Shariq Ali
ValueVarsity

It was a bright morning in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, in April 2011. The three of us—Tom, Ruth Anne, and I—walked into the main terminal of Tribhuvan International Airport with our luggage, having passed through security. Our hosts had bid us farewell a little earlier. Upon reaching the check-in counter, we found out that our GMG Airlines flight, a private airline from Bangladesh, was delayed by four hours.

Although our joint journey had begun at London Heathrow four days earlier, we were now heading to Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to attend the South East Asia Conference after completing a three-day training session for clinical burn staff in Kathmandu.

Tom, a burns and plastic surgeon from Wales, was traveling with me to attend the conference. Together with Shobha, an Indian burns and plastic surgeon, we had founded an international NGO called Interburns (International Network for Training, Education, and Research in Burns) in 2007. Our shared enemy, burns, doesn’t see religion, nationality, or borders, so we ensured no such divisions existed within Interburns either, allowing us to collectively tackle this global human issue. By that time, we had successfully completed numerous Interburns projects in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Uganda, Bangladesh, and the UK.

Ruth Anne, an experienced burns physiotherapist from a London hospital and the administrator of Interburns, was also with us. Hearing about the flight delay, we decided not to check in yet and instead headed to the Biman Bangladesh Airlines office to try and secure an earlier flight. We tried contacting our travel agent in London but couldn’t get through.

Meanwhile, Ruth Anne complained of feeling unwell and nauseous and sat down on a nearby sofa. We had already learned during breakfast at the hotel that she was suffering from food poisoning, but she had somehow kept up with the busy schedule. However, hearing about the additional four-hour wait must have drained her energy.

With the help of the airport staff, we took her to the airport clinic. The Nepali doctor there greeted Ruth Anne warmly but gave Tom and me somewhat suspicious and disapproving looks. After a brief examination, he said that Ruth was dehydrated and would need to stay in the clinic for two hours to receive an IV drip.

We left Ruth in the clinic and went back to the airport lounge, where we checked in and waited for our flight. Once her drip was done, Ruth rejoined us in the lounge, feeling much better. We teased her, asking if the Nepali doctor had given her a charm or a keepsake. She smiled confidently and replied, “Some things are best kept secret.”

After the long wait, our flight was finally announced. After completing the security checks, we boarded the plane, only to find it packed with passengers. Most of them were Bengali laborers working in Dubai and Doha, returning home via Kathmandu to visit their families in Dhaka.

The three of us stood in the crowded plane, feeling a bit overwhelmed, when the chief steward pleasantly surprised us by upgrading us to the first-class compartment, where no other passengers were present. A little later, the plane began taxiing, and soon we were on our way to Dhaka.

… to be continued.