The Hardisty's Bangladeshi Adventure: Various

Cockroaches: They are set to come out in force when the temperature really hots up but I have already more than I would like. They come out in the evening and you can bump in to them anywhere: the stairwell, bathroom, bedroom, street - they really are horrible little things. They scurry about with unnerving speed and are particularly detestable when they take off dart about the air.

Power cuts: These happen all the time here - several times a day at best through to power being off for all but a few hours a day at worst. Most buildings are set up for them and have generators or rechargeable battery systems for backup but it's not ideal; especially for Chloe who's laptop battery is completely shot!

Beggars: There are beggars everywhere you go here; children, elderly, male, female, abled, disabled. It's heartbreaking to see and even more so knowing that some of them are forced to beg by gang masters who take all of the money at the end of the day.

Strangers quickly becoming 'best friends': We are getting a glimpse into how celebrities must feel sometimes walking around in public. People stop and stare, point, take pictures but most annoyingly make real relationships very difficult because they want to be your best friend as soon as they've met you. Strangers may say hello and then quickly express their delight and excitement to have met you, ask for your mobile number and then expect you to contact them, meet up with them and very possibly financially support their business idea! It's frustrating because after several of these very awkward experiences we have become very wary about making any kind of contact with people we meet in the street.

Mosquito bites: Frequent and itchy.

Nakedness: Children running around half or fully naked is a fairly common sight but last week we saw a fully grown man walking down the side of a main road completely naked. It was a shocking image. I say image because the sight has been imprinted on my mind but of course it wasn't an image, it was a real person just like you or I and at the same time completely different to you or I because of his life experiences. Dignity felt absent and it was discomforting.

Children playing in poverty: Many children here seem to have so little; no shoes, clothes, nutritious food, clean water, 'fit for purpose' accommodation, gardens, 'parks' - many of the things we may consider so important for our children. But still many are smiley, playful, creative and cheerful. There is so little space here in Dhaka and construction is going on everywhere taking what little space there is left, so many children are left with only streets and construction sites for play grounds - so that is what they use. It is amazing to see cricket matches taking place on building sites with stacks of bricks for wickets, rubble for outfield grass, and bare feet for spikes. Dug foundation pits full of standing water become paddling pools, items of street-found litter become toys, polluted rivers become swimming pools. Children are constantly playing in situations we would never let our own anywhere near and yet these places are perhaps where they are at their happiest.

Chris