teatime!

tea picker. in action.

Friday May 30 - Saturday May 31

This past weekend we got the AMAZING opportunity to go to the karnaphuli tea estate, 60 km outside of Chittagong, that has just recently restarted operations after the dry season (did you know from december through the end of march tea is not processed in bangladesh? well, now you do!) 

On the way to the tea garden (garden, estate, plantation...they're all used interchangeably to describe where tea is grown in vast quantities) we stopped for a picnic lunch alongside the road, where we saw a small pond with steps.  As we should have anticipated, the family that own the land and pond came to introduce themselves and invited us to their home for food and tea.  this is so typical of the hospitality we've been shown in Bangladesh, and the locals tell us that it's the same everywhere throughout the country.  it really is astounding when i think about everything we've been given, and the amazing hospitality we've been shown, just in the three months we've been in Bangladesh.  

The tea estate, Karnaphuli, was recently taken over by BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) and covers 6.5 thousand acres.  There are approximately 7,000 workers that live on the grounds of the estate, and according to the manager on any given day about 2,000 will be working.    When we arrived, i immediately felt like i'd been sent back about 100 years to live on a plantation.  we were staying in the 'guesthouse' which was a huge complex with high ceilings, room after room, and a HUGE veranda.  Of course, within 30 minutes of putting our bags down we had flowers in our hair from local bushes and tea brewed right in front of us - strrrrrong stuff, but really really good. 

Friday afternoon we took a walk once it got a bit cooler and i ended up talking/walking with the director of the Access Academy, who was accompanying us for the weekend.  It was particularly amazing to split off from the group (in actuality they just walked quicker than we did ...) because once we did, our director would speak to the workers on the estate and ask if we could be shown around.  therefore, i was able to see a bunch of the houses that are provided for the workers on the estate, and conversations were translated for me explaining the education level of the children of working families and how things were going.  of course, i spent most of the time taking pictures of cute little kids and playing a version of hide-and-seek with huge groups of children...making them laugh hysterically at me and then promptly run behind their mother's saris.  All the workers are provided with land, shelter and basic amenities (different amounts of food depending on how many people are in the family).  the houses are either mudhuts, tin-roofed, or thatched, and it's luck of the draw when you start working on the estate and which type of housing is available.  

The highlight of Friday, however, was after a fantastic dinner of freshly caught fish, a game of taboo (Mihiri - you're AMAZING!!! thank you for the box of games!!!) and conversation late into the night on the veranda, the heat broke and a huge, crazy thunderstorm started.  as we sat, the storm got so loud we couldn't hear each other speak, and we were all forced to enjoy watching the rain and lightning, and listen to the thunder roll by.  it was simply incredible.  definitely how i would love to pass monsoon season. 

Saturday we got a tour from the BRAC manager of a larger radius of the estate (thanks to their amazing 4-wheel drive vehicles) and then a tour of the production area of the tea leaves after they've been picked.  it was AMAZING.  i still almost can't believe our luck. check out the photos below. pretty incredible. 

the inside of a fresh jackfruit awaiting our arrival :)

teatime! (i mean, what else would you do at a tea estate, really?)

the path in front of the guesthouse leading to the fields

an older woman and her son or grandson walking along the path home (the boy was playing with an empty syringe...)


baby tea plants! (the nursery) when the plants reach a certain height, with enough leaves to be considered healthy, they're moved into the fields

two of the children i met while walking. freaking adorable.

these two ladies are working tea-pickers, carrying the leaves they've picked that morning to another area they need to work on.  while the labor's hard and intensive, there was definitely a camaraderie amongst the workers we met and were able to watch for a short time. 

at the last stage of our tea factory tour we got to see the tasters brewing fresh tea and checking the quality of each grade. pretty incredible.