Gramps' Web Site - Bangladesh Gallery OTR - Road Work   HOME Bangladesh Gallery    00-Arrival    10-Install Panel    20-On The Road      21-Commerce      22-Ferry Crossing      23-Road Work      24-Drivers      25-Field Work      29-Nasim's Baby    30-At Home      31-Dhaka Streets      32-Around Dhaka    40-Heart Attack    50-Floods    60-Bangla Wedding    70-Signs    80-Portrates    90-Last Day    Bangla Journal    Sign Gramps'     DreamBook    “guestbook”     Most of the roads in Bangladesh were in a constant state of either ruin or repair. Machinery was expensive but muscle power was cheap. Here are a few of hundreds of scenes of painfully skinny men carrying amazingly heavy loads under excruciatingly dangerous conditions. Click on a thumb to see a larger version. This stack of bricks is waiting to be used to surface the nearby road. They have been waiting for many years because there are too few to do the job and no money for more. These bricks have been salvaged from the water line project. (Another contract on which TWX was working. They will be used to re-surface the trench and then paved over with asphalt (bitumen). There were no large motorized rollers to smooth the surface so they used these drums, filled with water. The workers were all bare-foot without gloves or shirts or any protection of any kind. The workers carried the hot asphalt in baskets on their heads to pour on the road-bed. Two lines formed to and from the asphalt machine, heated with wood or coal. "Remember, Gramps loves you and wants you to be happy."