House-Hopping

Imagine being the son of Bangladeshi villager. Your family has very little land – just room enough for your straw hut and a small grove of fruit trees. These trees are basically the family livelihood, providing enough fruit to sell in the local market. You’re in college (Bangladeshi college – grades 11 and 12) and hope to attend university when you’re done. It’ll be really expensive, but your family agrees that you should be able to scrape enough money to make it possible.

Now imagine that one day, there’s a fire. It starts maybe in your hut, or maybe the neighbours. Because the straw burns so quickly, we probably won’t ever know. But it spreads at incredible speed, incinerating all the huts in the area in just a few minutes. The huts are close enough to the fruit grove that the fire spread to them as well. Before anyone can act, all of your material possessions are burnt. You have no house, no source of income, and only the clothes on your back. Suddenly, the prospect of university is utterly destroyed…

This is Bakul’s life. [Note: I spelt his name as ‘Bokul’ before. I since learned the correct spelling, but it’s pronounced like my earlier version] His home is just outside of Bogdur (the nearest market), so he took me one day. He told me his story, and about why he’s registered in DESI. University is now not financially a possibility for him, but he wasn’t satisfied with not continuing his education. So DESI gives him the chance to still get a good career, but without the unbearable costs. Still, the fire and the damage it did seem to haunt him. He told me once (I’m paraphrasing), “If only it had been a thief. A thief takes your money or your things. But he doesn’t take your house and he doesn’t take your trees.”

I know Bakul is not the only student at DESI with stories that wrench at the heart. There is basically a unifying theme among the students: the family is just so poor, but want good things for their son. All the DESI students get in through good marks and an interview, so they’re all strong, hard-working, dedicated students who genuinely want to learn. They deserve the opportunities we get in Canada, arguably more than a lot of other university students I’ve met. This is just one reason why DESI is such an amazing project to me.

Bakul’s house is not the only DESI student’s house I’ve visited, nor do I expect it to be the last. Sometimes I wonder if by the time I leave, I’ll have visited everyone’s! Actually though, many of the houses I’ve visited are not the student’s true home. For example, one day my ‘Nana’ (see last post) asked me to come visit his home. He introduced me to his father, mother and siblings. We enjoyed some fresh, hot milk (delicious!) and it was overall a good time. But after we left, I found out that these weren’t his biological parents and siblings. Not that my Bipul(Nana's real name)’s adopted or anything, but he has a sort of surrogate family in the local area. His own family lives very far away, and so it’s not practical for him to ever visit, even on holidays. So, this local family offered to take Bipul in while he’s at DESI. I also learned that they’ve helped out other DESI students in various ways, including financial support. As far as I can tell, they have no true motivation for doing this other than that they are good people. It is incredibly inspiring to see their selflessness.

Me and my 'Nana'



Left to right: Shukumar (likely spelt Sukumar) and Shojib, with Shyamol and another DESI student who's name I ALWAYS forget (he's only one of two that I don't have down. I don't know why I always forget only them...) in the background

Another student, Shojib, also has a ‘surrogate’ family for the same reasons, and that family is actually my boss’, Sepal (the Dipshikha Rudrapur area manager). Shojib brought me on a weekend to meet the Sepal’s wife and see the property. They have a nice, relatively spacious home, and just a few steps outside there’s a really nice place to sit, look at the surrounding rice patties, and enjoy a light breeze. We spent a good while sitting there with Sepal and some locals, where I noticed again improvements in my Bangla. I think for a while there I got a bit lazy (because I  can get by quite well with Roman and Uttam and at least a handful of the DESI guys just in English), but have recommitted. I can now fairly easily understand the ‘regular’ questions I often get: Name, country, profession, family members, etc. Anyway, after a bit Sepal’s wife offered us some food. Lucky for me, mango season has properly begun so that was definitely on the menu. We mashed them (by hand, ourselves) and mixed them with fresh milk and what we at home would basically call Rice Krispies. It made a delicious treat (But difficult to eat with your hand)! Also, I managed to embarrass myself when mashing the mangoes. As I squeezed one, it shot out of my hand and my hosts exploded in laughter. The story has since been told numerous times by Shojib.

On the topic of fresh mangoes, Kalpana has also had me back to her house several times. Kalpana (pronounced Kolpona) is the METI teacher I mentioned before who teaches Bristi and served me green mangoes (last post). Now that mangoes are in season, she’s invited me several times after school to enjoy a little treat; she lives quite close to METI. She’s also served me jackfruit, the weird looking thing none of you could identify a few posts ago. I was a bit nervous taking my first bite since I had heard horror stories about the smell and taste for foreign. Apparently, they tend not to like it. However, I think it’s DELICIOUS! Very sweet and in my opinion, a little bit reminiscent of banana.

Kalpana has shown herself to be a very interesting person. As I said her English is quite good, and it’s actually better than I thought. She is definitely in the top three for METI staff in English. Anyway, it’s allowed her to tell me many interesting stories. One is that she’s been to Germany. She went to observe schools there through Dipshikha’s German donor, but it’s interesting to me because it’s not often that you meet a Bangladeshi who’s been to the developed world, especially for as long as three months, as Kalpana has. The other really interesting thing I’ve learned from her is that while she only has one biological daughter of her own, she is caring for I think at least 4 other children, who are all, I think, her sister’s. Because her sister is poor and uneducated, Kalpana has taken on full responsibility of them. They live at her house, she buys their clothing and serves them food, and she is paying for their education – college and university both. It’s quite amazing to me, especially since while I think her family is fairly well off (considering the size of their property and the number of animals and fruit trees they have), I also know that a METI teacher’s salary isn’t exactly wonderful (less than teacher salaries at other schools, which are already not very high). Again, it can only be explained, for me, as true, inspiring selflessness.

Perhaps the biggest highlight since my last post was a small Hindu celebration we attended. It was at the same place as the village fair I mentioned in the last post (they were only a few days apart. Somehow they were related, but I’m not exactly sure what that ‘how’ is). There were much less people than during the fair, probably because there were far fewer shops and no ‘peripheral’ attractions like games or rides (Muslims, for example, would have no motivation to attend). Though I’m not at all positive, from my research I think this day was important because it was a new moon in the Hindu month of Jyeshta. This makes it significant to the Hindu god Kali, who appears to be the main deity for the local Hindus.

The shops that were around were mainly for food, and some specific Hindu-related vendors (such as those who sell white bracelets made of shell, which married Hindu women wear). But the main event was a live sacrifice of goats. Yes, that’s right. I wasn’t expecting it (nobody warned me until we were in the crowd, pushing to the front), but I actually feel so fortunate now to have been able to experience it. Many goats were sacrificed – their heads were bolted into place and then in one swoosh they were rolling on the ground. I don’t want to get too gory here in my descriptions, and already I feel as though some of you readers are squirming in your seats. But to be honest, the whole thing didn’t bother me as much as I thought seeing a live animal sacrifice would. Those who’ve known me since my France days will know that I’ve seen a bullfight. I would consider that to be a much less desirable thing to see, and would say that they probably can’t even be put in the same category. The sacrifice seemed like such a genuine, human action: when the goat was strapped in place, the soon-to-be-beheader would make a visible and deliberate prayer to Kali, and then once the goat was dead, its blood was poured at the entrance to Kali’s temple, which was just steps away. While I’m not a Hindu and don’t believe in Kali as a god, there was beauty, for me, in the fact that this sacrifice was made in her name. Rereading what I’ve just written, I don’t think I’ve really conveyed that beauty very well. But maybe you can trust me that the live it is so much different than to just read about it. Oh, and maybe it will make you happy to know that the goat meat of the sacrificed goat is subsequently eaten by the locals.

A goat in place for the sacrifice. A little blurry, but actually the best non-graphic one I got. Everyone was pushing and jostling and everything was happening so quickly that it was hard to get a good shot.

I’ve taken to going for walks fairly regularly in the afternoons after school. Bidan, of DESI, is my particularly enthusiastic walking partner, though we usually can convince others to join us. One day, Bidan brought me to a really neat temple not too far away (but that we got to by weaving through fields of maize and jute – really a cool experience). It’s just a local temple, again to Kali, and the building itself isn’t much to see. But inside (behind a fence, that is) there’s an amazing and intricate sculpture of Kali which I found really beautiful. Here's a photo, which can’t really give you a proper sense of the size, but oh well.

Kali, in a local temple.

On another walk, Bidan and Noruttam (another student we were with) suddenly pointed up excited into the tops of the trees. I looked and was gleefully surprised to see bats. But not just little things flitting around like you see during an Ontarian evening. These were huge, like the size of a crow or something. I thought at first that they were flying squirrels because they were so big, but they were definitely actively flying, not gliding. So cool!

Big bat!

Work is still going well, but I’ll save the few stories I have from that for another post.

For now, that's all I have to tell! I know I've been pretty bad at posting regularly, so I'll try to get back into things with more regular postings. I think you’d all agree that shorter but regular is better than almost-never and dreadfully-long. I’ll try my best (I’m busy, you know)!

By the way, we’re at day 50! Exactly halfway through! I really can’t believe I’ve been here this long, or that I only have less than a month left in Rudrapur!

-C

And Bingo Was His Name

A quick housekeeping note: In last post, I incorrectly identified Roman’s in-laws (wife’s parents) as his parents. Sorry.  I hope this didn’t cause you all too much inconvenience.

I apologize for leaving this blog post for so long. It’s just that I’ve been busy, believe it or not. I might as well start telling the stories! Since I have so many little things to say, I might jump around a bit. I hope that’s ok and not too difficult to follow. Definitely won’t really be in chronological order.

First of all, let me talk about work. My first real-real day of work, I met my on-site supervisor, Rashid. He’s a very nice man, and easily is the most fluent in English on-site. This is mainly because he did a Master’s degree at the University of Western Ontario (sorry, Western University). I’m pretty sure, actually, that he was there at the same time as Mom was! Kind of a neat coincidence!

Anyway this first day, we sort of did another tour, but in a more detailed, hands-on fashion. We started the day (9am) at the ‘opening session’ which happens every day. The students from all classes sit in this big room and sing the national anthem, meditate for about 10 minutes, and share their thoughts with their peers. I was introduced to everyone, and then when classes started, we began circulating through them. We stopped in every classroom and I was introduced again to the students and the teacher. It allowed me some opportunity to speak with the kids, and for them to ask me some questions. In some classes we stayed longer than others- for example, in Bristi (say brish-tee – the Bangla word for rain; all classes have water-based names but usually they aren’t used. Bristi and Jhorno [river] are the exceptions: JK and SK equivalents respectively) we helped the students form English letters properly. I thought it was pretty neat that at the same time that these JK students are learning to write the Bangla script, they’re also learning the English script! English is so important for students, because it’s critical for any job or education that deals with foreigners or foreign products (that is, all the desirable ones), which is the ultimate goal for everyone.

Throughout this more detailed “tour”, I tried to take note of classroom atmospheres, student-teacher relations, and, where possible given my weak Bangla, staff and student performance. This is basically what I spend half of my time doing now on a regular work day. I am supposed to be assessing all of these things and looking at areas for improvement. Eventually (and hopefully starting soon), I’ll make recommendations on how these improvements can come about. But for now I am still largely in the observation stage. I’ll basically just sit in on a class, or a staff meeting, or a discussion between Rashid and a teacher and make note of what I see. At this point, a major focus I’m developing is on poor-achieving students. In one particular class of 30 students, for example, almost a third of them are failing in several subjects. I want to find out why, and see what supports are available in the METI system to help deal with these issues.

The other half of my time is basically spent on teaching English or helping teachers plan their English lessons. I rotate through the grades, taking usually two or three per day. My focus is mostly on the upper-years (grades 7-10), but sometimes I will also take a younger grade. Despite the drudgery that is marking papers, I don’t mind this teaching so much, because the students are all fun and interesting to work with. But I’m hoping that my work can take more of a long-term-benefit focus (ie. How I spend the other half of my time). The teachers really like when I teach (and, as I mentioned, help them plan their own classes when I can’t be there) because, as they tell me, they are often very poorly qualified to be teaching this subject. Most have not had any formalized English education beyond their own high school days. With me and among each other, they admit their weaknesses, but in the classroom, they often won’t admit this to their students. So sometimes there are awkward moments in which the students seem to know something better than the teacher, but the teacher pretends they are confident in their position. I try to help in these cases, but only if I feel I won’t be making the teacher look unknowledgeable. I know that it would be pretty embarrassing to have a 19 year old tell you you’re wrong in front of your students…

Spoken English is not emphasized in the curriculum here. On the examinations required to pass high school, there are no oral exams. This, to me, is problematic for me for 2 reasons. First of all, because when I teach a class, they often have difficulty understanding me and/or responding in English. The second reason is that spoken English is actually probably the most important and practical application of the language for these students in the context of English as the “International Language”. Their grammar is generally fairly solid (or at least, it will need to be to pass their exams), and so their main issue if studying/working abroad or working with foreigners would be the ability to communicate orally. The teachers are mostly lacking in this area too, and so this is another area I’m focussing on. Is there anything I can do to help improve spoken English? Already, some of my English classes with the younger grades (4,5) have emphasized pronunciation. I hope this is helpful.

Back to that first day: I also taught an English lecture for the DESI students in the afternoon of that day, since they also have English class covered by one of the METI teachers. I talked mostly about Canada and its context within the English language, and about the culture. I was surprised to learn when I arrived at METI/DESI that most people don’t really understand at first that my first language is English. METI/DESI receives a relatively fair number of foreign visitors, but most are Germans, Swiss, Koreans or Japanese. They will always communicate with these visitors in a common language – English. But, of course, it’s always the second language for both speakers. It was very difficult to convince the cook, for example, on the first day that English was my mother tongue. He was telling me the Bangla names of foods, and then the English word, then the German word which he had learned, and then asking me what my local language called it. I would repeat the English word, not really understanding at first. He was surprised: “Same as English?” When it finally clicked for me, I explained it was mother tongue. He seemed outright shocked!

One of the most common things I am asked when I enter a class, regardless of the age group (though apparently only when the regular teacher isn’t in the room for older grades) is to sing. I don’t consider myself much of a singer and being put on the spot to sing is not a terribly pleasant experience for me. I also don’t really have any good songs memorized, let alone Canadian ones, so I’ve so far basically limited myself to O Canada and Land of the Silver Birch. With the younger kids, I’ve sang The Itsy Bitsy Spider and Old MacDonald (the animal noises were lost on them. I read an article once that animal noises vary incredibly between languages. That is to say, while we would say, “a sheep says ‘Baa’”, another language might say [just an example for the sake of the point] “a sheep says ‘Meh’”). Bristi always asks me to sing Hello, Good Morning but I had no idea what song that was. I’ve now learned it from them. They also ask for Bingo Was His Name. I thought I had that one covered, but when I sang it I got confused looks from the kids. It took me a while to understand why, and I’ll get to that later in the post.

In the afternoons, younger classes have ‘activities’ instead of classes. These vary from clay modelling to storytelling to group discussions. One afternoon I sat in on the grade 3 dance class. They have a special “Dance Master” who comes in to teach the students dance. Watching them, I was amazed. They are such good dancers, and dancing on the Indian subcontinent is always more interesting than North American dancing anyway. The fact that they were grade 3s just absolutely boggled my mind. I think of grade 3 still that age where your coordination with others can be a little weak. For these kids, not so. I didn’t get any pics or video (stupid me), but hopefully I’ll get the chance to see it again and get some then.

I thought I’d be working five days a week, but I’m actually working six here at METI/DESI. Saturday is not in fact a holiday for me, because METI is open. Not for students, just staff. Teachers use Saturdays to do marking and deal with issues from the previous week, and make lesson plans and coordinate activities for the upcoming week. It’s pretty laid back though, and I probably really only call it a half day worth of work. We take a liberal number of cha breaks, and sometimes Roman asks me to accompany him to the market in the afternoon. Speaking of cha breaks, we take them during school days too. Students have a 20 minute break that I’d call a “recess” around 11:30, and all of us teachers head across the street to the little tea stall. At the end of the day, we often go again. I love it.

One Saturday, Roman took me to Kaharole, which is a larger centre nearby. While Bogdur is a market for essentials, Kaharole has a much bigger market, and for things like bulk rice that’s where the staff buys food. We met the two cooks there, and bought a ton of food. The market was crazy, with (thinking back to Dhaka) ridiculously large crowds. A lot of people seemed to buying cows and herding them through the narrow streets. There was a section of the market that had about half an inch of water on the ground because that’s where the fish salesmen were and water was continuously being splashed and dumped. I saw an eel for sale. Apparently you can eat them. A man tried to sell me a goat, which I found delightful because they are so dang cute. We also bought some delicious fudge-like candy, made with the sugar from dates mixed with nuts. They are absolutely delicious and (since they’re sooo cheap) I stocked up on a bunch for my room. We ended the day with a nice bunch of litchis. They are now in  prime season here in Dinajpur district, which is also, incidentally, famous for its litchis. DREAM COME TRUE. They are indeed fantastic.

Back to the goats for a minute. I’ve had a special request to talk about them more. I’d love to. Have I mentioned that I love them? I don’t really want to touch them because of the potential for ticks or lice or whatever else they might carry, but it takes all my willpower not to grab them and hug them. On a walk with Uttam, he saw me smiling at goat-babies and asked me why, and I explained to him that I find them adorable. He thought this was hilarious. I see goats everywhere, because they are always along the side of the road, and in fields, and sometimes one even wanders into Dipshikha to graze. Today also saw a little one do this impressive run-jump-360-degree-spin trick which really entertained me.

Some goats playing on logs and such. I need a better picture to illustrate their cuteness. New goal for this week.

 Along with grazing goats and cows, there are a handful of dogs that live at Dipshikha. I don’t think they’re really pets per se, because no one really claims them as their own. The sleep outside and I think the majority of their food is scraps from meals. Maybe the cooks also feed them more, I don’t know. Anyway, a couple are really ratty-looking, but a couple others are much nicer. Arjun, the DESI student who showed me around at the Temple last post, is fond of them and has named two of the nice looking ones Sweetie and Don. I generally don’t touch them, again because of ticks and the like, but one day when I was sitting outside the METI classrooms, Sweetie and another dog (who looks like Sweetie. I can’t tell them apart) ran up to me and lick-attacked me. Cute!



Sweetie and friend outside a METI building. I'm sure you're probably thinking "Why doesn't he post pictures of the building, not dogs?" I reply, "I'm waiting for a good sunny day to get really good pictures. So far, there's been a lot of cloudy days."

In the evenings, I often join the DESI guys back at their ‘hostel’ to hang out. Sometimes, we head to Bogdur, where the market is, for cha and bananas and whatever other errands someone needs to run. As I mentioned in the last post, they are very nice to me and we have become true friends. They make fun of me when I say “Mane ki?” (“What does that mean”) because I say it so often, and I now call one guy ‘Nana’ (Bangla for maternal grandfather) because he would tease me for the fact that I often said “no” twice when people would try to load me up with a third plate of rice: “Na, na” (No, no). He also calls me Nati (grandson) now. On the other hand, I have learned just enough Bangla to tease them back a bit. I can call them monkeys and say things which are roughly equivalent to “Get outta here!” and “Hey kid, shut up!” which provide more than adequate defenses against their jokes and pranks.

There’s a young boy who attends the METI school named Fahim (his actual name is way too long for me to follow, but I think I’ll have him write it out for me. Fahim is what everyone calls him, and this is my best estimate of the spelling. The ‘h’ is barely pronounced). His family actually lives on the Dipshikha property in some houses that are set back in a far corner. His mother works in the microcredit department of Dipshikha. Every school day, Fahim shakes my hand in the morning and evening and has a “good morning” or “good afternoon” always ready for me. He has a delightful smile, and is in grade 4. His class is particularly weak, but he is a very strong student (easily outstripping his classmates in every subject). His English is quite good for a grade 4, but overall not quite good enough for complicated conversation. But he’s very forgiving of my Bangla, and we chat every time we pass, be it during class time or afterwards.

One evening, he came knocking at my door with Bokul, the DESI student, who is very close with their family. Fahim had for me a lovely bunch of litchis!! His father owns a bunch of trees, and so he brought me some as a gift. He’s really a delightful kid. I chatted with Bokul and him for a while before, as usual, I was asked to sing. When I finished Land of the Silver Birch, I asked Fahim to sing for me. He told me he would sing an English song: Bingo Was His Name. The mystery of my singing of Bingo was now revealed. Fahim’s version had the same lyrics as the first verse of my version, but a different melody. It’s much slower, and there are other verses with the names Lucky and Lampi (I thought it was Lumpy at first haha) and another name I don’t remember. I have no idea where the students learned this version, but I’m guessing the German donors.

Bokul, Fahim and litchis

I have also met here a boy named Horipada. My friend Melinda met him when she visited here, and so we both knew of the other before I arrived. He just finished his SSC (grade 10) in February and got excellent marks, meaning he’ll be attending ‘college’ (grade 11 and 12) soon. He’s a very chatty and welcoming kid, and invited me right away to visit his home nearby. We went on a Friday, by motorcycle. Roman and Sepal (my on-site boss) both also use a motorcycle, so I ride it often. Before Granny panics (I know motorcycles have such a bad rep in Canada – so dangerous), I just want to say that comparatively, I find the motorcycle to be one of the safest modes of transport I’ve ridden in Bangladesh. Easily, it’s safer than everything in Dhaka, including rickshaws (you were at the bottom of the driving food chain), and their ability to avoid holes and ruts make them better than other vehicles on the narrow dirt roads. And, I’ll never be driving.

Anyway, Horipada took me on a ride around the area. We went to Kaharole, and visited a man named Gopi or something (who is, incidentally, the METI ‘Dance Master’), who also joined us.  We drove to Sangra National Park, which was a nice, shady forest that was a nice break from the hot sun. We didn’t spend a long time there, mostly just driving around the narrow paths on the motorcycle. I saw some interesting birds, but I can’t identify them. I couldn’t get a picture, either, unfortunately. After a couple stops at random relatives houses and in Kaharole again for some tasty mishti (actually the best I’ve had in Bangladesh so far), we finally got to Horipada’s house. His whole family was there, plus an innumerable number of neighbours, and it was hard to keep track of everyone. But, the food was absolutely delicious, from a sort of sweet rice pudding, to fresh mango, to delicious potato curry. Horipada’s family is certainly not wealthy but they were very welcoming. Here they are and a shot of their home:

Horipada's home. His mother on the left and a relative and/or neighbour on the right. They are sweeping rice (I guess to dry it)



Horipada's family. If I'm not mistaken, back row left to right: Brother with baby, Horipada, brother. Front row left to right: Mother, sister, Father

Sangra Forest

A few days ago there was a village fair nearby. It was just one day, and Roman took me over on the motorbike. It was a huge swarm of people, larger than I expected to see in the rural area, and all in one place. Of course, I was a big centre of attention. One man literally wouldn’t let us pass until he had asked his fill of questions (one of which was “Did he come by plane?” Roman replied, “I don’t know,” and we still laugh about it). There was some music being played (drums) and I think some dancing, but the crowd was far too big and tight to force our way to the front (also I suspect, but am not sure, that Roman had zero desire to see it because it was traditional Hindu music and he’s Muslim). A lot of the DESI guys and some METI students were also around and we ran into a bunch of them (a nice rest from the staring). There were a lot of trinkets being sold, and I picked up some nice souvenirs (not telling what they are). There were a couple small carnival rides for kids, and some carnival-type games. I did pretty well at shooting the water balloons with a bee-bee gun, but not so well at the competition where you have to lower a ring around a bottle of pop in order to win it. The atmosphere was really cheery and it was nice to see so many families out having fun. As far as I can tell, it was a really big event for the local community. Ah, and how can I forget the food! There was so much being sold, but I avoided a lot of the fried stuff (safety inspections would fail them). Instead, mishti (of an extra-large variety) and some milk-cookie-things did just fine. It was a lovely afternoon.

Another afternoon, Roman brought me to the house of one of the METI teachers. She’s teachers Bristi, and has been with METI since its founding – the only original teacher left. She’s very nice and her English is above-average among the METI staff. Uttam and one of the DESI guys, Bidan, were doing some yard work for her (planting some trees and putting up a fence), and we just stopped in to see how things were going. The teacher has a nice bit of property, with a (relatively) roomy house, a lot of animals and several mango and litchi trees. We made a green mango salad. It’s just chopped unripe mangoes, chillies, salt, and sugar-cane molasses. It’s got a sweet and sour flavour and with the chillies made me sweat quite a bit. But still delicious! The teacher also has a cute, hyperactive son who’s in her Bristi class, and he’s always fun to be around too.

Now, it’s actually summer vacation for METI. It’s not a terribly long break (just over a week), but I am for the time being off of my regular schedule. Not that there isn’t plenty of work for me to do still, especially with DESI still running, where I’m also doing a bit of observing into the practices as well. But, it left me open one morning to join Sepal on a motorcycle ride to Biral, which is the local administrative centre (the administrative division is called an upazila). It’s about 10km away, to give you an idea, and this qualified as a “really long ride” by local terms. I’m not entirely sure why Sepal needed to go, but it gave me a really interesting look into the local bureaucracy. We went to the upazila education headquarters and met with the primary and secondary education officers for the upazila. They had limited English but wanting to feed me lots of tea and snacks and it was neat to see their work setting.

That’s the last story I can think of at this point. There may be others I wish to share, but if so, I’ll just sneak them into later posts. Again, I’m sorry for the wait and for the jumble of unrelated stories. I hope, at least, it gives a sense of how busy I’ve been!

-C

Bonus photo: A common sight around Rudrapur. Chillies drying in the open air. Don't ask me what the background writing says.