Site Visit Moulvibazar

First of all I want to appologize for the spammers that are hitting my comment section. I dont have the time to block them.

So its been an adventure in Gazipur but I am ready to leave that city. I have made several good friends there but training has been intense and I am glad I only have a week left. I am sure the friendships I have made here will last a lifetime, similar to the bonds soldiers form in war. Though I am not saying Peace Corps service is like war it is really difficult on so many levels. The other Americans I have met and I have been brought close together by a shared intense experience and it is a bond and knowledge that I will have with them and on one else. We have laughed and cried together and stuck up for one another and shared so much. Even though I am still hyper clean I have had to suck it up and do some pretty nasty things. For example on of my good friends here (i am sure she would not appreciate me naming her to the world on line) family gave her head lice. She was so upset and with that and all the other stresses of training she cracked and began to cry. I had no idea what to do I mean I had never even seen a louse and here was my friend crying and sobbing before me. So I did the only thing I could think of. I started hopping up and down and screaming like a monkey. OOOOoooo EEEeeeeee EEEEEEEE!!!!!!! And then I mimicked picking the bugs from her hair and eating them. She and I just started laughing so hard our tummies hurt. Hey if you are gonna catch anything I would say head lice is not so bad. I mean there are things here in Bangladesh that can kill you and flesh eating funguses etc. So later we got the special shampoo and washed her hair and I picked out all the nits. I mean come on people there is no older and Earthy primitive human bonding experience than picking out your friends bugs. I only requested one small favor from her in return for my services.... her first born child of course.

So Moulvibazar. I am here in Mbazar at another internet cafe. The bus ride was 5 hours from Dhaka and after about 4 hours we got to the little town of Srimongle with its chabagans or "tea gardens". They were absolutely amazing. All these terraced hills with tea shrubs. Yes tea is a shrub. I was even more amazed to see hills in Bangladesh. Once we left the Dhaka sprawl the land became more rural. With lush green rice paddies and fields of crops. The random village and the farmer slowly walking on dikes with a few cattle and some goats. Its like we stepped back in time.

John, Leif and I arrived in Mbazar around 3:30pm and were met by my counterpart, Mr. Abdul Malik, at the college I will be working at and my host brother Bulbul and my host father Abdul Mannan. My counterpart spoke really good english and he helped Leif and John to find their host families. My host father was there in his car with his driver. Yes that is right folks my new host family is wealthy. Upper middle class Bangladeshi to be exact. I got to the new house and met my new family. There are 3 daughters and 3 sons. The eldest son in a surgeon in London and the rest of the family lives in the house. There are several kids running around and my favorite is 9 year old Nazia who has taken me under her wing and become my new Bangla teacher. My family is super nice and I feel good to be there. My room is upstairs in the family compound and I have my own bathroom and kitchen. Rock! I am so excited and have more space. My new host mother is quiet and sweet and nothing like the "battle axe". The women still try to push tons of food upon me but I have learned to be blunt which is not rude in Bangladeshi culture. I have more freedom here than in Gazipure and its great. Also Mbazar is so much cleaner than Gazipur. Litterally there is piles of trash on the streets there but here there are public works and very little garbage to be seen. There is a lot more money here and the town is nice. It is surrounded by farms and to the East a huge jungle and to the south the tea gardens. The air is fresh and the people are kind and curious. We got a sweet deal coming here.
My college is great too. My principal (headmaster) Prof. Fazullah is a thoughful and sweet man. He wears this little cap on his head and has a long white beard which is the fashion for older Muslim men. He is really cool and really supportive. Mr. Malik my counterpart is the English teacher at the school. He is amazing. HE has been so helpful and wonderful in these two days I have been here. He is very excited to have me here and is passionate about teaching. The college is an all girls college and only has 600 students. It is tucked away in the hills away from the bustle of the town and is right next door to the co-ed college that John is working at. I am really happy so far with this set-up and situation.

Leif is teaching at the girls high school and he lives with the owner of a local restaurant. His host family is really cool too and he is happy about his arrangements.

John on the other hand well Johns new host family is the richest family in Mbazar. He lives in a mansion. Yes I typed that right a mansion. We were there last night. It is huge and worthy of being plopped down in Beverly Hills. The bastard has his own washing machine and dryer and air conditioning! The house has a full staff of servents and a butler and a driver for the families cars. His host dad owns half of the bazar here and yesterday we were driven around the town and introduced to some of the most powerful buisnessmen. Holy crap. John said his lifestyle has gone up since joining Peace Corps. I mean aren't we supposed to be living in mud huts or tin shanties and getting malaria? Hello! I think what happened is that since Mbazar has not hosted a volunteer since the B2's that the most influential families manuvered to host us because it increases their prestiege. Peace Corps carries a lot of clout in the developing world. While this is good for our safety and security I am not sure how we will integrate into this community. Yes we now know the "big" guys on the block but we did not come here to serve them. We came for the people. We came to educate the underprivledged. We came because this will look good on our resumes (oops did I write that?). Anyway, it will be interesting to see how things unfold here because there have not been any Americans here in a long time.

So yeah just doing buisness in the Mbazar. I opened a bank account. Met the rich folks. Started to move into my new host family's house. Three more months here and then I will move into my own apartment. Yes!!! I really cannot wait. I am also excited to start teaching. I met some of my students today and their English is really bad, but then again they may have just been shy. I have a needs assessment planned so that I can figure out where to start with them. Hopefully they will understand some and in time they will get accustomed to my accent as a native speaker of English.

I feel really good about being here and think that this is a good place. It feels like a good town. And I am ready to get out of Gazipur and get to work. Hopefully this place is not too good to be true.

M