Dinosaur Christmas, Moving Story and to be continued……

Kum bye yah Mr. Dinosaur it’s Christmas

I’m sitting in my room watching a Father Ted episode about a Milkmen and Hairy babies having just eaten rice and dahl, about to tuck into some mince pies, whilst next to me sits Rickshaw art of two tigers fighting over the world, a book lays open about Islam on the bed, outside Buddhist monks are wandering past and on the wall hangs a bizarre poster depicting the white cliffs of Dover with terrifying out of perspective flowers, tiny people, giant dogs and the slogan ‘silence is the OCEAN in which all the rivers of all the religions discharge themselves’. Of course, this blatantly signifies Christmas has just occurred in Bangladesh.

After a slightly worrying 24 hours when, due to the restrictions on the movement of foreign nationals in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, it looked like my Christmas would be spent alone with 4 bottles of French Wine a 2 litres of rice wine, I finally, thanks to the persistence of my Executive Director and the world reach of Manchester United, got my permission to leave Bandarban and head to the north of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and to Khagrachari. Arriving at 6pm on Christmas Eve I was met by Morrish, Miriam and Joe (fellow VSOs from Uganda, UK and UK respectively) and, after a few taking a few moments to let go of the tension of the preceding 24 hours, was flung into a 3 day whirlwind of song, dance, English food, Bangladeshi food, Hill Tracts food, rice wine, French wine and confusingly wonderful random events.
Christmas Day still managed to happen within a framework of vaguely familiar concepts. After the exchange of presents I enjoyed a Christmas meal consisting of roast pork, roast chicken, roast potatoes, carrots, cabbage, peas, stuffing and even gravy! Having eaten nothing but rice for the past 3 months this food was in danger of over dosing me in pure delirious taste heaven and I must extend my thanks to all the people involved, especially Miriam and Lusana (a former VSO from the UK who now works in Kkagrachari with the UN) who did the bulk of the cooking and wisely waved away my clumsy hung over attempts to ‘help’. After lunch, carrying our ridiculously full bellies, we waddled round the town and the beautiful surrounding rice fields (a slightly different 23*C to the UK’s 5C) before collapsing in front of a film and falling asleep.

Boxing Day was a real highlight. At 11am we were called upon my Amal who works with Miriam at Zabarang in Khagrachari and were soon on a ‘moon buggy’ jeep hurtling a long narrow dirt tracts in a quest to meet a man called Dinosaur (Harry Chrishna – Georgia Newsman). After wadding across a 50 metre wide river (protection from the Dinosaur?) we settled into a cool mud hut and whilst food was served Joe Crook metamorphosised into Duke Box and grabbing his guitar proceeded to entertain an ecstatic crowd of local people who crammed into the hut and peered through the windows at us. UK songs, US songs and local tribal songs were sung whilst a shaft of light speared through the dull room onto The Duke giving a rather surreal ‘missionary with a guitar’ scene. (Too) Much rice wine and fun was had and I would like to thank all the staff at Zabarang for making me feel so welcome over the 3 days I spent with them.

The curious incident of the flat over 6 weeks

Since arriving in Bandarban on the 6th of November last year I have been living in the spare room at the BNKS office. Whilst this allows me access to satellite TV, a double bed and a balcony with a great view I have found it a touch difficult to fully relax in the evenings with my work desk 5 feet away. Therefore, with the hope of fully establishing a place for myself in the beautiful Bandarban I have been desperate to move into my own place. The flat I was to move into was tantalisingly close – the next building, 8 feet away. As the initial move date of December 1st approached I became increasingly obsessed with peering through my window at the family who still lived there and unfortunately had to put up with this bizarrely obsessed and not very subtle foreigner. However, by December 7th I realised that, as I was still living in the office and the family were still in residence, I was not yet moving. In transpired that January 1st was the genuine move date. So, on arrival back in Bandarban after meetings in Dhaka over the New Year period I was rather excited to move into this mysterious flat I had oafishly spied on for the past 5 weeks. Entering the flat brought two reactions – confusion and…..well more confusion (but this later became fondness). The first confusion related to what the family had left, or rather hadn’t left, in the flat. They had taken everything – all furniture, cabinets, shelves, locks, curtain rails and even the light bulbs. I let out a roar of laughter when I discovered the kitchen sink had also departed. The second confusion was at the layout of the flat. It made absolutely no sense which completely limited its usability. There was only one route through the flat meaning that despite having 5 rooms, there could only be one bedroom and the only room with two access doors was a bathroom? However, I soon came to see this quirky place which makes no sense to me and requires me to adapt as a small metaphor for Bangladesh itself, and I’m looking forward to trying to live there for the next 10 months.

New Year, er…..now what?

New Year is often both a time for reflection and a time for setting goals. 2007 was a weird year for me, it started standing on cold streets of Nottinghamshire former mining towns, went through a valuable experience at Village AiD and ended with me starting to feel settled in one of the most confusing and beautiful countries in the world. In 2008, I have a few trips in mind – around Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet (Everest! Pictures, not climbing) and India. The most important thing for me in 2008 is the desire to start repaying some of the generosity and friendship which BNKS have shown me in Bandarban by assisting them to develop their organisation which will allow them to improve the lives of the marginalised and poverty stricken indigenous people of Bangladesh. I feel rather lucky to be here, and rather humbled by the people, their openness, kindness, friendship and strength.