A ‘Classic Tour’, the Rajar King, U-DIY and a plan?

A Saga Bangladesh travel

  A lot has happened since I last posted my Christmas/New Year blog. The main reason it has been a month since my last entry is that my mum bravely came out to Bangladesh and together we spent 12 days travelling the country and 4 days in Bandarban. Having previously either travelled by myself or a group of people my own age the 12 days ‘Classic Tour’ was a rather different experience. There were 5 other people on the tour, two 80 year olds, a 75 year old, a 70 year old and a 40 year old whose company differed between strange history lessons, farcical ‘fast show’ type characters and a twilight zone style OAP Big Brother. A special mention must go to Nicki, an 80 year old ‘from South Ken’, who gamely scrabbled into the many boats, rickshaws and minibuses whilst delighting us all with stories of her days in Ceylon, having her breakfast stolen by a monkey at the Taj Mahal, hanging out with the Aston Martin Racing team at Daytona Beach and her days waving at the Queen from her pram as they were both pushed around the royal parks of London.

Whilst there were inevitable delays (5 cancelled flights) and bizarre bickering between the senior members of the party, the three highlights of the tour were an overnight trip on the 100 year old Rocket paddle ship down the water ways of Bangladesh, a 3 night cruise around the Sundarbans mangrove national park and a peaceful 2 days spent in the tea estates of Srimangal. Aboard the New Orleans style paddle steamer you felt transported back in time with nights spent in small cabins enjoying the free ‘massage’ (the vibrations from the huge century old engine), meals severed on Bangladeshi Inland Water Authority signature crockery and plenty of time to relax and watch the sedate river scenery flow past whilst occasionally stopping at small villages where the peace is coloured by people and street sellers bustling on and off via the rickety bamboo gang planks.

 

In the Sundarbans whilst we did not get to see the Royal Bengal Tiger (we did see a foot print!) we did see dozens of different types of colourful birds, river dolphins and wild pigs and dear. I could also get a first hand look at the damage caused by November’s cyclone Sidr which had left some areas looking slightly apocalyptic with 40 metre trees snapped and ripped from the ground.

Showing my mum Bandarban and introducing her to my friends here was really fun and she was literally given ‘the royal treatment’. As well a dinner at my Executive Directors house, numerous cups of tea with Nezarat Deputy Commissioner (Districts top civil servant) and trips to local indigenous villages and Buddhist temples she got the honour of meeting the Bohmong Raj King of Bandarban District. This sprightly 93 year old was great fun and a mine of facts and stories whilst being mightily impressed by my mum’s teeth (?).   

 A Englishman’s Home is his (at last) his castle

As I mentioned in my previous blog on January 18^th I finally moved into my flat. However, with my mum coming to visit for 2 weeks from January 23^rd this has meant I still have only had a handful of days to set up the place and start feeling finally settled in Bandarban. In a place as different (on so many levels) as Bangladesh I felt that not having a ‘set place’ to relax and contemplate hasn’t enabled me to fully start making the most of my time here. However, I now sit listening to the BBC world service, indigenous pattern materials hanging from the walls, a Bangladeshi cook book proudly displayed in the kitchen and views over the surrounding hills from my windows and balcony. I can relax, and hopefully start to be more productive for both my own learning and for BNKS. Before this state was achieved I feel it may (?) be useful to tell you about the decoration of the flat. I had written about the rather baron state I found the flat in (Christmas blog). With the language and cultural barrier (there are no B+Qs here, thus Unable to Do It Yourself) restricting the amount of work I could do I became reliant on trying to explain in broken Bangla the colours I wanted the walls to be painted, the type of curtains, where I wanted the kitchen, the locks on doors and various furniture I’d like. At first it was frustrating, very frustrating. I was powerless to stop the bathrooms being painted a dark dudgeon red, unable to explain that curtain rails would be needed for the curtains, could not offer advice on the problem of how to fit the front door lock and my ability to try to hurry up the process was minimal. However, albeit in a very small way, when I realised I was having ‘development’ done to me I could gain both a useful insight and see the irony of the situation. For decades people from Europe and North America (mostly with good intentions) went to countries in Africa, Asia and South America to ‘develop’ societies. They, with their ‘superior’ western education analysed the problems and with their control over resources dictated the type of solutions (development projects). The local people (in a small way like me) were powerless to influence the analyse and solutions, had their suggestions ignored and seen as uneducated and when the projects failed (the local people had no use for the projects) were seen as ungrateful. So, whilst there are many interlocking reasons for failures in development in the past decades, if you can imagine getting your house decorated by a group of Africans/Asians whose language you can not speak, whose logic you do not understand and whose actions you can not influence and then how you would feel about the finished product then you can have a small insight to how the millions of people have felt when they have had ‘development’ done to them.  

 I have a Plan!  

Working at BNKS for me is a bit like being a tornado spotter in the Mid-West of America. I spend a lot of time planning and thinking but there are precious few times there when there is an opportunity to make actual progress. These times require exactly the right conditions and need to be seized when they arrive whilst the only way to maximise the potential opportunities for progress is to ensure I am as ready as possible, to be patient and maximise my time at my desk (even when I often have very little to do). The reasons for such conditions existing is because the staff are all very busy managing projects, meeting with communities and writing reports. Additionally, my ability to make progress is constrained by a language barrier. Whilst I can talk basic Bangla, explaining Strategic Planning in English let alone a foreign language is not so easy. I am reliant on the one staff member who can speak English – Dilip – to work with. Unfortunately, Dilip is the Project Manager and subsequently the busiest person in the office and often away in meetings or talking to project participants. However, after 3 months, a combination of observation, brief meetings and self-initiative has produced a 12 point plan to focus my time at BNKS and hopefully increase the impact of my work. This plan makes me more confident in the purpose and direction of my work, but, also adds an element of frustration and slight vulnerability to it. This is because the time of observation and analyse is now over and I feel it is time to start really contributing and not just be a token foreigner who can help staff edit their English language reports. I came out here to learn more about the reality of development work, the identification, management and evaluation of projects, partnership techniques, rights and political governance. Sometimes I am worried I’m drifting into being a TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) and basic web designer – useful skills, especially for BNKS, but less the skills which may help me get a future career in development.Small progress already, see www.bnks-bd.org , be patient it’s a work in progress! A special thanks needs to be said to my dad who drove the 4 hour plus round trip from Derby to Heathrow early one Sunday morning to ensure he could pass on my fixed camera to Miriam’s Sister Rachel who was flying to Bangladesh. As it is not permitted to send cameras through the post this was the only way I was going to be able to start talking photos again, some of which are now present on this blog and more will be posted regularly – Here are a couple of beautiful Bandarban which I have so far been unable to share with you.