Newsletter 2..... November 2003

Bamboo hut in Banderban

Mike has been in the doghouse for the past three days. John and Nolda have both complained that he does very little other then eat, sleep and look pretty. Nolda who latched on to Mike on day one (Mike looks just like her David) found that he had dumped her the other day for no good reason; she has now changed sides to get some comfort from me. I now get more of her verbal diarrhoea about her David then ever before. She wants her wedding dress made here with my help?

After 2 weeks of living in a state of total anarchy, the house has come to my way of thinking and produced its first law and order! We now know who is cooking each day and who is buying food. Mike has agreed to pull his weight and share the responsibility of running of the house. After 3 weeks of eating food prepared by the rest of the crew, he has not only bought the food, but also prepared and cooked fantastic pasta! So now we know he can cook.

Mike has his own web site and those who are interested and want to see a photo of all the family and get to learn what Mike thinks about Bangladesh, you can log on to www..............co.uk. I understand it is very funny.

We visited the Department for International Development (DFID) a British built tower block and discovered that the British taxpayer donates 80 million pounds to help the poor in this country; however 60% of the money goes straight to the government, so that they can put their house in order. However the Bangladeshi Government is in a such turmoil that for the third year running it has been voted the number one corrupt government in the world.
We have to work six days a week and the rest on Friday. I can't get used to working Saturday and Sunday. I am always tired due to the heat and humidity. Friday morning I go to church with Sam and love to listen to Bangla hymns being sung, they sound so much like Indian songs.

 The turnover of VSO volunteers coming to Bangladesh is very high, not many survive the intended course of one or two years. We are all wandering who will be the first to go home and my money is still on Nolda, who has discovered that 30 volunteers have died on duty world wide in 40 years, most from car accidents and driving here is complete madness.

Our Bangla is improving but slowly and I am getting away with Hindi. The weather is still very humid and we all sweat buckets everyday.

 Nolda is leaving after only three weeks. She has visited her place of work, which is out in the sticks but that is not the reason for her hasty departure. Her father-in -law to be is seriously ill and her David wants her back home. VSO are not very pleased about Nolda's saga, but they have bought her flight ticket within two days of her announcement. She is not very happy either especially when she will have to pay back £500. Life is never fair most of the time and seems like Nolda’s luck had run out from the day she left Holland.The morning after Nolda’s departure, I felt very much alone, now having to share the flat with three men. I shall miss Nolda and her verbal diarrhoea.

The rest of the group have gone away to near by Dhaka Training centre for management course. I was excused, so I have decided to spend two nights in Chittagong Hill Tracts market town of Banderban.
After one-hour flight delay, I arrived at Chittagong Airport at 5 pm and wondered why my hired taxi man is not there to meet me. When he did turn up I discovered that it will take 3 hours to get to the holiday resort of Banderban and it is dangerous to drive there in the dark. Hill tracts areas have been scene of a guerrilla war between the Bangladeshi army and the rebels. I hear that the rebels love to kidnap outsiders as night falls.
Of course I survived the journey or I wouldn’t be telling this story. The journey took 5 hours. The journey was through the hellhole of Chittagong city, muddy tracks, an accident, which held the traffic for one hour, and numerous pot holes most of the way. At one point my heart sank, when the driver stopped his car in the pitch dark to have a pee. That, I thought was the crunch time for me and in the hands of the kidnappers?
Banderban resort is a magical place especially when one needs a rest from Dhaka. It is very peaceful, lush jungle of green hills, lots of different kinds of sounds from the trees that kept me awake on the first night. Here there was also very friendly two-pied hornbill that came in the morning to share my breakfast out on the veranda. My little house was made of bamboo, even the floor that stood high up on a hill.
 I was out one morning with a guide to track through the forest to the nearest tribal village that specialise in making hand woven fabric. Half an hour walk took us 2 hours, through the muddy and hilly landscape and lots more villages. I trusted my guide who was only 16, to bring me back in one piece but anything was a possibility?
There was a group of management team from Dhaka on a weekend course and I was told that they hired two army men to protect them from the rebels. Some of us like living dangerously?
The return journey to Dhaka from Chittagong by train took 10 hours instead of 8 and once again I was on the look out for my hired taxi driver who was able to spot me amongst the crowd more then I could find him. These Bangladeshi all looked the same to me. The people in the train were very kind generous and humble, one feels very much indebted to their generosity.
With this kind note I shall sign off until next time. Those readers who have send me their news, please keep them coming, any news from home is good to hear. Love,

Davinder x