lost in the bay of bengal

On Friday morning, after all the AGM had finished, I woke at 6am so me and 30 other people could go to bangladesh’s most southern point and one of the world’s unspoilt treasures. The place, is an island called St Martins.

The bus ride from cox’s bazaar to the smuggling port of teknaf was an arse aching 3 hours. We even got given breakfast on the bus, but eating that whilst dancing on the seat was a mission impossible. I didn’t sleep much that night, hasan and zaki kept me up in their banter, we spent an hr debating which bolly actress was the hottest. I said priyanka cause her body is fantastic. Curves in all the right places.

The majority of the bus ride was spent sleeping. People kept waking me up every 2mins trying to explain to me that the Bangladesh scenery is beautiful and I should be awake, but I kept snoring fak off to them. So we reached teknaf, the place was saturated with buses from tour companies because st martin is a massive tourist destination in Bangladesh. I was really chuffed, because I have heard so much about the place and now that I was going there, it felt surreal. We boarded the boat. It had three floors representing 3 classes.

The downstairs was plastic chairs, middle was comfier, and upstairs spacious. It was an ok ride, I managed to get some more shut eye in between taking pictures, so I was happy. The weather like usual, was warm and pleasant. Its not like the june, july months where it hits 40 deg Celsius. We reached st martins finally, seeing the island on the horizon of the bay of Bengal reminded me of what the island in Lost looks like. It really is a beautiful sight. The place is tiny, two fat people would make it look like a box room. But the beach was a beautiful colour. The population is small, 7000 and the main industry is fishing. Boats litter the shore and fishermen can be seen casting their nets.

There are a few hotels on the island. The place has potential for being a massive tourist site, because it also has a coral beach. I did see 2 white people there, enjoying the tranquillity and peace that this beach offers. In Bangladesh, beach culture is much more reserved, so sadly, u don’t see bikini babes wet and bathing in the sun, but I have a dvd in london for that so I aint too bothered.

So we walked around the beach, I took some pics, drank water from 4 coconuts, they were really good and took some more pictures. I bought rahima her shell, I was going to buy coral but I was afraid that it might be illegal so I declined. We found this standard Bengali restaurant a little inland. Sadly I didn’t get to eat fresh fish. The people I was with were pretty boring in that sense. after lunch, we headed back to go back to mainland Bangladesh. We did not stay for long at st martins, because we were heading back to Dhaka that night. But, the 2 hours I was there for was good. The only sad thing about st martins that I will remember, is that, u still see poverty here. It doesn’t matter where in Bangladesh you are, you still see poverty. It disgusts me that nothing has changed. But I alone can not do something. Change must come from the central government, and it needs to be soon.

To go back to mainland again, it was another 2 hr boat journey. I made a friend on that journey, nadia is a 10 year old studying at an English medium school. She is really cute and she wants to be a doctor in the future. Why? Because I am going to be a doctor.. little copy cat!!!
We reached our waiting bus and the sun was now beginning to set. Again I didn’t get to see a bay of Bengal sunset. I am not too upset, but it is something I will regret I am sure. The bus journey was a nice experience. Like in bollywood films, everybody started singing bangla songs and reciting famous bangla poetry. It was a really nice united feeling. I am beginning to understand how important language is and culture is. The more I am learning and the more interaction and exposure I get, the more I feel proud about the men and women that fought to preserve the Bengali language. Maybe I am not proud of what Bangladesh is now, but the spirit that exists amongst the people, rich or poor is something that is reaping a patriot emotion within me.

Cox's Bazaar Day 2 & 3

Tuesday morning and the conference started at 9am. At 9am I was still in bed sleeping and enjoying my life of pure bliss. This period of my life will never repeat so I shall make the most of everything I have and just chiiiiiiil. I finally awoke from the giant sleep at 11am and I then strolled the 5 minute walk to the conference walking along the road that is parallel to the shore and telling every rickshaw driver I do not need to use them. At 11.45, I slipped into the conference room right in the middle of when my boss was giving a speech. I don’t think she recognised it was me because like me, she is short sighted so I was in luck.

Anyways, the day was not that fantastic, it was the same stuff as Tuesday but however, the twist was that in the evening the FPAB team at cox’s bazaar had organised a cultural evening. Cultural you ask… well, this meant, some traditional Burmese dancing and the bangla singers lightning up the room and people dancing. I myself also bopped on the dance floor, but instead of 50cent, it was some bangla song. It was really cool. There were about 30 people, all above the age of 30 except myself dancing. I have never seen Bangladeshis dancing, as it is frowned upon and regarded as haram. However, as I learn more and more about the culture, I can see the reasons why over here in Bangladesh nobody is bothered at the hesitancies the Bangladesh community in the UK have. People have to remember, that many of this people were in the country when they shed blood to save the language. God was not available that night when all the scholars at Dhaka University were murdered. The culture therefore now celebrates music, and singing and poetry, and seeing all these people come together that night, I felt proud as a Bengali, and being grabbed hold of by the people to dance with them made me feel even more proud because I am now beginning to feel I am a member of this race.

After all the serious conference speeches, we were treated to Burmese dancing. There were four really adorable doll like girls who have grown up in Chittagong brought to entertain us. This was the first time I had ever seen anything like this and I have to admit, I really enjoyed the show. The music, the dancing with candles and umbrellas was really cool. Next time I am in Chittagong I am going to have to see a show like this again. After the girls had done their dance, I chased after them, not because I have yellow fever but because I wanted that exclusive photo. The weird thing was that they were so fluent in bangla, but the other weird thing about this is the stark contrast in physical features between Bangladeshis and the Burmese in such a short distance on both sides of the borders. People either look Bengali or Burmese, no in between. If you know what I mean.

After the Burmese dance, was the Bengali band. There were three singers, 2 girls and one bloke whose picture I didn’t want to take. But in between the dance and music from the band, the people of FPAB wanted an encore, so guess who took the mic and started to sing, my boss!!! She is so brave, such a cool brave, such a cool modern Bengali woman. I wish many more Bengali women would be like her. She is 50 years old but she won’t let anything stop her in her ambition whether it is educating about sexual reproductive health or wanting to sing for a crowd. She did two numbers, and I have recorded one of them on my camera, but until I can figure out how to upload them to this site, they will just remain on my hardrive. The band then arrived in typical Bangladesh timing fashion, but they did sing for 2 hours, it was good. Like I said earlier, people got up and danced.

After the dancing, the night was over and everybody went home. I was starving and I did the easy thing which was order room service. The milkshake at coral reef aint bad.

On the third day, which was now Thursday, my typical day pattern did not follow. I woke up at 10 this time, but instead of heading off to the conference immediately, I went to this most delightful and charming café/snack bar which is built on stilts and sits on the beach. When it is high tide, I am told the place is one of the best places to be in Bangladesh and maybe in the world. The name angel drop is quite fitting, and I hope this place remains forever and that the effect of globalisation doesn’t destroy it.

For my breakkie, I had a cup of tea, typically loaded full of sugar and a biscuit, I didn’t order much partly for the reason they don’t really have much on the menu. But it was good never the less. One striking thing about Cox’s bazaar is the noise the Bay of Bengal produces. The waves crash with such volume that they are a formidable opponent for the central line.

Today was the last day of the annual project review (AGM) so I should really have been there much earlier and stay all day. I did the latter which was ok. It was the same old stuff again. speeches, but this time the critiscm and reviews were handed out to people and the different districts were told where they were going wrong and how to improve.

The day finished early, around 3pm. But in the afternoon, there was a debating competition, 10 regional finalists came to cox’s bazaar to battle out who is the best. The subject was sexual reproductive health, gender based violence and all the trimmings that went along with it. The competition was interesting, the one thing I had learnt from Bangladeshis when it came to debating is that it is all about voice projection and copying what the politicians do. People don’t use wit here, they shout, and bang fists and this is what the crowd like. It gives a buzz and to see teenagers doing is quite remarkable. In the UK everyone is a bit more relaxed, the content of what they say uses humour and intelligence, but it was interesting to see the contrast.

After the debate, and the prizes handed out, FPAB then staged a little natok. The drama is typical of what the volunteers do for FPAB. Educating is more effective in staging the message rather than handing out leaflets so it was nice to get an insight into this. The story was, a pregnant wife beaten by the husband and then given shit by the mother in law. FPAB then comes to the rescue to teach the family why they should not be doing what they are doing and so on.

The sad thing about Bengali culture in the village is that pregnant women have it hard. This needs to change, obvious statement I know, but this culture is centuries old, so the task is hard.

After the day ended, I treated the guys I made friends with to the cheapest meal ever. 4 peeps ate for less than 70 pence. Hail the strength of the pound and my time in cox’s bazaar.

I went to bed early because the day after, I was headed off to St Martins!! Woo hoo!!!!

cox's bazaar, sun, sea, sand and no sex! 1st proper day at cox's bazaar

hey world!!!

This week, I have been far far away at the jewel of the Bangladesh crown. Cox’s bazaar is a seaside resort, not like Blackpool, but somewhere which still retains lots of natural beauty but also is being infiltrated by the major tourist companies.

Last Monday, I woke up before sunrise to get ready for the 8hr bus journey. I have confirmed to myself once again that I am not an early morning person. I hate early mornings but it is even more depressing when you wake up when the sun has not even risen! I had to be at Razorbag bus station for 7 o’clock. Me being the twat I am didn’t anticipate that I wouldn’t have any morning traffic to deal with that early, this meant I reached there for 6.30 and I was seriously moody cause I could have slept for another 30mins..

The reason why I went to Cox’s bazaar last week is because FPAB have their annual general meeting there. I was really fortunate that my elective coincided with this, because I was planning on visiting the beach but I didn’t know when I would fit it in. The phrase, 2 birds with 1 stone was awesome, I went to see Bangladesh’s seaside and also be on my elective at the same time.

The AGM itself was not very interesting. It was an evaluation how the NGO was doing nationally with many members from all over the nation being present there. There were speeches, presentations, discussions, workshops etc. I am still having trouble understanding fast spoken bangla, and it was no surprise I was falling asleep or playing on my Nintendo or day dreaming about hitting the beach.

The AGM started on Tuesday and we travelled all day on the Monday before. For three solid days, the AGM happened 9-6. I didn’t attend the early morning sessions, my bed was far too comfortable for that and I didn’t stay all day because I wanted to do was chill by sea which was only a stone throw away from the hotel.

As for the beach itself, it is a place where one can just chill out and forget all about the realities of life. The place is relatively clean and kids are employed a phone company to pick up litter. The sad fact is, these kids should be in school, and the other sad fact is that littering is a massive problem in this country. The government here is too busy concerned about its military capabilities than doing the simple things such as placing a bin in places populated by man. I have never seen a bin Dhaka and I haven’t seen one either in Cox’s bazaar. Simple things seem to be too complicated for a country which tries to copy the west.

On my first day on the beach, I chilled on a deck chair for an hour, got hassled by kids to give them some money and or buy shells. I did both, but it doesn’t matter where you go in this country, poverty follows and its depressing, because here I am, a tourist first, British second, and Bangladeshi third and it really upsets me when I see these children and family because if it wasn’t for the simple migration my dad did, I could have easily had the same childhood. Alone, I can not change this; change must come centrally and nationally.

The highlight after relaxing on my deckchair, was that I hired a beach buggy for an hour, this was bloody awesome, it was simple to drive and there were some mini dunes I could drive over. The best thing was that you it only had one gear, like a video game u just pressed the accelerator button and steered!! Afterwards, the sun started to set, this thing about sunsets here are that, you don’t get to see the sun ingested by the ocean. The horizon is always cloudy on the Bay of Bengal; therefore, I only managed to take pictures of a tangerine sun. This upset me, because I tried for three days and disappointment each day. After sunset, I went back to my hotel watched some TV and met with two of my colleagues, Hasan, and Zaki. They are relatively young compared to the whole FPAB members, at 23, and 33. with them, we would just chill on the beach again at night and drink tea and I would be questioned about the usual stuff, England, girls, and alcohol. Around half 10, I would retire for the day and sleep again after watching some MTV.

gonna be away till the 2nd

hey guys

not much today, quite tiring and long at the office

im going to cox bazaar tomorrow morning till friday because FPAB are having an AGM with lots of speeches and workshops, should be interesting..

im going to the longest natural beach in the world, so i will be taking lots of pictures and hopefully have lots of stories to tell on saturday when i am recovering..

have fun guys

shuwaib

child labour and overworked fathers

dear reader/readers and world

another day passes by and i havent had an 8hr nap iyet, and i have had no coffee either. how am i surviving? u tell me???

toaday was another long day.. i woke up early and we did a bit of market shopping in gulshan with mum and dad. they left for the village today, it was nice to see them after so long and the next time i will see them is in another 11 week's time. im not sad, i quite like this independance i have but my parents are upset at it. they feel they have lost a son due to the education system of raising me in england. but what i have been trying to explain is that in order for me to learn about who i am, where i am from and for me to reach success, i feel i must do it away from stoke.

they left at 12pm, and i then headed off to the office and finally got the poster on the way to being made. madam was surprised by what i have done in summarising the independant evaluation and i am quite touched. its not often that one gets to be such close proximity to the head of an organisation, especially one like FPAB in bangladesh.

so i got back to the hotel for half 6, this was perfect timing because ESPN were showing the Man U game live on the telly. premiership football when so far away makes the world seem a lot smaller than what it really is. thank you rupert murdoch for being my football saviour.

this evening i went to visit my friend's parents. they had given me an invite which i was reluctant to accept because of the rest i need especially because of it being warm weather and also cause i am generally knackered!!! anyways, they sent their driver to collect me and i sat down to talk about the usual shenanigans people discuss. the couple are very interesting and both have highly respective jobs, but it still doesnt excuse some of the culturual aspects this country is still infested with.

the thing that has made me melancholic today, is the young not even a teenager who works as a made for them. its not right, child labour is not right. fine, she may be off the streets and away from the dangers of dhaka street life, but she has a right to dream and even working for this family means she has none.

i hate this concept of having servants and chauffeurs because i hate the institution of social class. this poor girl, has no basic education and all she knows is how to clean and follow orders. i can express how much anger i have in seeing such a beautiful young girl in this position. her eyes were beautiful and anyone who sees her would wish for a sister or daughter like her. i understand the positives and yes i know the argument is that my british upbringing clouds my view, but the people who employ are not backward members of society, they are successful and wealthy people. the irony is, my friend's mother is a school teacher at high school level, yet at home the girl who works for them receives none schooling.

the driver who dropped me off engaged me in conversation, we discussed england and what is the purpose for my visit to dhaka. but i then questioned him on his personal life. the driver has a wife and 2 year old baby that he works to feed. that i appreciate, he works to provide for his family and that is v.honourable. but this where the bitter taste started to be felt.

the driver only has 4 days off a month, and he starts work at half six in the morning and doesnt finish till close to midnight. the guy has a wife and child. he should be as fortunate as his boss to be in his family's life not his bosses literally all day and night. where is the justification and do his employers have any sense of guilt? i know we have servants in our village, but i know for a fact they do not live like that. at least in the village the family are kept together and my father also makes sure the daughter is educated. but what is the plight for my driver's life?

i apologised to him and said i will try my best somehow to change this in the future, so other people do not live like this. in return, the driver asked me if he could come work in england and be our chauffeur. the reality is, we all drive and the idea of having a maid or chauffeur is outrageous. this country makes me realise how lucky i am. but it also makes me realise what kind of people exist in this country and also the ones who export themselves to england to make a better life for themselves financially. people say bangladesh is improving, in my eyes it is still the same - culturally it is still the same and that is sad. i could have easily become the chauffeur i met today, but thanks to god, i was born in england and i have now become a doctor. but the most important thing that i have and that nobody will ever take away from me is the independance i have in looking after myself and i will never ever be dependant on anybody to literally wipe my arse for me.

not many pictures today, just one of a train but it isnt a good one.. also, as u know, nike do really cool adverts on tv, so on you tube, check out the nike indian cricket advert.. really cool

speak later
shuw

link to my old blog

if u want to see the bulk of my first week the link is above

friday 23rd feb

today was a long and frustating day, i am happy but i am so upset that i cant log into my blog at shuwaib.blogspot.com

anyways, its ok, i have a new one now and hopefully people will catch on and switch to the darker side...

so today, what happened..

well, since my parents are here, we went to visit some cousins of mine who live in mohammadpur. i havent seen these guys in a decade and it was nice to see them and boy have they grown. they are all busy studying away and i am quite proud of the dilligence they have.

after visiting them, we went to bashundhara shopping centre. this is regarded as the jewel in the bangladesh crown of shopping, but i found it a place with no personality and dull so hence no pictures of it. maybe next time i go i will snap away but not today.

afterwards, we headed to dhaka university, we were going to go to the book mela, but the line was massive so we didnt. instead we went to kazi narul's grave which is opposite the art dept of dhaka uni. he is a very famous figure to many people and touched them in someway in their lives.

we then headed to the art department for a wander and we were watching students doing still life drawing. they were pretty good but i dont want to sound horrible, but does a country like bangladesh really need artists??? i think they need other professionals more. but that is my personal oppinion.

we then went home cause we were all tired and i was getting more and more tense because i knew today was the day my results would be published for my final exams. so i had a nap for an hour and then logged on. i was convinced i had failed and that the shock wouldnt be great but just a reconfirmed upset emotion.

anyways, i logged on and bang!!! i had passed my exams, maybe not with straight As but never the less, i am now 99% a doctor!! just need to do the elective report and SSM coursework and i am then going to graduate as a doctor. i am glad and honestly, i am shocked because i have low self confidence when it comes to exams now, especially after my 1st and 2nd year where all that partying led me to retake in the summer holidays.. but i have never had to repeat an academic year so i should have some confidence in me now.

we then headed to a bengali restaurant, we were going to go to the most expensive one in dhaka but we couldnt even get a cab!! the food was too much and i gave what we couldn’t finish to a homeless boy.

anyways, im gonna sleep now so catch you later!!