January 25, 2010

Rakib told me he received the email I sent him. It contained some photos of our Okpik trip. Rakib asked how the scouts did on the Vermont cold weather snowshoe trip. I told him that they all did well, and that most build snow shelters and slept in them overnight. Rakib said to tell the scouts on that trip that he was proud of them. He thanked me for the photos and asked that I send more of the scouts and our activities. He said he would like to have a camera so he could share his experiences with the scouts in the USA.
I asked Rakib how his family was. He said they are well, but his sisters still have not been able to resume school due to lack of money. He tries to talk to his family each week. I told him that one of our scout’s moms thought we should budget money each year so he could visit his family back home in Rayenda a few times per year. He was grateful for the thought and said he would very much enjoy being able to visit with them. He said round trip bus fare is $600 taka ($8.83 U.S.) for the 10-12 hour trip. He would also need a few taka for food in route.
Rakib said he talked on the phone with Nurullah Masum, the scout leader who helped with my travel on my trip to Bangladesh. He is going to try to meet with him on Thursday. Mr. Masum agreed to help Rakib find a Rover Scout group to join near his college. When we last talked I told Rakib that my daughter Dawn, and her co-workers were going to donate the money to pay for his college cloths, scout uniform, boots and a backpack for scouting and I asked him to see if he could purchase a backpack locally. He said he found some foreign made backpacks in the local market and they cost about 2200 taka ($33 U.S). He did not think they were the same quality as the backpacks used by our scouts.
We talked a bit about his estimated monthly expenses for the month of February. Rakib listed all of his anticipated expenses including, the balance needed for Jan. transportation, Feb. tuition, hostel, transportation, lunch, internet access, and misc expense totaled 16,200 taka. His teachers also informed him that all students must pay 800 taka per month to pay for photocopies of lesson plans. The total monthly expenses for Feb. are 17,000 taka ($240 US). I told Rakib I would get the money to him ASAP.
Rakib said he has been attending class and the classes are from 8:00 AM to 2:30 PM. There is a break for food from 12:00-12:30PM. He said he had bought most of the books he needs with the money we sent him. He still needed to buy a few guidebooks with the remaining money. He said that he had not allowed for his transportation cost to college and his noon meal cost when he gave me his estimated expenses for the month. He said he needed 1500 taka to pay for these expenses for the rest of the month. Transportation is by rickshaw and bus and cost 80 taka ($1.18 U.S.) per day. His noon meal cost 50 taka (74 cents U.S.) per day.
Rakib said he talked with Dr Mohsin and he will try to find bones for him to use. Rakib has anatomy class every day and has to bring the bones they are studying that day with him.