March 7, 2010

I had a hard time getting a telephone connection today. It often takes multiple tries to get through. It was late in Bangladesh when I finally got through. Rakib was still up studying but he was ready to go to bed for the night. I kept the call short.
I asked Rakib if he had received the money we sent him for his March expenses. He said he did and he had paid his tuition, hostel rent, and for the cook and food for the month. He said he would have sufficient money left to pay for his lunch, and misc expenses for the rest of the month.
Rakib informed me that last Friday he went on a second student recreational tour. He traveled about three hours by bus to an area in a district outside of Dhaka City. It cost him about 100 taka ($1.45 U.S.). He thought the cost would be more but he found out that a medicine company paid for most of the cost of the trip. He said the weather was hot but “I enjoyed the day of recreation”. They had a picnic by a lake and played some football.
Rakib informed me that he had taken his first card exam. The exam was in anatomy and the grade was not released yet but he was confident that he had passed it.
I asked Rakib if he had spoken with his family recently. He said he did and that they are doing well. His younger sister is attending school. She is in grade nine. This is considered to be secondary education in Bangladesh. The government pays for school up to grade ten. Rakib’s middle sister completed higher secondary school (grade eleven & twelve) but is not able to continue her education due to lack of money. Rakib’s oldest sister is in a university in the city of Khulna, not too far from their village of Rayenda. Her father has been able to earn enough money to keep her in college. Her area of study is accounting.
Rakib said the weather has been hot. The city is hotter than his home village. The hot season starts in April and extends through June. It often starts earlier and extends later. Rakib said most of the students in the hostel have fans to cool them. He cannot afford to buy one.
Rakib asked what the scouts were doing. I told him the Venture Scouts were training for bear safety and that the risk of bear attack in the National Parks we will hike this summer would be similar to the risk of a Bengal Tiger attack in the Sunderbans National Park which straddles the boarder of India and Bangladesh near his village of Rayenda.
Rakib told me “scouts in Bangladesh would not have the opportunity to do such a long trek. They could not afford to spend the money and if they had that much time off from school they would have to use it to make money”.
Rakib said at the end of the year interest is due on the loan his cousin took to help pay Rakib’s admission fee. He was concerned that he will not have the money to pay it. I told him I would see if we could find a way to help him pay the interest.
Rakib ended the call by asking that I give his cordial love to the scouts.