November 29, 2009

About 11:00 AM my phone rang two times, Rakib’s signal to call him. It took me about ten tries to get through. I think this was a U.S. problem due to the Thanksgiving holiday I think the overseas circuits were overloaded. By the time I got through it was 12:00 Noon (midnight in Bangladesh) and I woke Rakib up; he had gone to bed early. He said he was quite tired due to all of the traveling he was doing. After he shook off the sleep he was quite enthusiastic to inform me of his progress over the past few days. He said that he had a safe and productive trip to Khulna on 25 & 26 Nov. He collected and submitted the admission forms for Khulna Med. College. He was back in Dhaka for the festival on 27 & 28 Nov. This morning, 29 Nov., he traveled from Dhaka to a town near Dhaka and collected another admission form for a Medical College then, around 1:00 PM he boarded a bus to Chittagong City. He arrived in Chittagong about 8:00 PM. He went to a hotel, where he was when I called. Tomorrow he will collect the forms for Chittagong Medical College and then return to Dhaka. The trip back to Dhaka will take about ten hours and he will have to change busses once.
Rakib educated me a little about how the areas of the country are broken down. There are four states, within the states there are 64 areas called districts, within districts there are sub-districts called upazilas, in the upazilas there are wards and villages. So, Rakib’s home village would be in Khulna state, Bagerhat district, Sharonkola upazila, Rayenda village. Rayenda is spelled Raenda and Sharonkola, Saronkola on
some maps. Rakib also stated that due to climate change water levels are rising around the world. Much of southern Bangladesh will be under water within 40 years, Including Rayenda. 10s of millions of people will be displaced.
Rakib ended the call with “Give my thanks to the Scouts and your friends”
Talking with Rakib brought back memories of my time spent in Rayenda.
If you would like to follow Rakib’s travel around the country here is a link to an interactive Google map.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&source=embed&ll=23.084785,91.082153&spn=2.364808,4.916382&z=8
If you move Dhaka so it is at the top of the map, just left of center you can see Khulna on the middle left side of the page. Chittagong is on the lower right side. You can find Rakib’s village if you look for Morrelganj on the lower right side. Move Morrelganj to the center of the page and zoom in a couple of times and you will see Raenda directly below Morrelganj. To the right of Raenda is Saronkola. This is where Rakib went to community college. It was about a twenty minute walk from his home. Saronkola is next to the Sunderbans national Park, home of the Bengal Tiger. It is rare but, occasionally someone in this area is attacked and eaten by one.
When I look at the map of Rayenda, it brings back memories of the first day I met Rakib and he took me on a walking tour of the entire village and introduced me to his friends and family. The map does not zoom in far enough to see Rakib’s home but I can identify the lane or ally that his house is on. What great technology. Just south of Morrelganj is where HODR rebuilt a school. I designed the plans for the school using just the Microsoft excel toolbar. The school was completed by HODR volunteers after I left the project using my plans. If you received this by email there are two attached files Morrelganj school old and new. The new school looks just like I had envisioned it to look like. The old school photos are similar to a school Rakib attended.