October 4, 2009

When I talked with Rakib this morning he asked how the scouts and scouters were. I told him that we were all fine. He said he visited the Troop 1776 website this week and was pleased to see our recent activities and calendar of upcoming events.
He said that he heard that the economy in the U S was not good and asked if that were true. I told him we were in a recession, but we had had downturns before and America had always come out of them.
He told me that his brother was able to collect the money we sent him from Western union and he gave it to Rakib.
Rakib said that later this week, 7 October he would travel by bus to Khulna to take his first medical college admit exam. He would stay in a hostel on 7 & 8 October and take the exam on 9 October. After the exam he was going to travel to his village to visit with his family for a few days before returning to Dhaka to resume coaching class.
Rakib said “I have lost my heart a bit”. One of his teachers told him that the system for admission to medical college was not fair. He was told that some wealthy families make donations to medical colleges and get preferential treatment. Some do not even take the admit exam. His teacher told him about a medical college in the UK that has a program for students from developing nations. He said the web address was ISMU. net or org. I searched it and could not find anything. He was also told that there were medical colleges in Calcutta India that took Bangladesh Students. This area or India speaks a similar language to Bangla. Rakib said he will try to “collect more information”.
We talked a bit about scouting. Rakib said “I would like to continue with scouting all of my life”. I need to join a school to continue, since most scouting in Bangladesh is sponsored by schools. He has been told that there may be a few organizations in the cities that sponsor scouts. He is going to try to learn more about it.
I told Rakib that I had learned that the NGO, Medicines sans Frontiers, (Doctors Without Borders), Is working in a refugee camp near Cox Bazaar Bangladesh. The refugees are from Myanmar, formerly the country of Burma. They have been chased out of their homeland due to their religious beliefs. They are now refugees in Thailand and Bangladesh. Bangladesh is a poor country and cannot afford to host them. They have sponsored a government run refugee camp for many of them but there are many more than the camp can support. The UN and other organizations are trying to help, but not enough is being done. I told Rakib that I had given some thought to volunteering with MSF – Doctors Without Borders, as a logistician on one of their relief projects. I asked Rakib if he spoke the language of the Royhingya refugees. He said he knew of the situation and the people but they spoke Urdu a different language than his native Bangla. I thought that he might be able to volunteer as an interrupter for Doctors Without Borders and maybe get assistance obtaining a scholarship.
We ended our call with best wishes and God’s blessings for our friends, family, and the scouts.