Life in Khagrachari

Things have been pretty crazy the last few days, as you may know the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR), who protect the Bangladeshi borders, held a mutiny & killed many of their officers in Dhaka, just near New Market where I took some of my photos. There was also some unrest in Khagrachari as the BDR are also based here. The head of the Khagrachari BDR was in Dhaka at the time & they think that he has been killed as well. Yesterday the Government had all mobile networks & electricity cut throughout the country to stop the BDR in Dhaka contacting BDR around the country. Yesterday morning apparently the army went to the school in Khagrachari that the BDR’s children attend and ‘kidnapped’ them to ensure that the BDR did not mutiny here as well.

VSO have been very good throughout the situation, they have been in contact & keeping us up to date with whats occurring. We have been in ‘lockdown’, meaning not leaving our home. Things seem to have settled down with the surrendering of the BDR.
I must say that having the mobile network & the power cut off was a little unnerving, it made it very difficult to know what was going on.

Anyway, apart from that life in Khagrachari is good, very different to Dhaka. The majority of people who live here are indigenous, they look different, dress differently, and have different languages. Their food is quite similar to Bangladeshi food except that they love chilli in everything & eat a lot of dried fish. They eat all their meals on a mat on the floor and use their right hand only to eat food with, just like the Bangladeshis.

As I mentioned I am living with an indigenous family for 3 weeks. They are from the Chakma tribe, one of several tribes in the area. They have their own language, Chakma, as do most of the tribes, so what little Bangla I know is useless with them as they converse in Chakma. In the office there are Chakma, Marma & Bangladeshis working, each with their own language! Makes life very difficult for me. I have made the decision that I will concentrate on Bangla for the moment. There is no way that I can learn 3 new languages at once, I am struggling with just one. Everybody can speak Bangla & that’s all they speak in Dhaka so Bangla it is.

Arun has organized for a cleaner to come in & look after me, she cleans my room and washes & organizes my clothes, so between that & having all meals cooked I am becoming very lazy but liking it! (except for the rice). All their cooking is done on a primitive wood burning stove made of mud.

Arun’s house is about a 3 minute walk from the office, along a dirt road, past the local markets, dodging the cows and rickshaws along the way. Everyone still stares at me but they are also starting to say hello to me, which is nice. Today I went for a walk along a road that I haven’t been before and the people just stared in disbelief at me, so I just smile at them & keep going. When ricksaws go by people even turn around & look behind at me! While it’s a little unnerving you just have to get used to it.

Everyone at my office is very friendly, especially Misha & Thulimond who are brother & sister. I’ve been to their place a couple of times & been out to dinner a couple of times at the one restaurant in town, Systems. The restaurant is a thatched hut with 5 or 6 plastic tables & chairs with plastic table clothes. There is a variety of dishes readymade that you can choose from. I have been there 3 times so far! Twice with Thulimond & once with Megan, an English volunteer. Her parents had come out to visit her so she invited me to join them for dinner.

Work, well I haven’t done anything yet. I spoke to Arun before he left for China & asked what he wanted me to work on while he was away, he said just settle in, so I am waiting for him to return to actually do something! This is the way it works here and in many other 3rd world countries, things take time.

Things have now settled down & life is back to normal.

Tonight I went to the local hospital to visit a couple who had a baby today, they are related to the family I am staying with. The wife had an emergency caesarian today. It was just heartbreaking to see the conditions that these women have their babies in. It was a large room, with about 10 beds and each of the women had given birth either today or yesterday. There was no power & it was extremely hot, the new mother was obviously feeling pretty bad after just having a caesarian, she was in an old bed with bedding that left a lot to be desired. Her family would take turns fanning her to try & make her more comfortable. Each family has a mat next to the bed where they sit with the baby. There is no cot for the baby, a family member stays with the mother so someone is there to care for the baby. The new mum will leave the hospital in 3 days even after having a caesarian, after seeing the conditions I don’t blame them. The conditions of the hospital would not be accepted in Australia. Having said all of that the baby girl is just beautiful and the whole extended family are very proud. While I was there they kept rubbing the babies nose from the bridge downwards, I asked them what they where doing & they said they believed that if they kept doing that the babies nose would be thin like mine not flat like theirs! I told them her nose was perfect.