So many little things that make a difference

First, I‘m really more than OK here in Rangpur. People are friendly, the weather is warm, the food is tasty and the work is interesting because I often visit the projects. 

My idea is to write my small texts about some typical and frequent things/situations happening around me focussing on differences between Germany and Bangladesh. All these texts have a little subtitle so that you always have a little overview. 

I also request you to tell me if you are interested in one special topic. I might write again about it with more details. 

The same about the photographies. I‘d like to get some new challenges. Tell me to take a photo of whatever you want and you‘ll probably see it soon at this page or at least in Facebook. My big Photo-album with subtitles is in Facebook but I‘ll try to upload some photos here, too.

My work:

Das Bürogebäude von JCF inklusive Trainingsräumen und Schlafplätzen

Every morning the office starts at 9 o‘ clock and ends at around 5 o‘ clock.

After coming to the office I decided with my Mentor what to do today. Mostly school-visits where I make notes and give feedback etc. But I also take a lot of Photographies. These school-visits are the most interesting part so far. One day I even participated at a parents morning (Elternabend). 

Soon I‘ll get some more theoretical work like writing reports or case studies. 

Gelegentlich arbeite ich hier...

Sometimes I sit in the office and learn Bangla. 

...oder hier

The teacher-trainings are a big thing for JCF and I participate as much as possible. Especially the english-part is interesting for me and I can accompany the trainer.

Teacher training: All these persons work as a teacher in a school build by sheet (Wellblech).
They have one class and they teach this class for 4 years until the children finish their primary education.  The teachers come from the area where they teach. Their efforts could be considered as social volunteer work with a little money bonus.

The children in the school are sitting disciplined with a hill of books in front of them.

The food:

A typical meal: Rice, Dal, Vegetables and chicken

The bangladeshi food is really nice. The woman take a lot of time to prepare the food. It tastes mostly hot. Actually the people eat two or sometimes even three times a day cooked rice with some additional stuff such as „Dal“, vegetables, sauces and of course meat. I‘ve never eaten so often meat in my life before. The meat is mostly cooked with the bones, the fat etc. together. In Germany we throw away a lot, but here they use almost everything that you can eat and it takes sooo good. 

An average family in Bangladesh eats dinner at 10 pm. That‘s too late for me and I really don‘t want to become fat here, so I avoid eating in the night.

Eye-contact:

I remember several situations in Germany when people asked me if I have a problem just because I looked into their eyes for a few seconds. My experiences here a totally different. People are likely to get eye-contact with me, boys or girls, it doesn‘t really matter. That‘s really comfortable for me because I started to do the same. The people are so interesting and I want to see their faces and their colorful clothes. 

Motorcycle-tours to the field:

The office is close to my home but quite far away from the projects. My colleagues often go to the field and they always use motorcycles. I often join these tours and then I sit in the back of the motorcycle for one hour and see the landscape. 

Up to 5 person on a motorcycle

These tours are like „cinema“ for me. I just sit in the back of the motorcycle (wearing an helmet) and watch people and landscape. Bangladesh is soooooo green. Almost all space is in use. Every little place is used for some houses, for some fruit-trees, but mostly for rice-fields. 

These rice-fields are responsible for the green color everywhere. The fields are not that big as in Germany, they are often subdivided, but there are plenty of them. 

A community school with a flag.

It is such a wonderful feeling of liberty to drive trough this landscape by motorcycle. And as everyone knows it‘s also interesting to watch other people working.

The Weather: 

Since I arrived I like the current weather here. The temperature is always agreeable. I can go out with long trousers and a shirt and I feel very comfortable. Sometimes I am sweating in the sun but as I drive motorcycle a lot it‘s very windy. My skin-color has changed a bit. I am happy about it. 

Green, green, green everywhere.

The sad thing about the weather is that it is going to be very cold here. Not as cold as in Germany but the houses have no heater and the windows are not with double or triple glasses. My colleagues warned me regarding the winter. 

The language Bangla:

Bangla is the sixth most spoken language in the world but as unknown as the country, Bangladesh. The people in East Bengal, Bangladesh, and in West Bengal, a part of India, speak bangla. 

Bengali word for man

The language has one significant difference regarding german or english. The object stands before the verb. The sentence „I love you“ is „I you love“ in Bangla, „Ami tomake bhalobashi“.

To be honest it is not very easy for me to learn Bangla. The word‘s sound is mostly so different to any known word structure. So I learn vocabularies as I did in school. That‘s the only possibility for me to learn effectively. Just „listening and trying“ is not possible for me. Rarely I understand some words because they have been imported from english. 

Bengali word for woman

Sometimes I will understand if someone talks about a well-known topic such as my reasons to come to Bangladesh or the volunteer-service in general.

I have some typical sentences that I repeat fluently to introduce myself, but when people start to answer and ask question I‘m mostly over-challenged. 

The written language is impossible to read for me, it‘s like Chinese. 

Public Transport:

Rikshaw: It‘s the typical easy way to go to another place, but also quite „expensive“ for bangladeshi conditions. The bg advantage is that you have something like a coordinator. I just say the name of the place and I‘ll arrive there after some time. Rikshaw is medium comfortable.

"Auto"with (unlimited) space for people

Autorikshaw (short „Auto“): Is a three wheels vehicle with space for 6 passengers and a driver. You can also enter this „Auto“ with 8 passengers. The price is very low and they are always at the places where you need them. Mostly I pay five to ten Taka (Taka = Euro-Cent) for a normal distance in Rangpur. „Autos“ are not existing in Dhaka because they drive by electricity.

Bad quality of the photo and the bus

Bus: Local busses are existing in Dhaka but they are not needed in Rangpur. Almost every bus is totally overcrowded.

Regional and national busses are most dangerous in this country. The driving-style is horrible and they use their extremely (!) loud horns everywhere. They are the fastest on the highways and the overtake as they wish. But they are cheap. Around 6 Euro costs a ticket from Dhaka to Rangpur (380 km). 

The places on the top of the busses are much cheaper.

How much?:

I made the experience that people ask me very often about the prices for some pruducts. It doesn‘t matter if it is my MacBook, my Camera, my clothes from Germany or the stuff I bought in Bangladesh. 

The question is „Kóto Taka?“. Often I‘m ashamed to tell teh rice because it is often quite a lot in bangladeshi relation. 

The definition of work: 

I hope no one will misunderstand me regarding this topic and I don‘t want to build up an opinion. It‘s just that I realized that the work in an office is mostly a bit more relaxed than in Germany. I can‘t generalize this but I feel a difference. You have a lot of time to chat with your colleagues while drinking „Cha“. That‘s mostly very nice, but sometimes also exhausting because I‘m often interrupted when I do something. 

My Colleagues:

The colleagues at Jagorani Chakra Foundation (JCF) in Rangpur are very nice and very friendly and very open minded. I really like them a lot. I can ask them for any kind of help and they are really flexible. They see me as a colleague who has no fixed work except from getting involved into the various working areas. So they ask me if I want to go with them to the field. They want to show me a lot.

It is mostly possible to discuss everything in in English because everyone understands and speaks english more or less. 

My Mentor: 

Mizan in action explaining the children
in the primary school how to do it right.

I have a very good relation to my mentor in Rangpur. He is actually called „technical advisor“ but his name is Mizan. I‘m mostly going to the field with him because he is responsible for me. But he is also the responsible person for the non-government primary schools. He has around 120 schools which have one classroom and one teacher.

Apart from work we meet a lot in the evening. We sit together with his/our friends drink tea and talk. And at the end he brings me home by motorcycle. 

Boys and boys:

Sometimes, iI can see girls holding hands on the streets in Germany, but I rarely see boys like this. 

That‘s very different here in Bangladesh. I often see boys holding hands as well as girls. I think it is a sign of friendship but definitively no sign of homosexuality. Homosexuality is forbidden in Bangladesh.

There are various situations when people take my hand or place their hands on my knee. For example when we cross a street or sit together in an „auto“. Sometimes it‘s a little bit strange for me but I get used to these situations. 

People in Bangladesh are not that starched (steif) as they are in Germany and so it is always no problem to have body-contact with your known people and friends. 

More and more I start to like it very much because it is a strong gesture of friendship and it makes me very proud when my colleagues take me in their arms etc.

My patience for Photography: 

Since I got my DSLR-Camera I started to like photography much more than before. But in Germany there are so little interesting things compared to Bangladesh. Here I have the possibility to take millions of photos what I unfortunately do - my Laptop‘s memory is full. 

If you have any wishes what you would like to see, just ask me. I‘m always interested to take a lot of photos and I like to get new inspiration. 

Soon I‘ll buy a new zoom-lens which is still missing in my repertoire. It offers me more possibilities for nice photos. 

The beautiful dresses of the women:

Although this photo has not been taken on the street,
it shows the various colors of the clothes.

The rice-fields give the countryside a wonderful green color which is accompanied by the green banana-trees, mango-trees, palm-trees etc. But inside the city it looks colorful, too. The women with their various „Saris“ and „Saloar Kamij“ are responsible for this effect. 

They wear all kinds of colors that you can imagine. Watching a group of women is a nice situation where you can see a wave of colors shining bright in the sun. 

The men don‘t really follow this trend. Sometimes the shirts are colorful but there is a big difference regarding the dressed up women with the bracelets and bangles (Armreif).

To be a „Bideshi“:

„Bideshi“ is the Bangla word for foreigner. 

I‘m living in Rangpur since 4 weeks and I saw two unknown foreigners here. Maybe there are some more but I can‘t identify them as not from Bangladesh.

Rangpur is a City like Bielefeld and the 3rd biggest City in Bangladesh. If Rangpur has even just a few „Bideshis“ you will be able to imagine how it is in the villages on the countryside. Some people there have never seen a foreigner before in their lives.

Just too much attention for "Bideshis"

I get a lot of attention here because I‘m a foreigner. Sometimes people see me, look at me and remain in this position for a long time. On the one hand it is uncomfortable because I am not an animal in a Zoo and I also need some privacy. But on the other side I get a lot of possibilities to talk to interesting people that are „so happy so see a Bideshi“ and „just want to talk to [me] for a while“. Besides this interest bangladeshis like to help me a lot because they understand that it is not easy for me to find the right way - I can‘t read the letters.

Until now I have never had a situation when I could say that there was something like xenophobia (Ausländerfeindlichkeit). This makes me feel comfortable because I feel really welcome in this country. Sometimes, I even have the situation that people thank me that I came to their country and „help“ here.

A "Dut Tsha", black tea with milk

Drink Tea, eat Sweets:

There are a lot of things that I like a lot here, but there are some that I like even more. This is for example the tradition to drink a lot of tea. We often make a short rest with the collegues. Then we sit in a tea-shop next to the road and drink a tea. The black tea with milk is served in a very small glas but the amount of sugar in enormous. The huge amount of sugar causes the nice taste but also some big bellies. 

Besides the sweet tea there are a lot of sweets here. The sweets are called „Misti“ and they are really dangerous. The taste is extremely nice but the sugar-part is so huge. It tastes like oily sugar with some ingredients to connect it and keep it in a form. 

There are different types of „Misties“. I like „Kalojam“ the most. 

Others:

I‘m often confronted with people who tell me that „Jarmanii is ä ritsh countrii.“

I get a lot more invitations here than in my own Country. I really like it because the food I get during the visits is the best. Sometimes it‘s also a bit strange because I‘m treated as a guest of honor, but I think this is the bengali hospitality.

I experienced that the word „Friendship“ has sometimes another meaning in Bangladesh. Some people call me friend although I met them 2 minutes ago. 

Some good news. I got hundreds of brothers and sister here. Everyone is calling me brother, „Bhai“ and the girls sister, „apa“. This is really nice but you should never take it serious if someone points at a persons and tells you that he is his brother. It‘s mostly a colleagues or a neighbor. If he is much older than he/she will be called „Uncle“ or „Aunti“

The selfi- and photo- addiction also came to Bangladesh and it is somehow really annoying if people always take photos just to upload them on Facebook to get some likes.

Besides the selfies the bangladeshis like to take photos with „bideshis“. As you know they are rare. Now you can imagine that I often have to be "the" Bideshi on everyone‘s photo. 

I got a bicycle so that I can explore the City by myself. I can stop wherever I want and stay as long as I wish. That‘s really nice. 

My new Bike. The break doesn't work well, but who cares. For safety reasons I installed a torch for the night.

Arrival in Rangpur

Hey friends and family,

I arrived well in Rangpur but I start my little report some days before.

My new technical advisor and another person from my new organization called “Jagorani Chakra Foundation“ (JCF) came to Dhaka to take part of an workshop regarding the one year-vounteer-service of our group. Our group of 6 german volunteers joined this workshop later. Agata and Farjina, our mentors organized everything. At this workshop we had the possibility to get in contact with the new important persons in our lives. The other idea of this workshop was to gather expectations from both sides as well as aims and to get an little impression of my future mentors. 

All volunteers had some time to talk to their responsible persons and it was good for me. We had some topics to discuss and there was almost no shying silence. 

At the end of the workshop we saved a time and a place to meet with our technical advisors to go on the upcoming journey on the next day. I was the lucky one whose bus left at 11am whereas the other busses left at 8 am and 9 am. So I didn‘t need to hurry packing and I could say good bye to my friends. After saying good bye to the last one I tried to find an ATM but I didn‘t. I had 32 Euro left. Thats even in Bangladesh not enough if you move to another city and you want to buy some stuff there, like a stove and all the cooking stuff. I was really worrying about this situation because I really don‘t like to ask my new technical advisor (sorry for these expression, they are made by Weltwärts) for some money just after two days. By the way his name is Mizan. 

So I didn‘t find a possibility to get money and we entered the bus to Rangpur. My expectations regarding as bus in Bangladesh weren‘t that high because I saw the local busses where people sitting on the roof. That‘s the cheapest but most dangerous place. These places are not available in the long distance busses. You will understand later why even bengalis are afraid to sit on the roof of a long distance bus.

All bus-tickets for the beginning of October are sold out since two weeks. The reasons is the second Eid- festival of the muslims. I will explain this festival later. The bus-station from where we left was at the outside of Dhaka but it still took 1 1/2 hours to leave the city. It was a huge traffic, but I could sleep for some minutes. The distance is around 300 km, maybe more or less but it took 9 hours to arrive in Rangpur. The highway here is not like in Germany. The driving rules in Dhaka are really crazy but on the bus-journey I was sometimes really afraid of my life when the bus-driver overtook some other cars, mostly busses or transporters. It seemed like my bus-driver took some LSD or other drugs. No other car overtook us. I‘m used that the bus is the slowest vehicle, but our bus was the fastest. It was a race. When there was a queue he either overtook on the right or on the left side even when there was no street but some precipitous grass.

The streets were so full of cars and transporters because of the upcoming muslim event called Eid. The Eid- festival is two times a year. The upcoming one is the second around six weeks after the first one when the muslims stop fasting. There is a tradition to sacrifice animals. In Bangladesh it‘s mostly cows that are sacrificed but also goats and some chicken. Always as reasonable amount regarding your money situation. 

There were thousands of trucks on the street bringing cows from one place to another. Around 10 cows are on every small transporter. I wasn‘t really happy to see the treatment of these animals. So many animals on such a little space. All these trucks with there beautiful paintings everywhere brought cows to different places. But also a huge amount of people are moving from the cities to the villages where they are actually from. Almost everyone in Dhaka is defining his real home as his/her village where their families come from. 

After arriving in Rangpur Mizan and me went to my new flat. Rana a college lives in this house and organized that I can stay here for the upcoming 11 months. 

Arriving in my flat was a good feeling. „How will my first flat be?“ was the question that was in my mind for the last days and weeks. I had no real expectation just some hopes. 

Then finally I entered my first own flat situated in a house with 3 families. In my flat there is one room with a big bed. One window is in this room with beautiful curtains in the colors of the german flag. I don‘t know if it is intentionally but it looks very nice. An office table is next to my bed with a chair. the wall‘s color is a bright blue. I have a small kitchen where I can cook something and I have a bathroom which I accept but don‘t like. I have a bengali toilet. To be honest I hate this soo much but it‘s almost the only thing I really don‘t like. 

There is a second room in this flats. It is not yet finished but it will be soon. I wonder why I need a second room but I don‘t complain about it. Some unverified sources told me that the rent is 3.500 Taka. That‘s 35 Euro. That‘s not too much. 

The first day in the room was funny. 

The house-owners invited me to eat dinner with them. There are really friendly and open-minded as almost every bengali so far. The college living in this house also went out with me and we talked for some time. I slept at 12 although I was actually very tired because of the bus-journey. 

Office starts at 9 am and it isn‘t far from here, maybe the distance I had to go to school, 5 min. 

When everyone has arrived there I made a little introduction about myself told the new colleges that they should treat me as a college not as a foreign visitor. 

It was the last day before the holidays because of Eid. It is very similar like in school. Almost no work had to be done and we had a lot time to get in contact. There were just men working. It was confusing for me but they are really nice and in average they are really young as the whole bengali population. I can really imagine to have a lot of fun with them all over the year. I went out with some colleges to drink a tea and later I went out again for dinner. Almost all colleges have a motorcycle. The house of the organization is office and garage for motorcycles at the same time. 

Durga-Abbild

After relaxing at work I went out with Mizan and we spend 30 of my 32 Euros for my kitchen stuff. Later we went to the Durga Puja festival of the hindus. Everyone was telling us volunteers that we are lucky to arrive in this time when Puja and Eid is shortly following each other and they also told that the hindu festivals are soo colorful. That‘s true. Puja is really nice. There are different stages presenting the God Durga with a lot of arms. Everything is extremely colorful and there is traditional and modern music played by big speakers. Light-show is also existing. A wonderful thing here in Bangladesh is that the families take their children with them to the events. You always see a lot of children because more children are born then in Germany but the families take them almost everywhere. I like to see this a lot. It‘s wonderful.

She society of Rangpur seems somehow less interested in foreigners than the Dhaka society. This doesn‘t mean that I get as less attention as I get in Germany. No, but also not that much like in Dhaka. After being forced to dance on an empty stage in front of Durga with just one or sometimes two other persons, the situation changed and I got a lot of attention. I think there are 20 videos of me in Facebook now, maybe subtiteled like „Bideshi is dancing ridiculous“ (Bideshi is the bangla word for foreigner). At the beginning I was very shy but after 5 minutes I realized better try to dance as good as possible because you will find yourself on youtube and Facebook. I also didn‘t want to represent Bideshis as unable to dance. 

At the next morning I met with a person I met in Dhaka some days ago. He is from Rangpur and he showed me some parts of the city with a friend. I asked them for an ATM and finally after trying five different ones I was able to get money. Now I have my „HomieATM“ and I will never cheat on this one!

I came home again and prepared to go out with the family living in my house. They invited me to go out with them to buy a cow/bull on the special market. 

We drove there by Riksha. I was sitting on the highest place when I suddenly saw a cow running in in front of our Riksha. A running man tried to hold the bull, but he was stronger and faster, so the man felt down crashed against a house and the bull ran really fast in direction of our Riksha. My heartbeat reached 200 beats per hour remembering my camera in my hand as the most breakable thing. I was so relieved when I noticed that the angry bull is not going to crash with our Riksha. 

But anyway nice first impression when you want to go to a cow/bull-market. 

This cow-market was huge. I guess around 3.000 people were selling and buying cows there. 

A day ago I read in the newspaper that 6.500.000 cows were sacrified for the last Eid-festival. Now I understand how this is possible. All the trucks and and the cows everywhere give me a possibiltity to understand this huge number of 6.5 million.

The cow-market was somehow scarrying. Some cows were really aggressive after being beaten for the whole day while they have no space for themselves but thousands of people watching them. 

The most aggressive one for us. He will die at the 6th of october with 6 Mio. other cows.

My neighbors bought the most aggressive cow for 290 Euro. I wasn‘t so much happy about this decision but.... not my problem! While other people bring their cows to their home, someone took our cow and will bring it for the Eid-eat- day at the 6th of October. By the way „Eid“ is a very good name for this festival. The sense is that the rich families share the meat with their own family with their relatives and the poor people. Every group gets a third of the cow/bull.

In the evening I went to Puja again with another college. After some time the hindu at the same stage as yesterday convinced me to dance for two minutes. When I wanted to leave the stage he expressed that the next song is soo good and I had to dance again. The same procedure again. The same procedure again and again. I left the stage after 20 minutes instead of 2 and 70 people were watching me. By the way there were again 10 mobile phones filming me. 

I was sweating so much after this dance went home in the back of the motorcycle and started to sleep. I woke up and scratched my whole body. I hate mosquitos!!! That‘s not the first time here. That is really bad. Today I bought some screws to fix a mosquito net.

The following days are free because of Eid. I will have some time to explore the City. I got a lot of invitations for Eid, but I think I will close my eyes when they put the knife at the neck of the bull and start to move the knife. I saw a video of the last Eid. I think I don‘t need to see this in reality. 

So I will eat a lot of meat in the next days. 

That‘s how my life goes on here in Rangpur. After the holidays there will be some work for me but now it‘s still like in Dhaka,

holidays!

Dhaka life

I wrote this text some days ago. Now I‘m already in Rangpur.

But I thought you might be interested to read it.

So now I try to give you some impressions of my Dhaka visit.. Now its almost three weeks that I came here. 

Dhaka is a crazy city. There are around 18 Mio. people. That's crazy.

I never have the possibility to be alone... Just at home sometimes in my room when there is nobody. 

Many people here in BD are very open minded. They always want to get in contact with me. That was nice at the beginning, but it sometimes starts to annoy me. Sometimes I'm looking for some quiet moments to have something like privacy.

Till now it's like an relaxing journey to Dhaka, We have some bangla lessons and we are learning but it's still kind of holidays.

Everyday I'm driving by Riksha. It cost for 30 minutes around 60 cents, thats 60 Taka. To be honest its very cheap.

At the first days I had a crazy feeling having someone in front of me that has to use his muscles to transport me, but when you think that he earns money with this, you feel better fast.

The rikshapullers are often a topic that we discuss when we are talking in our group.

I think you also have a crazy feeling imagining this situation. They are getting around 500 Euro per month under hard working conditions, but when they work in the field on the countryside they maybe get just 150 Euro per month... mostly even less....

In Dhaka, the center of everything in Bangladesh, there are also very rich people driving cars like in Big cities in Germany where the people have a lot of money. The rich area is called Gulshan, the embassies are also set there. There are houses called clubs, these clubs are open everyday, they belong to certain countries. There is a german club where you can buy german food and drink beer. There is also a pool. It's for the foreign people working in the embassies or the international NGOs to have a place where they can feel like home. 

All the places have prices like in Germany. 

Sometimes we have a strange feeling. When we drive to the german club, we pay 2 Euro per person for transport to and back from the club. Inside we pay much more for for german food and drinks... Sometimes this city steels me so much energy and in these situations you want to be sure that the dishes are clean, that the people speak english or even german and that no-one wants money from you if you talk with him/her and he/she shows you the way. A typical situation. These places for foreigner give me and our group the possibiltity to relax but also a topic to discuss.

I found some nice friends here. I can always meet with them if I want... They always stay at the same place. I really like them. 

Sometimes I have the feeling that some people like me more than I like them. I don't say so because I'm so overselfconfident, thats just because they are soo curious and extremely interested in foreigners. This country hasn't really been discovered by tourist. This country is influenced by other countries, especially the west because of the germain industry (Clothes)..but it's also in its origine in some parts.

The lifestyle is somehow different to Germany. There are soo many people working under extreme bad working condition (seen from my western education), but it is kind of normal to see this... Don't missunderstand me. It's not that I feel better here. No... I was taught about Bangladesh before and about all these things. It's just my impression after a while. Live is very different here. There are people living in the craziest houses, palaces and in front of this house there is a rikshapuller waiting for customers to bring someone to another place for 50 cent.

It's very hard to see this injustice, but if you always think about it, you will never enjoy this country with its wonderful people.... the people want to help you as much as possible...they ask you for your number after talking for 30 seconds.(Sometimes)...

If someone of you ever come here, don't give your number too fast and don't forget to save the name and remember the situation, otherwise its like I have the situation now... I get calls from numbers I don't know, people that I don't really remember and than they ask me to meet with them again.  Its not that I'm selfish that I forget about them.. Its more that I don't want to be unfriendly and refuse them to give my number....

But these are just a few strange situations. I like my friends here a lot, we always share everything....and they are still not bored by me.

I have a group of friends here that like to make beatbox and rap. Thats very uncommon here. There isn't a big Hip Hop community here, but they often meet together and make hiphopevents... But never forget that you shouldn't come in time because you will feel bored for the first hour because almost no one is there. It‘s not just a prejudice that Bengalis come late. It‘s often true.

There is a lot of trash in Dhaka.... Once I complained about ukraine's forest that there is sooooo much trash.... Sorry I haven't been right... You can never say that you really faced visible pollution until you have been here. Of course there is even more pollution in Germany because of the cars but it's not soo visible.

It makes me feel crazy sometimes and it kills my nose when it smells sooo bad... When I see dogs eating this shit then it's even worse. Sometimes I also see goats walking on this trash searching for something to eat. 

I think some of my photos are telling more than I can explain writing here. I uploaded them all in Facebook. If you have no access to facebook contact me.

About now and the upcoming days:

It's hartal... That means shut down.... The corrupt political parties often make these hartels if they think they have a reason to be unhappy. These days always cost the country many millions because the people cannot work. That‘s really soo bad if this happens a lot. 

These hartals are very annoying and dangerous. We cannot really go out and can't leave our area because it could be dangerous. Some people had a fight in our area. The consequences of Hartal are: less or no cars, less or no busses, no office, no school, no university, no shopping mall, no industry.... and no money for the workers class.

The half of my group is sick now.... So it's not big a problem that they are sick now, they can't go out anyway. 

I hope not to become sick too... I think than I would feel homesick. 

In some minutes I feel homesick....Not that strong but a bit. I wouldn't complain about my own room and some fresh milk with cornflakes and some dark german bread with very nice and strong cheese... a Döner kebab in the evening with some beers and later going to a club.... Maybe its even cold and I have to wear a winterjacket, but I don't sweat like I always do here. 

But as I wrote. That feeling is not that strong.... In Dhaka there is almost everywhere 3G internet on my phone. Thats very connecting to Europe but also a bit too much. I use facebook too much.... It's not always extremely interesting in our flat.

About our flat: Its a 4 rooms flat, one big living and dining room, 3 bedrooms... kitchen and bathrooms are also existing.

We always get food from the service man. It was kind of weird at the beginning but I started to be extremely happy about it. We never have these typical kinds of discussions with our group like: who will clean? Who will cook? Who will clean the bathrooms?.... It seems very lazy from me now.... But I'm happy to keep the current relation to the other group members. We have just very few problems.... I will be responsible for all my stuff for around 11 months... so there is no need to think that I will become lazy. I just appreciate my current situation.

Misti, bengalische Süßigkeiten

The bengali food tastes nice... It's often with fish and with meat often with "Dal" and always rice. This food is exciting for some time but then you sometimes feel the need for some fresh things like vegetables or fruits. The problem: they often have formalin inside to keep them fresh for a long time. You shouldn‘t eat formalin.

So our nutrition is not very well balanced. To keep my weight and not to become fat I often eat just 2 times a days. In the evening we always eat before 8, normal bengalies eat at 10 /11 o' clock.

I found my new hobby in taking photographies as everyone can see on Facebook. Also some friends from here they have the same hobby... So we take photographies together. My group is quite happy that they have a photographer. I‘m often taking photos of them but also the environment, the people and everthing. I'm quite happy with my won photos (a HUGE thank to my mom for the new lens). But I still have no zoom lens. I need it actually.

I'm going to Rangpur at the first of october. there will be a huge muslim festival at this time. 

Thanks for reading: Schösch (bangla word for finish)