I have seen my life for the next 2 years, and it is unbelievable. Not literally obviously, but in comparison to how I've lived these past 10-15 years I would struggle to dream up anything further removed or different.

For those who've not been following or can't remember, I visited my placement this week i.e. I saw and "tested out" my accomodation, saw my office, met some of the staff and even visited some of my NGO's projects. It's difficult to know where to start so I'll try a chronological approach.

First came the bus journey up there. Yes, a bus. Not having had the most crash-free of introductions to bus travel in Bangladesh you'll appreciate my slight apprehension as the bus left Dhaka Tuesday morning. Looking back I honestly believe that it was the first time in my life that I've actually had to face a fear and conquer it. I'm talking about a real fear, based on something tangible, not an irrational aversion to large insects or something similar. In fairness, had I really been scared of bus travel I wouldn't have got on in the first place, but I was definitely rather twitchy for the first few hours and amazed at how my fellow passengers seemed to be able to doze around me as I witnessed a never ending series of near-death experiences (outrageous overtaking, ridiculous speeds through towns, forcing rickshaws and smaller vehicles off the road to get through at all costs etc.). In the end things were fine, and the journey back to Dhaka seemed even smoother and safer, doubtless due to a combination of my growing confidence and the differing quality of the driving of certain bus companies.

So, after 7 odd hours on a bus I get off in a small town called Ranirbandur where I am to be met by someone from my NGO. Usually you'd give more details before attempting to meet someone you'd never met before in a strange place but being the only white face in town makes these problems go away. Sure enough, as I stepped off the bus and looked around a young Bangladeshi lad called Rabi (pronounced Robi) wearing Ray-bans and speaking remarkable English inquired, almost laughably, "Mr. Keri Smith?". It was a fair cop so I came quietly. The journey to my NGO was sitting on a flat-back rickshaw i.e. a 3 wheel bicycle which has a flat wooden platform for carrying things behind the poor bugger peddling for pennies. I later learned that they call them vans around those parts, so when they said we were going into town by van I naturally looked out for a motor vehicle, only to have someone point at the rickshaw on the other side of the road by means of clarification.

Words cannot do justice to the beauty of the countryside I saw travelling to my new home (photos will be taken when I move in later) but if you can imagine a countryside full of paddy fields, people working the land, small livestock wandering freely and children playing wherever they can, you're not far off the scene. That is why I started this entry by saying that it is all so far removed from my previous life, even more than I could have imagined. Even my NGO (BRIF) is in the middle of a hamlet and hence surrounded by fields, mud huts and reed houses. The picture above left is what is on the opposite side of the road from my new home i.e. that's the neighbourhood! The garden in front of my accomodation has goats and chickens in it just coming and going! (See "Keri's placement" then "BRIF campus and Keri's accomodation" for a few photos)

When we got to BRIF after about 20 minutes there was a small welcoming committee waiting for me, complete with sign and flowers, not to mention a glass of water and biscuits that the caretaker produced once I'd gone inside! I then asked to see my accomodation to drop of my bags (details another time) and toured the office with Rabi. I say the office but in the end the majority of the rooms in the building are in fact bedrooms for people doing residential training courses for example. My office is near the main entrance, contains one of the 4 working computers that BRIF possesses, and is not bad at all. In actual fact, and unless someone else moves in, it will be the first time ever that I will have my own office! The rest of the afternoon was spent meeting colleagues and promtly forgetting their names (a particular mention for the caretaker Jobar who is a really nice and helpful man), having dinner in the canteen and watching India lose the last One Day cricket international against Australia on Indian TV (we're close enough to India to pick up their channels).

After quite a good night's sleep under 2 blankets (the North of the country is considerably colder than the South when the sun is down) I experienced real life in my new accomodation. By and large the only thing to mention is the cold shower which is really, really cold. I may have mentioned in previous weeks that Bangladeshi homes don't have heating or heated water as a) it's an unnecessary expense because b) it's pretty damn hot all the year round. However, during winter up North this doesn't quite hold true as it is damn chilly until around 10-11am after the sun has been up a few hours. Indeed, the locals I've learnt tend to wash mid to late morning after working a few hours. They're no fools the locals - they know what they're doing when it comes to the practical things in life! Personally I've decided that the way forward is doing some exercise first thing in the morning to build up a sweat before "enjoying" a cold shower. This is actually more than possible as my predecessor left behind a set of dumbells (I kid you not) and Sarah sent me November's editon of Men's Health that contains a complete exercise routine that only really requires dumbells! Beautiful!

Getting back to Wednesday, Rabi eventually turned up later than we'd arranged but despite that we still managed to visit 4 project sites nearby. When I say "we" I mean the pair of us plus a Field Supervisor, and when I say "visit" I mean the 3 of us on the back of the same 125cc motorbike (oh yeah) traveling down dirt roads to get to different villages. I saw 2 vegetable garden projects run by Islamic schools to improve the nutritional intake of the children most of whom are orphans. BRIF provides the time of an experienced agriculturalist who trains the kids to grow the best vegetables and even how to cook them to minimise the nutrients etc. lost during preparation and heating. At the second school I met the principal who said I appeared to be a peaceful man! I took it as a compliment, though did enquire whether he thought Westerners were generally not peaceful. He replied that there were good and bad people in all cultures and countries, regardless of whether they are Muslim or Christian, black or white. Wise words indeed. The next 2 projects I saw were 2 families that had a disabled child for whom we provide a trained physiotherapist 2 hours a week. These families live in mud huts in rural villages so you can imagine how hard it must be for them to cope with a disabled person on top of all the other difficulties in life. The 2nd child I saw was all smiles to see us as he walked over unaided, something he couldn't do several years ago before working with the physio regularly. I'll also add that this family had a TV in their mud house in the middle of nowhere! I don't have a TV and this family did!!

I left BRIF Wednesday to spend an evening and a day with another VSO volunteer in the big town nearby (Dinajpur). Jacqueline, for tis her name, arrived in January for a 1 year placement as a Strategic Planning Advisor. While I hadn't really planned it that way I am so glad I went to see her as she had so much to teach me. What she has achieved in just 10 months would stretch the most talented volunteer working for 2 years, and that's not just my opinion either. While we had plenty of time to talk shop and compare views on how to be effective, the most telling time was when I observed a meeting she had with 2 colleagues who were preparing a training session for the next day. What you need to realise is that our role here is to work our way OUT of a job by the end of the placement, transferring our skills and knowledge to the organisation so that any change started or implemented is sustainable in the long term. Sounds obvious, easy even, but it is so tempting to be a doer rather than an advisor in order to get the job done. What I saw on Thursday was 2 Bangladeshi colleagues preparing a session designed to communicate the organisation's new strategic plan as analysed and written BY the organisation FOR the organisation. Jacqueline has succeed in guiding and training up several managers so that they can in turn do the work themselves and so own the end result. As she says herself, the biggest satisfaction she has felt is seeing them facilitate their own workshops during the strategic planning process and "getting it". The organisation is committed to change, a change it owns fully, and it has every chance of lasting as the skills have been passed on rather than just borrowed for a while. Now I know what success looks like I'll hopefully be better equipped to achieve it!