come together

its 2 pm when the paddleboat reaches massua,. we board a smaller boat to our coastal village from there.

after a boat ride that reminded me of swades, we walk through the streets of rayenda to "hello"s and "what country" and "your name"? everyone in the village is still intrigued by all the outsiders who have descended upon them.


i meet all the volunteers through the course of the day - there's 10 of us in the house right now. 9 volunteers are camping in a school in another village for a week.

we get down to business and do not waste the 2 hours of the work day we have left. so i burn the edges of a nylon rope to be used in playgrounds, and then i do some wood planing.. i am officially the "new laura", replacing her as leaves tomorrow for canada.

i accompany laura into the village market to buy a salwar kameez for this little girl- farzana that laura has fallen in love with. the 15 minutes of fame was a myth. we are mobbed every place we go, there is a crowd following us around town. strangers come up to me and start talking in bangla. the half hour passes by soon enough.

dinner comes with a team meeting with updates on the strategy of how to maximize work that we can do in the upcoming days.

i foresee laborious days ahead, which entail taking local boats into other villages and lots of wood planing. i guess, the trails will remain undiscovered for now or else they will be discovered by more than just me (the crowd follows)