2 white boys and a mega phone

Here is the much awaited update in my life... Once again the peace corps gave me a taste of freedom and then took it away... Model school ended when the last update I gave you and since then it has been back to 4 hours of language class a day... It was nice not having anything to do everyday until noon and then being done with the day in an hour....

So here you go!

For one of the last things we have to do in our training is a Community project. Well, 5 of us decided to put on a soccer game. It started out small but soon became very bery big. It became so big that we rented a rickshaw and had two megaphones put on it and rode around twon adversting the game! We got help from our language teachers on what to say. We rented both the microphones, speakers, and rickshaw for an hour. 2 of us went for 30 min and then we switched. Here is what we said in Bangli

Football match Football match!
America Boneu Bangladesh
Amgical Charr tin October
Beshi tecka

It was nuts! you have no idea how many crazy looks we got, we had people running along side of us, people wre chering us and running up to us with the biggest smile on there face! We even had a run in with the locals!! Ok, so one cannot microphone (that's what they call it) during last call to prayer or in front of a Mosk.. Well, we were told about being quiet during the call to prayer, but we had no idea about no in front of a mosk... So there just happens to be a rather large mosk in the center of the market. And train tracks spilt the market into two sides... We come rolling up with speakers blaring and have to stop and wait for a train, this guy comes running out of the mosk with a brick and throws it at the speaker and starts yelling at our rickshaw walla (we had to use a local, because our country director would not let us pedel ourselves) Right now I'm thinking this is it. Mob justice in action. I can see the headlines now, two Americans beaten to death for not respecting the muslim culture. So we turn more white than usual, and start saying I"m sorry and I didn't know. The guy turns and looks directly at us, his face changes from anger to a very kind almost sweet look and says, " It's alright, calm down, you didn't know any better." Then goes back to ripping into the rickshaw driver! So we go for a couple of blocks in slience not to for sure wether or not that happened... Shortly after, we recover and are once again back to making our nosie polution

Moving on to game day and things of that nature. It didn't rain for almost a full two weeks. To make up for the dry weather, it has rained for 4 days straight, and I"m not talking about scattered showers here. Eveyone keeps on telling me that the moonsoon season is over and the shit (winter, that is really what they call it) is coming. Persoanlly, I think they are lying. It has rained so hard here that one couldn't see to our security wall (every house has one) which might be two arm lengths from my window! Now some background on the soccer game. It was going to raise money for a local orphanage... Well, a few hours before kick off we get a phone call from the stadium ower and he wants to talk/meet us face to face. It turns out that we can't charge people money for the game. If an organization is going to do a fundraiser they have to collect the funds, somelse cannot collect money and then give it to some other group. So in short, the game became free... And also we were supposed to get a permit and let the city comissionar know about our little plan.... After all that their was one more surprise waiting for us... When we came walking into the stadium there were riot police there to greet us! Yes, I said guys with big guns and bamboo sicks to be exact!!! All and all about 12 of them, we even had 2 of them to guard our stuff! Now, I have no idea why these guys were their but it sure was great!! I felt pretty cool!! I must admit it...

The game itself was alright... The atosmphere was Awsome!! to play in. There were about 3 hundred people stuffed into this tiny stadium and they were very very loud! Just like the crowd at Wizards games during the Papa Johns magic minutes! (A couple of you know what I'm talking about) We ended up losing 2-1 but that's really ok, only 4 or 5 of us have ever played soccer before in our life. And of course it rained on us a couple of times!!! There were a lot of camaras there so I will do my best to try and get some photos of the Desh for you all!. I would have to say that our Community project was a hit and it is going to be hard to leave all these great people behind in less than a month.

Which bring me to my next point. Last Friday we got or sight placements. I'm off to Brahmanbaria. It is located 2.5-3 hours East of Dhaka by train... Keep in mind that that Bangladesh is smaller than most of our states. I don't know anything about the place other than they have cheap internet and I will be teaching at a coed college. It his the hometown of my Program Manager, which could be a good thing or a bad thing... Currently there is a B6 there They are done with service when I swear in. That means I will be all by myself. (I am a B8, Bangladesh 8th group here hints B8)