Bangla Chronicles Part I

Saturday, 29 July 2006

We achieved the impossible today, or what I thought was impossible today….. the other team in the north of Bangladesh had moved quicker than we did, so if we were to go back with them as scheduled, it meant us having to cover 2 village branches in 3 days….. as compared to the original schedule of covering a village branch in 3 days, it meant us having to work twice as scheduled……

And somehow, we managed to achieve it!!! It helped that the last 2 branches were smaller in a sense that they did not have the Educational Programme, but I would have thought covering a branch in 2 days was about as fast as we could go….. working like crazy the past 3 working days certainly paid off, and now I look forward to tomorrow where I’ll be reunited with another 2 colleagues from Malaysia, and we get to travel back to Dhaka, where hot showers and regular internet connection awaits!!!

To make things better, we managed to finish early too, well, 6pm is typically early for an auditor to finish work…. So unknown to us, we were brought to the dam of Tistaberej, which controls the flow of water from India into the northern parts of Bangladesh…. Surprisingly, we were told by guards on the bridge on top of the dam that we were not allowed to take photos….. I was quite annoyed when one of the Bangladeshi auditors insisted on us taking his photo, and the guards were still only a few feet away…. I got quite impatient after awhile when he wouldn’t let up, and promptly told him off, as did the Senior Bangladeshi auditor…. He wasn’t happy, but settled down after we found a place where we could snap away freely….

Further down from the dam, there were a few men fishing, their catch included those little fishes, that would be nice when marinated with salt, pepper and kunyit powder, and deep fried till crispy :D yum….. and the fact that there was a constant gentle breeze made it very comfortable to walk around and enjoy the view….

One thing I’ve noticed about the countryside in Bangladesh is that its very beautiful at dusk…… in the wide open space of the countryside, there is so much water around, in between paddy fields, and in this particular spot, the river that flows towards the dam reflected the brilliant colours of the sunset, and coupled with the dark shadows provided by the surrounding trees, it was a beautiful sight indeed….. I could appreciate all this from the comforts of our air conditioned 4-wheel drive of course, I don’t think I would want to stay out there very long otherwise :)

Thursday, 27 July 2006

This is how a typical day in the office is like for us….. we leave the regional office at around 8am, and went by all the paddy and jut fields via a path they call a road, which are filled with potholes…. So it’s a very bumpy ride indeed….. we will be greeted by everyone at the branch, and led to our working quarters….. on our first day at a village, we’d be ushered into the Branch Manager’s office, where we would sit down and he would ask us the same set of questions, which amongst others (or rather, the ones that I can understand anyway):

1) Which other regions are we auditing
2) Which part of Bangladesh are the local auditors from
3) Which country are us Malaysians are from

Once in our working quarters, the first thing that you’ll always notice is the amount of dust everywhere, as you see patches of brown all over the floor, you can practically smell (or at least I can due to my sinus problem) the dust….. As I lay my bag down and set up my laptop, I never fail to see the cobwebs at all the joints of the tables and chairs….

Then it’s time to request for documents, and play the waiting game….. unlike in Malaysia though, we do get our documents within 15 minutes, which is great for an auditor :D otherwise, they’ll get screwed by the Bangladeshi auditors…. But they’ll get it from the auditors anyway, it’s a matter of when rather than if when dealing with the Bangladeshi auditors….

It does seem like we get food on our table every hour or so….. you get better service here compared to a business class ticket on an airplane!!! These snacks would range from biscuits, fruits ( which is very common, now that mango and pineapples are in season, we usually get those) and on those rare occasions, some Bangladeshi goodies…. And it is usually accompanied by ‘cha’, better known as tea where we come from….. It can get very irritating though as us Malaysians have no interest in food due to the huge load of work…. You cant say the same about the Bangladeshis though, its eat first and work later attitude in this part of the world!!!

So amongst all the documents and files, you’ll see plates of biscuits, grapes, mangoes, pineapples, cups of tea…. I worry soo much about it all spilling on the documents, but I don’t see anyone else sharing my concerns…. Then there’s the issue of flies coming in at some branches, attracted to the scent of the food no doubt…. Although it slows us down from completing our work, I guess its part of their culture, and I just have to work around it…..

Our lunch hours are not fixed, it depends on the amount of work we have to finish…. Lunch is pretty standard, you’ll get rice, dry potato curry, curry chicken, fried fish, water (only MUM Mineral Water will do for us :) ) We were working again 30 min later, going through the same drill all over again…..

Then they are the power cuts, which you will suffer at least once at every village branch…..within seconds, sweat will start pouring down your face, you’ll be tugging away at your t-shirt (yes, we don’t have to wear office attire when out at the villages, thank God for that), grabbing anything you can to use as a fan, and taking gulpfuls of water every 5 minutes….. and you start praying that the power will come back soon…. Which it usually doesn’t…..

At the end of the 2nd day at a village, after the completion of our audit, we’ll compile all the findings that we have encountered, and present it to the branch management in a closing meeting…. Here, the Senior Bangladeshi Auditor will describe our findings, inform them of why the should not continue their current practice and what it is they should really do…. Or at least that’s what I think he’s telling them….. basically, everyone among the branch management will get whacked, these are all reflected in their expressions….

At the end of the meeting, much to my surprise, the branch manager will voice his appreciation and thanks for us coming, promises that he’ll act on our findings, and the meeting is adjourned…. To my greater surprise, none of them object to signing the list of findings that we produced, getting this list signed in Malaysia would prove very difficult indeed, if its ever possible….. maybe they don’t realise the implications of their signature on the list…..

As we move out of the room, towards the car, the branch manager, accountant and all the programme organisers will rush up to us to shake our hands…. Everyone is happy again, I definitely am as it means I move a step closer back to Dhaka, and of course, a day closer to going home….

The journey back to the regional office would take between 45 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, depending on the distance between the village and the regional office…. We usually have dinner 45 minutes after arriving back, and while the Bangladeshis chat away animatedly, my Malaysian colleague and I are eat silently, exhausted from the day’s activities, and thinking of what next needs to be done to prepare for the next working day…..

And that’s how a typical day when we’re out of Dhaka is like…..


Wednesday, 26 July 2006

More than 2 weeks have gone by, am quite glad we are already entering the third of seven weeks of our engagement in Bangladesh…. I hope the next 5 weeks will pass by just as quickly if not quicker…. Actually, I do hope it passes quicker :) I guess it helps that we have sooo much work to do, the days just fly by…. Having to keep up with the other team in the north of Bangladesh to ensure we go back together drives the Bangladeshis on my team to work harder, which only helps me….

Today, we left the village at around 7pm…. The sun was soon to have set, and along the way back to our regional office, we, or rather I was privileged (as the rest of the team weren’t paying any attention to what was going on outside) to a breathtaking view of the sunset in the wide open space of the Bangladesh country side as we drove back to the regional office….

The sky was a beautiful shade of reddish purple, and in between the many padi and jut fields that we drove past, lay a lagoon or water catchment of some sort, where the water was eerily still…. There was no wind, the trees stood motionless, there were no birds flying around, neither were there any people or animals…..What I saw was the reflection of the sunset, and the many trees that was on the other side of the lagoon on the water surface….. it was a magnificent sight, and the water was like a smooth mirror, and the view stretched on for what seems like forever……unfortunately our camera wasn’t capable of taking in view….. for once (possibly the only time too) during my trip in Bangladesh, I was glad to be here, to be able to take in this view…..

But I was soon brought back to earth and was reminded of the crappy living conditions upon my return to the regional office, which was surrounded by endless and black darkness….. yeah….. it was another one of those damn power cuts….. I guess I have to put up with all this nonsense to be able to enjoy 5 minutes of a gorgeous view….

Tuesday, 25 July 2006

You know what amazes me about the people here in Bangladesh? It has to be the warmth, friendliness and respect that they give to everyone, despite the harsh and tough conditions that they are in…. The people at the branch office at the villages rush and attend to our every need, I feel quite bad eating all their food, and the Bangladeshi auditors don’t help matters by piling food on our plates while the branch staff eat very little ‘lauk’, (but Bangladeshis eat a helluva lot of rice though!!) ….

The people at the village itself are always so curious, you’ll see people, mainly children following our 4 wheel drive in as we make our way to the houses where we have to make inspections on their livestock…. And when we reach the houses of these people, they would hunt for wooden chairs for us to sit (though we never take up their offer as we never stay long enough due to our short timeline for each village audit)…. But they’re always ready with a smile…. I have to admit that it also amazes me how perfect the alignment of their teeth, whereas people in KL who have that same set of perfect teeth would have put on braces at somewhere in their life…. You wonder where these people would be if they were born in different circumstances and in a different place, would they be able to make something more of their lives….

Having said that, they seem perfectly happy the way they are…. The kids seem oblivious to the hardship around them as they run and play in their shorts…. They followed us all over the place, from the car to the schools, to the villagers houses….. screams and shouts are quite common, not to mention the mooing of cows and bleats of goats and sheep…..

Some of them would wave at us when we leave, one cheeky fella even greeted me in arabic, trying to illicit a response from me hehe, which I duly obliged…. But they keep their distance, and the elders would never allow them to get to close to us….. the only thing that can be unnerving at times is the unbreakable stare that they give you, which is probably more to their curiosity than anything else… but you’ll get used to it after a while…..

Monday, 24 July 2006

It seems the Bangladeshis wants to try to finish a village audit visit in 2 days instead of the allocated 3 days…. Which is fine by me…. But like I mentioned earlier, who would be the ones to facilitate such a wish to happen? Looks like my Malaysian colleague and I will be staying up late again tonight doing work…. I’m not gonna think about what the rest of the team is up to while the Malaysians slog tonight…..

The Bangladeshis wanted to leave the client’s place at 6.30, for us to finish this by tomorrow, that may not be such a good idea…. But oh well, that’s why the Malaysians are bringing the work home after all….. We were hoping to have an early dinner and start on our work immediately….. So when we took a detour rather than go straight to the regional office where we spend our nights, we were not too happy…..

It turned out we went to a popular picnic spot, a lake in the Nilshapur area…. But it was quite pretty out there at sunset, so I settled down after a while, and was glad to be able to stretch my legs….. though they could have done a lot more in landscaping the area surrounding the lake :)

You could see the reflection of the sky on the lake surface, it was a pity that our camera was low on battery, so we could not take as many pictures as we would have liked to….. so after a while, I lost my grumpiness, though it took a little bit longer for my colleague to loosen up…… I suppose with this bunch of Bangladeshis, despite the misgivings that I have about them, they’re not all bad…..

I guess I’m just tired of how rough their manners can be, it gets to you after a while…. They don’t realise that their behaviour can be considered by some as rude and unbecoming….. and it doesn’t help that their vocabulary is so limited, so you really have to try hard to look beyond their words, and some times their action as well before determining their intentions….. but its sooo exhausting doing so, and at the end of the day, my energy is spent not on work, but mainly managing (and tolerating!!!) the people I work with…..

PS: will have to try to remember to post those pictures on my friendster page :)


Sunday, 23 July 2006

I was lucky today…. I had finished showering, and when it was the turn of my colleague to take his shower, the water had run out….. I wasn’t aware that there was a limit to the water, guess we’d better wake up earlier tom to ensure today’s incident doesn’t repeat itself….

I was in the bathroom after dinner, in the middle of brushing my teeth when the lights went out….. the groans from everyone outside my room confirmed my worst fears, oit was another power outage…..luckily my colleague came to my rescue, giving me a torch light, so I didn’t need to take my shower in the dark…..

The Bangladeshis annoyed me today…. The Malaysians in the team are working so hard and burning the midnight oil, we stayed up last night to help on their part, whereas 2 of them decided to watch TV while the third tried studying for his exams for a while before falling asleep…. And today they had the cheek to push us and ask us why we’re so slow, and why are we feeling so tired…. Bloody hell….. ah crap, as I write this, the power just went off again….. I’m gonna lose track of how many times I’ve mentioned I hate this place…….

Anyway, I’m signing off for the day, before my computer screen attract more insects……


Saturday, 22 July 2006

We shifted base today, moving from our Training and Resource Centre (TARC) in the Rangpur region further up north to the Nilphamari region which is about an hour’s drive away. We will cover 4 villages in the Nilphamari region, starting with the Syedpur village.

We worked quite hard today, covering about 60% of the work…. Not too bad for 1 day’s worth of work…. Leaves us with a lot less to do tomorrow….. we brought some work back with us too, and we stayed up till 12.15am doing it…..

We miss our old TARC already…. Its bad enough that we have to work weekends in this place, but when we go back to places like this to spend the night….. sigh…… there was a power outage (haha,funny how I use all these industrial terms after doing the Malakoff audit) which delayed us from having dinner, I guess the cook couldn’t cook in the dark…. Eventually the food was ready and we had dinner at about 9.30pm, and the power came back on close to 10pm, after leaving us about an hour and a half in the dark…. Apparently this happens daily over here, which is really shitty, because there are so many insects in this place, we are left at the mercy of the mosquitos with our electric insect repellent being out of commission….

The water is quite bad too, tap water from the sink and shower reeks of rust…. If we were deficient in iron, our stay here for the next 10 days may help….. Apparently one of my colleagues used bottled water to wash his hair during our trip in January 2006….. luckily my hair isn’t as sensitive (I hope not anyway) but we’ll use bottled water to brush our teeth…..

To make things worse, this place is really really dusty too, it doesn’t help that they laid out cheap carpets in the bedrooms…. It means they don’t sweep this place, you bet your life on it that they don’t vacuum the floors (vacuums, do they even sell them in Bangladesh??!!!), so my nose is all runny and blocked again…..

I was working on weaning myself off the anti-histamines, I was down to just having to take them once every 6-8 weeks, now I have to take it almost on a daily basis….. and the side effects is that it makes you drowsy, and how am I supposed to get the mountain of work done when I feel like sleeping….. damn this place…… I can’t wait to leave this dump and go home……

Friday, 21 July 2006

It’s a weekend in Bangladesh, where people take Friday and Saturday off….. however, we work on Saturdays, which leaves us with a one day weekend through out our stay in Bangladesh…. Today being a weekend, the Bangladeshi auditors had arranged for a fieldtrip to a national park located in the Shopburi region…. Its about 2 hours drive from our TARC, and we go through the usual paddy fields to get there….

We left at 9am, after a leisurely breakfast, I was a little worried as my sinuses were acting up again, so I decided to take some polaromine, an anti-histamine…. My colleague was concerned as usual, as one of the Bangladeshi auditor, but I assured them I’d be fine…. It didn’t look that way though 2 hours later, when we arrived there…. I was bracing myself for a difficult day out in the open…..

5 minutes after we left the 4 wheel drive, my sinuses settled down, to my obvious relief…. I managed to enjoy the rest of our outing in the park, which was landscaped quite nicely…. The openness, coupled with the constant breeze made it very enjoyable to walk around the park, where we had lots of fun posing for pictures all over the park….

The park were divided into several parts, which included the flower garden, dinosaur park, cultural houses and a small amusement park…. There were also a few lakes, but we didn’t see that many birds…..

We stopped by one of the village branches of the client for a late lunch, who were hospitable in true Bangladeshi fashion….. the fried fish and dry curry chicken were excellent, so it was worth having to wait till 3pm for lunch…..

By the time we got back to the TARC at 4pm, we were exhausted from all that walking, a nap was most welcome by most of us….. now its back to the grind of work, so we can get back to Dhaka a lot earlier….

Thursday, 20 July 2006

I’m not sure what happened overnight… maybe God thought, let’s cut Zufar some slack, and give him something to smile about….

So what has changed then since yesterday to put a smile back on my face? No, I’m still due to leave Bangladesh only in late August, so that hasn’t changed….

No, its still unbearably hot, (while today was overcast, its still much hotter than it is back home)….. No, we haven’t moved to a better standard of living by being transferred to a hotel with all the facilities I’ve come to take for granted at home…. And no, this place is still as dusty and dirty, not to mention is still filled with litterbugs, spitters, nose diggers and hand shakers…..

Actually, it was the attitude of the Bangladeshi auditors I work with…. I’m not sure exactly what happened last night…. Maybe it was getting news that the team west of Dhaka managed to finish their village visit in 2 days instead of the scheduled 3 days…. Which means they get to go back 2 days earlier after visiting 2 villages…. Which is a long time to spend outside Dhaka, if you’re accustomed to the simple pleasures of life such as air conditioners, internet connection, hot showers etc…..

Or maybe the Senior Auditor on the Bangladeshi side received a call from his manager, telling him to hurry his team mates, as us Malaysians are keen on working overtime so we’d be able to get back to Dhaka as quickly as possible….. or maybe he wants to go back early to Dhaka himself, as its not very pleasant being out here in the northern region of Bangladesh, which is known to be one of the poorest parts of Bangladesh…..

Whatever the reason is, I’m a lot happier now that there is a possibility that we could work longer hours and return to Dhaka earlier…. Who knows, maybe I may even be able to return to Dhaka 3-4 days in advance!!!

PS: I made a second visit to the cobbler, to repair the sole on my other shoe… only this time they didn’t light up my shoes!!!!

Wednesday, 19 July 2006, PM

I couldn’t leave my last entry of the day on a sour note….. things weren’t that good when we got back to the TARC where we were staying….. A gathering was being held in the dining hall, which meant me being delayed from being fed…. And nothing upsets me more than being deprived of my meals on a timely basis….

It turned out that it was a cultural night, which is held every Wednesday night at every TARC in Bangladesh…. Unfortunately for my colleague and me, we were too tired from work to want to go watch a show in which we wouldn’t understand what was going on or what was being said….. too much brainpower needed, and we didn’t have much left in reserve, what with dinner being delayed and all…..

But in conjunction with cultural night, special food is served for dinner, which I was very pleasantly surprised to find out…. You see, you can predict with a fair amount of certainty what you’ll be served for your meals…..

Breakfast – Chapati, fried egg, mixed vegetables
Lunch – Rice, curry chicken, fried Rui fish, mixed vegetables
Dinner – Rice, curry chicken (which soon became curry mutton, we’ll be having that probably till we finish eating the whole goat that was slaughtered for us is my guess), friend chicken, fried Rui Fish and mixed vegetables

So to my delight, what I found on my table included the fine grain Bangladeshi rice (quite similar to padi bukit from Sarawak, yuuummmmmm) and special mutton curry :D and of course, fried chicken and fried Rui fish… and there was some sort of sweetened curd, which was soooo sweet, I could only take a fraction of a mouthful….

Such simple things to brighten up the mood of this simple kampong boy :D

Wednesday, 19 July 2006, AM

What is it that bothers me the most during my time in Bangladesh? Could it be the hot soaring temperatures during a searing summer? Which is excarbated by frequent electricity cuts, which deprives us of the fans that provides valuable air circulation in the little room in which we work in?

Or could it be the lack of facilities that we are so accustomed to back home? Simple things like air conditioners, a TV with decent reception, uninterrupted internet connection…..

Or could it be all the dust and dirt that floats in the air…. I know I’ve had my sinuses flaring up in 2 out of 2 villages that I have been to so far…..

Or could it be the fact that each mouthful of food you eat, each gulp of water you drink, you face the risk of contracting food poisoning…. 2 of my colleagues came down with food poisoning in January, with one of them even being sent to the Dhaka Diarrhoea Centre….

The filthy habits of the Bangladeshis, who seem to be spitting everywhere, littering rubbish wherever they are, digging their noses in public, even while talking to you, and then rubbing the same fingers together, and then insisting on shaking hands with you…. You can imagine how often I wash my hands in this country…..

All of the above does make life very very difficult…. Actually, that is putting it very mildly…. However, what really makes it unbearable for me, which makes me to pine for home is actually the people…. The people I work with to be precise….. Don’t get me wrong, the Bangladeshis are very respectful people, who do their utmost best to make your life as comfortable as possible… they go to great length to get you things they think you’d like, try to provide us with the best food available, and places to sit when we’re at the villages…..

What really gets to me is the attitude of my audit counterparts based in Dhaka…. To them, everything can wait, and work can be done later….. it is very frustrating, as what my fellow Ernst & Young team mate and myself would like to do is to finish everything as quickly as possible, and get ourselves back to Dhaka, instead of being stuck in the villages…. Our Bangladeshi counterparts on the other hand prefer to read the newspapers, drink tea, take naps, and insist on wanting to leave just after 5.30pm…. which is a huge problem, considering we have to cover 2 programmes within a village within 3 days….. yet, the urgency from these people is just not there…. with such a mentality, is it such a surprise that the country is not as developed as one would have hoped? What is more irritating is that this attitude persists among the auditors of a very well respected and known audit firm, whose name is filled with prestige and glamour when mentioned within Bangladesh….

I think I should just end my bitching session for now, or I’ll just end up even more depressed than I already am…..

Tuesday, 18 July 2006

The sole of my shoe came loose yesterday…. So it was decided that I go to a cobbler today after work…. At the insistence of my Bangladeshi counterparts, we left the village branch at 6pm to head to the commercial centre of the Gangachara region…. Which isn’t much I must add compared to what we’re used to, though there was a lot of people nevertheless…..

We found a cobbler just a few metres away from a small shopping centre…. The next 15 minutes were the most fascinating 15 minutes since I arrived in Bangladesh…. He ripped off nearly the whole front part of the sole, and proceeded to wipe and scrape off all the dirt and any remnants of glue, before using sand paper to even out the surface…. With his index finger, he wiped glue all over the bottom of the shoe as well as the exposed part of the sole…. After smoothening out the amount of glue, he then lit a match and put the bottom of my shoe one fire!!!! Half a second later, he put it out by quickly putting the sole over the bottom of the shoe….. he did this again, before repeating the process on the sole of my shoe…. Why he did this, I couldn’t find out as the Bangladeshi auditor either did not know why this was done or did not know how to explain this process to me when the question was posed to him…. I have to admit though I was worried his index finger might also catch fire, as he used the same hand when handling the match!!!

5 minutes after setting my shoe on fire, he then put the sole to the bottom of my shoe, and proceeded to hammer away with a little hammer…. Again, I was worried he may crush a finger or two as he the hammer head was pounding in between his fingers….. now that’s what I call a pro who is extremely confident in his own abilities….. hehe, I wont be surprised if the sole on my left shoe outlasts the one my right shoe :)

PS: and it only cost me 15 taka, equivalent to RM1!!!!


Monday, 17 July 2006

When in Bangladesh, who needs the I-Gallop…. Well, as it is, I don’t think many people could afford it anyway…. Of course I’m referring to some of the roads here….. today marks the last day I’ll be using a particular road for the Kawnia branch, which is about 30 min away from the TARC where I stay…. We’ll be bouncing up and down in the 4 wheel drive, for a good 5 minutes before the road evens out again, much to our obvious relief…. Well, if what they claim is true about the I-Gallop, by travelling on these roads, I should also have tighter muscles around my waist and the back of my thighs, not to mention shapelier buttocks :)

Another thing I noticed over here is how people over here are cut off from the world…. Whether they want to know what goes on outside their village is another matter….. I don’t see (or hear) any radios here, the odd hut or two may have a black and white TV, which is very popular everytime there is a cricket match on…..

Which is why from time to time, you’ll see a little scooter, with a speaker horn, blaring out news and announcements, informing the village people of any important news that they need to know….. its very distracting, not to mention noisy, perhaps my irritation stems from the simple fact that I don’t understand what is being said….. I suppose in time, I’ll get used to it…. I hope so anyway…..

Sunday, 16 July 2006

I went back to school today….. 5 in fact….. this isn’t the ideal way I’d like to spend my Sunday, but as we would like to return to Dhaka, to the relative comfort of our hotel room, we need to get all our work done as quickly as possible…besides its also a working day in Bangladesh after all ….. our hotel room is nothing to shout about, but compared to what we face out in the villages, it is still something to be thankful for…..

The school visits are part of our audit, we went to a sample of 5 selected schools within the village to ensure that the Education Programme is being implemented as intended….

The children in these schools ranged from the ages of 8 to 11, and are housed in a small hut, made of clay and a zinc roof…. A class typically have approximately 30 children and a teacher will teach them for the next 4 years….. these kids are taught how to read and write in Bengali and English…. We made them count themselves as we took the attendance, and before we left, the children even sang and danced for us….. it must have been strange for them to see people that looked so different from them, yet they were eager to show off what they’d learnt, which included reading, counting and even reciting countries from all over the world, including Malaysia :)

Moving from school to school meant us travelling quite a bit today, and we saw a fair bit of the countryside…. Here in the villages, they are more rickshaws and sleds being pulled by people and bicycles rather than cars and vans…. Its amazing how strong these people are, whether they are pulling their sleds, or even carrying their load on their bare backs or heads, such as fruits, sacks of rice, jut material to make rope etc…. who needs the gym to stay in shapre when all you need to do is undergo all this hard labour….and you get paid for it too instead of paying for gym fees, where back home, we don’t necessarily make use of such facilities either…..

But seeing this people live this way, for people seeing this for the first time, it really hits home the message of how much we have to be thank for in Malaysia, how lucky we are that we have things that we actually take for granted…. Such simple pleasures of life, such as a comfortable bed and a hot shower is something we view as necessary, whereas these people would consider themselves lucky if they have a roof over their heads to keep the sun and rain away…. Nevertheless, I cant wait to get home to the comfort of my own bed and have myself a long hot shower…..

Saturday, 15 July 2006

The first day of our audit began with a plateful of chapatti, vegetables and fried eggs…. We were off to the branch 30 min later…. Being summer, it got bright very early…. When I opened my eyes just before 7, I thought I had overslept and that it was 8am….one look at my colleague sitting relaxed across the room told me I needn’t worry….

One of my main concerns in Bangladesh would have to be the cleanliness of the place and the stifling heat…. True enough, by mid day, my sinuses had acted up due to the dust in the villages and the high temperatures left my eyes watering, my nose running, and I was sneezing my head off…..

The Bangladeshi auditors with us were very helpful as usual…. After lunch, they got some anti-histamines, and got me to take a nap in one of the guestrooms at the branch…. The nap did me a lot of good, I managed to get back in one piece…. Another 2 more days at this branch is all we have before moving onto the next village…. I’d better get well quick then if I’m gonna be in optimum shape to get all the work done!!!

PS: AXN seems to have been taken off, there goes any hopes of catching my Lost and CSI : (

Friday, 14 July 2006

After spending 3 days in Dhaka with the team, it was time to move out of Dhaka to the villages…. The 6 of us split into pairs, with 2 teams going 9 hours north of Dhaka while the third team moves towards the west of Dhaka…. It was quite sad to be separated, as the third team is only due to leave tom morning….. I was on my way to the very tip of Bangladesh with the other 3 fellows, where we split up after 5 hours of driving…. Well, at least we managed to have lunch together….

This is where it starts to get really stressful….Due to many of the villages chosen being up north, we decided to hang around in the northern region of Bangladesh, spending at least 22 days covering 6 villages, rather than the initial plan to cover 2 villages over a period of 6 days at a time before returning to Dhaka….. the long journey to and fro would have meant us wasting so much time, hence the decision to stay out longer….The first 2 villages are located in the Rangpur region, and we will move on to the Nilphamari region a week later for the next 4 branches….

The drive was of course an experience on its own, while the roads were quite decent, the drivers on it on the other hand were not….. everyone seemed to be in such a huge rush…. The reason behind the traffic jam must surely be due to the presence of so many types of modes of transportation, namely men pulling their sled of cargo, bicycles and their rickshaws, motorcycles, LNG (or tuk-tuk as they’re known in Bangkok), cars, four wheel drives, buses and trucks….. no prizes awarded to those who can guess who causes the jams :)

What’s really frightening is the overtaking manoeuvres performed by the bus drivers…. As we travel between 80-100 km/hr, we are being overtaken by buses filled to the brim with people travelling between 100-120 km/hr….. and who I identify as the bus conductors are hanging out the bus by the door, waving for the cars to get out of their way….. of course it’s a given in all this madness that everyone is horning frantically….. accidents are quite common on the roads of Bangladesh, my previous trip in January this year had me reading about many major accidents in the newspapers, and I don’t see why it should be any different this time around…. And of course the sight of people sitting on top of the bus travelling at 100 km/hr is no longer a surprise to me….. what does amazes me is that these people don’t seem to have a problem worrying about their own lives as the bus zigs and zags in between cars at top speed….. just imagine what would happen if the bus had to brake suddenly, which I’m sure it does happen from time to time…..

Arriving at the Training Regional Centre where I’ll be staying for the next 6 days, the people were very warm in greeting us, and tried their best to make us feel at home…. Its one of their oldest TARCs, over 20 years old, but they did try their best to make it as comfortable as possible for us….They even put their only TV in the whole centre in our bedroom, and I currently have Star Movies on right now as I write this, not that I know what’s showing…. If I’m not working till late, I may not have to miss my Lost and CSIs after all :)

Last Weekend in Civilisation.....

Friday, 7 July 2006

Another busy day at IJN, also supposed to be my last day there….stressful it was, trying to tie up loose ends, and to prepare for the handover of my part to my colleague….

It was also a the day we had a farewell for another colleague who is leaving for greener pastures (we think anyway) at one utama. It was fun, we made her stand on the stool to give her farewell speech, but being so typically shy, we ended up singing her a farewell song instead…..it would also be the last time I would be seeing another ex-colleague who is leaving for UK….by the time I come back from Bangladesh, they would have left…..

Going for so many farewells recently, I do wish them well….its a little sad though, there’s a feeling of being left behind, seeing the changing of the guard too as well, as most of the people who joined around the same time have more or less left….there’s just 4 of us left now from the 1st half of 2003 now if I’m not mistaken….we’ll see who’ll be the last one standing, though I don’t think that’s an honour I would necessarily want…..

There was also a classmate’s bday at Salsa Havana (SH) to go for that night, and while I was exhausted that day due to the stress encountered in IJN and having gone for the farewell dinner…..well,it was his bday, and I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on that….As it was, it turned out to be quite fun, as following typical SH tradition, he had girls lining up for a dance with him…. It was also the bday of 2 girls, and the guys were the ones to sort of line up for a dance…it was amazing how they could take turns dancing with the bday girls so seamlessly, they all somehow knew how to step in and for the other guy to release her…. I wonder how long before I get to do all that…. Haha, well, with my bday being in February, barring any more trips outstation or overseas, am sure I’ll learn how to do the same….

Saturday, 8 July 2006

How good a friend must you be to be able to be a Heng Tai? I asked myself this as I attended the tea ceremony of a friend today…. There must have been at least 15 of us, driving our cars to the bride’s place, horning the whole neighbourhood down….. I do hope her neighbours were aware of her, because I’d be very annoyed to be woken up by so much horning at 9am on a Saturday morning. Apparently the girls were very kind to the Heng Tais, because all we had to do was to dance in our suits in the morning sun, drink unknown substances from 10 cups ( which I found out later to include among others soya sauce, vinegar, a block of butter, dodol topped with wasabi and a spoonful of wasaibi) put on women’s bras and singing Chinese songs on the way to the bride’s room.

It was amazing how the guys would just come up and perform these tasks for the groom….Thankfully I only had to dance along with the rest in my suit in order to get us into the house….. not to mention how expensive the tolls these days to get into the house…. I cant say I like anyone enough to want to take a spoonful of wasabi for, if you want your bride badly enough, you’d better be the one to take that wasabi……
The tea ceremony was quite uneventful…..for me anyway, but still, it was a very interesting morning, being my first time attending such a ceremony…. Not a surprise as he is the first among my Chinese friends to get married…. While I suddenly thought maybe I should finally get a move-on, as everyone else seems to be taking several steps forward, I still have yet to even take that first step in getting someone to tolerate me for the rest of her natural life….hehe, now that isn’t going to be easy, no wonder the girls have been avoiding me :)

The evening reception was even more fun….held in Senja restaurant in Saujana Hotel, it was very nice indeed…. The groom and bride even performed for us before dinner, doing the Cha Cha, much to the delight to the invited guests….however, they were too shy to repeat their performance when asked for an encore….the food was not too bad, the speeches made by the Best Man and Brides Maid were humorous, and gave us a small insight to the couple, who had been together for 9 years now…. We were supposed to raise a toast, instead we ended up “Yam Sing’ing them, as they moved from table to table…. And the amount of pictures that were taken, I don’t think my group of friends have taken so many pictures together before…. It seems as if we need people to get married in order for us to meet and catch up….

A very tiring day, I left the hotel at close to 1am I think…. hehe, bets are now being taken on which falcon is to get married next….


Sunday, 9 July 2006

I woke up feeling quite depressed today….. knowing its your last weekend for nearly 2 months, I would think its enough to make anyone depressed….of course, oversleeping and missing out on the Germany-Portugal game didn’t help, neither did the prospect of working for most of the day….. I had to skip badminton, meaning I wasn’t going to have another game for nearly 2 months…..

I had gone for my 1st intermediate class, and it was really tough…. A really tough workout doing our shines left me weak in the knees, bewildered, not to mention sweating and out of breath….. this should only be happening when I’m on the futsal pitch!!! my only consolation was that my fellow intermediate classmates who had been attending these classes for months…. Its just too bad that I have to go back to the improver level when I get back in 2 months time…. It was fun nevertheless, and my new classmates were really friendly and helpful. At times, the girls were leading me, as to where my arms were supposed to go, to avoid us getting into a tangle…. On second thought, maybe it wasn’t an accident then to see the guys make those mistakes….


Monday, 10 July 2006

I’m feeling tired…. I guess 3 hours of sleep would do that to you….I had stayed up to pack, and of course, to watch the World Cup final…..the last World Cup game, and I now have to wait for another 4 years for the next World Cup….. it was sad to see Zidane end his playing career in such a manner, however, he was a legend, and his contribution to the game will never be forgotten….

It’s a good thing mum didn’t know the extent of my packing, as packing stretched on till an hour before I was due to leave for the airport….that would have stressed her out no doubt…. Oh well, I’m quite sure I packed everything I’d need, as I had drawn up quite a comprehensive list of items to be brought since I seem to be sent for outstation engagements so often these days….

The flight was uneventful, for the first time, I managed to actually get some sleep…. here was a kid in front of me, but it wasn’t the kid that annoyed me, rather the idiot who was sitting across the aisle, who kept on trying to attract the kid’s attention….with all the funny noises and faces the fella made, no wonder the lil kid burst into tears from time to time…..

It was the same ol Dhaka I arrived to, dusty, noisy and crowded….the immigration was as slow as I remembered it to be….how long can it possibly take to process a red book and a piece of paper called the disembarkation card….. trust the immigration fella handling my entry into the country to keep the rest of my team waiting…. Being so grumpy at 1.30am local time (3.30am M’sian time).

It didn’t take long to get used to the crazy way the local people drive….at full speed, horns blaring and zig-zagging in between cars, with the brakes being jammed periodically….near misses are common in this country, and the sounds of horns is just part of the background….the idea of a queuing is foreign in this country, and a free-for-all mentality is prevalent, which are not just limited to the roads of Bangladesh….. all I could do was close my eyes, and I was very grateful when I finally arrived at the hotel….

7 weeks in this country, I may as well make the most of it I guess…..

i never thought i would actually do something like this....writing a blog i mean....i always used to wonder why people maintain blogs....why would i want to share my thoughts and views with just about any tom, dick and harry in this world....

my colleagues at work are very curious as to what will appear on my blog....interesting it should be they say.....and so i'll try to oblige :)

i have been reading some of those blogs on friendster, and i found it to be quite interesting....it was also a good way to stay in touch with these people, to know what they feel and what they are going through without even having to talk to them.....its a little impersonal i know, but with how things are at the moment, we dont seem to have much time to stay in touch, so i suppose blogs can be used to tell your friends how things are with yourself, aside from providing a platform to rant and complain about what goes on in your life.....and trust me, you will probably hear quite a fair bit of ranting and complaining.....

its actually a friend who had just wrote about an evening spent with friends, eating ice cream....reading her blog about it was quite fun, and it also gave me an insight as to what she thought about it, and just reading it, i knew how different we look at things....ice cream is just ice cream to me, regardless of the presentation and all.....i actually enjoyed the company of my friends that day, the ice cream just made things sweeter......

she also told me the kind of things i could include in this blog, which i thought would be quite bare, or that i would lose interest in it one day......i guess salsa would dominate my blog, as will my upcoming trip to Bangladesh next week.....but that shall be another entry on another day.....i'm actually having fun already writing this up, and just letting the fingers do the typing.....quite a lot of freedom, and not having to worry how it sounds.....i suppose if people arent comfortable or disagree with the contents of this blog, they do have the freedom to stop reading.....just about.....here.....

but yeah,when i get home today, i'm going to tell my sis i just started up a blog, and see what she has to say....."its not something you would do" is what i'm guessing she would say...having said that though, salsa isnt something i would do either ;)