well i guess that I am officially a volunteer now. We did our swearing in ceremony yesterday in the American Embassy. Our embassy is really nice, it is like a fortress. I guess now I can get started on what I came here to do, after three long months. It is pretty exciting as well as nerve racking, because now I have to go out and hack it in the back woods of Bangladesh. This is going to be a real test.
Glad to know that people are reading this, it makes it worth while to sit in the hot internet cafe. We were given a weekend in Dhaka for fun, we were all left up to our own devices. It was pretty fun to wander around one of the largest cities in south asia. This place is pretty wild, you can really fill all of your hearts desires in a place like this. Even though it is still Muslim, you wouldnt know it walking around the city. Sometimes though it is a little nerve racking to wander around Dhake at night. Some of the people are pretty scary looking or at least they are people that I am not interested to talk to. In some places the beggars are really bad, I mean bad, it really makes you feel bad inside when there is a little boy leading his father around asking for money. The thing is though is that his father was blind and missing both of his arms. The problem is that if you give one person the money they all want money.
As far as packages go I know that sara sent a package some time ago but it still hasnt arrived, but who knows. Right now it is like christmas time, it is insane in the post offices. Anyways moms package made it here now problem, it wasnt even opened. I even had a hard time opening it.
Update on the elephants, they have found a certain plant that the elephants cross. So now they are trying to surround some of the villages with this plant. Who knows how well it works, it really sounds like the elephants like the wine, so I dint think that there is much you can do to stop them.
One more thing, I took my first hot shower in three months, it felt so nice. After that I ate a pizza and then had an ice cream cone. And then I had a cold beer, and then slept in the air conditioning. It was amazing how much I enjoyed the things that I took for granted back home.

shada shoitan signing off.

so i am not sure whether people are still reading this or I am doing this for personal satisfaction, either way I will continue to post. todays is particularly strange, it is by far the strangest thing that I have heard in a long time. The best part about this story is that it is entirely true. in the northeasten part of bangladesh on the bangladeshi side of the border with india there are still many indigenous tribes that still practice many of their old rituals. one of their past times is making wine, how they make it i do not know. when they make it though, about the same time every year it emits a strong smell, not a bad one, but a smell none the less. okay, now we go to the indian side of the border where many elephants live. every year the elephants are drawn out of the mountians of india by the smell of the wine being made. the elephants come in herds to where they are making this wine in the villages. this is where it gets interesting. the herds proceed to enter the villages at night or the evening and drink the wine. apparently they they keep the wine in large vats, so the elephants all crowd around these vats and drink the wine. well, when they have drank their fill (most of the wine) they then proceed to roam around the countryside trampling villages and stomping everything in their path. they do this for a couple of days until the alcohol is gone and then they return to the mountians in india. this is a huge deal in that area, they cannot figure out a way to stop the elephants from coming and drinking the wine. the elephants have even shaped their migratory patterns around this. this is the craziest thing i have heard since being here. drunken elehants carousing the countryside. this sounds a lot like arkansas football game. anyways maybe that wasnt as funny as it seemed to me, but i laughed for quite some time at that one.

anyways that was kind of silly, but i thought it would be interesting to share.

people are really starting to get worried about this avian flu virus, it is getting worse or at least spreading through asia. our doctors are really worried, which makes me think it could be a fairly serious dilema. if it hits bangladesh i am sure that we will be evacuated to signapore or thailand. i would rather it didnt happen because it would be an epidemic here. the population is really dense which does not bode well when contaigious diseases are involved. but it would be nice to visit signapore for a few months. i am not going to worry to much, it is freakin bangladesh. if i worried about everything that goes on here i would go crazy! aside from the fact that this country is on the verge of an epidemic, in political chaos, and a massie upsurge in islamic fundamentalism and recruitment, things are going okay for me. at least as long as i stay indoors hahaha. so anyways signing off from the most screwed up place in the world.
the suspect shada shoitan

This picture on the left is one that I find very interesting. If you notice on the left hand side there are two white dots, well the bottom one is a crecent moon and the top one is a star. Interestingly enough it is the main symbol for Islam. This alignment signals the start of Ramadan. When Ramadan starts is entirely based on the sighting of the moon. So anyways I know that I have seen this in the states, but it has never carried the same meaning.

Today is my day off, so I am here trying to put some more pictures on my blog. It seemed to be successful yesterday, we will see how it goes today. Some days it is really easy to make it to the internet cafe, some days it just seems like there are not enough hours in the day. I realize that most of my pictures do not involve people, but it makes me a little uncomfortable to pull out a piece of equipment that cost as mush as some peoples homes. So anyways I try to be alittle discreet about the way I use my camera. The sun sets are by far and away the most beautiful I have ever seen, every night it is fantastic. Like this first picture, I took this when I went on a boat ride with some friends. This picture was taken right before the motor broke down. So I was sitting there watching the sun go down with the realization that we were about ten miles from home and it was about to get dark. It took the guy about an hour to fix the motor in the dark, and then we went about our way. So we navigated this river in the dark, well there was moonlight so it was kind of light. The animals that come out at night in the river are pretty freaky looking in the dark. Despite my intuition I swam anyways, people thought I was crazy. It inspired about four other people to jump in, out of all five of us only one got sick. So it worked out pretty well.
The picture on the left is of the Bazaar downtown. It is pretty wild, in the picture it is fairly calm. But on some days it is nuts. Especially when they are doing construction, because everytime that they start to tear up the road it rains, hard hard hard. So the whole thing will turn into mud in the matter of about twenty minutes. I how I love sweet Bangladesh.
The third picture, if it loads, is of some housing on the side of the river. They are real living conditions, things that I would have never experienced in the states. These are really interesting people to talk to, their lives are so simple it is beautiful. Sometimes they invite me in for tea, it is a real experience sitting and enjoying a conversation with them. It is great practice for my Bangla. Most people in our group are ekind of leary of these things, health and safety being the primary concerns. But I figure that I am living in Bangladesh, I might as well not hold anything back. Besides, if gain the respect of the common people then it will make my stay much easier.

So if these pictures actually load it will be amazing. I know that people have been wanting to see a little of what it looks like here. The first picture is the river /canal near my house. It is about two blocks away, this is the prefered method for fishing here. It is really cool to watch them fish, it is really amazing how many fish are in these rivers. It would blow any anglers mind back home. I have seen these nets come up half full in one scoop, which is enough to feed several families. I really think that Americans might be the only people in the world that use a rod and reel. The second picture is from my roof at sunset. This is my neighborhood, it is really beautiful, anyways if this works I will post more.
well here I am again, my weekly saga continues. I am not sure wether you all are interested in this next blog but I will post it none the less. I got a hold of some Indian wiskey, woah, that stuff is no joke. It is really rough, those Indians are freaking animals, I dont see how they can drink that stuff on a regular basis. It is basically bathtub gin type of stuff. The thing is they dont know the alchohol content, I can tell you now, it is not low. So anyways you dont have to worry about me becoming an alchoholic. Besides it is not exactly the best thing to be in a Muslim society.
On to bigger fish, this is a little off topic, but.......
I met the person that I will be staying with in Kurigram, not actually living with but will be my counterpart. I am not sure how to go about explaining this one, so I will do my best.......she, um, well is tall with long blond hair and well she is...alright never mind somehow that just wasnt going to come out right. Needless to say I am excited to get started in Kurigram. Besides the fact that there is severe flooding and a massive dihorrea outbreak, things are looking up in the area ;-)
I am going up there this week for about a week, it will be nice to escape Gazipur and all the chaotic things that come with it. It will also be cooler up there because it is literally at the foot of the Himalayas, so I will get those nice cool nights and breezy days.
Right now there is a 20 year guy sitting across from me wearing a eighties glittery purple disco shirt with little shimmering things on it. He is sitting there trying to look tough for the girl that is sitting next to me, who happens to be American. It is really funny, because she is laughing at him (quietly) because his shirt is so funny looking, and he thinks that she likes him because she is smiling. So he is sitting here trying to impress her with his shirt (and mullet), I love this country. The whole concept of gender and their roles is so far from what we know it is crazy. If I have said this before forgive me, but I will say it again. The men wear ankle length skirts, they hold hands and they touch eachother in ways that would make the men in San Fransisco cringe. As a matter of fact I think that is why we had our staging in San Fran, it was for preparation. Not that any of it is really bad, it is just different. That has been the most difficult thing for most people in our group, they ask why for everything. The sooner you just realize that is the way it is no matter how strange it may seem, the sooner all of it will make sense. Everyday I am amazed by this culture and the ways that they say that our culture is crazy, not in a bad way. But everyday I am approached with the question "In America it is free sex, right?" So I reply everytime with the same answer, "NO." Then comes the Bengali reasoning, "I thought you lived in a free country?"......"Yes of course I do."........."So isnt the sex free?"........"NO"......."Do you pay a dowry?"......"NO"......"Then it is free sex!... So they walk away from the conversation thinking that they just tought me something about my own culture. I deal with these conversations on a daily basis. Sometimes it is really humorous, sometimes it is very serious. Sometimes when they voice their support for 9/11 I just walk away, and that drives them nuts, because they lost their chance to voice their opinion to an American. For the most part people are very nice about conversation because for some people they will never meet another American in their life. But by the same token people take that opportunity to really try and ream me, but as you can see by their logic that those conversations are not to difficult to navigate. So anyways, I guess I better be moving on. Keep those Islamist militants mad GW, it makes my life a lot easier, haha.Until heavy long time in the tomorrow.
shada bideshi signing off.

well here I am again, I have made it through another week. Still not married even though there are a couple girls who are insisting that Bangladeshi women are good people. that i cannot argue with, but, getting married to them is a whole different ball game. there are a few guys in the group that will definately take home a wife, but you can count me out. oh well, things could be worse. Like another bombing, oh wait that happened earlier this week. Down in Chittagong a group called the Jamataal Mujahadeen Jihad group (sounds like something in Iraq, hmmm think there are any conections, oops did i say that) bombed three court proceedings in an attempt to kill the judges. The reason is the crazy part, they want to enforce strict muslim law, you know the cutting off of the heads and hands. Now you see why i am not willing to mess around with the women here, i will let you guess what happens to the perpetrator of that crime. Anyways they were unsuccessful in killing the judges but they happened to kill a couple of bystandards. A crowd actually caught one of the guys who threw the bomb and then proceeded to beat him to death. That is pretty common around here, mob justice that is. Everyday someone is lynched or beaten to death by a mob, usuallly it is for a pretty good reason. once again you can see why it is a good idea not to mess with the women. So it really doesnt bother me as long as i am not the victim. you really see some crazy stuff around here, although now people are mellowing out a little. Ramadan started yesterday so now everyone just sits around and complains about how hungry they are. anyways hopefully the world doesnt fall apart at the seams. it is interesting, when living in a place like this it really doesnt feel like the world is as desperate as it seems whileliving in the states. if that makes any sense whatsoever. it think it has alot to do with the media bombardment in the states, anyways maybe i am dilusional, but i think there is a grain of truth to that. my point being, i am living in one of the worst/most unsafe countries in the world, yet when i was living in the states i felt much more of an immediate danger. time will tell.
it is now shit here (shit actually means winter). i just had to throw that one out there. there are a host of other really crude words that do not translate really well. or at least when i hear them in a sentence i wonder what they are getting at. the language thing is really picking up, or at least i can understand what the heck they are saying to me when i am trying to bargain for a twenty five cent pineapple. sometimes i feel bad when i bargain here because it is already so freaking cheap. but when i dont bargain the store owners are disappointed because they did not get to hassle the bideshi(foriegner).
along the lines of our futbol game, we lost 2-1. oh well, it was really fun and it was a huge hit all over town. before the game me and a friend rented a rickshaw (three wheeled bicycle) and a huge speaker system and rode it around town announcing the game. it was by far and away the funniest thing i have ever done in my entire life. the people lined both sides of the street and cheered for me while i was speaking bangla, it was hilarious. we caused several wrecks and work stopped while i was miking (that is what they call it here). usually it is only the communist party that does it, so i think they enjoyed the change of pace. anyways needless to say if i was a rockstar before now i am a demigod, that is probably the funniest part. so anyways we had maybe a thousand people turn out for the game, along with the RAB (rapid action batallion) these are the guys that carry around shotguns and put down political unrest. they were there to support us, you know the PEACE corps.

pictures are really hard to post, sorry, thats third world internet for you, i really didnt even think that there would be internet here. maybe i will find a place that i can do so, but i wouldnt hold your breath.

ben good luck with your deal, "so your tellin me theres a chance"
charlie there are two heavy metal rockers in my group, they are trying to form a metal night for the local youth. slayer, MESSUGGAH! you know you might actually have a niche in this organization :) there is actually a metal scene in dhaka, it is pretty funny. i saw a group of teenagers walking down the street trying to look tough, they were far from it. there were four of them , one was wearing a slayer tshirt, one with a metallica shirt, one with a mega death shirt, and get this the one in the middle was wearing a bon jovi tshirt. it was the funniest thing i think i have seen here yet. our media reaches the third world in the strangest of ways.
shada shoitan signing off.
see you heavy long time in the tommorrow, as long as i dont kill one of these men in the iternet cafe for touching my thigh.

So I found out where I will be posted for the next two years, was I surprised. It is a small town called Kurigram, it is sixty miles south of Bhutan and one hundred miles east of Nepal. It is about ten miles from the Indian border, ha. Talk about remote, it is way up north. It is also the poorest district in all of Bangladesh, but that is something that I dont quite understand yet. It is like comparing death with death, it is all poor, in this country I dont see how they can differentiate. But I guess they do. It turns out that this area is the one of the strongholds against the current government, I guess it is safer under the wing of the dragon (hopefully). It was the heart of the resistence against Pakistan in the 70's, and now they still represent the resistence against whatever??? So the political situation up there should be really interesting, if it can be called that. I find it interesting that I have gone from the most affluent nation in the world to quite possibly the poorest nation in the world, and in that nation I am going to the poorest place. Oh sweet irony. It should be a really good experience. IT is really beautiful in the area, I visited the area last month, it is really rural. If such a place can exisit in a country of 144 million people all stuffed into a place roughly the size of Iowa.
Anyways, Karen my email is jacksonjtaylor@yahoo.com
I have not recieved any packages, but who knows about that stuff. This is one of the only places in the world that Fedex will not guarentee delivery, so what does that say about the public mail system.
And shada shoitan means the "white devil." I learned that one pretty quick,
"ami shada shoitan na" -- I am not the white devil, clutch statement in a Muslim society.
Until heavy long time in the tommorrow, shada shoitan signing off.