This is my Life…

On Saturday (3 November) it was a day off from work; Debashish came to me around 3 pm and we went out with a rickshaw to visit Hindu temples. We first went to a place called Ramakrishna Mission, I really like their temple and it’s beautiful. From there we continued to another Hindu place called the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), where the idea was just to have a look, but then I was invited by a man and we started a big discussion about happiness, pleasure, desire etc. I was given lots of questions and I enjoyed it because it challenged my own mind, then another guy my age came and the three of us discussed really deep about the inner life of the soul in every human being. I told them my perspective on how very different I see our societies in the world, and how I think that describing happiness is a vast difference within different people’s souls. I do believe everyone is looking for some sort of happiness in life, but I said that it’s very difficult to really find out in every human being what truly makes a person happy. After our discussion I bought the book “Bhagavad Gita As It Is”, which will be interesting to read. I was also given a tour of the temple area and I experienced when they were worshiping. Debashish and I were given some food by a Hare Krishna and after we had eaten then we returned home to my apartment. It was a nice and special day…

The following day (4 November) it was back to work, in the office I kept on filing interviews with street girls and reviewing the project proposal. In the afternoon I left together with Kanta and Forhad in Nilufar’s car to Kawran Bazar, where we came late because of lots of traffic and also it started to rain. Forhad and I together with Sheoly interviewed five street girls from the School Under the Sky. Some of the girls where not as open as I thought they would be and it felt like they were a little afraid of telling us the truth, but they answered all questions and one or two answers were with the restriction that she didn’t want to say who was disturbing or abusing her as she thought she would be in even more trouble. The girls were between 9-11 years old and several of them have quite recently come to Dhaka. They told similar stories to the young girls in Kamlapur Railway Station, but in some of the girls I could really feel how they were crying within themselves…

The next day (5 November) it was same routines as it has been many other days; I worked with filing the interviews from yesterday and continued reviewing the project proposal, it takes a long time to go through the text, because it needs to really good. Around 3 pm I, Forhad and Kanta left for Kawran Bazar where Forhad and I interviewed four street girls; Aziron, Aki, Tumpa and Raki. Two of the girls had stories that were really sad to hear. Tumpa told us; “One time a man came to me and told me that my father was waiting for me outside of the building where I was, I got very emotional when I heard it, so I went outside of the building, but when I came out my father was not there, the man lied to me, and when the man and I was outside, then he sexually abused me”. Another story, told by Raki; “Once a drug addict convinced me to go to the cinema, and I went with him to the cinema. After the cinema he sexually abused me, I disagreed with his offer, but he pressured me and I was given a sleeping pill”. Seeing especially Raki, made me understand how mentally destroyed she was, she felt extremely torn up inside and hearing about that both her parents are dead and she is completely by herself, made it even worse and we understood how seriously needy she is.

The following day, Tuesday, was similar to many other days. I filed the interviews from the previous day from Kawran Bazar. I also brought a CD with Shishu Tori pictures I have taken, so I started putting one picture of every street girl together with their respective interview. In the afternoon I and Kanta went to Osmani Uddan Park. I waited a little there until Forhad came and then we interviewed four street girls; Rohima, Romi, Kajaly and Moyna. Some of the girls were real emotional when they told us about their lives.

7 November was a national holiday. Mabiya and Sagur came and washed some clothes this morning and also swept the floors. Around 2:30 pm Amirsohel came to say hi, and I told him I was on my way out to go to Sheraton for Thai massage. He wanted to come along so we went to the Sheraton hotel together in a CNG. The hotel seemed nice and we walked around for a while, as we arrived before my scheduled time for massage. I then had one hour of Thai massage, it was nice and relaxing, Amirsohel mostly walked around the hotel and took pictures. When I was done with the massage, then we bought some movies in one of the stores in the hotel. The quality is fine, the movies are from Pakistan. We got home and watched a movie called “Monster House”; it was an animated movie.

After one day’s holiday it was back to work. I got to the office on Thursday last week and Forhad and my stuff had been moved to another room, so now we have a new office room Forhad and I (it’s not nearly as nice as the old room). Today we had a monthly staff meeting, where we discussed different matters happening in the field. I also told the staffs how warmly I have been welcomed and how grateful I am for it. The meeting went one for 1-2 hours. Otherwise this day I couldn’t do much in the office, because the monitor to the computer was out of function. In the afternoon I and Forhad went to Osmani Uddan Park to interview more street girls, we interviewed five girls; Ety, Aklima, Kulsom, Moyna and Paki. There was especially one girl, Moyna, who felt very deprived, her answers were sad to hear. When we asked her what she wants to become in the future, she said; “there is no hope”.

On Friday (9 Nov) afternoon I went by rickshaw to Riffle Square in Dhanmondi together with Amirsohel, his father Esrar and two friends of Amirsohel. When we got there we played bowling and other games for more than an hour. Afterwards I did some grocery shopping in a supermarket called Agora, it was in the Riffle Square building. The Agora was a really nice supermarket, clean and fresh, I will definitely return there to buy groceries. Through lots of traffic jams we slowly returned back on two rickshaws to our apartment building. I was sort of in a rush, so when I got back I packed my stuff, had a shower, got dressed to go to Baridhara (upscale residential area in Dhaka) as I was invited to Nilufar’s dinner in her house. I went by taxi and arrived at her house before 8 pm. The people came one after another, it was approximately 20 people all together, about 5-6 people in my own age. I first discussed for 1-2 hours with a man who had been working for World Food Programme, he was very nice and we had a really great discussion about Bangladesh and other topics as well. After the dinner I talked with the people my own age, Nilufar’s daughter Mehreen, her husband Raquef and other friends of theirs. I had a great time that evening, it was nice to get away from my own area and have a change of environment. The people my own age were up for a few more hours after everyone had gone, discussing young people in the world today…

The following day, I was relaxing in Nilufar’s villa, while she and her daughter Mehreen were out shopping. I watched two movies while they were gone; “Knocked Up” and “The Last King Of Scotland”. The first one was a comedy movie, it was nice to see a simple movie and just laugh. The other one was a really good movie, I know that most of you who read this have probably already seen it and might say; “Per, you are very up to date”, but the thing is that I don’t watch movies much anymore. In the evening I had dinner and before I went to bed I watched another movie, the whole day was really nice…relaxation.

Then on the Sunday (11 Nov); in the morning I took a shower, had my breakfast and then I left Nilufar’s house together with Nilufar and her driver, to go to the office. The drive from Baridhara to Motijheel took more than an hour, because the traffic in Dhaka is a lot of times crazy busy. We got to the office and I started working on previous interviews, the monitor in the office had to be fixed before we could use again. In the afternoon I filed a few interviews with street girls onto the pc. I left the office together with Kanta around 5 pm and went home.

On Monday (last week), in the afternoon, I went with 4-5 of the Shishu Tori staffs to Sadarghat by the Buriganga river to interview street girls. We interviewed 10 street girls; Lamia, Jorinatta, Ango, Minara, Lipy, Laboni, Shilpy, Allo, Nasima, Hasina. I really enjoyed coming to Sadarghat again, I was there shortly in the beginning of October. Sadarghat is a place by the river where boat are coming and going, it’s a big boat terminal. Every new place we come and interview is giving us some new information, which is very valuable. While we were interviewing one girl after another, some of the street girls who were about to be interviewed were sitting close by us. At one time one of the other street girls was enormously hungry, so she was eating the rubber from some sandals. Desperation. During another interview Forhad asked the street girl; “what do you want to become in the future?”. Then she said; “I want to be like Erik”. When I heard it, I just put things in life in perspective, I felt proud inside. We had a really successful time interviewing street girls in Sadarghat…

On Thursday last week I was really sad, and at that time Fatima (Shishu Tori staff and former street girl) came with a friendship bracelet to me. It was a really nice gift, I could really feel how she wanted to make me feel good again.

The same day it was really cold, rainy and windy. It started getting really windy in the evening and as there was a cyclone down by the Bay of Bengal we here in Dhaka could really feel how it was attacking Bangladesh. In the night it was extremely windy and the electricity went off and kept on being off. For several days no electricity throughout Bangladesh was a big problem, telephone lines were off (impossible to call), water shortage etc. Several districts have been completely wiped out,

I have spent most of these days with my friends in apartment 8C, Esrar and his family. I went with them to Agora (a nice supermarket) on Friday and I have been socializing with them, talking, laughing, eating and so on for two days.

This past Sunday I also went to Bashundura City with Debashish, it’s a huge shopping mall complex with 9 floors of hundreds and hundreds of different shops. We more or less walked around, so that I could have a peak at the different floors. I will probably come back there we I need to do some shopping.

Two days ago we interviewed street girls in the Mirpur area, next to a graveyard. It was very interesting to interview there, one of the girls told us a really sad story; “during the last Eid (festival) I was together with my two friends near a lake, and at that time there came three guys who raped the other two girls and afterwards one of the girls was hung”. This happened last month and it was a really sad story, but these kinds of things are something that occurs here in Dhaka. Another story we were told by another street girl was how a man who was around 60 years old had sexually abused her, and she herself is little more than 10 years old.

Yesterday afternoon we interviewed street girls in Ziauddan, a very nice park. It was also a new experience meeting with the girls there. One of the street girls, Sarmin (9 years old), was very fond of me, before our interview she kissed my hand. Then after the interview she wanted to sit close to me and take pictures with me, and after that she jumped up and kissed me on my cheek. We then continued to interview other street girls, and Sarmin came back and kissed me again on my cheek and on my forehead, she also tried to go for my lips, but then I pulled back. She was jumping around like an energy ball. Then a while later she came again and kissed me on my cheek, and then another of the street girls came and kissed me on my cheek. It was a street girls-kissing-Erik-party!

I have had big problems trying to upload pictures, so the quality in some of the pictures might not be as good as it is supposed to be. I hope you will appreciate the photos anyway. There are big problems with the Internet connections since the attack of cyclone. The power supply is very unstable.

Riding a bicycle with a helmet and then nicely putting the bike in the garage. Man.

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Now it feels like I have really entered my daily life in Dhaka, I do daily routines both at work and in private.

Between Sunday-Tuesday (28-30 Oct) I worked the whole days in the office with interviewing Shishu Tori staffs together with Forhad and then I filed the interviews onto the computer. I also worked with polishing the project proposal for the street girls project. One of the days I visited the street children in the Osmani Uddan Park shortly. Another day in the late afternoon when I, Forhad and Kanta left the office it took us a long time, roughly one hour, to get transportation home. Practically no CNGs or rickshaws would take us, so we went with a big bus first just for a few minutes and then we got two rickshaws home. Speaking of the big buses, they are extremely dangerous in the traffic. The bus drivers drive fast and in a way that they think they’re kings of the roads. Complete careless driving. It’s been close for me getting hit a lot times, it doesn’t matter if I’m sitting on rickshaw or walking, I have to be on guard the whole time so my arms or legs doesn’t get hit by a bus.

On Wednesday, two days ago, we started with interviewing street girls. We went to Kamlapur Railway Station where Forhad, Popy and I interviewed five street girls; Beuty, Sherin, Shilpy, Mala and Lucky. All of them are in the classes in the School Under the Sky. We are using 15 questions that we are asking the street girls, for us to get a picture of their life situations. It was very interesting to interview the street girls and hear their stories; they are all living under big pressures in life. When we asked one of the girls; “what do you need at the moment?” Then she answered; “I need love and care”. That’s one of the biggest problems for children all over the world; innocent children are brought to this world and then completely abandoned by their parents. It’s pure egoistic behavior from the parents. So when I hear how some street girls here are having abortions, even if it’s illegal, it makes me very happy as these street girls are the really clever and caring persons. They understand very well that they can’t put a child to this earth when they even can’t take care or cater for themselves.

Yesterday I filed the interviews onto the computer in the Shishu Tori office that we conducted the previous day. Once again Forhad and I returned to the Kamlapur Railway Station to continue interviewing street girls. We interviewed six street girls; Mina, Kadija, Shova, Onjona, Hashara and Akter Bakul. Most of these girls were older than the girls the day before, so their life stories were different.

Kadija was telling us about how she used to be a sex worker, with up to ten “customers” daily. When she was 13 years old, she was sexually abused and got pregnant, today she has a 5 years old daughter. She has stopped working as a sex worker and she is not able to earn any income right now, instead she receives some money from a person she refers to as “brother”. She told us that all she wants to have in the future is a “safe place where she can be with her daughter”, she told us “in any room”.

Another street girl we interviewed was Shova, who is 16 years old. She is now working as a prostitute. She told us that she has up to 12 male “customers” a day. She can earn up to 500 Bangladeshi Taka, which is approximately 7 USD for having sex with 12 men in one day. She also told us how a boy is physically abusing her and then she was pointing on a guy on the other side of the railway platform.

Next street girl we interviewed was Onjona, she also used to be a sex worker, but she only worked as a prostitute for a few months. She talked about how inhumane the live is for them in the streets and it’s easy to understand as the railway platforms are filled with street people; drug addicts, alcoholics and policemen who are torturing the street girls. While Forhad and I were interviewing Onjona there was a big fight about 75-100 meters away from us; it was 4-5 girls around 25 years old fighting with each other, pulling each other’s hairs. Around them there maybe 50 people watching the spectacle and then the policeman came trying to break up the fight. All these kinds of things happen the whole time and with all these people around it’s no wonder that Onjona answered to our question; “what do you want be in the future?”…she said straight out; “I want to be in a beautiful place”. It’s almost unimaginable for me to understand how these street girls really are suffering. Onjona also showed me how her arms were filled with scars from beating, a lot of times by her boyfriend.

The last girl we interviewed yesterday was Akter Bakul (16 years old), she was really emotional in the way she was expressing herself. She also talked about how she has been working as a sex worker and how the police disturb and torture her and other street children. At the end of the interview she started crying, looked into my eyes and said to me; “you are our father, we believe in you to help us and take us to a safe place”. What she said once again reminded me of why I have the passion and devotion to meet street children, listen to them and try to do my best to improve their life situations. When I got home last night I was mentally exhausted after work. Being out in the street is not just work, there are people everywhere who want my attention and want to interact with me, I love being in the streets and getting new experiences everyday, but I also get tired.

Time goes by fast, I have now been in Bangladesh for one month. I’m in Bangladesh! Crazy thought.

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