Into the Jungle

Two jeeps full of BRCT staff, including the two wide-eyed Canadian interns, will leave Dhaka at 5am tomorrow for our five day field mission to Jhinaidah, Meherpur, Narail, Satkhira and Khulna, the last being the original capital of Bangladesh during the British Raj.

Each of these towns is in Khulna division (one of six in Bangladesh, similar to provinces but without the power) where we'll be visiting some of our victims associations, mobile treatment clinics and Task Force Against Torture groups. The best part will undoubtedly be our one day excursion into the Sundarbans National Park, home to the country's famous Royal Bengal Tigers (only 400 of them) and a wealth of other wildlife. It's a gigantic mangrove forest bordered by India in the west and the Bay of Bengal in the south, and since it's also essentially a flooded jungle, it's only accessible by boat.

While I'm sure the Sundarbans will be beautiful - and yes, I"ll take lots of pictures - I'm also looking forward to my first one on one interviews with torture victims. I've drawn up a two-page questionnaire (I never thought I'd say this, but I (grudgingly) have Poli 311 and Prof. Gidengil to thank for its future validity and reliability...) that has also been translated into Bangla. Its purpose is to assess the capability of these groups (VAs and TFTs) to coordinate our organization's Door to Door Campaign Against Torture in their own communities. Biplob, Khulna's regional coordinator at BRCT, will be doing all the invaluable translating.

Maybe my mosquito net might just come out of its cocoon for the first time, but we'll just have to wait and see. Needless to say, I won't be upset if it stays there.