Hill Tracts Blues

Have you ever heard the Hill Tracts Blues? I guess only those from CHT-Bangladesh have. Maha and I were lucky for being invited to a Chakma wedding dinner on 14^th where we heard the CHT Blues. We were offered local drinks and entertained with songs. Too bad that when we were asked to participate I could only scream while Maha sang one line of a Bengali song and left the rest to others.

We are now on the second day of the in country pilot in Bangladesh. While we are writing this, the speed catch is going on. The participants really enjoyed the activity and one of the groups got a record time of 0.31 seconds!

There is a frail old lady in the participants also. We call her the youngest leader in the group. She is a member of the women’s village development group. Due to a misunderstanding by the group she was nominated for the course. However, she is still a keen participant and showed up on the next day also, much to our surprise.

The facilitators are doing a great job! The preparation of materials and contents is great! Gitanjali would be proud! And to think that they have only been trained as participants at the national roll-out by our Leadership Fellows, Amlan, Mathura, and Mary (Chiang Mai, 2005). The modules have been customized and translated to the local context and seems to be resonating with the participants.

We will meet Taungya, one of the partner organizations for the training today and discuss possibilities for future trainings.

More to follow and for now we leave you with the Hill Tracts Blues …

I wake up in the morning

I’m in my bed alone

My wife’s gone a walking

To get water and wood…

If somebody knows the rest of the song, please complete the lyrics :)

Rukka and Maha