From: Where in the World is Farhana?

I hope you all are doing fantastic!  I am happy to report that the Storytellers for Good team and I made it safe and sound to Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh after more than 30 hours of traveling.  Since I couldn’t go to India, Storytellers for Good went and then met me in Dhaka. (stories from their journey to come soon.)  From there we flew to Cox’s Bazar.

Cox's Bazar is touristy beach town on the South Coast of Bangladesh. It is home to the longest sandy surfing beach in the world.  Yes, surfing in Bangladesh – I know!  It, like most coastal strips around the world, is being infiltrated with various multi-national developers who are building high rise hotels and such changing the face of the once pristine and beautiful landscape (that is a whole other blog story).   

When we landed we were greeted by two members of the Bangladeshi Girls’ Surfing Club.  They presented us with leis of marigolds and roses along with big, bright smiles – a little Aloha Bangladeshi style.   

Jafar Alam, Bangladesh’s first surfer, was there to greet us and 'tom tom' us to our hotel by the beachside. 

This is probably my 5th or 6th time to Bangladesh (my father is from Bangladesh), but my first time going as a surfer.  So as you can imagine, I’m incredibly curious about the waves, the surfers, the surf culture and just how these girls managed to do something so daring here.  Inquiring minds wanna know!
 
We couldn't wait to get into the water so once we arrived, we headed for the surf.  The beach is quite a scene here.  Everyone stared at us as we carried our boards to the water, and a crowd formed around us to see what we were doing.  It was a little uncomfortable at first, but their expressions were very much of curiousity.   We were soon out to sea catching waves on our own, the crowd becoming a distant speck on the beach.  It felt so good to be back in the water after so many hours cooped up in a plane.  The ocean felt familiar and the act of catching waves – timeless.

That evening we joined the girls for a welcoming meal.  I learned that they were essentially taken in by Jafar as street kids, who offered them a place to call home and access to something that brought them joy in their lives. Surfing is completely free to them, so it is very accessible and provides them with a sense of community.  Mina (the second from the right) was the newest to the group. Her father died and her mother re-married.  Mistreated by her mother and stepfather, she left home and told them she would fend for herself.  She wandered the beach in Cox’s Bazar hoping a kind soul would give her food and take her in.  That’s when she met up with Nahida on the beach (to the left), who took her in.  She now stays with Nahida and Nahida’s mother in their house (which is no bigger than an 8x8 sized room).

We also TOTALLY lucked out with the world’s best translator -  an awesome woman named Hazera who is from Cox Bazar.  She was at the dinner and offered to help us navigate and translate through the various dialects of the girls’ languages. She also has some sophisticated frameworks in terms of looking at various ways to address social and economic issues in her country (she was educated in London and has experience working with a street kid project in Bangladesh).  So it's great to have her there as well.  

From our discussion, it was apparent to me that this particular microcosm of Bangladeshi society is so used to being supported with aid and given charity that they see the solutions to their problems in the form of support and thinking from the outside.  It's a crippling mindset to say the least.  This is especially perpetuated by the religious fundamentalism a region such as this attracts (funding from Saudi Arabia to build mosques, presence of the Christian evangelicals with their conversion agendas) and by the economic agendas of more developed nations looking to expand their markets (the Japanese are busy building roads here because where there are roads, there are cars - Japanese cars).  Bangladesh always seems to be in the position of receiving.    

Still, I remained curious about what potential solutions the girls could come up with themselves regarding their challenges. I know they are probably thinking since we're from the west, we'll be their savior and help them out.  It's such a fine line between helping your fellow neighbor out and adding to a systemic cycle of dependency and hand outs that has plagued developing nations around the world.   I have to keep reminding myself that our purpose for being here is really to bring their stories to the world, and through that, to inspire others to live in their possibility.  Given this social and economic landscape, it is remarkable what these girls are doing, and what they aspire to do and be. 

After a lovely evening with the girls, we were off the next day to do our first interviews and to meet someone very special who couldn’t be there for the dinner.  More on that to come.