Final Days in Chittagong, Bangladesh

July 5, 2013 Friday  Chittagong, Bangladesh

Coming to the end of a long haul here in Chittagong.

I was the featured speaker for Commencement of the Access Academy
students at AUW.  The Access Academy is the one year preparatory course that
all students take before beginning their 4 years at the University.

story of AUW documentary
http://media.ikeafoundation.org/video/4312
I was up late writing the speech.  A bit intimidating since I haven't done a commencement
talk since high school!  I decided to talk about acting principles as applied to leadership.
It seemed to go over well.  I was just relieved to get through it and exhausted afterwards;
however Anjoli, our cook, persuaded Peter and I to walk up to the Krishna Temple for a
festival they were having.

The music was and singing was great.  The emotion in the singing and enthusiasm of the devotees reminds me of being in a black Baptist church back home...I'm just saying. We love the blue dude. :)

They were about to serve a meal at the temple, but Peter and I had to come home as I agreed to do a scene and some singing for this local artist/filmmaker who's a friend of one of the faculty members.  Really nice guys.  He's working on some kind of experimental/artistic kind of piece and it seemed kind of interesting, so I thought why not?

We sat around and had a great conversation afterwards. A lot packed into one day!

Peter booked a ticket for us to Nepal on Monday, so tomorrow I want to do some shopping and packing to get ready to head out.

We've had so many wonderful experiences here in Chittagong and at AUW.  The dedication and hard work of the faculty and staff and the commitment and enthusiasm for the students is awe-inspiring.  If students back home appreciated what they had and were as hungry for learning as the young ladies here (and most American students don't have as many obstacles as), education in the States would advance tremendously.

I felt so lucky to have had this opportunity to teach at AUW and to have encountered so many wonderful people and new friends in Chittagong.

Karole