UP | uncultured project

Exactly one month ago to the day, a medical doctor working for Save the Children was brutally murdered by the Taliban in Pakistan. He was in a car with his sister & nephew. They stopped at a security checkpoint and were taken by surprise by a suicide bomber. Incidentally, both the perpetrators & victims of this terrorist attack were Muslim.

I tell this story for two reasons. First, fanatical extremists like the Taliban are a threat to everyone – Muslim & non-Muslim alike. Secondly, this sacrifice is one of the many countless reasons I want to support organizations like Save the Children. Few civilians have shed more blood, sweat, and tears than those working for Save the Children.

What strikes me about Save the Children is that they often shy away from putting the spotlight on their own personnel. This is in contrast with many newer charities, where the cause and founder are often one and the same and the PR brings attention to both. Despite my close relationship with Save the Children USA – I actually don’t know who founded it or who its current president is.

Instead of putting the spotlight on their employees & founders, Save the Children likes to put the spotlight on those who support their work. And, most recently, that’s what they did by putting the spotlight on me. It’s quite an honor to go to the website of one of the world’s most honored, respected, and storied charities and find your face on their homepage.

But, instead of telling you what this exposure means to me, I thought I’d share the many names of the many people I know that make Save the Children the great organization that it is: Nick Downie, Kelly Stevenson, Cindy LaBlanc, Ettore Rossetti, Erica Khetran, Lynne Lebarron, Hannah Kinnersley, Muhammad Zia, Josephine Koppel, and – most of all – one of Save the Children’s own that had recently paid the ultimate cost in serving others: Dr. Mohammed Ullah.

Few people (especially outside the armed services) knowingly choose to work in places where there is risk of death from natural disasters, disease, and violence. Few people see a hurricane, epidemic, or explosion and decide to rush towards the problem. And even fewer people decide to do all this in relative personal obscurity.

It’s for that reason that – even though this blog post sounds like I’m really really really sucking up – I’m not. Because they deserve all this praise and every ounce of support we can give.

Here are some of my videos featuring or mentioning Save the Children. I’m proud that I’ve been able to increase the exposure of Save the Children online. My YouTube videos mentioning them have been seen nearly twice as many times as every video on every official Save the Children YouTube channel – combined.

I’m sorry – I don’t care how long I’ve been in Bangladesh – explosions still scare the crap out of me. Whether it’s driving by a transformer as it explodes and showers the car I’m in with sparks or whether it’s hearing the sound of what seems like a bomb (only to find it’s a blown transformer) – explosions are scary. Clearly, life in the military is not for me.

But, more importantly, it’s a sign that things are getting bad here. Back just before Christmas, there was a strain on the water supply. Long outages without water were common. Previously on this blog, I wrote about how I had to time when I could shower or flush the toilet. It now seems to be that electricity will be the latest item to face severe scarcity.

The frequency of power outages – and the duration the outages last – has only increased since the arrival of summer heat (it’s summer already? what??). It used to be once every few days. Then it was once a day. Now, it’s not uncommon for the power to cut out three… four… or more times a day. The latest outage that happened just before I started this blog post came with a big boom – the sound of a transformer blowing up just down the street.

Clearly the system is strained – the demand for air conditioning is probably a big factor. I even bought a back-up UPS to handle the prolonged outages. The UPS isn’t anything fancy – just whatever I could find that was cheap and could last for as long as possible. It’s a no-name brand of questionable quality. I can only hope and pray that the next time I hear an explosion – it’s won’t be the UPS sitting next to me.

Sunday is actually the start of the week in Bangladesh. For me, this week started with a huge explosion not far from here.

I just heard some sirens in the distance – probably rushing towards the source of the explosion. I was kind of worried that the explosion might have been something more sinister (re: terrorist related). Looking out the window and seeing the reaction of some of my neighbors on the street – I wasn’t the only one worried about that. But, in all likelihood, it was probably just a blown transformer. I say probably because the explosion knocked out the power to this house. What is it with me and transformers exploding near me?

Unfortunately, my aunt and uncle (whom I’m currently staying with) were kind of relying on having electricity today. For the next two days, there will be no gas piped to the house. The gas outage is actually city-wide because repairs needed to be done on the gas transmission line. That means no hot water and – more importantly – it also means no stove….

My aunt had spent yesterday frantically cooking two days worth of meals (breakfast, lunch, and supper) for her family of four (plus me). The idea was we were going to store everything in the fridge and warm it all up in the microwave. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Plan B. Admittedly, since most homes don’t have luxuries like microwaves or hot plates, I’m sure there are a lot of others currently worse off than me.