Less than three weeks. These words keep repeating themselves in my head. Not good, not bad, just there, hovering in my consciousness. Perhaps to keep me focused, perhaps to remind me to make the most of the rest of my short time here. Twelve weeks isn’t a long time compared to the time I spent working abroad previously but to say that it’s flown by, well that would be a huge understatement. The twelve weeks were made even shorter by my unplanned three week hospital adventure in Dhaka but I can’t allow that to deter me from finishing my work. After some frustrations with my inability to make my video editing software do exactly what I wanted to, I managed to summon enough patience and persistence to put together the short video below. A few days ago Shahed and I went to the Sonargaon museum and recorded an introductory interview to use on Advocacy Project’s partner page. It’s not perfect and could certainly benefit from some tweaks but I think it came out pretty good. As always, feedback is appreciated. During the editing I learned a bit more about a new program I used, called Videopad, so I’d like to think that the next few videos I edit will be improvements upon this one.

I’m trying not to stress out too much about my limited remaining time here but I’d really like to get as much of my planned work as possible completed before departing Bangladesh. I have hundreds of photos to edit and upload, hours of video footage I still need to sift through and make into something worth watching, a few more blog posts to write, social media updates, a couple of profile interviews that I need to turn into videos, and all sorts of other miscellaneous and random tasks. Monitoring Facebook and reading emails has kept me updated on the other 2012 Peace Fellows finishing up their work and heading back stateside or traveling to other countries. My classmates at NYU are getting ready for the upcoming semester, life continues as normal back in New York, Colorado, and everywhere in between. I’m excited about going to Germany for a couple of weeks on my way back and of course about returning to New York and catching up with friends and family but I want to make sure I don’t look back on my short time here with any regrets or concerns that I didn’t do as much as I could. I’ve already expressed to Shahed that even when I’m back in the U.S. I’d like to continue offering my assistance and support to Subornogram Foundation in whatever capacity I can.

Take a look at the video and let me know what you think. Shahed Kayes is an incredible human being who is doing a lot of good for the voiceless in his community and should serve as an example for those of us who wish to make the world a better place. It’s the passion and optimism of people like Shahed that keeps me motivated to continue this type of work and to not allow myself to get too discouraged when things don’t always go as planned. Thanks for reading, more to come.