Bombs in Bangladesh, who cares? Me. Why? Because while as I've noted I'm in law school, and a software architect for a company in China, but I haven't mentioned my fiancé is a Peace Corps volunteer serving in Bangladesh. There's going to be some background information and then I'll get on with my griping.

So back to the point, Bombs in Bangladesh, who cares? People with fiancés in the Peace Corps who live in Bangladesh, that's who. Apparently, last week an article came out about how the JMB (a militant group on Bangladesh) attempted to bomb the Peace Corps training facility and kill the 60 new volunteers when they arrived approx. 6 months ago (read: my fiancé). They wanted to ward off NGOs from assisting the governments, so they tried to gather some extra suicide bombers to hit the Peace Corps training office in Gazipur.

What has the Peace Corps done about this? Nothing, not a damn thing. What about world media? Nothing, not a damn thing. Why? Because just about no one cares about Bombs in Bangladesh, except those of us with loved ones there.

The Peace Corps has offered its volunteers what is known as "Interrupted Service", basically they're allowed to leave Bangladesh and try to find another country to work in with the Peace Corps. Sound nice, right? Well, it would be except that the 6 months of time + 3 months of training my fiancé has put in doesn't transfer to the new project. That means that she would have to spend another 27 months to get her benefits and a proper discharge from the Peace Corps.

It really ticks me off that they would take my fiancé, who just wanted to help people, send her to a country where they KNEW their was trouble, knew an election was coming up next year, figured that they'd have to close the program down and evacuate the volunteers, at some point, and offer her no other option than "start over and get nothing." She's promised them two years of her life and the best they gave her back is placing her in harms way. It is disgusting that the Peace Corps would treat their volunteers this way.

I understand that training from one country to another isn't transferable, but 1) they NEVER should have sent her to a country they didn't have full confidence for her safety and where she couldn’t finish her two year commitment or at least; 2) the time she's spent should count towards her two year commitment.

In conclusion boo the Peace Corps, boo the JMB, yay Bangladesh, and yay software development, and yay RIFE ( http://www.rifers.org )

Note: I've been to Bangladesh and the people are lovely, kind, caring, and completely against this kind of violence. The news media seems to forget to say that out of the 150 million people in Bangladesh there are probably 5,000 militant Islamists and the "average" people of Bangladesh detest them. Honestly, if you have a chance to visit Bangladesh I'd definitely suggest it. Leave Dhaka and spend some time in one of the countryside towns, it's beautiful and the people are very kind. Honestly, I've traveled all over the world and Bangladesh was one of my favorite places.