Spending the day with Manish and Khulna students

Khulna University students, Bangladesh (Photo: JLewis)

Today I spent the day following Manish and other students during their normal activities. We started on campus again, where I was able to interview Manish about his history and his career goals. While waiting for him, I found a bench and sat to go over my interview questions. A group of young students noticed me and began to ask what I was doing. I explained how we were working to basically tell their story (the struggle to become and remain a conservation biologist) as part of a larger story (the conservation of the river dolphin). They are all going through the same struggles with their desires to make a difference and the need to survive themselves. But they were all incredibly enthusiastic and hopeful.  They were excited about their future and the future of the wildlife in their country.  Talking with them and feeling their positive energy also gave me hope. 

Manish and I travelled through the city to locations where the students here spend free time and used those locations for further interviews. Students in Asia are not very different from those in the US, going where they can locate food and hang out to talk.

Manish sits to have dinner with a friend near the river in Khulna, Bangladesh (Photo: Jlewis, TDRF)

Tomorrow Manish and I have decided to head back to the Sundarbans. Manish is working to better understand the issues between by-catch of dolphins and fisheries in the Sundarbans. To help answer his research questions, he spends time interviewing and studying local fishermen. We want to go back to spend time talking about this work while filming fishermen in action to help place his work in perspective for the film.