Two months since he returned from a tour with the Peace Corps in Bangladesh, John Roseberry can still sense the great difference between life in a crowded Asian country and life in his hometown



One image has stayed with Roseberry. He remembers the day he saw a man in a business suit, with a cell phone in one hand and a live chicken in the other. He was riding a rickshaw on a busy street. The streets were always busy and full of people. It seemed there was a tea stand at every corner, serving a warm brew that was sweet and milky.Concrete buildings had exposed sections of metal rebar - taxes could be avoided if a building wasn't complete. Men with blow torches were never far from broken rickshaws. And everywhere, it seemed that people stopped to talk on cell phones.

Two months since he returned from a tour with the Peace Corps in Bangladesh, John Roseberry can still sense the great difference between life in a crowded Asian country and life in his hometown

After life in Bangladesh, the view is different

JENNIFER P. BROWN
Kentucky New Era

HOPKINSVILLE, Ky. - John Roseberry opens the kitchen window and looks down into the backyard of his parents' home at the corner of Dixie Drive and South Virginia Street.

"See, it's empty," he says.

Actually, there are houses as far back as Roseberry can see. Cars in almost every driveway. One street leading to another and another and another. This is not a secluded corner of Hopkinsville.

Roseberry, 23, isn't unaware of his surroundings. He moved to this house 10 years ago with his parents, Mark and Ann Roseberry.

But he's trying to make a comparison.

Look through the window again. There's not a single person in view. The landscape is empty of people.

Two months since he returned from a tour with the Peace Corps in Bangladesh, Roseberry can still sense the great difference between life in a crowded Asian country and life in his hometown, here at the corner of Dixie and South Virginia.

On a Friday afternoon, the distant drum of thunder and the hum of tires passing on the street filled the quiet spaces in the kitchen as Roseberry described his time in Bangladesh.

One image has stayed with Roseberry. He remembers the day he saw a man in a business suit, with a cell phone in one hand and a live chicken in the other. He was riding a rickshaw on a busy street.

The streets were always busy and full of people.

It seemed there was a tea stand at every corner, serving a warm brew that was sweet and milky.

Concrete buildings had exposed sections of metal rebar - taxes could be avoided if a building wasn't complete.

Men with blow torches were never far from broken rickshaws.

And everywhere, it seemed that people stopped to talk on cell phones.

The population of Bangladesh is 144 million people, about half as large as the United States. They live in one of the poorest and most crowded countries in the world.

Roseberry, who earned his bachelor's degree in philosophy at the University of Kentucky in 2004, arrived in Bangladesh in August.

He spent three months in Dhaka to begin lessons in the native language, Bengali, and to prepare for his work as an English teacher. He then moved to Sirajganj, where he lived in an apartment with a host family and taught in a school for children ages 6 to 13.

Roseberry's diet in Bangladesh was mainly rice.

Rice and eggs for breakfast. Rice and fish for lunch. Fried rice or rice with milk and sugar for an afternoon snack. Rice with beef or chicken for dinner.

He wrote home to a friend that he hoped he would never see rice again.

In the classroom, Roseberry used games and songs to help his students learn English. They heard from him lyrics such as "Cecelia, you're breaking my heart" and "My country 'tis of thee."

In mid-March, the United States government pulled the Peace Corps' 70 volunteers out of Bangladesh because of terror concerns.

Roseberry was back in the United States on March 17. A week later, he arrived home.

His mother had a plate of chocolate chip cookies waiting for him. Over the next several days, he had ribs, barbecue, chicken wings and chocolate pie.

But no rice.

Roseberry is now a volunteer for Habitat for Humanity. He said he may go back overseas as a Peace Corps volunteer later this year. Or he may return to school to work on his graduate degree.

There is still time to decide.

Here on the corner of Dixie and South Virginia, there are few distractions.

When this story was posted in June 2006, this was on the front page of PCOL:




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