A warm welcome at school built by Iqbal

Dateline: Burunga, Bangladesh
GLORIOUS sunshine greeted the weary bikers as they woke from a sleep on a soft bed thanks to the new hotel in the glorious but mad world that is Mouvli Bazar.

Such is the sheer pandemonium outside the hotel — I have footage which I will try to upload somewhere — we had to travel to the edge of town to set off on a 20-mile ride to Burunga, home town of former Shaw man Iqbal Ahmed, who has built a school there.

The Burunga Iqbal Ahmed School and College was waiting for us and the group was greeted in the usual Bangla style — huge ceremony, food, tea and lots of singing and clapping. And that was just the teachers.

The pupils were wonderfully behaved, a point made by Coppice’s Maruf Ali, the behaviour manager at North Chadderton School. His comments were echoed by teacher Denise Ketteringham, from Burnley Brow, where the school population is 98 per cent of Bangla heritage.

"Wait until I get back and tell the children how well behaved everyone is their home country...there will have to be some changes!"

Arif Mohid, from Radclyffe School taught a maths lesson for 15 minutes, watched by the school’s headteacher and maths teacher.

After nearly two hours with the pupils, the cyclists and colleagues were treated to songs and asked to pose for scores of photographs before minibuses headed for Sylhet and the hot showers of the Hotel Metro.


BEING the centre of attention did not come easily to Nicola Ketteringham, a 22-year-old teacher of Year 5 pupils at Burnley Brow School in Chadderton, where her mother Denise also teaches.
Blond and female proved a huge attraction for the locals, of every age and gender, and though the locals are incredibly friendly, they are also hugely curious.

But Nicola, from Royton, is made of stern stuff and the unwanted attention didn’t put her off her prime reason for visiting Bangladesh.

"I wanted to get to know the heritage of the country,” she explained. "Having visited Sylhet and all the villages, I feel I can interact more with the parents and the children and strengthen links with the community.

"When my mum came last time the roads didn’t allow her to visit all the villages we have seen on this trip, so I feel lucky to have seen and done so much."