Two friends are visiting me at the moment: Michael Mangano is a grad student from Boston who in his words, has a “3.5-something GPA.” Really, he’s a smart guy with a passion for making a difference, and his friends gave him $1030 USD to bring here on their behalf.
Mirza Hassan, on the other hand, is a young British Bengali who is going to play doctor by wearing his stethoscope while we tour Cyclone-affected villages.

For the next few days we’ll be podcasting our efforts as we take a boat journey to some Cyclone-struck villages bordering the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and a world heritage site. The forest suffered immensely during Cyclone Sidr, and we don’t know we’ll see.

Our first podcast is about what Tourism for Development can mean when it is applied, on the ground, by travellers themselves. Is it the right thing to do? Should travellers cut out all middle men and bring to the help directly to the ground themselves? And also have a lot of fun while they do it?

We ask these questions and more in the following podcast. Please listen for more.