The Latest at Goethe

Max Wolf has been working for the Goethe-Institut Dhaka for half a year now. He is one of the first 64 volunteers who were sent to Goethe-Instituts around the world for the programme kulturweit. Now, the adventurer will soon be returning and talks to us about his experiences. By Julia Amberger

When Max Wolf starts writing his blog he quickly gathers momentum. “Imagine you get up in the morning, grab your bag and leave the house, take one inquisitive look at the skies and step into a cowpat,” he wrote in November 2009. “Where are you?” “Right, you’re in Dhaka. The city I have lived in now for more than two months is no longer recognizable. The traffic, crazier than ever, is now richer by many cattle, goats and sheep and you can hear mooing and bleating day and night in my neighbourhood. You cannot go anywhere anymore without someone wanting to sell you a goat or even a cow, even the billboards are crammed full of cows – and people with knives and cow heads in their hands. Yes, it’s slaughtering time and whoever is not standing in a traffic jam since midweek to get from the city to their home village will sacrifice their animal here tomorrow.”

Photo Gallery: Impressions of Bangladesh

In the capital of Bangladesh, Muslims celebrate the end of the Ramadan fast in November. Among them is Max Wolf from Ulm. He will live and work in Dhaka for six months as a volunteer for the Goethe-Institut. Right after finishing school, he applied for kulturweit, the volunteer service of the German Foreign Office in cooperation with UNESCO and partners in international cultural and education policy. His dream is to get out of Europe and do something different after school. He’s seeking adventure and a challenge.

The challenge is Bangladesh, southern Asia’s poorhouse. During the rainy season, entire villages sink in the floods here and half of the population can neither read nor write. No other country on earth is as densely populated as Bangladesh – you won’t find any empty streets in the capital city of Dhaka. Every few metres, a different odour wafts to your nose: sometimes rubbish, then cumin, then pipe smoke.

Here things aren’t organized; they’re improvised

At Max Wolf’s desk, the odour is of printing ink and paper while the air conditioner hums. He sits at his flat screen and works on a presentation. As a volunteer at the Goethe-Institut Dhaka, he visits schools it is hoping to win for the initiative Schools: Partners for the Future as partner schools for Germany. In the beginning, he took part in German lessons. Now, he is loosening up the lessons by showing German films – the biggest hit was Emil and the Detectives. The exotic presenter is also popular. “There are hardly any foreigners in Bangladesh, so the kids want to know everything about me. How we live in Europe, where I live, what I do in my leisure time,” the 18-year- old tells us. His eyes wander to the window. “I’m not sure if the children can even imagine my life – the people here have an entirely different way of thinking.”

This humid morning, Max Wolf waves over a rickshaw driver and makes his way to South Point School with a stack of posters in his arms. The next day, the long awaited fall of the wall exhibition will be opened; a project by the German embassy and the Goethe-Institut. The school declared itself willing to take care of preparations – but when Max Wolf arrives with his posters, no one is informed. The photos and information panels are supposed to be presented in a separate room, but all of the classrooms are occupied. An alternative is found: the staircase. Max Wolf sets up a counter with the tables in the entrance where he intends to lure the pupils with beverages. The exhibition opening is a complete success. “Ultimately, the spontaneous solution was better than the one we’d planned – the exhibition is very visible in the staircase,” Wolf says. “In Germany, we’re often too fussy; we’re afraid something might go wrong. But, there’s not only one way to a destination. So, it’s not so bad if things don’t always go as planned.”

Wolf has also learned to trust his luck in his free time. For instance, there is no timetable for busses. “I just pack my backpack and go to the bus stop. At some point, the right bus will arrive. And you can always find a place to stay overnight, too.” He travelled to India to a kulturweit seminar without making too many prior plans. And Wolf often just goes with the flow in Purano-Dhaka, Dhaka’s Old Town, impressed by the immense contrasts: “Right next to a Medieval looking palace, a family lives on the street, a child begs in front of an elite school where the pupils are picked up by big, expensive cars.”

Max Wolf: “I don’t lead an isolated life.”

Before flying to Bangladesh, the German was ready for anything: flooded streets, misery and corruption. “But, natural catastrophes don’t happen everyday and not all the people live in slums,” he now sees. Wolf lives in Dhanmondi, a quarter of intellectuals and artists, in a flat provided by the Goethe-Institut to trainees and volunteers. There are no pubs or nightclubs; instead, the young people meet on the Goethe-Institut’s roof terrace, where they can even hold hands, which is forbidden in public.

“I don’t lead a life isolated from Bangladesh reality as I had feared before departure,” Wolf explains. And how is he managing? Very well, he thinks, the country has developed a great deal in recent years. “The people want to be involved in shaping policy, want to know what’s happening on other continents. They go ever further, trusting that all will be well.” To work with the local people, he had to evolve this trust himself; to be open to whatever happens. In Germany, he will have to relearn a new way of thinking again, at the latest when he’s been standing at the bus stop for a quarter of an hour in the cold rubbing his hands, he’ll scold himself: should have studied the timetable first.