September 12, 2009
Last week Donna (my roommate) and our friend Kristen and I did the hash again. It was out in the country for the second week in a row. Two weeks ago in was in village called Ashulia about 45 minutes away. I walked that one so I could take pics. It was soo incredibly nice to get out of the city. We didn’t even go that far away but we were totally transported to a completely different place. It was quiet and we walked through this little village, going right through people’s front and back yards. There was vegetation everywhere. They grow veg on elevated vines so its protected from rising flood waters. There were fruit trees everywhere. People would come out of their houses and look at us and the children would run next to us laughing and kicking homemade soccer balls. They were so happy and loved seeing us and thought it was hilarious that this group of white people were all walking together in a line.
Last weekend I did my first running Hash. We went out to a country village that took forever to get to because it’s actually really pretty close to where we all live but a this time of year the water is higher so you have to take a really long route around. As we were driving there I started monsooning-pitch black sky and just down pouring. So it was nice and muddy for our run. When we finally got there, we piled as many people as possible onto a rickety row boat and this native man poled us across a river. I swear I thought the boat was going to sick mid-way. Water was pouring in over the sides and these old men in their lungis had to keep bailing out the water with tin buckets as we shakily made our crossing. Once on the other side, the trail was incredibly muddy and I bit it within the first 5 minutes. We had to traverse really muddy banks and it was the type of mud that really sucked your feet in. The run was crazy-through dense bamboo forests one second, then a small group of mud huts, then barren rocky areas, then crawling underneath vegetation patches.
Again, the village children would come out and crowd around us when we were stopped. They knew very little, if any English. They loved my roommate Donna and I. They would laugh hysterically when we would say our names and then repeat them. When we started moving again, they would hang onto our hands and arms on either side. It is very hard to run this way. When we would stop, they would fan us with homemade fans. They were adorable.
The run was nuts-I had no sense of direction at all and I was thankful to finally see the boat again because it was getting very dark and shapes were not what they seemed to be. A pile of moss-covered bricks looked like tree roots. They had Iftar dinner for us and for the drivers, who if they were fasting for Ramadan had not eaten since before sun-up that day. We had delicious vegetable samosas and Tiger beers. The circle was cut short because it started down-pouring again. Another long ride back home that night, snaking slowly through villages with only one road running through them. It was about 9 at night but the streets seemed busier than ever. I love passing through these streets with all the shop vendors with open stalls that face the streets-seeing all the bright fabrics and the colors of the fruits and vegetables. Right now, mangos are still in season, but not for much longer, as are pineapple, and eggplant. Things like pumpkin and squashes are starting to come into season as well. One of my favorites right now are the Asian pears; they are so juicy and crunchy when you bite into them. Pomegranates are in season as well too and are soo tasty!
This weekend we took the 8th graders on a teambuilding retreat. We took 4 buses to Proshika, which is about 2 hours away, with traffic. Proshika is out in the country and is run by a big N.G.O. (non-government energy). They provide hundreds of jobs for local Bangladeshis who probably wouldn’t otherwise have work. They have an orchid farm and a honey farm and they manufacture textiles. They also have livestock. They raise cows and use the cow dung to produce biogas, which they use to power their kitchens. This was interesting to learn about because it fits right in with our vision of being sustainable! I’m not sure the students saw it this way though and were less than thrilled that they had to stand around these smelly containers of cow crap. The orchids were beautiful though and the honey was delicious and I bought some to bring home.
For the day and a half that we were there, we did lots of team-building activities and lots of getting to know people that we didn’t know before. I was really impressed by how well the students did with all this. We also played many many games of dodgeball, which our 8th graders are obsessed with. We only have about 15 girls and about 45 guys so the games get pretty vicious. They kept us very well fed there two with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and tea and cake break in the afternoon! We had chipatis, white rice, veggie curry, beef, fish, a thin dhal, and beans and chillies. Lots of places in Bangladesh make these sauted beans and chilies. The beans are delicious but the chilies look exactly the same as the beans and so every gamble is a bite. When you bite into a chile, you know it; you can barely speak and your eyes just start watering. Good for the sinuses though.
At night we were all tired and ready for bed but the students were just winding up and so excited to be away from their parents/with the friends. All night they were coming out of their rooms and hanging out in the hallways. We did not have a very restful night at all.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
August 23rd
August 23rd 2009
School has been going for about 2 and a half weeks now. I am teaching Language Arts and Social Studies to 7th graders and am assigned to 8th grade advisory, which is like a mentoring/teambuilding thing for each middle school grade. I really like our students a lot-in general they are really sweet and polite and very well behaved. They are also all so worldly and most have lived in at least 2 countries. Advisory is fun-we do a lot of team building and fun games and stuff. We also take the 8th graders on an overnight retreat in the countryside outside of Dhaka in September and to Hong Kong in the Spring, which I'm really excited about!
Our school is K through 12th grade but each school is separated. We are a very small, contained little group in the middle school. It's nice though because you really get to know the kids and we have a lot of students for both Social Studies and Language Arts. Until now, I've just kind of been aiding and helping out where necessary. Today I taught my first lesson all by myself! It went really well and I walked away feeling good about it. It's always hard when you've been kind of trying to fit into another teacher's flow and then you have to establish yourself and your own teaching style in the same classroom. I taught it on Gary Soto's "Oranges" and "Living Up the Street." The students seemed to like, although they always get restless at the end of the period if they haven't been able to get up and move around at least a little because our blocks are 85 minutes long-which is a long time to sit for anybody.
I was feeling crappy this weekend but I felt better today. Bangladesh is so hot and muggy that it's just like a festering pool of germs that just sit and accumulate. Also, being a westerner, there are a lot of things here that I've never been exposed to. Being around so many students as well bring in all kinds of germs. There have been several reports of Swine Flu in the area and the other two schools in the area closed for the day. We had our first case of swine flu reported today and it is in the middle school! Ahh! So we are having an assembly on swine flu on Wednesday haha, as if we haven't heard enough about it at this point and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I can stay healthy enough not to get it!
Since I last wrote, I have taken a couple rickshaw rides. I really like it-just kind of bumping along as this guy peddles around the city. You can't be going anywhere in a hurry though because it does take a while. It's also kind of scary when a car or truck comes up behind and honks to let you know they're there. I also tried driving, which is absolutely insane in this country. They drive on the other side of the road and its just a free for all and you have to use your horn to let rickshaws know you're there. You definitely can't be timid and you just have to pull out in front of oncoming traffic and make them stop for you or else you'll never get across the road. Haha. I just tried driving around Baridhara, where we live, I'm not ready for the bigger roads yet. I felt like I had a lot of power though. Donna and I drove to one of the road-side plant stands and had an interesting experience. All these men like holding up flower pots in our faces, telling us there plants were the best ones. They would order these young boys who worked there around if we even looked at a plant to climb through all these other plants and get the one we looked at and like prop it up so we could see it that much better. We wanted to get a few plants for our house to make it homier. We also wanted plants that would be hard to kill. No doubt we got ripped off in the buying of these plants but we thought they were working hard and they were still very cheap for us.
We have a 5 day break coming up at the end of September, a longer break in October, a break in November for Thanksgiving, and then 3 weeks of winter break in December. Pretty awesome. Almost everybody goes traveling during these breaks. You can find some really good deals but you have to get started early enough. My roommate, Donna, and our friends Stephanie and Kristen just booked tickets to Nepal in September and Donna and I are planning to go to Thailand and Cambodia in October. The school has an awesome travel agent that they recommend; he is the one who booked my tickets over to Bangladesh and was really helpful in the whole process. He is very speedy. He found us a great deal; tickets for little over 200 dollars to Nepal. When we looked ourselves, the cheapest flight we found was 550. He also recommended places to stay and things to do. We're going to spend two nights in Kathmandu and tour around all the temples and go shopping and stuff and then two night out in the countryside at a place called Nagarkot, which has great views of the mountains if it's clear weather. I can't wait-there is supposed to be fantastic energy in Nepal-and great shopping. My inner hippie will be very content and hopefully and I can pick up some great finds.
This weekend, Ramadan began, which of course, being a Muslim country, is huge here. It depends on each family and how seriously they take it but a lot of Muslims fast from sun-up to sun-down for a whole month. All the men wear these white hats to signify the sacrifice they are making. We do have some students who do the fast so we have to be conscientious of this and when everyone else goes to the cafeteria these students are allowed to go to the library so they don't have to be around food! The roads at this time of year are even crazier than usual, especially in the afternoon. People have long ways to go and it takes a long time to get there and they want to be home right before sun set or as it is setting because they haven't eaten anything all day and they want to be home in time for the meal that breaks the fast. At the end of the month is the Eid celebration, which is when we have our break. It is a celebration of the end of Ramadan and it's kind of like Christmas for Muslims. If your cook-bearer or driver is Muslim this is when you would give them an extra month's salary. Muslims on this day will just walk around the streets asking for money and it is customary to be pretty generous with it during this celebration. Also during this couple of days there is a mass animal slaughter to celebrate the end of the fasting. Muslim families will get there hands on any type of animal, mostly cows and sheep and chickens, and tie them up outside their houses overnight and in the early morning everyone goes outside together and slaughters their animals. This is going to be a really great day for us vegetarians. There are also all kinds of parades through the streets and things. In general, a lot of things slow down and/or cease to exist during Ramadan. The business office at school told me my air shipment is currently in the country but they are "processing" it. Ramadan will definitely slow this whole process up and I probably won't see it for at least another month. It's interesting though being in the religious minority in this country when I've been in the majority for so long.
School has been going for about 2 and a half weeks now. I am teaching Language Arts and Social Studies to 7th graders and am assigned to 8th grade advisory, which is like a mentoring/teambuilding thing for each middle school grade. I really like our students a lot-in general they are really sweet and polite and very well behaved. They are also all so worldly and most have lived in at least 2 countries. Advisory is fun-we do a lot of team building and fun games and stuff. We also take the 8th graders on an overnight retreat in the countryside outside of Dhaka in September and to Hong Kong in the Spring, which I'm really excited about!
Our school is K through 12th grade but each school is separated. We are a very small, contained little group in the middle school. It's nice though because you really get to know the kids and we have a lot of students for both Social Studies and Language Arts. Until now, I've just kind of been aiding and helping out where necessary. Today I taught my first lesson all by myself! It went really well and I walked away feeling good about it. It's always hard when you've been kind of trying to fit into another teacher's flow and then you have to establish yourself and your own teaching style in the same classroom. I taught it on Gary Soto's "Oranges" and "Living Up the Street." The students seemed to like, although they always get restless at the end of the period if they haven't been able to get up and move around at least a little because our blocks are 85 minutes long-which is a long time to sit for anybody.
I was feeling crappy this weekend but I felt better today. Bangladesh is so hot and muggy that it's just like a festering pool of germs that just sit and accumulate. Also, being a westerner, there are a lot of things here that I've never been exposed to. Being around so many students as well bring in all kinds of germs. There have been several reports of Swine Flu in the area and the other two schools in the area closed for the day. We had our first case of swine flu reported today and it is in the middle school! Ahh! So we are having an assembly on swine flu on Wednesday haha, as if we haven't heard enough about it at this point and I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that I can stay healthy enough not to get it!
Since I last wrote, I have taken a couple rickshaw rides. I really like it-just kind of bumping along as this guy peddles around the city. You can't be going anywhere in a hurry though because it does take a while. It's also kind of scary when a car or truck comes up behind and honks to let you know they're there. I also tried driving, which is absolutely insane in this country. They drive on the other side of the road and its just a free for all and you have to use your horn to let rickshaws know you're there. You definitely can't be timid and you just have to pull out in front of oncoming traffic and make them stop for you or else you'll never get across the road. Haha. I just tried driving around Baridhara, where we live, I'm not ready for the bigger roads yet. I felt like I had a lot of power though. Donna and I drove to one of the road-side plant stands and had an interesting experience. All these men like holding up flower pots in our faces, telling us there plants were the best ones. They would order these young boys who worked there around if we even looked at a plant to climb through all these other plants and get the one we looked at and like prop it up so we could see it that much better. We wanted to get a few plants for our house to make it homier. We also wanted plants that would be hard to kill. No doubt we got ripped off in the buying of these plants but we thought they were working hard and they were still very cheap for us.
We have a 5 day break coming up at the end of September, a longer break in October, a break in November for Thanksgiving, and then 3 weeks of winter break in December. Pretty awesome. Almost everybody goes traveling during these breaks. You can find some really good deals but you have to get started early enough. My roommate, Donna, and our friends Stephanie and Kristen just booked tickets to Nepal in September and Donna and I are planning to go to Thailand and Cambodia in October. The school has an awesome travel agent that they recommend; he is the one who booked my tickets over to Bangladesh and was really helpful in the whole process. He is very speedy. He found us a great deal; tickets for little over 200 dollars to Nepal. When we looked ourselves, the cheapest flight we found was 550. He also recommended places to stay and things to do. We're going to spend two nights in Kathmandu and tour around all the temples and go shopping and stuff and then two night out in the countryside at a place called Nagarkot, which has great views of the mountains if it's clear weather. I can't wait-there is supposed to be fantastic energy in Nepal-and great shopping. My inner hippie will be very content and hopefully and I can pick up some great finds.
This weekend, Ramadan began, which of course, being a Muslim country, is huge here. It depends on each family and how seriously they take it but a lot of Muslims fast from sun-up to sun-down for a whole month. All the men wear these white hats to signify the sacrifice they are making. We do have some students who do the fast so we have to be conscientious of this and when everyone else goes to the cafeteria these students are allowed to go to the library so they don't have to be around food! The roads at this time of year are even crazier than usual, especially in the afternoon. People have long ways to go and it takes a long time to get there and they want to be home right before sun set or as it is setting because they haven't eaten anything all day and they want to be home in time for the meal that breaks the fast. At the end of the month is the Eid celebration, which is when we have our break. It is a celebration of the end of Ramadan and it's kind of like Christmas for Muslims. If your cook-bearer or driver is Muslim this is when you would give them an extra month's salary. Muslims on this day will just walk around the streets asking for money and it is customary to be pretty generous with it during this celebration. Also during this couple of days there is a mass animal slaughter to celebrate the end of the fasting. Muslim families will get there hands on any type of animal, mostly cows and sheep and chickens, and tie them up outside their houses overnight and in the early morning everyone goes outside together and slaughters their animals. This is going to be a really great day for us vegetarians. There are also all kinds of parades through the streets and things. In general, a lot of things slow down and/or cease to exist during Ramadan. The business office at school told me my air shipment is currently in the country but they are "processing" it. Ramadan will definitely slow this whole process up and I probably won't see it for at least another month. It's interesting though being in the religious minority in this country when I've been in the majority for so long.
Day 10
August 7th 2009
10th Day in Dhaka
Things have been busy at school this week; we finished up the new staff orientation and on Wednesday, all the veteran teachers came back. I felt like I had just wrapped my head around the school and the new staff members and then there were all these new faces and people to meet. Some of the teachers have been in Dhaka going on five years and said that at the beginning, they never would have though they would stay here that long but since then it has become home. I met the teacher that I am assigned to, Rachel Cook, and she is awesome-just very nice and very open to different ideas concerning teaching so that made me feel really positive about the upcoming year. I have my own big desk and it felt nice to kind of have a home for the first time for all my belongings. I won't be in her class for every block and we're still configuring my schedule but her classroom will kind of be my home base.
I wasn't too sure about middle school when I was first assigned to it-I like working with older kids. However, I think these kids will be pretty advanced and hardworking and know that I'm used to the idea of working with 7th and 8th graders I'm excited about it. The middle school is so small and compact that it makes for a good working environment. There are only about 16 or 17 teachers in the middle school and a lot of them double dip- like Rachel teaches Language Arts and Social Studies or another teacher will do Humanities and Language Arts. I'm sure there will be problems that arise between teachers butting heads and stuff but for the most part people seem to get along. This school is amazing because they have bearers that work on every hall and they will move furniture for you and put up your bulletin boards for you. They work really hard and are super sweet. This week we also made several trips to the school supply store to get things for the classroom. Again, this school is amazing in the fact that the school supply store is like a wonderland for teachers. It's this huge room with shelves practically up to the ceiling with every color sharpie, marker, pencil, every color and size of paper imaginable, poster board, every art product like glitter and glue and pipe cleaners and just everything a teacher could possibly need from grade Pre-K to 12th. It's unbelievable and everything is for free, you just sign it out under your name in this big binder.
Friday was the first day that we had off since we got here. I was soo looking forward to having a day off and being able to sleep in. On Thursday we went to the Australian club, which is where a lot a people go Thursday nights for drinks. There are only so many places that people go in Dhaka so you are always seeing people that you work with at these places. You also see students and students' parents and stuff at these places. It's nice because the ex-pat/diplomat community is close-knit and you generally develop good relationships but at the same time it's harder to escape if you feel you just need to get away from it all and unwind. It was nice Thursday night to have drinks though and relax. I'm still adjusting to working Sunday through Thursday and having my weekend be Friday and Saturday.
Saturday I slept in until 11. Donna's friend from home, Kelly, and her husband, Justin, picked us up and we went to some local stores. You really have to know where your going because shops and restaurants are so tucked away and aren't obvious like in the States. The first store we went to looked like a house and had a guard that opened a gate to let you in. They had the comfiest rugs I've ever felt and you could special order them and get an exact size and pattern. We went to a couple other stores with saris and local clothing and then we went to Jatra. This is my favorite store in Dhaka so far. So many bright, vibrant colors. They have these huge pillows that you throw on the floor and are so comfy. Everything is super cheap there too just like everywhere else in Dhaka. We went to the American club for lunch, and again, saw tons of people we knew or recognized.
Donna and I went out to dinner at Bukara on Friday night, the Indian restaurant that the school had taken us to once in the highest building in Dhaka. We were both feeling a little low and decided we needed to get out of the house. They had kept us so busy since we'd gotten there that I hadn't really had that much time to think about what the hell I was doing there. I had so looked forward to my day off but once it was there, I kind of felt like, ok what do I do now?? I'm still new to the city and I feel a little trapped and confined to school and my apartment. I miss just being able to jump in my car and go somewhere or get on the metro and meet up with friends and family. I had so much time to think on Saturday that I really started psyching myself out, like what am I doing in this strange, noisy, dirty city for an entire year? I started really missing my family and friends back home because this would have been a day where I would have been cooking and having a big dinner with my family or meeting up with friends. Donna was feeling the same way as well, which made me feel better that I wasn't alone in feeling that way. I was so happy to have a day off and now I just wanted the week to start so that I can throw myself into school and not think about how I'm like a million miles away from everything that is familiar. I tried to focus on the positives of the situation to remedy my sadness like how I have such loving people back home who are backing and supporting me in my adventure and how fortunate I am to have this opportunity and how much I am going to learn and experience. I also had to keep reminding myself that this feeling will hopefully subside in time once I become more familiar with the city and don't feel so confined to the same spaces.
Today Kelly took Donna and I to the American Commissary, where we got some familiar American things like peanut butter, oatmeal, cereal, tampons, shampoo, tuna fish, etc. You can get some of these things at the local stores but they can be sketchy and you don't always know how they were made, what's in them, etc. Now at least we can have some peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.
Tonight I think I'm going to attempt the Hash (Hash Hound Harriers) which is like a running club for expats/diplomats/teachers, etc. The original one was started by Brits in India and now diplomatic communities all over the world do it. The lead runners run all over dropping little bits of paper behind them for the other runners and then there are like fake trails sometimes. It sounds strange but basically the faster runners end up running longer and the slower runners run less and at the end everyone stands in a circle and drinks beer and the leaders call out funny things that happened along the way, like if you got stuck in a mud puddle or chased by a dog. You can also walk it. I'm very apprehensive for some reason because I've been bad about running lately and I'm trying to get back in shape but running here is hard because the air quality is poor and smoggy, making it hard to breathe and it's just so damn hot and muggy. So I might walk this week and next week attempt to run. Apparently I'm signed up to coach track in the spring, which I didn't know about until Thursday, so I got to get back in good running shape if I'm going to coach other runners!
10th Day in Dhaka
Things have been busy at school this week; we finished up the new staff orientation and on Wednesday, all the veteran teachers came back. I felt like I had just wrapped my head around the school and the new staff members and then there were all these new faces and people to meet. Some of the teachers have been in Dhaka going on five years and said that at the beginning, they never would have though they would stay here that long but since then it has become home. I met the teacher that I am assigned to, Rachel Cook, and she is awesome-just very nice and very open to different ideas concerning teaching so that made me feel really positive about the upcoming year. I have my own big desk and it felt nice to kind of have a home for the first time for all my belongings. I won't be in her class for every block and we're still configuring my schedule but her classroom will kind of be my home base.
I wasn't too sure about middle school when I was first assigned to it-I like working with older kids. However, I think these kids will be pretty advanced and hardworking and know that I'm used to the idea of working with 7th and 8th graders I'm excited about it. The middle school is so small and compact that it makes for a good working environment. There are only about 16 or 17 teachers in the middle school and a lot of them double dip- like Rachel teaches Language Arts and Social Studies or another teacher will do Humanities and Language Arts. I'm sure there will be problems that arise between teachers butting heads and stuff but for the most part people seem to get along. This school is amazing because they have bearers that work on every hall and they will move furniture for you and put up your bulletin boards for you. They work really hard and are super sweet. This week we also made several trips to the school supply store to get things for the classroom. Again, this school is amazing in the fact that the school supply store is like a wonderland for teachers. It's this huge room with shelves practically up to the ceiling with every color sharpie, marker, pencil, every color and size of paper imaginable, poster board, every art product like glitter and glue and pipe cleaners and just everything a teacher could possibly need from grade Pre-K to 12th. It's unbelievable and everything is for free, you just sign it out under your name in this big binder.
Friday was the first day that we had off since we got here. I was soo looking forward to having a day off and being able to sleep in. On Thursday we went to the Australian club, which is where a lot a people go Thursday nights for drinks. There are only so many places that people go in Dhaka so you are always seeing people that you work with at these places. You also see students and students' parents and stuff at these places. It's nice because the ex-pat/diplomat community is close-knit and you generally develop good relationships but at the same time it's harder to escape if you feel you just need to get away from it all and unwind. It was nice Thursday night to have drinks though and relax. I'm still adjusting to working Sunday through Thursday and having my weekend be Friday and Saturday.
Saturday I slept in until 11. Donna's friend from home, Kelly, and her husband, Justin, picked us up and we went to some local stores. You really have to know where your going because shops and restaurants are so tucked away and aren't obvious like in the States. The first store we went to looked like a house and had a guard that opened a gate to let you in. They had the comfiest rugs I've ever felt and you could special order them and get an exact size and pattern. We went to a couple other stores with saris and local clothing and then we went to Jatra. This is my favorite store in Dhaka so far. So many bright, vibrant colors. They have these huge pillows that you throw on the floor and are so comfy. Everything is super cheap there too just like everywhere else in Dhaka. We went to the American club for lunch, and again, saw tons of people we knew or recognized.
Donna and I went out to dinner at Bukara on Friday night, the Indian restaurant that the school had taken us to once in the highest building in Dhaka. We were both feeling a little low and decided we needed to get out of the house. They had kept us so busy since we'd gotten there that I hadn't really had that much time to think about what the hell I was doing there. I had so looked forward to my day off but once it was there, I kind of felt like, ok what do I do now?? I'm still new to the city and I feel a little trapped and confined to school and my apartment. I miss just being able to jump in my car and go somewhere or get on the metro and meet up with friends and family. I had so much time to think on Saturday that I really started psyching myself out, like what am I doing in this strange, noisy, dirty city for an entire year? I started really missing my family and friends back home because this would have been a day where I would have been cooking and having a big dinner with my family or meeting up with friends. Donna was feeling the same way as well, which made me feel better that I wasn't alone in feeling that way. I was so happy to have a day off and now I just wanted the week to start so that I can throw myself into school and not think about how I'm like a million miles away from everything that is familiar. I tried to focus on the positives of the situation to remedy my sadness like how I have such loving people back home who are backing and supporting me in my adventure and how fortunate I am to have this opportunity and how much I am going to learn and experience. I also had to keep reminding myself that this feeling will hopefully subside in time once I become more familiar with the city and don't feel so confined to the same spaces.
Today Kelly took Donna and I to the American Commissary, where we got some familiar American things like peanut butter, oatmeal, cereal, tampons, shampoo, tuna fish, etc. You can get some of these things at the local stores but they can be sketchy and you don't always know how they were made, what's in them, etc. Now at least we can have some peanut butter sandwiches for lunch.
Tonight I think I'm going to attempt the Hash (Hash Hound Harriers) which is like a running club for expats/diplomats/teachers, etc. The original one was started by Brits in India and now diplomatic communities all over the world do it. The lead runners run all over dropping little bits of paper behind them for the other runners and then there are like fake trails sometimes. It sounds strange but basically the faster runners end up running longer and the slower runners run less and at the end everyone stands in a circle and drinks beer and the leaders call out funny things that happened along the way, like if you got stuck in a mud puddle or chased by a dog. You can also walk it. I'm very apprehensive for some reason because I've been bad about running lately and I'm trying to get back in shape but running here is hard because the air quality is poor and smoggy, making it hard to breathe and it's just so damn hot and muggy. So I might walk this week and next week attempt to run. Apparently I'm signed up to coach track in the spring, which I didn't know about until Thursday, so I got to get back in good running shape if I'm going to coach other runners!
Day 3
July 31st, 2009
3rd Day in Dhaka
After an emotionally draining experience yesterday, I had a good night's sleep and felt well rested the next day. We took a bus trip to old Dhaka today. Since it's Friday, the Muslim holy day, the roads were amazingly clear until we got to old Dhaka. Our tour guide was one of the veteran teachers from yesterday who was nice enough to show us around. Old Dhaka is located right next to the Ganges and there are lots of fruit markets with amazing looking pineapples, mangos, and bananas. There were also lots of shops and stores selling leather goods and stack and stack of textiles. The fruit stands looked like hollowed out warehouses; they sold there fruit out of an opening right on the street but then store stretched back forever and had mountains of fruit in it. The road we took was very crowded and muddy and we went inch by inch. This was considered "no traffic" however and I dread to see what it's like on any other day of the week.
The Ganges even had a lot of traffic on it; small skiffs as well as large ocean liners. In Old Dhaka you could see architecture from the colonial days of India; big square houses with big shutters. Driving through this part of town was interesting and different. We would have people come right up to the window and stare at us but they weren't begging and they weren't being rude, they were just curious. People were very friendly and would smile and wave at us and take pictures of our bus on their camera phones if they had one. We felt like celebrities. One boy followed our bus for about 45 minutes. These people also liked having their picture taken by you and would often pose. People were also very nice to us and with our big bus it was hard to get through the narrow, muddy street. We had several guys who would hold up the rick shaw and cart traffic and direct our bus driver so he could get through. They were incredibly helpful and friendly to us strange white people.
We drove through the old Armenian section of the city and stopped at an Armenian church and graveyard constructed in the 1700's. You enter through a simple but beautiful gate and the gravestones are all cement ones either embedded into the walkway or slightly raised. They had beautiful inscriptions and designs. The inside of the church had simple pews and an alter. There aren't really any Armenians that live here anymore and the keeper of the church is one of the last and he is very old. After we had been there for about 15 minutes a crowd began to form at the gate. When we got back onto the buses there was a crowd of about 20 men just starring at us. Apartments surrounded the enclosed graveyard and you could see lots of kids on their balconies waving at us. We are an unusual sight here and we stick out quite a bit.
We passed several road side markets with huge green plants, leather goods, baskets, purses, etc. that my roommate and I made a mental note to come back to. In our area of Dhaka things can pricier, although, they're still not expensive, because they know a lot of wealthier people live there. We visited the University of Dhaka, which is a big red building with huge towers and arches.
3rd Day in Dhaka
After an emotionally draining experience yesterday, I had a good night's sleep and felt well rested the next day. We took a bus trip to old Dhaka today. Since it's Friday, the Muslim holy day, the roads were amazingly clear until we got to old Dhaka. Our tour guide was one of the veteran teachers from yesterday who was nice enough to show us around. Old Dhaka is located right next to the Ganges and there are lots of fruit markets with amazing looking pineapples, mangos, and bananas. There were also lots of shops and stores selling leather goods and stack and stack of textiles. The fruit stands looked like hollowed out warehouses; they sold there fruit out of an opening right on the street but then store stretched back forever and had mountains of fruit in it. The road we took was very crowded and muddy and we went inch by inch. This was considered "no traffic" however and I dread to see what it's like on any other day of the week.
The Ganges even had a lot of traffic on it; small skiffs as well as large ocean liners. In Old Dhaka you could see architecture from the colonial days of India; big square houses with big shutters. Driving through this part of town was interesting and different. We would have people come right up to the window and stare at us but they weren't begging and they weren't being rude, they were just curious. People were very friendly and would smile and wave at us and take pictures of our bus on their camera phones if they had one. We felt like celebrities. One boy followed our bus for about 45 minutes. These people also liked having their picture taken by you and would often pose. People were also very nice to us and with our big bus it was hard to get through the narrow, muddy street. We had several guys who would hold up the rick shaw and cart traffic and direct our bus driver so he could get through. They were incredibly helpful and friendly to us strange white people.
We drove through the old Armenian section of the city and stopped at an Armenian church and graveyard constructed in the 1700's. You enter through a simple but beautiful gate and the gravestones are all cement ones either embedded into the walkway or slightly raised. They had beautiful inscriptions and designs. The inside of the church had simple pews and an alter. There aren't really any Armenians that live here anymore and the keeper of the church is one of the last and he is very old. After we had been there for about 15 minutes a crowd began to form at the gate. When we got back onto the buses there was a crowd of about 20 men just starring at us. Apartments surrounded the enclosed graveyard and you could see lots of kids on their balconies waving at us. We are an unusual sight here and we stick out quite a bit.
We passed several road side markets with huge green plants, leather goods, baskets, purses, etc. that my roommate and I made a mental note to come back to. In our area of Dhaka things can pricier, although, they're still not expensive, because they know a lot of wealthier people live there. We visited the University of Dhaka, which is a big red building with huge towers and arches.
Second Day-I'm not in VA anymore!
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Day 2 in Dhaka
I woke up this morning around 7:15 having that feeling of where the hell am I? All the new staff met at the school at 8:30ish. Even though we live 2 blocks from school our driver was waiting to drive us there. We told him that we'd just walk tomorrow. We voiced our concerns about our apartments, i.e. our apartment has one non-working toilet and one shower without hot water. Then we had 3 veteran teachers come and talk to us. They gave kind of tour of Bangladesh and told us good places to travel to and how to get there. They gave a brief history of the country. Bangladesh just won it's independence in 1971 (I think) from Pakistan with a lot of help from India so it is a very new country. There are two major political parties here, which are both headed by women; interesting since it is such a male-dominated society. At least one of the women came to power because her husband was in power and then was assassinated. They also just shared their experiences with us and why they enjoy living in Dhaka and talked about local customs and do's and dont's of living here. One of the more shocking things they told us was that if you get into a driving accident to not stop, and to just keep going. Once you've reached your destination, then to call the Embassy and they will send someone to help. This is because mobs can form very easily and even if it was totally not your fault at all, it can become your fault very fast. This is a shocking thing to hear but I guess it's just a way of life and driving in general is soo different it that it takes getting used to. They also said that even though people here are incredibly poor, especially by western standards, that they are generally very joyful and are always willing to help. They said that if you are having a bad day to walk out into the streets and look at these people living everyday hand to mouth and your problems seem minute in comparison. We were also introduced to the support staff who do everything from tech stuff to driving buses to fixing lights. They are all so incredibly nice and always say hello to you and will help you with anything. The school staff are very appreciative of them as well, which makes for a really nice community environment, and is not always the case apparently at every International school, so it's nice to see.
After this we had lunch at the American club again and then went on a shopping expedition. We drove in buses to the hardware store and the super market, which were both fine. There wasn't anything that I was really craving food wise because we had been having such nice meals so I just got some of the basics. Your cook bara will do all your shopping for you if you want them to normally. You just write them a list and give them some money and they keep a book of expenses and receipts. My roommate and I were done quickly and so we finished up and got back on the bus to head to the electronics store to get a cell phone. Other people though were shopping for their whole family so it took them a lot longer. Sitting on the bus I got a little emotional because really small children come right up to the bus window and tap on the glass asking for money. They stand right outside the bus door, which was kept open and look right at you and just keep saying the same thing over and over again, which I can't understand, but they must be asking for money. They do this loud whistle too that is piercing. Old men beggars hold out their tin cups for money and once you've made eye contact with them they don't go away. Women hold up babies to the window right next to you begging for money. It is soo sad and I can't not look at these people who are everywhere begging for anything but once you've looked they see you and don't leave you alone. The veteran teachers told us though that even though it is incredibly heart breaking that these beggars basically all work for crime boss type people and any earning they make go right back to the boss. It's all much more organized than it seems. The babies that women hold up to your window may not even be theirs and you will often see one women holding a different baby everyday . It was really emotionally draining; us westerners sitting on a nice air-conditioned bus buying food and electronics and these people are out on the streets day after day and not even probably able to keep what they beg for. The electronics store took a really long time and the same thing happened when we were waiting to head back to the school. I had been pretty fine up until then but that was really tough to deal with.
Day 2 in Dhaka
I woke up this morning around 7:15 having that feeling of where the hell am I? All the new staff met at the school at 8:30ish. Even though we live 2 blocks from school our driver was waiting to drive us there. We told him that we'd just walk tomorrow. We voiced our concerns about our apartments, i.e. our apartment has one non-working toilet and one shower without hot water. Then we had 3 veteran teachers come and talk to us. They gave kind of tour of Bangladesh and told us good places to travel to and how to get there. They gave a brief history of the country. Bangladesh just won it's independence in 1971 (I think) from Pakistan with a lot of help from India so it is a very new country. There are two major political parties here, which are both headed by women; interesting since it is such a male-dominated society. At least one of the women came to power because her husband was in power and then was assassinated. They also just shared their experiences with us and why they enjoy living in Dhaka and talked about local customs and do's and dont's of living here. One of the more shocking things they told us was that if you get into a driving accident to not stop, and to just keep going. Once you've reached your destination, then to call the Embassy and they will send someone to help. This is because mobs can form very easily and even if it was totally not your fault at all, it can become your fault very fast. This is a shocking thing to hear but I guess it's just a way of life and driving in general is soo different it that it takes getting used to. They also said that even though people here are incredibly poor, especially by western standards, that they are generally very joyful and are always willing to help. They said that if you are having a bad day to walk out into the streets and look at these people living everyday hand to mouth and your problems seem minute in comparison. We were also introduced to the support staff who do everything from tech stuff to driving buses to fixing lights. They are all so incredibly nice and always say hello to you and will help you with anything. The school staff are very appreciative of them as well, which makes for a really nice community environment, and is not always the case apparently at every International school, so it's nice to see.
After this we had lunch at the American club again and then went on a shopping expedition. We drove in buses to the hardware store and the super market, which were both fine. There wasn't anything that I was really craving food wise because we had been having such nice meals so I just got some of the basics. Your cook bara will do all your shopping for you if you want them to normally. You just write them a list and give them some money and they keep a book of expenses and receipts. My roommate and I were done quickly and so we finished up and got back on the bus to head to the electronics store to get a cell phone. Other people though were shopping for their whole family so it took them a lot longer. Sitting on the bus I got a little emotional because really small children come right up to the bus window and tap on the glass asking for money. They stand right outside the bus door, which was kept open and look right at you and just keep saying the same thing over and over again, which I can't understand, but they must be asking for money. They do this loud whistle too that is piercing. Old men beggars hold out their tin cups for money and once you've made eye contact with them they don't go away. Women hold up babies to the window right next to you begging for money. It is soo sad and I can't not look at these people who are everywhere begging for anything but once you've looked they see you and don't leave you alone. The veteran teachers told us though that even though it is incredibly heart breaking that these beggars basically all work for crime boss type people and any earning they make go right back to the boss. It's all much more organized than it seems. The babies that women hold up to your window may not even be theirs and you will often see one women holding a different baby everyday . It was really emotionally draining; us westerners sitting on a nice air-conditioned bus buying food and electronics and these people are out on the streets day after day and not even probably able to keep what they beg for. The electronics store took a really long time and the same thing happened when we were waiting to head back to the school. I had been pretty fine up until then but that was really tough to deal with.
Arrival Day in Dhaka-What am I thinking??
Arrival Day in Dhaka
I arrived in Dhaka at about 7:30 the morning of Wednesday the 29th after a 13 straight flight from Washington D.C. to Doha airport in Qatar and then a 4 and 1/2 hour lay over and then another 5 and 1/2 hour flight from Doha, across India, to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh just decided to instate daylight savings time a few weeks ago where they didn't have it before in an attempt to save energy so we are actually 11 hours behind the US instead of 10 right now. Saying goodbye to my family and MK and Ali, who also dropped me at the airport was incredibly tough. How do you say goodbye to the people who are closest to you for a year? Getting on the plane was almost a relief, though, because the build up and mental stress of that week was so intense that I passed out pretty soon into the flight. I flew Qatar Air, which was extremely nice. Little T.V.s in the back of each seat and nice big, comfy seats. They had a tracking map so I would wake up periodically and track us go north across the Atlantic, over England, down over Italy and Turkey and down to Qatar.
Coming into Doha was interesting; it was as flat as a sheet of paper and sand everywhere with these big strip malls and warehouses coming out of the sand. The airport was all white and was small and had Arab architecture. The security checkin "line" was really just a mass of people all shouting over each other in languages that I could not understand and waving their papers at one small girl behind the desk, hoping to get helped. It was insane. Needless to say, I didn't get helped for quite a while. Picked up some bottles at the Duty Free shop. My roomies will probably think I'm an alchi but it is much more expensive in Bangladesh because it is a Muslim country, so they look down upon drinking.
Looking around the airport, there were definitely some western looking people interspersed, although for one of the first times in my life, I was a true minority. I thought that these people were probably going to the same place or same type of place that I was but I was too scared and out of it from my flight to ask. This plane flight was very, very interesting. Whereas my first one was very quiet and people were nice and polite this flight was the complete opposite. They cram you on to a shuttle bus with no air conditioning that takes you to the plane. We had to sit on it for a while before boarding. Boarding was chaotic; they let people on the front and back entrances so people were practically climbing on top of each other to get to their seats. People were pretty rude and very pushy. I think I got side swiped by a 90 Indian woman wearing a sari at least once. This flight was loud and people were super chatty. One guy blatantly got caught smoking in the bathroom and totally denied it even when they found his cigarettes and lighter. He was about 35. People deliberately seemed to pick fights with the studardesses. One man got angry because they asked his relative, who had to be wheelchaired onto the plane to relocate because she was sitting in an exit row. This guy took it as a personal insult against her and refused to move even though in an emergency this woman would have been no help. The second the plane landed, almost the entire plane was up out of their seats, getting their bags from up top, and heading for the door. The attendants had to do serious crowd control and still people wouldn't listen.
I had ended up sitting next to a veteran teacher at the American School who had taught there since 2001 and was very nice and helpful. I followed her to the meeting point when we got off the plane and it ended up that there were about 30 of us on the flight from Doha. We all had to hand over our passports so that the embassy could obtain visas for us, which is a little disconcerting, considering I had been checking every so often just to make sure I still had it. I felt weird without it.
We got taken to our apartment by bus. Driving in Dhaka is always an adventure. The traffic basically goes at the pace of the slowest vehicle on the road, which is the rickshaw, so you're not going anywhere fast. People are constantly beeping for absolutely no reason and there are basically no driving laws, or if there are, people don't pay attention to them. "Red lights are an invitation to go faster," said our Superintendent. People drive down the wrong side of the road all the time. What's crazier is that people walk through the streets all the time and just basically dodge traffic and hope they don't get hit. I almost saw about 5 people get run over today. At night, people have these crazy flashing neon lights on their cars; as if driving wasn't tough enough, you have these flashing lights in your eyes constantly.
Bangladesh is in a delta, so it's very low-lying and flooding is prevalent. A few days before we arrived, the city saw the worst rains in 60 years. The water had receded in the past few days but it was still quite high. It's currently the rainy season right now, which lasts from June to October. It's very wet everywhere and in the evening it stormed like crazy for a solid 2 hours or so.
I am sharing an apartment with two other girls; Danna, who is actually originally from close to D.C., too, and Kasey, who has lived in Bangladesh for almost 2 years now. Danna and I were both on the flight from Doha. Our apartment is huge! There is this gigantic hall type thing when you walk in. You could easily put in a pong table here and have tons of room to spare. Big living room, dining room, extra room, lots of balconies, kitchen, and 3 big bedrooms with their own bathrooms. Everything comes furnished, you just supply the stuff you need to live; clothes, shoes, books, movies, etc.
We had a few hours to settle in and we met our cook bara, who is very sweet. They do everything from cooking meals, serving them, cleaning up, doing the washing, drying, ironing, depending on what you want them to do. It will be strange having someone do these things for me because I'm so programmed to do them for myself. I'm sure I could get used to it though.
The area that we live in is called Baridara; it is probably one of the nicest parts of Dhaka. You enter through gates that are guarded by people with machine guns. It all used to be private homes and then land in Dhaka and this part especially became very valuable so they started knocking down these private homes and building high-rise apartments. There are some private homes left though. A very small piece of land can go for 2 million here. The area is basically two parallel streets and then some numbered streets in between these two. We live on street 1. Our apartment is on the highest floor of our building, floor 5, and there is a couple across the hall from us who are also teachers at the school who just came from Seoul, Korea.
We met up at the school, which is 2 blocks away from our apartment with all the other "new staff" and the administrators. We had a little orientation meeting where we introduced ourselves to each other and said where we had just come from, etc. Experienced ranged from one lady who used to teach in Hawaii and this is her first overseas teaching experience to people who have taught in 3 or 4 places around the world already. Several of them had kids who would be enrolled in the school as well. Basically everyone was really jet-lagged. Some people had longer travel periods than I had and had started out in places like California that day, flew to Washington, flew to Doha, and finally to Dhaka.
The school is really nice and is kind of built in a triangle shape. Large parts of it are being renovated; they are adding a whole other wing to the elementary school. The construction that is going on is pretty amazing. The workers have constructed scaffolding out of bamboo polls and steps out of thin strips of wood. They carry cement from the mixer that is somewhere downstairs in bowls on top of their heads up flights of stairs to the construction site. It is pretty third world compared to what I'm used to. We walked by my classroom and the door already had my name tag on it.
We had a few hours in the afternoon to hang out at our places and relax. I passed out for two solid hours. For dinner we ate at the American club. Our drivers picked us up and drove us there. It's about a 20 to 25 minute walk so it's not that far away but there is plenty of traffic on the way. The American club is really nice; you enter through a secure entrance and there are pretty paths lined with flowers everywhere, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a bar and dining area, and an upstairs open air eating area where we ate dinner. Delicious meat and veggie kabobs, yellow rice, potato salad, green salad, pasta salad, and rolls. While we were arriving the sky looked like there was about to be a hurricane with black storm clouds building up and it finally just opened up and poured for 2 solid hours. I was so tired at dinner, I felt like falling asleep in my plate of food. So was everybody else though and the evening ended pretty quickly. After having been through and seen a lot in the past 40 hours or so, it was nice to be in a place that kind of reminded me of home.
I arrived in Dhaka at about 7:30 the morning of Wednesday the 29th after a 13 straight flight from Washington D.C. to Doha airport in Qatar and then a 4 and 1/2 hour lay over and then another 5 and 1/2 hour flight from Doha, across India, to Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bangladesh just decided to instate daylight savings time a few weeks ago where they didn't have it before in an attempt to save energy so we are actually 11 hours behind the US instead of 10 right now. Saying goodbye to my family and MK and Ali, who also dropped me at the airport was incredibly tough. How do you say goodbye to the people who are closest to you for a year? Getting on the plane was almost a relief, though, because the build up and mental stress of that week was so intense that I passed out pretty soon into the flight. I flew Qatar Air, which was extremely nice. Little T.V.s in the back of each seat and nice big, comfy seats. They had a tracking map so I would wake up periodically and track us go north across the Atlantic, over England, down over Italy and Turkey and down to Qatar.
Coming into Doha was interesting; it was as flat as a sheet of paper and sand everywhere with these big strip malls and warehouses coming out of the sand. The airport was all white and was small and had Arab architecture. The security checkin "line" was really just a mass of people all shouting over each other in languages that I could not understand and waving their papers at one small girl behind the desk, hoping to get helped. It was insane. Needless to say, I didn't get helped for quite a while. Picked up some bottles at the Duty Free shop. My roomies will probably think I'm an alchi but it is much more expensive in Bangladesh because it is a Muslim country, so they look down upon drinking.
Looking around the airport, there were definitely some western looking people interspersed, although for one of the first times in my life, I was a true minority. I thought that these people were probably going to the same place or same type of place that I was but I was too scared and out of it from my flight to ask. This plane flight was very, very interesting. Whereas my first one was very quiet and people were nice and polite this flight was the complete opposite. They cram you on to a shuttle bus with no air conditioning that takes you to the plane. We had to sit on it for a while before boarding. Boarding was chaotic; they let people on the front and back entrances so people were practically climbing on top of each other to get to their seats. People were pretty rude and very pushy. I think I got side swiped by a 90 Indian woman wearing a sari at least once. This flight was loud and people were super chatty. One guy blatantly got caught smoking in the bathroom and totally denied it even when they found his cigarettes and lighter. He was about 35. People deliberately seemed to pick fights with the studardesses. One man got angry because they asked his relative, who had to be wheelchaired onto the plane to relocate because she was sitting in an exit row. This guy took it as a personal insult against her and refused to move even though in an emergency this woman would have been no help. The second the plane landed, almost the entire plane was up out of their seats, getting their bags from up top, and heading for the door. The attendants had to do serious crowd control and still people wouldn't listen.
I had ended up sitting next to a veteran teacher at the American School who had taught there since 2001 and was very nice and helpful. I followed her to the meeting point when we got off the plane and it ended up that there were about 30 of us on the flight from Doha. We all had to hand over our passports so that the embassy could obtain visas for us, which is a little disconcerting, considering I had been checking every so often just to make sure I still had it. I felt weird without it.
We got taken to our apartment by bus. Driving in Dhaka is always an adventure. The traffic basically goes at the pace of the slowest vehicle on the road, which is the rickshaw, so you're not going anywhere fast. People are constantly beeping for absolutely no reason and there are basically no driving laws, or if there are, people don't pay attention to them. "Red lights are an invitation to go faster," said our Superintendent. People drive down the wrong side of the road all the time. What's crazier is that people walk through the streets all the time and just basically dodge traffic and hope they don't get hit. I almost saw about 5 people get run over today. At night, people have these crazy flashing neon lights on their cars; as if driving wasn't tough enough, you have these flashing lights in your eyes constantly.
Bangladesh is in a delta, so it's very low-lying and flooding is prevalent. A few days before we arrived, the city saw the worst rains in 60 years. The water had receded in the past few days but it was still quite high. It's currently the rainy season right now, which lasts from June to October. It's very wet everywhere and in the evening it stormed like crazy for a solid 2 hours or so.
I am sharing an apartment with two other girls; Danna, who is actually originally from close to D.C., too, and Kasey, who has lived in Bangladesh for almost 2 years now. Danna and I were both on the flight from Doha. Our apartment is huge! There is this gigantic hall type thing when you walk in. You could easily put in a pong table here and have tons of room to spare. Big living room, dining room, extra room, lots of balconies, kitchen, and 3 big bedrooms with their own bathrooms. Everything comes furnished, you just supply the stuff you need to live; clothes, shoes, books, movies, etc.
We had a few hours to settle in and we met our cook bara, who is very sweet. They do everything from cooking meals, serving them, cleaning up, doing the washing, drying, ironing, depending on what you want them to do. It will be strange having someone do these things for me because I'm so programmed to do them for myself. I'm sure I could get used to it though.
The area that we live in is called Baridara; it is probably one of the nicest parts of Dhaka. You enter through gates that are guarded by people with machine guns. It all used to be private homes and then land in Dhaka and this part especially became very valuable so they started knocking down these private homes and building high-rise apartments. There are some private homes left though. A very small piece of land can go for 2 million here. The area is basically two parallel streets and then some numbered streets in between these two. We live on street 1. Our apartment is on the highest floor of our building, floor 5, and there is a couple across the hall from us who are also teachers at the school who just came from Seoul, Korea.
We met up at the school, which is 2 blocks away from our apartment with all the other "new staff" and the administrators. We had a little orientation meeting where we introduced ourselves to each other and said where we had just come from, etc. Experienced ranged from one lady who used to teach in Hawaii and this is her first overseas teaching experience to people who have taught in 3 or 4 places around the world already. Several of them had kids who would be enrolled in the school as well. Basically everyone was really jet-lagged. Some people had longer travel periods than I had and had started out in places like California that day, flew to Washington, flew to Doha, and finally to Dhaka.
The school is really nice and is kind of built in a triangle shape. Large parts of it are being renovated; they are adding a whole other wing to the elementary school. The construction that is going on is pretty amazing. The workers have constructed scaffolding out of bamboo polls and steps out of thin strips of wood. They carry cement from the mixer that is somewhere downstairs in bowls on top of their heads up flights of stairs to the construction site. It is pretty third world compared to what I'm used to. We walked by my classroom and the door already had my name tag on it.
We had a few hours in the afternoon to hang out at our places and relax. I passed out for two solid hours. For dinner we ate at the American club. Our drivers picked us up and drove us there. It's about a 20 to 25 minute walk so it's not that far away but there is plenty of traffic on the way. The American club is really nice; you enter through a secure entrance and there are pretty paths lined with flowers everywhere, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a bar and dining area, and an upstairs open air eating area where we ate dinner. Delicious meat and veggie kabobs, yellow rice, potato salad, green salad, pasta salad, and rolls. While we were arriving the sky looked like there was about to be a hurricane with black storm clouds building up and it finally just opened up and poured for 2 solid hours. I was so tired at dinner, I felt like falling asleep in my plate of food. So was everybody else though and the evening ended pretty quickly. After having been through and seen a lot in the past 40 hours or so, it was nice to be in a place that kind of reminded me of home.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
1st Post
Hello all! I wanted to create a blog to give everyone at home an idea of what life is like in Dhaka, Bangladesh. I will miss all my friends and family incredibly this year but am excited and thankful about the opportunity before me!!
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