Top ten things I WILL miss about Bangladesh:
1. My friends at Grameen- the posse, some who have gone already and some who will be there for awhile still. Miss you guys! We sure have survived some interesting experiences together!
2. The home cooking- my favorite Bangla food was the food made by the love of a Bangladeshi mom!
3. The cheap stuff- all kinds of stuff, clothes, food, shoes, little knick knacks
4. Taking photos with Professor Yunus! He is my favorite old man, except for my grandpa of course!
5. The beauty of the country that lies outside of Dhaka- in Srimongol, and Cox's Bazaar
6. The Ispahani milk tea! I wonder how long my 100 tea bags will last me.
7. The Nocilla, coconut crackers, and Mango juice that were a staple of my diet.
8. The very nice Bangladeshis I met along the way- Sigma, Nuheen, Rashed, and Milton.
9. How we did everything we weren't supposed to do, and still survived to tell everyone about it.
10. The free wi-fi at the airport!
Top ten things I will NOT miss about Bangladesh:
1. The inevitable traffic jams and horrible pollution and the layer of black film on my face and my clothes from being in a CNG for 1.5 hours trying to go 8 km.
2. The dirtiness of the streets, the trash that is everywhere, and the random smells of the toilet in the air.
3. The people staring at me in an impolite and uncomfortable way and not responding when I smile or wave back.
4. The rickshaw and CNG drivers always trying to cheat me and getting mad at me when I actually pay them the rate we agreeed upon.
5. The Grand Prince Hotel, the shady manager at the front desk, and the cancer causing bug spray used on my mattress and pillows to kill bed bugs
6. The Bed bugs, cockroaches, spiders, and mosquitoes
7. Jannat-E-Quanine and Mr. Babor Ali, my two least favorite employees of the International Dept at Grameen Bank
8. The electicity outages at the most inconvenient times (like right before a World Cup game or while I am in the elevator)
9. The ridiculously inefficient immigration officers at the airport that take 30 minutes per foreigner
10. The fact that women had to cover themselves up while the men could run around wearing whatever they wanted to.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Monday, August 2, 2010
Out of Grand Prince, into the Peace and Quiet
While my friend Ben is in the village enjoying the monster cockroaches and electricity outages, I moved to the ex-pat area today. It is so peaceful here, I can barely tell I am in Dhaka. I actually have a real bed, with a real mattress, and a real shower!! I had gotten used to sleeping on the hard, plastic mattresses at the Grand Prince that smelled like chemical bug spray. It's amazing how different my life could have been just 12 km (but 1-1.5 hour trip) away.
While I do enjoy the peace and quiet, I still can't go out at night by myself. It may be more dangerous for me to be out here by myself at night because it's so quiet. While in Mirpur there are too many people around, there are too few people outside in Banani. If something happened to me, no one would see and no one would know. So, I think I'll wait for Ben to come back from the village to go out at night and enjoy the area. This is why it's nice to have a driver.. dang it. I should have put driver costs into my ICF application. I wonder if Julie would have approved it. haha.
Last night, Ben and I had an interesting adventure trying to find a place with Korean bbq, soju, and beer. He didn't believe me when I told him how chaotic Dhaka was until our long, painful, and frustrating CNG ride last night. I don't think anyone actually understands what the city is like until they actually come here and get to experience it. And then it won't seem like I am complaining excessively :)
Ironically, I do kind of miss the hustle and bustle of Mirpur-1 and of being able to see all the interns just hanging around the hotel. Here I am a world away. I took a rickshaw by huge mansions and gated estates while i was on my way to the market to buy a new luggage. This is where all the money is in Dhaka. I saw a few Land Rovers and Lexuses maneuvering around the bumpy dirt roads. Hella Ballas! Maybe this is me discriminating against the rich, but a part of me suspects that many of the people in this area may be corrupt, and by hoarding money for themselves, are perpetuating the poverty of the millions of Bangladeshis that I spent the last eight weeks trying to help.
While I do enjoy the peace and quiet, I still can't go out at night by myself. It may be more dangerous for me to be out here by myself at night because it's so quiet. While in Mirpur there are too many people around, there are too few people outside in Banani. If something happened to me, no one would see and no one would know. So, I think I'll wait for Ben to come back from the village to go out at night and enjoy the area. This is why it's nice to have a driver.. dang it. I should have put driver costs into my ICF application. I wonder if Julie would have approved it. haha.
Last night, Ben and I had an interesting adventure trying to find a place with Korean bbq, soju, and beer. He didn't believe me when I told him how chaotic Dhaka was until our long, painful, and frustrating CNG ride last night. I don't think anyone actually understands what the city is like until they actually come here and get to experience it. And then it won't seem like I am complaining excessively :)
Ironically, I do kind of miss the hustle and bustle of Mirpur-1 and of being able to see all the interns just hanging around the hotel. Here I am a world away. I took a rickshaw by huge mansions and gated estates while i was on my way to the market to buy a new luggage. This is where all the money is in Dhaka. I saw a few Land Rovers and Lexuses maneuvering around the bumpy dirt roads. Hella Ballas! Maybe this is me discriminating against the rich, but a part of me suspects that many of the people in this area may be corrupt, and by hoarding money for themselves, are perpetuating the poverty of the millions of Bangladeshis that I spent the last eight weeks trying to help.
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