1st week in Bangladesh

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The following is the same entry as my first one, only this time it is public. Add photos to the next entry.

So, I have survived my first week here on other side of the world! It was a challenge to get here with missed flights and lost luggage but my new Bangla family made the hassles manageable.

My first week of teaching has gone well. I have 14 students in my class, with many more men than I had expected. There are about 4 young women and 10 young men. Yesterday was the faculty foundations day where students have booths to teach others about their faculty. The nursing student's are energetic and enthusiastic and their booth is very colourful and full of great health teaching information. I'm so glad to see the spirit here, the students are so proud to be nursing students and its just great to see. They love getting photos with the teachers and showing us off. Being called "ma'am" all the time is something I still need to get used to!

My apartment is perfect. I have no needs unmet. For now I room with a nurse Linda from Vancouver in the guest room of a family from the Netherlands and their two young children. On Jan 22 Linda and I will get our own apartment
a village near our apartment in Uttara
and our own bedrooms. When she leaves in mid-Feb I'll have my own apartment. There are housekeepers in the apartment that do most of the cooking and cleaning, and we do our own washing.

Though its only been one week I have seen a lot. We walk through a couple small villages on our way to the university every morning, and see many young students heading off to school. The younger children play nearby as their parents work on the construction that is ongoing everywhere here in Uttara (as in many places in Dhaka). Women and men both carry bricks, gravel, and cement in large bowls on their heads from one area to another, no wheel-barrels here! and its seems like the foundation digging is done by hand too, a very tough job I'd imagine. Scaffolding is bamboo poles, and rope/bamboo ladders hanging from roofs are used to sit on while painting the sides of 6 story buildings. As you might imagine, many people die from construction related accidents.

We went with some nursing students from Vermont into the small village near our apartment while they did an interview assessment, and got to see what the inside of
fruit market in gulshan
the homes look like. Some have very basic facilities with out-house-style toilets and wood burning cooking stoves. Others have toilets with plumbing that drains into the river and gas stoves, depending on how much money they have and how they pool their resources. Most are aware of the respiratory hazards of wood burning stoves (especially because when wood cannot be found they use rubber tires, plastic bags, and garbage), but many cannot afford gas.

It has warmed up now, but a few days ago the nights were very very cold, and many people do not have warm enough clothing. This is really hard to see. From what I've heard this has been one of the coldest winters in a few years, which is why so many people are not prepared.

Lots more to see and learn. Some day trips and weekend trips being planned, plus lots of activities with the students. Heading to the orphanage this week and the cholera hospital soon too.

Lots of love to everyone at home. xoxox

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