I’ve always believed that a person’s diet can tell you a lot about his or her personality. I hold as a corollary to this belief that a region’s culinary traditions can tell you a lot about its culture. Could you imagine Nashville without barbeque? New York without mad artistic towers of Asian fusion haute cuisine? Louisiana without Jambalaya? I spent the first month in Dhaka overwhelmed by the newness of my surroundings. The crowds, the honking, the cockroaches. I made a lot of judgments in that first month about this city, this country, and this people. If so [View Full Entry]

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My mood has improved substantially since the arrival of a shipment of Kona coffee, smuggled through customs by my boss from UVA. It's hard to get a good cup of coffee in Dhaka. The powdered stuff, which is the only readily available brew, yields a foggy bitter concoction not unlike bark water. I don't drink a lot of coffee. I try to limit myself to a cup a day. But that one cup has come to hold a ritualistic significance. The rich nutty smell that snakes its way through my nostrils tickling my sleep heavy mind; the first sip, better than [View Full Entry]

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Bangladesh, like any developing country, has its quarks, qualities that make it uniquely infuriating. Like the sub sub atomic particle, these qualities are fundamental. But as simple as they are, they dramatically affect day to day life in this beautiful, vibrant, crazy city. Most of my personal journal entries concern these perception altering details. Here are a few of the many: 1. Bandwidth Breadlines Slow Internet connections bring to mind bread lines and breeding gulags. I file in behind a thousand peasants in tattered shawls, awaiting my share of bandwidth on a gray morning [View Full Entry]

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Did any of these words manage to pique your interest? Well we certainly have had an interesting week here in Dhaka (is there such a thing as a normal week here?)! And before we fly off to Thailand for a week we thought we might leave you folks with something to chew on for a bit back at home. We are finally starting to enjoy the feeling of settling into a routine here. The apartment is painted, our shipment is here, our couch has been ordered and things at work are running smoothly. We have even recently gained membership at the [View Full Entry]

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People ask me for money, on average, 12.31 times per day. I took a tally last week, because I was curious. The mean daily score was 12.31. Old, young, maimed, healthy, men, and women alike cry “Boss! Money. 10 Taka! Boss!” raising cupped hands to foreheads in the traditional Muslim greeting. I can’t speak for every westerner in Dhaka, but I have gone through three charitable stages since I arrived in August. For the first few weeks the guilt was a constant source of depression and anxiety. People asked for money and my limbic system flared, signaling an onslaug [View Full Entry]

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I’ve finally met a group of Brits and Americans. But three of them are leaving in the next week. All five of them work for Brac, which is a gigantic NGO, a private university, and a bank, all at the same time. Really smart genuine people and I’m so sad that they’re leaving. On Thursday night we went to the Bagga Club, where all of the British expats hang out. It was lovely to relax with a few beers in a comfortable place with articulate people and talk about the interesting and the inane. American politics, British politics, celebrities, boys, and [View Full Entry]

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after pinkie-swearing with jen to maintain this blog weekly i find myself sitting down to compose my first entry...almost two months into our experience here. time here seems to be washed away with the mid-afternoon monsoon rain and one is left wondering how a place so chaotic and unorganized can move at such a dizzying pace. although this is my first entry and am feeling like a slacker, i am glad to have the opportunity to contribute: experiencing joys and frustrations in a new country can always be a tricky adventure. just when you feel like you have got something down [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo So, I am sitting on the couch, trying to ignore the pile of homework books that need marking before tomorrow and I pick up my laptop to read the write-up on the AFL prelim final between St Kilda and Hawthorn. Having just watched the game at a mate's place next door, I thought it might be nice to hear what the critics have to say about a very one-sided game of football. Next thing I feel is the sofa shake. Not a huge shake, just a wobble. It went on for about three or four seconds and then [View Full Entry]

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Diggin’ Dhaka So while Jake was away in Singapore I decided to get out and see more of Dhaka! We hadn’t yet ventured to central Dhaka since with traffic it can sometimes take nearly 2 hours to get there. So I hopped in the school van with a friend and we were off to explore more of the city! Our first stop was Dhaka University. Now this is normally the part of the city they tell foreigners NOT to go to, as this is where most of the riots, mobs and uprisings etc occur. BUT since the van driver actually suggested [View Full Entry]

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I recently started keeping a journal. It's nothing special, just a place where I can jot down ideas and stories. Here are a few of my entries. Sorry for the lack of pictures. I've been rather bad about that, haven't I? Enjoy. Sept. 12 For some odd reason Bengali salesmen are convinced that I am in the market for a parrot. The other day three men pushed wire cages into my hands, nodding and smiling. "What on earth" I sputtered "am I going to do with a bird the size of a small eagle." They take the cage back and scowl [View Full Entry]

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