Asalaam alaykum (greetings). Haven't written for a while as life has been extreeeeemely hectic for me ever since I started my new job, but here goes another update on life in Bangladesh... Let's start with recent (ish) news. A few weeks ago there were some demonstrations, riots, in downtown Dhaka. There has been a military presence at the university for several months ever since the interim government has stepped in. The students there (and this was echoed all over the country) were demonstrating against this presence, so there was tear gas, fights and general mayhem between civilians, [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo For those of you who haven't packed up your entire life and left your home country, this is a big deal. Imagine arriving in a foreign place, moving into a new apartment, beginning a new job and socialising with your new colleagues with the contents of just one suitcase. Airlines out of Oz are very strict nowadays about how much you are able to actually check in and carry on. 20kg checked, 7 kg carried. Now imagine you arrive to work with nothing except some soft copies of resources on a laptop. No books. Nothing physical that you [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Good news here in Dhaka, our government imposed curfew has been lifted during daylight hours. The trade off is that during these times, the internet and telephone lines are disconnected. (yet, we are still using the net now and it's 9:10 in the morning.) Yesterday was a bit hairy. We got up at the usual 5:45am ready to catch our 6:40am bus from the front of the apartment block. We waited and waited but still no school van turned up. Anxiously looking between my watch and my not-working mobile phone, Paula's voice ringing in my head - "nothing [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Well, our very first government sanctioned curfew! We were all sent home at 4:15pm today as the government has issued a curfew for all Dhaka residents in effect at 6pm. As the uni students are revolting again, and there has been some quite serious clashes on campus, plus a little spilling out onto the streets, the interim (military) government is taking all precautions. No one is allowed out of their house until further notice (most likely later tonight or very early tomorrow morning). I doubt we'll miss work tomorrow. Ah, life, strange. Everything is ver [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Right. So, here I am sitting in the living room of our apartment in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The power has gone off as it has at about 7pm every day since our arrival. Every few minutes the lights will surge as the backup generator kicks in and sends power to our apartment. The Uninterrupted Power Supply or UPS as we have quickly learned, is pretty good. We can still turn on the fans above me and our room, as well as a lights in all rooms but the kitchen. No TV and no refrigerator though. The latter could pose [View Full Entry]

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By tomorrow morning I will have spent a week in Dhaka although it feels like longer! I'm here on a year contract to teach English language and lit at a local school in the city. I am knackered even though I have done nothing all day! It's about 35'C or more here, and with the intense humidity it just makes you so lethargic and feeling not very ladylike as you are sweating the entire time, proper sweating, not gently perspiring! My parents are shareholders along with approx 25 other people who own 3 boats, they can fit about 20 people - [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Today we got our first good look at our new school, the International School of Dhaka. We were picked up from our apartment at around 8:30am and picked up other new staff on the route to school. The rivers are still swollen and so the driver had to go an alternate route to bypass the flooded roads. The school is an oasis. It really is. The pictures below show just how great the insides are. We will add pictures of the outside later. Today was a lot of house keeping: a tour of the school, mobile phone sim [View Full Entry]

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After being so good about keeping up with writing update, I totally neglected it after the first few days in Faridpur! We've been working extremely hard! Oh well, no one really needed *that* much detail! (and if I repeat myself, I apologize!) The week between my last update and when we finished working at that field site and returned to Dhaka this past Sunday (the 29th) was pretty much just filled with lots of work! My two field officers are doing an amazing job! I've randomly selected households that we will interview. But, I can offer no help in locating the [View Full Entry]

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After being so good about keeping up with writing update, I totally neglected it after the first few days in Faridpur! We've been working extremely hard! Oh well, no one really needed *that* much detail! (and if I repeat myself, I apologize!) The week between my last update and when we finished working at that field site and returned to Dhaka this past Sunday (the 29th) was pretty much just filled with lots of work! My two field officers are doing an amazing job! I've randomly selected households that we will interview. But, I can offer no help in locating [View Full Entry]

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My apologies for the break in posting! (And Will, there is internet in the hotel, and even a cable in my room, but my stupid Mac won't assign an IP address so I can't log on in my room -- if anyone has advice on this I'd love to hear it!) Thursday we had a full day at the center. It's been pointed out to me that not everyone who's reading this knows why I'm here! I'm hesitant to give too many details on a public website, but the short of it is, there is this very nasty virus that is [View Full Entry]

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