Blogs from Bangladesh, Asia - page 21

I’ve been staring at the water for some time now. The burning sun is hazy and doesn’t reflect much off the calm brown water. All of the sudden I see an animal jump. “A dolphin!” I say to my friend next to me. “Did you see it?” She looks at me, “A dolphin? I don’t think river dolphins come up this far.” “It was shiny and gray and arched out of the water?” “Well, I guess it was a dolphin then,” she shrugs and takes out her camera for photographs of some boys playing along the riverbank. I’ve taken a boat trip with some friends and acquaintances. It’s guided and so it’s effortless, which was probably the best part. We were driven west out of Dhaka to yet another wide, slow-moving river. The boat is ... read more

To get to work, I am picked up and dropped off by a van in a large traffic circle, which is a 15 to 20 minute walk to my home, depending on how long it takes to cross the road. I tend to take a rickshaw in the morning because it’s so early and in the evening I walk home since I’ve been sitting all day. I often get children, mothers with babies, disabled people, old people calling “Madam! Madam!” and running up to me for money. Usually I’m trying to avoid attention from everybody so I keep walking. On Monday I was feeling a little different because I had a good day at work and had also given to a beggar for the first time that morning—a mango to a mother. So sure enough, ... read more

Tomorrow marks two weeks from my arrival in Bangladesh. Everything has happened so quickly, and already I feel that I’ve come a long way from my first days in the country, when I was positive that my body would never adjust to the heat and that I would never figure out how to say “dhonobad” (thank you) properly. I landed in Dhaka at 6 am on a Saturday and was met at the airport by Elizabeth—the girl whose position I am taking—and a wall of hot sticky air. We hit the ground running, and after a full day in Dhaka we loaded a launch boat on Saturday night, headed down river to the field site where our research is done. In Barisal, a rural district crisscrossed by waterways, we conducted site visits and checked in on ... read more

Anyone who has ever travelled in India will know that it doesn't always come easily. Delays, lies, scams and all number of other hassles are simply just something you have to put up with and get used to. To be honest, it all adds to the fun, not necesarily at the time, but afterwards when all you have left are stories and memories. Still, nothing prepared us for Biman Air, Bangladesh's national airline. We found a super-cheap flight from Bangkok to Delhi, but there was a catch: it required spending a night in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The airline provided the hotel, transport, and two meals. Given that it was substantially cheaper than all of the other airlines, and lured by the nice daytime arrival, we decided to go for it. In retrospect, what a ... read more

Friday I found myself going past car-packed white mosques to a centuries-old quiet church. Located in the heart of Old Dhaka, the Armenian church is a remnant from a forgotten past when the Armenians (bizarrely enough) become powerful landowners in Bangladesh. Being the oldest of Christian societies, the Armenians brought their religion with them over the Asian continent and built this church centuries ago. It stands as one of the few churches left in Dhaka among thousands of mosques. It’s not easy to find if you come to Dhaka. Old Dhaka is low-lying along the windy and wide Buriganga River. What one’s initial visual (and visceral) image of Dhaka is Old Dhaka. It’s third world, overpopulated city life at its purest. The streets are narrow, winding, unmarked, and unpaved. There is nothing but people, animals, ... read more