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Stephanie L
An American undergraduate student living and working in Bangladesh for two months. Most of my time is being spent in Dhaka, the capital city. steff53
Travel Blog Posts
July 26th 2008
My last weekend in Bangladesh, I took a trip down to Cox’s Bazar with some friends of mine. It’s a decently long bus ride from Dhaka to Cox’s, about 10 hours, including the 2 bathroom-tea-paratha stops (there are sadly no bathrooms on any buses). We took an overnight bus on the way there, which ended up being great besides them playing a loud Bangla movie at 1:30AM and stopping for tea at 4:30AM. I knew in my head that Cox’s would not be that great, but after enough Bangladeshis and long-term expats raved about it and its wonders, I couldn’t help but begin to believe in them. You hear lots of similarly sounding statements about the beach at Cox’s. I’ve heard everything from it being the longest beach in the world to the longest uninterrupted ... read more
July 15th 2008
Two stories about children that I’d like to remember: Child beggars are pervasive. It’s one of the more difficult things to deal with here even after a long time. In a car, they will swarm me, pressing their faces against the window yelling, “Madam! Madam!” While walking, they will run towards me, grab my hands, try to pull my bags if I’m carrying any. “Madam, please!” they continually call. Sometimes I buy them some bananas or something or give them an extra mango from my backpack. Most of the time I brush them aside, say hello and ask them to go away. I try to steer them away from getting taken out by cars as they surround me while I walk. Sometimes they are sweet and look badly in need of some food. Sometimes they are ... read more
July 13th 2008
Day 47, July 13, 2008 It’s kind of surprising that it’s my 47th day in Bangladesh. It actually does feel that long, I suppose, because I feel very settled here. I think I stopped writing as frequently because the everyday things I experience are generally not very new and exciting as they once were. I have a much different perception of everything now. Perhaps I am more callous, I’m not sure. If I’ve developed any character trait, it’s the ability to feel fine in the most bizarre and uncomfortable situations because they seem to arise pretty frequently. I have a better ability to differentiate between when I should be cautious in a situation, when I am unsafe, and when I’m completely fine and just uncomfortable. I also have a better understanding of what it means to ... read more
July 3rd 2008
I decided to take a holiday this past weekend with a couple of my friends. Even though it was great to get out to Matlab for a night, it was still work-related, and after a month in Dhaka, having a real holiday was well-appreciated. I went with Luke, who is one of my flatmates and also works at ICDDR,B floating around, helping out with cholera patients and patients with infectious diseases. The other friend, SoJin, is a Korean-America who goes to the University of Virginia. She works in the parasitology lab at ICDDR,B. A guy in my office who makes travel arrangements for our employees very kindly offered to make all the reservations for me, which was very helpful because you can’t just buy tickets online and it’s very difficult for me to do that ... read more
June 24th 2008
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
June 20th 2008
It’s been awhile since I’ve done much because I got pretty ill. And I thought salads were supposed to be good for you…Truth be told I do know that this is an unsanitary place and you’re not supposed to eat produce that isn’t peeled or cooked thoroughly. But I’ve had some salad and fresh veggies and fruit because really, it’s the only consistenly good food Bangladesh has to offer. Sometimes I guess you get reminded arrogance can bring you to your knees, quite literally. So after all the vomiting and fevers finally stopped, I’ve begun to recover though I still have only left the apartment to go to the grocery store down the street. Sooo now I know why people come back from South Asia so skinny. One of my roommates also came down with ... read more
June 16th 2008
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
June 12th 2008
I finally left Dhaka. I suppose it was about time since there is an entire country and continent that is left to see outside this metropolis. I planned to spend two nights in Matlab, though I ended up shortening it to one night for various reasons. The trip started early at 7:00AM when a car came to my apartment to pick me up. From that I switched to a van, which jostled and honked its way out of Dhaka’s morning commute. After about an hour and a half, we stopped in this little town. A few boys around nine years old rushed to the van to carry the passengers’ belongings but I insisted on carrying my own. This country has been a confusing twist of needing to be very independent and yet let others do menial ... read more
June 8th 2008
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
June 5th 2008
The world changes when you’ve got a man around. Our third flatmate, Luke, began work at ICDDR,B in the clinical division working on a cholera surveillance project. So yesterday I began to commute with someone else, which was a welcome relief after a disastrous trip home on Tuesday. I’ll drop my feminism a bit and admit that I never feel vulnerable when I am with a man here. Even when we have an adventure like figuring out the ridiculous bus system. But on Tuesday, I picked up a rickshaw after work whose driver told me he could take me to Gulshan. Great, I thought, and hopped on. He took me through alleys and small streets, which in heavy traffic is the way rickshaws avoid the congested main roads. These alleys and small streets are still ... read more
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