Homestay

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I really wanted a homestay experience in order to make the most of this trip, so I went to tripadvisor.com and posted a comment asking if anyone knew of how I could get in touch with a family. A man emailed me back telling me I could stay with his sister. I readily agreed but was nevertheless suspicious of this kind of offer. However, once I arrived in Dhaka and met up with the family, my doubts vanished about their authenticity. I am now staying in a little apartment on a street that ceases to exist on google maps.

The father works in a knitting factory and speaks some English. He has a kind face and has lived in Bangladesh all his life. However, rarely do I have the opportunity to speak with him, for he leaves for work at 6 am and returns at 9 pm, Saturday through Thursday. A 90 hour work week is unimaginable to me, even for American standards. Last night he shared with me some photos. When Cyclone Sidr hit in 2007 leaving 3500 dead, he joined the UN relief effort in the south of Bangladesh. The pictures were hard to look at. Dead bodies lay on the streets and malnourished babies sat crying in contaminated water. My host father helped in the reconstruction of thousands of new homes and oversaw the distribution of rice and school supplies. I was very impressed by what he accomplished and am looking forward to getting to know him further.

The wife looks to be around my age and is a beautiful, petite woman with the cutest one year old baby. She doesn’t speak English, so this morning at breakfast I sat with my phrase book and tried to look up questions to ask. It makes me uncomfortable sitting while she cooks and cleans but when I offer to help she immediately refuses. Later, as I was leaving, I asked her in Bengali if she would like to come to Old Dhaka with me, and she pointed to the floor and replied “Home, always.” I am not sure what she does to pass the time but with the way I constantly need to keep active, I personally could not accept that type of lifestyle.

This morning I took a shower Bangladeshi style. You fill a small bucket of water, soap yourself up, and pour the cold water on you. I liked how simple it was and the fact that I wasted so little water in the process. Bangladeshis are very good about conservation. They turn off every light, switch off the electrical outlets when no plug is in use and if something breaks, they fix it. Instead of switching cars every 150,000 miles, they drive them until the last breath of air. What is really exciting is that petrol and diesel vehicles are banned as well as plastic bags. The government has also increased the number of national parks. This is important because if the sea level rises 1 meter, the country would lose 12-18% of its land. So while the rich countries continue to pollute and reject environmental protection measures, they are simply killing the poor who are trying desperately to reduce their ecological footprint.

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