Blogs from Dhaka, Bangladesh, Asia - page 16

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, students and the military. This meant that the whole city pretty much shut down for a couple of days as there was no internet, and no phone lines including mobile reception. The government also imposed a curfew all day ... read more

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 stops the school being open, we haven't closed the school in the history of ISD". What if we were the only 2 teachers that didn't grab a rickshaw and fight tooth and nail to get ... read more

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 a problem. Anyway, as you can see from the photos Bec took a couple of days after our arrival, our apartment is massive. So massive that yesterday I went and got a quote for pool ... read more

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 cards, salary advances, a meet and greet with the new director. After school we had a dinner with all the new staff at a lovely Indian restaurant. Every one is really cool, no great egos ... read more

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 person, in fact I offer no help at all. While they are in charge, I just tag along, drawing a crowd, and looking out of place. I entertain the women and children with my ... read more