Kushtia 2

---

I’ve had a bit of a rough beginning here in Kushtia; I’ve started to become very frustrated with silly things and to really miss the comforts of home! We were warned that out rest house did not have reliable “current” (good example of an English word being used in Bangla in a way we wouldn’t use it), that they electricity went out quite frequently. Turns out to be very true…. Friday night, we didn’t have electricity at all. That means, most importantly, no ceiling fan. That means, very fitful sleeping while we all sweat in our beds (sorry Granny!). Meanwhile, it has been hot hot hot this past week! Perhaps not hotter than its been but certainly sunnier! It’s been a bit overwhelming. I suppose hot weather and no electicity helped add to my bad mood… I also found that I started asking “why”. Never ever ask why when you’re in a developing country, there’s no satisfying answer aside from because that’s how it is and you can’t expect to find your American standards elsewhere. I also remembered too late that you shouldn’t complain about things to other people: Jon and I were talking about how different the standards of manners are, and how manners might have come to be in different countries (i.e. the very loud spitting done by everyone); we also agreed how gross that was. I am not overly sensitive to it, when all along I had a very good “it’s a different place with different rules, Miranda” attitude. I also got very frustrated with language issues. Dawlat and Jesmin really don’t understand me at all, and this became obvious on several occasions. However, again, the good traveler in me is grateful that they speak English at all, and just remembers to talk more clearly. The grumpy homesick traveler in my gets annoyed…. ☹

Oh well, despite being a bit cranky for a while, my team and I have managed to identify a good village to work in. Of course, I loved Shibrampur, the first village, so very much, so this village would never live up to it! But, it’s also very pretty, it’s in the middle of the rice and cane fields. Dawlat and Jesmin think the people here are “very peculiar”. They are not quite as cooperative and ask an awful lot of questions, whereas in Shibrampur, I think if I had told them I wanted them to give me all their first born children, they would have rushed to be the first one to bring me them. Dawlat and Jesmin think it’s because this region is known for being communist and therefore they are more suspicious and secretive than others. I hear from my dad that West Bengal, in India, in largely communist, and this district borders West Bengal.

It’s been overwhelmingly sunny, which makes working a little hard, but all the same I think this village will be perfect. Now that that is settled, I am much happier and ready to work hard (plus last night I had a fan for most of the night!).

Saturday night I went with Jon to do the bat work. That also went well, it’s really working out that my focus is on my survey, but it’s great that I get to work on the bat project whenever I can manage it!

---