Week 28: An improvement in Bangladesh's cricket team might help Bengali's global future

28^th-1st in Dhaka 3/12

Stopped by the stadium market to buy a new voice recorder. Mine is working just fine, but I needed another for my undergraduate assistants. Cost was pretty high, but I’m hoping I can sell it on EBay after we’re done with it. It also doesn’t have as many neat features as my Sony has. That’s a big downside. For example, it doesn’t have a clock, so it doesn’t record the time a track is recorded.

Then rushed up to Banani to drop off the payment and passport copies for my parents and my trip to the Sundarbans in two weeks. Grabbed some lunch at a fast food place, and boarded the Dibanishi bus for my second route of the day, from Banani to Dhanmondi.

This ended up being a very very interesting bus ride. About one third of the way into the route, the bus ran out of gas. I always had a fear of this happening during my studies. It means the route for my work is technically a throwaway since it wasn’t a finished route. But I’m already far from the start, and it’s a pain to start over. So that was annoying. Well the other people on the bus had more human concerns, such as “what a pain this is, I just paid good money for you to take me home, and now I have to buy another ticket” kind of concern.

Everyone got off the bus when we pulled over. Yelling ensued. I stayed on the bus not really sure if we’d get gas and go again. Finally I got off, and waited. Then people seemed to convince the driver to get back on the bus, so I did as well, to see what happens. The driver got in the seat but wouldn’t turn on the bus. A crowd of fifteen men have surrounded the drivers seat now, and they are all yelling at the driver, “Drive the bus, drive the bus!” It seems like the situation is reaching a breaking point. The driver finally turns on the bus, to all the yells and screams he is getting, shows everyone that it doesn’t have enough gas. More yelling ensures. At this point, lots of people have come on the bus thinking we might go if the crowd of men can convince the bus driver to drive regardless of gas level.

The bus is about half full, and I then see the driver turn off the bus and start to get out of his seat. Lots of yelling and screaming comes out of the crowd of men, and all of a sudden the crowd of men explodes. Punches are being thrown, people are being thrown, lots of yelling and cursing. The crowd of fighting men starts to move its way to the back of the bus, where most passengers are waiting. Girls and women start screaming, running to try and avoid the fight. One girl even hides behind me. Girls are banging on the back door from the inside of the bus begging someone to open it. They are crying and frantically screaming. The fight of men is quickly approaching us, and then the back door opens. The girls surge out, then the fight surges out following them, spilling literally onto the street.

Now on the street the fight continues, except now people have grabbed sticks and are beating a select few with them. The fight breaks free a bit and people start running down the street, yelling screaming and beating. All the while a highway’s worth of traffic is speeding (at slow Dhaka speeds) by. I get off the bus realizing not much is going to come of this tonight.

The bus is now sitting empty, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere the driver pops up, jumps on the bus, closes the door, turns the bus on, and takes off speeding away.

I just stand on the side of the road trying to grasp what just happened before me. It seems all the passengers have scattered except me, whether fighting or to escape the fight.

Overall, I guess the lesson learned tonight is always make sure you have enough gas, and hide the sticks if you don’t.
This is fight number 18.

Got a knock on the door soon after arriving home.
It was the girls from the family next door and they were asking to come in to see something (I couldn’t understand the vocabulary they were using.) Well they knew where to find what they were looking for, the circuit breaker!
Apparently my apartment has the circuit breaker for both my place and the place next door. Their power was out so they had flip some switches. This happened once more later on.
The reason I have their breakers is because we are actually in the same apartment, but the doorway between us was covered up, and now it’s two apartments.

28^th-2nd in Dhaka 3/13

Met up in the morning with Arjun and Shegufta in Azimpur for bus riding research assistance. I gave them the instructions on what we were going to do today. I laid out the names of all the bus stops we would encounter on our first route, so that way they weren’t surprised by anything. We were going to each take the same company, one at a time. Meaning one of us would have to be the last to go and wait around for awhile. And one would have to be the first to arrive at our destination, and wait around while. Arjun went first, Shegufta second, and myself last so that I could ensure they all got on the right buses and were feeling ready. The ticket counter folks were baffled by why I bought three tickets but we all got on different buses. By the time I finally left on my bus, 20 minutes later, they understood because they talked to me the whole time.

I was real nervous to see them off, wished them luck. For me it was simply another data collection, for them it was their first alone.

When we met up at the end, they seemed pretty okay. We got lunch and talked a bit about how the process went. They both are novice bus riders, so also are adjusting to that.
We had lunch, they got briyani and I got fish. Took some photos at our lunch stop. (pic: Shegufta/Arjun, BUET four-years and my research assistants, at our lunch stop while data collecting)

Took our second bus of the day from Uttara to Motijheel. The headway between buses was real long, so they both had arrived when I was only halfway through my route, meaning they had to wait awhile.

The day took longer than I thought. Likely because of all the waiting involved for 3 buses to come and go.

28^th-3rd in Dhaka 3/14

Today I finally get to see a cricket match live! South Africa vs Bangladesh at Sher-E-Bangla Stadium in Mirpur. I met up with Ayon, Opu, Annita, and her husband Auvi there at the stadium. (pics: front entrance to stadium where fans sitting in the Gallery enter, rear of the stadium where fans sitting in the Concourse enter, what else would be played behind a cricket stadium than cricket, Opu came unprepared and had to buy a headband at the stadium)

At the bus stop to board the bus to the stadium Mohan was actually boarding too, so we took the route together. I told him the story about our apartment being half painted in the stairway since he moved out and he was laughing really hard, had to wipe his eyes. He said our landlord is a miser, and that’s likely why.

We had seats in the clubhouse section, which was the middle price range of the three seating areas, and the price variation was huge. The gallery cost Tk80, the clubhouse Tk300, and the VVIP section (yes, that’s for very very important people) was Tk1500. If you are a VIP you’re out of luck, no section for you. You have to find a way to double your V status or sit with us commoners. All areas were covered with overhangs constructed of bamboo and sheets. The gallery area was laid out so that you just sat on the concrete seats. The clubhouse had plastic chairs, and the VVIP section had folding chairs.(pics: the scoreboard in the Gallery seating area, view of the field from the Concourse section, the bamboo and sheet structure covering the seats)

It was neat to see the teams come out. All the fans seemed to be cheering and screaming when South Africa came out, and I asked Ayon why we would cheer for them, and he said, “We are just letting them know that we are here, and that we will be loud.”

Bangladesh however, did not perform how we’d like them too. They did even worse in this match than they had in the last two matches the last few days. Really sad to see them go down. They were doing okay at scoring runs, but lost wickets early on and never could recover after that. They were out of wickets with more 7 overs remaining. (pics: Bangladesh batting, batting, and taking runs, South Africa getting bowled to by Bangladesh)

During the match, it was hot. We got ice cream 3 times! Sometime during the 25^th over Megan finally showed up, so Ayon, Opu, and I went out to meet her at the gate to give her a ticket. It was neat to have her meet my friends for the first time after hearing about them so much.

For lunch, we went to Opu’s house. His mom served us a big meal to full us for cheering during the second inning when South Africa would be batting. Although we knew it was hopeless for Bangladesh, since South Africa could score that many runs in probably just 30 overs.

The second inning was a bit cooler as the sun wasn’t on us anymore. We sat in the lower level of the clubhouse section for a little bit, but soon left, as the fans were getting rowdy and rude there. They were cheering against Bangladesh because of the poor performance. They were booing the team captain and all the players who came near them.

The game ended in a loss, South Africa got a trophy, and we all left. Except for Opu, we boarded a bus and headed down to Baily Road for some fuchka. (pics: Ayon/Opu during the first inning, Auvi/Annita during the first inning, Annita/Megan/Ayon watching the second inning, myself after the conclusion of the match)

28^th-4th in Dhaka 3/15

I spent almost the entire day in BUET’s lab today. Had a huge backlog of data processing to do. I tried my best not to browse the internet and just do my work.

For lunch I went to my favorite restaurant near the campus and got a burger and fries and brought it back to campus to eat. Got some ice cream from the ice cream cart which is front of our campus’ gates.
Went home at 9pm, very late. Bought some vegetables on the way home.

I kept meaning to mention this but Ethan Allen furniture gallery is in Bangladesh (and Thailand as well.) Why do I care, well my street name in which I spent most of my childhood is Ethan Allen Rd. So as kids, whenever we saw the famous furniture store in our area we’d giggle and joke that we really live at the store. And whenever people would ask our address, we would tell them, and they’d chuckle and ask, “Like the furniture store.” Sometimes when I felt like being smart I’d say in the return, “No, like the 18^th century hero of the Revolutionary War who led the Green Mountain boys during the charge of Fort Ticonderoga.”
Anyway, here’s a photo of the store front in Thailand, and I still need to grab one from the one here in Dhaka. It’s in Gulshan-1, southwest of the intersection. I remember the first time I saw it I almost fell out of my rickshaw in surprise. (pic: Ethan Allen store in Bangkok)

28^th-5th in Dhaka 3/16

Another day in the BUET computer lab again. Trying to plow through all this backlog of data processing I have to do. At one point I had to go to Arjun’s dorm room and grab the voice files he recorded last Thursday.

Realized today that the $75 voice recorder I bought for other people to help me on this project doesn’t connect to my computer. Tried it on Arjun’s computer, and it didn’t work there either. Tried a different cord, didn’t work. So it’s the actual recorder’s problem, not anything else. I think the USB jack is messed up. Returning it is near impossible as things bought from the stadium market stay bought (and are rarely exchanged for.) I might try bringing it to a repair guy and see what they can do since repairs are so cheap here.

Recently I’ve adapted the Bangladeshi meal pattern which is breakfast soon after you get up (for me that’s about 8 am), lunch around 2 or 3 pm, and dinner around 10:30 pm. I also have a second breakfast around 10 am before I head to BUET, and tea and snacks around 6-7pm. One of the reasons I don’t eat until 10:30 pm is that I come home from work tired, hot, and gross. And the idea of hot food at that point is unappetizing. Plus reheating it at the stove is a hot process and not what I want to do upon returning.
Another reason I’m eating this schedule is I’m eating more at home, since my cook makes a lot of food and I don’t want it to go to waste.

Recently temperatures have been 95+ daily, and we’re supposed to have 100+ later this week. That’s me talking Fahrenheit though…Bangladesh talks Celsius (but my readership is more than 50% from the USA.)

28^th-6th in Dhaka 3/17

Stayed home and got things done. Did a few more routes on processing. Worked on doing my recordings from the recorder which won’t upload to the computer. After many failed ideas of how to do that, I ended up just letting all the tracks play while my good recorder recorded it. And then uploaded it all as one major track from the good recorder!

Midday I got my sandals repaired. I’d noticed that some of the stitches holding the straps to the sole had gotten undone or loose. So it was time to bring them to street side repairman.
Scattered around are many shoe repairmen. In my neighborhood, there’s about one every few hundred meters. They all look pretty much have the same setup. They sit on the sidewalk and people come by with shoe problems. I only got my shoes restitched, but it looks like they do polishing, reforming, and many other shoe things I wouldn’t know how to describe. Real fast too, to get my shoes restitched it took about 5 minutes.
Hope they hold up for a long time. (pic: shoe repairman and his equipment on the sidewalk)

In the evening I went to New Market to pick up my suit. But the tailor said it wasn’t ready, and said it’d be a few more days. Oh well, no rush. Since I had some cash to pay for the suit in my pocket, I headed across the street to buy a knife for my boua, and ended up buying four t-shirts I liked as well, as part of my “buy stuff here because it is cheap but don’t wear it until I get back to the US” plan.

28^th-7th in Dhaka 3/18

Gas fire at the stove today. I heard Moweena scream, and when I came to see what was up, I saw water all over my kitchen. She told me how there was a gas leak at the back of the stove, and a huge flame had gone up while she was cooking. She had thrown a pot of water on it to put it out. She seemed rattled. The problem seemed to be that the gas connection from the wall was not done properly (and I knew this but there hadn’t been a problem yet) and today just happened today where it deteriorated enough to burst.
She tried forming a new seal out of soap, but it didn’t work. She told me to talk to the landlord to tell him of the problem. Or get a repairman myself to come check it out.

Had to head out quickly after the morning’s excitement to Baridhara. I had been invited my former class to go attend a lecture by Dr. William Radice (wiki and personal site), the author of the Teach Yourself Bengali book we used in all my courses. It was being sponsored by the university through which we had our Bengali course, and I was excited to meet the man behind my entire Bengali education.

I’m very excited to give the highlights and my thoughts on the lecture, as one of my favorite bloggers, Saket Vora, does week after week on his blog. In fact, the number of cool speakers who he goes to see at Stanford made me include that as criteria in my graduate school search: neat lectures by important people in the industry or who have neat things to say.
Well I was glad I finally got to hear someone who is at the top of their field in Bangladesh. William Radice is one of the premier writers and translators for Bengali, producing many texts including great translations of Bengali’s most famous writer Rabindranath Tagore and the book I used in my Bengali classes. He currently is a professor at the University of London. (pic: Dr. Radice giving his lecture on "Bengali's Global Future")

He was lecturing on “Bengali’s Global Future”, and in his talk he talked on a number of interesting topics. As Saket usually precedes such writings in his blog with a disclaimer like thing, I’ll do the same, copying it word for word…because he says it so well!
“I’ll note some salient thoughts I took away from the talk. Anything I attribute to [Radice] is a paraphrase, not to be taken verbatim.”

*He immediately started his speech about the difference in Bengali and Bangla. This was covered because he had submitted the topic of his talk as “Bengali’s Global Future”, but without asking him, the organizers of the lecture changed it to “Bangla’s Global Future.” He seemed displeased by this, but understands it, since Bangladeshis refer to their language as Bangla, as if it was a different from Bengali, which they would consider people in Kolkata and East Bengal speaking.

Radice says he resists calling Bengali as “Bangla”. His reasoning was well said. When speaking in any language, you always say the names of other languages in the language you are speaking, not in the way the other language calls itself. Thus when speaking in English, one says “French” and “Spanish”, not “Francais” or “Espanol”. When talking in Bengali, one refers to English as “Ingreji”. However, Bengali seems to be resisting this norm. Why should one make the exception for Bengali and call it “Bangla” when we don’t do that for any other language? He ultimately resisted going on about it, no reason to keep harping on it he said. He has no objection to it being called “Bangla”, but he said he would try to say that throughout his lecture, but to excuse him if he slipped back into saying Bengali (which he ultimately did by about the fifth time he had to mention the language’s name.) [On a personal note, I agree with him fully, and have tried to keep the norm of referring to the language as Bengali in blog as much as possible. However, when talking, I almost always refer to it as Bangla out of habit from hearing it said all the time.]

*He mentioned how Bengali was the most studied language in South Asian studies departments in England before World War II. After the war, however, when Britain’s worldwide empire was dissolved and Pakistan and India were founded with the national languages of Urdu and Hindi respectively, Bengali seemed to “miss the boat” and fall out of the international realm and was not perceived as important without a national language status. Although it is the fifth largest language in the world (5th to 7th depending on the source), Bengali was lacking posts in most Western universities, with as few as just two posts at one point. Its growth in the last few decades came after Bangladesh emerged as an independent nation in 1971, and Bengali was the national language.

*He gave five reasons why he thinks Bengali will grow as a studied language in the future, most pertaining to Bangladesh as a country emerging more and more into the international spotlight. They included:
-global warming: Bangladesh starts to go under the seas as they rise
-significant migration of Bengalis to other countries (especially when the seas rise)
-the increased importance of the growth of cities (Dhaka second fastest growing in the world)
-enhanced opportunities worldwide for leisure activities. By this he meant people using the internet to explore educational interests that they like, and thus Bengali could be more understood by curious individuals.
-a move from actual travel to virtual travel. Due to a desire to lower carbon emissions and a disappointment in the tourism industry, people will “travel” virtually more often. Thus Bangladesh, which is hard to reach, will be explored and accessed more frequently.

Two of these points seem to point to the internet as important for Bengali’s growth and two others point to natural disasters!
[see blog title for my opinion on #6]

*Lastly he covered what he thought should be done to help Bengali grow as an institutional language. This included a widely published and well written Bengali to English/English to Bengali dictionary, better Bengali teaching materials, increased literary scholarship and translations, and having educated Bangladeshis pursue Bengali as a university subject instead of the sciences.

I thought he took this talk as a real lecture, and not a speech. He definitely traveled his fair share of tangents, but listening to him talk was like being back in a classroom. Really enjoyed listening to him.

One aspect about events like this, and other performances, is they always seem to have television coverage. And when there is television coverage, there is one thing the cameras love to focus on: foreigners in the crowd. And many times, it is the shots of foreigners enjoying something Bangladeshi that makes the newscast. Common thought seems to feel that if a foreigner came to hear a talk, watch a play, or listen to a musical performance it affirms the importance of the event (for the same reasons, many billboards here feature foreigners modeling a product.)
To get these shots of the foreigners the cameramen aren’t bashful. They walk right in front and aim the camera right at you, a big bright light sometimes aimed at your face. Right in the middle of the performance! This goes on the entire time, I had the camera pointed my way six times during the one hour lecture. And if they’re not aiming the camera at the foreigners, the cameramen love to be right up in front of the speaker filming the audience or the speake, many times obscuring the view of the speaker, or just being generally distracting.
Well sure enough, tonight I got a text from my friend who saw me on the evening news, as the foreigner who was watching the lecture. (pics: cameramen during the lecture obscuring the crowds view of Dr. Radice by standing directly in front of him, cameraman aiming a camera at me while I listen to the lecture)

After, all the teachers and students of my language had the chance to have a private discussion with Dr. Radice. It was hear more of what he had to say, and field questions from students who use his book every day. He had interesting answers for almost all our questions. My favorite part was hearing his reasons to include or exclude different things from our text. (pic: AIBS teachers and students with Dr. Radice after his lecture [myself, Rafat, Erin, Farrah, Laurel, Santa, Jen, Megan, Shakil])

On the way home from the bus stand tonight I stopped by a store which I saw had pipes and the like. Asked them if they had materials that I could use to repair my stove’s gas leak. Said they could come with me to check it out and repair. I asked how much and the price didn’t seem too much. One came back with me to my home, and he checked out the pipe connection. Tried to reconnect it and finally decided I’d need new parts, included in the repair price. I didn’t mind, he left to go back to the store, got some parts and another repairman, and together they fixed it. Checked it out, no more flames bursting out! I feel safe again.

But not for long! When we first walked in this evening I saw ants all over the floors. Hundreds, going every which way. I have no clue why they were inside, couldn’t find the source. I tried sweeping them up and stomping on the swept up pile, but there were still so many. Finally I went and bought bug killing spray, and then did the same process of sweeping but sprayed the pile instead of stomping. Ants were all dead quickly. Swept them all up and threw them out. Had a few more random ones, but nothing a quick stomp couldn’t solve. Still not sure what attracted them all.

Lastly want to mention my friends’ blog. Jen and Ben Lamm’s blog has been posted to my blogroll. Jen is a fellow Fulbright here and Ben is her husband who is along for the ride. Just found out about their blog this week when I saw them, and I’ve found it very enjoyable.

Week 8: Always at NSU it seems, and then I see the sites

(lost internet in my house for several days, posting from internet cafe, but can't get pics to load...that is why this is late, that is why there are no pics yet)

8th-1st in Dhaka 10/24

Tried on my new fotua this morning, and they look bigger than they did in the store. Will need to go back to Aarong to exchange.

Class today, I taught Shakil how to use facebook in Bangla. That was a fun way to have a conversation class. And I had a good verb practice class. Class has been going very well. I feel I’m improving at a better rate now. My listening is a bit better, I feel I’m thinking of things faster and am more comfortable with complex structures.

Mosquitos have just picked up. Its getting cooler, and they will increase as time goes on. There are more and more in my room every night, and my arms have been eaten up. Need to put my mosquito net up soon around my bed.

Today after class I went to the American Center to pick up a package and a postcard. Afterwards met with Jayita at her university. Just cool to hang out for two hours. Went to a store to buy a gift for a friend of hers, I tried on two different fotua, but the sleeves were too short for my arms. Went to a bakery and got some snacks, sat and ate them and talked. Saw her cousin Sreyoshi twice in the afternoon. North South University is a small place. Just a few buildings over 1.5 city blocks. All skyscrapers. You need an ID to enter any of these buildings. So when it comes to me hanging out there, it has to be on the streets. Stayed around til she went to class.

Had dinner at Nafisa’s aunt’s home. Hung out with Ishfaq and her for a bit, then Ishraq came home. We had dinner, and it was delicious. They gave me “a seat at the table.” Had dessert. Her cooking is great, and I really enjoyed being there, like part of the family. Ishraq invited me to play soccer on Friday. I think I’ll go. It’ll be fun.

8th-2nd in Dhaka 10/25

Wanted to touch on the fact of English words in the Bengali language. It seems my fellow students and I all have the same problem of pronouncing out an English word in Bengali script. This mainly comes from the fact that English words in Bengali end up having conjuncts, two letters forming into one, because that’s how English is structured in its sounds. Also, we’ll sound out a word when reading, and ask our teacher what it means, and they tell us it’s an English word…we rarely realize. One example I’ll always remember was sounding out “apple” written in Bengali script. I asked my teacher what it meant, and she was shocked…it’s “apple” duh!! But we always expect something different. And even if you’re expecting English words, sometimes the word isn’t as you would expect it to be sounded out. For example, the word “winner” when pronounced from Bengali script looks like “u-i-ner”…because there is no “w” in Bengali. So it can get quite confusing, and I’m not alone. All us students have the most trouble with these the most…the teachers are always boggled and confused with us.
Names are tough too. There is no capitalization, so you never know which words are names of places or people. You sit there and look in the dictionary, and can’t find it there, and get stumped. But I’ve had native speakers say that sometimes they are confused as well. Glad to have company.

Shakil, Santa, and I took a CNG to Bashundara City, the place I have been wanting to go to since arriving. I had first read about it on wikipedia when I started learning about Dhaka. It’s the largest mall in the city, with the largest cinema. At eight stories tall, its enormous. Tons of stores on all the floors. 8th floor is only eateries, huge food court, at least 40 stores. 7th floor is empty, not enough tenants to fill it in yet. The place is sectioned off into different areas…so if you want to buy electronics you go to the first floor east side. Sharees are almost an entire floor. Men’s clothing is floor 4. After eating lunch with Santa and Shakil (a small one for me since my stomach still wasn’t happy) Santa left, and Shakil and I explored the mall. So much cool stuff that I want to buy at such cheap prices. Of course, this is an expensive place to buy it, but good to brainstorm. Shakil said only the upper class shop here. Middle class will come only to browse and watch people. (pics: Shakil/Santa at Bashundara City for lunch, Bashundara City exterior, stained glass roof there, 8 stories of shopping, a never ending hallway of shops)

Shakil and I headed down to Nilkhet market after. Let me tell ya, if you ever want to have something copied, this is the place. In all directions all the shops were just there to make copies. I don’t know what the demand is, but its enough that this place exists. Shakil said he printed and bound his entire thesis here. Pretty neat. We met a friend of Shakil’s there. (pic: just one of hundreds of copy centers)

We went next to Chandrima Uddan. This monument is to the once president of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman. He played a pivotal role in the war of indepence in 1971. He was murdered a decade after in a military coup. The monument is right near the parliament building. Since it was at night, both were lit up gorgeously. What a sight! A bridge crosses a thin man-made lake to get to the shrine. His coffin is there in the middle of a pool of water, with a patch of grass growing on top. A pyramid of steel beams tops the monument, supported on four sides by concrete walls holding up slopes of earth. Behind the monument, opposite side from Parliament, is a library, but it’s not in use. We spent only a few minutes here. Shakil and his friend seemed to be in a rush to get somewhere. But it’s gorgeous. I guess I’ll go back some other time in the light, which will make it all look different. This place was packed though. Familes, people on dates, friends…it was jammed. (pics: a blurry one of the inside of the monument; Ziaur Rahman's tomb with grass on top, water around, and moon above; view from library to Chandrima Uddan with parliament in background(a bit blue))

Lastly we went to BCS Computer City. Where every store sells computer stuff at low prices. I was going to buy a Flahs drive, 4 GB to back up my pictures here. Shopped a few stores, but prices didn’t vary much. Ended up buying it for Tk3350, less than $50.

8th-3rd in Dhaka 10/26

Today my Dad Vail bracelet fell off. It was during a game of basketball. I went up for a shot and the defender graced my arm enough that the weak bonds still holding the plastic together could not stay. I saw it laying on the ground right after. So lonely, without a home. I am proud to have worn it so long. 5 months and 15 days. Halfway around the world. (pics: broke exactly where I said it would when I circled it, the broken Dad Vail bracelet)

Today I also went with Megan to the house of the artist who paints the paintings in her house. He’s good friends with the man who runs our language program, whose house Megan is using. He’s been all over the world showing his artwork. He taught at NC State as a guest teacher for a bit, so he even knows about Raleigh. Never met an artist in his studio before, can’t recall if I’ve ever met a professional artist before. His home is covered with half finished to almost finished paintings. We had lunch with his wife, a young Spanish friend of his, and another man who occupies a room in his house.

Later went to play soccer and basketball with Ishraq at Gulshan Park. He meets with a group of guys on weekends to play pickup games. We played 2 games of basketball and one game of soccer in about 2 hours. I haven’t sweat or been exercising like that in a long time. I’ve taken it easy since crew ended. I felt great though to play. I’m not the best at either, but great to run up and down the court. We played both games on the basketball court, so it was a small soccer field.
Bought TimTams at a local store…did some Tim Tam Slams!

8th-4th in Dhaka 10/27

I went to Farhan’s place. He lives in Mogh Bazar. Way back, over the train tracks. We basically hung out in his bedroom for 5 hours. We snacked on potato chips and oranges and some 7up. We talked mostly about music. I gave him a CD full of mp3s of my favorite bands, and we listened to some of that. He played me some of his Bangladeshi music, and his other favorite American music. We jammed on guitar.

Picked up dinner beforehand from Margherita Pizza, watched the soccer game til food was ready, and brought it to Megan’s place to eat.

8th-5th in Dhaka 10/28

Met up with Farhan and Saquib at North South University to see a photography exhibit by the NSU photography club. Some pictures from the club’s trip to Rajasthan in India. Hope I get to go there.

Went to lunch with them and Sreyoshi and another friend of hers at Dominous Pizza. Pretty good pizza. Just hung out there for like 2 hours eating, chatting, and taking pictures. A lot of fun. They don’t always speak in English, which is expected, but I try really hard to understand what they’re saying in Bengali. It’s real good for me to listen to them speak. Farhan came over to my place after to just chill and we looked through some of my pictures.

8th-6th in Dhaka 10/29

Played a word game in class for 45 minutes. Say a word, last letter has to be the first letter in the next person’s word. Just a game to help me think of all vocabulary I know. Fun way to have a class.

This morning when I woke up, Saifullah had texted me about being part of an Aktel advertisement. Said his coworkers had liked me for an advertisement they are putting out.

After class I went straight to NSU again. Hung out with Farhan, Ayon, and Saquib. We chilled at a pool hall for a bit waiting to get a table. Meanwhile they read my Bengali journal, not by my wish. They saw my writings while we were sketching Ayon and Jayita’s family tree so I could understand how they were exactly related, and then asked me if they could read what I’d written in Bangla. They then corrected my mistakes. Later met at Salsa, another Mexican place for lunch with Sreyoshi and another of her friends. We all got some rice and just chatted. Jayita came by later. It was cool just to be there for a few hours. (pic: Sreyoshi and friends on NSU's street in Banani, Saquib and Farhan being photographed/disturbed while eating)

I’m keeping up with some of their conversations. It’s good. I’m not too alone in Bengali anymore. And I’m adding my bits in my speech as much as I can. Farhan even pointed out at one point that he was asking questions in English and I was answering in Bangla, and I hadn’t even realized.

Afterwards, Sreyoshi had the idea to take a walk along the Baridhara side of Gulshan Lake, near my house. Well, surprisingly, I was the only one who knew how to get there as I do it all the time, and they never have a need to. So I led them over, and got two rickshaws for us. Five of us, Sreyoshi, Farhan, Saqub, and Ayon. We got there, and walked the length of it, snapping some photos and fooling around. I’ve always wanted to go this place with friends. I told Saquib, who is a good photographer, to take some shots with my camera since he was without his. Sreyoshi was extremely happy, apparently she’s wanted to do this for a long time. (pics: Ayon/Sreyoshi/me walking down path at lake, the guys: Saquib/Farhan/me/Ayon, Sreyoshi/Farhan/me/Ayon, making Saquib and Farhan laugh)

8th-7th in Dhaka 10/30

We went for a boat trip after class, Shakil, Santa, and me. Hopped on two different buses to go all the way out to Mirpur.

For the next part to make sense, let me describe how 3-4 people sit in a rickshaw. There is only seating for two, so the first person sits on the top of the back of the seat. One leg goes in the middle of the seat, and the other outside the rickshaw on the wheel cover. Person 2 sits between person one’s legs, on the edge of the seat. Person 3 squeezes next to person one’s inner leg and sits on the seat….person 3 has the best seat. Person 4, if necessary, would sit behind person 3, like person 1 behind person 2. (pic: best photo of how this is...I'm sitting in Shakil's "lap", his left leg is between Santa and me, he's sitting up on the edge of the back of the seat)

We got to Mirpur, and took a rickshaw to the river, three of us jammed in. The road was horrible, many parts missing, with huge potholes. Wasn’t a pleasant ride. The river is embanked with tall dikes, with a road running along the top. Got to the river, and found a boat stand. When we told the rickshaw driver to stop, he thought it’d be a good idea to pull off the road, onto the shoulder, which went down at a steeper slope. Shakil and I are sitting pretty much in each other’s laps, I’m person 2, on the outer side of the rickshaw (shoulder side). So when we pull off, our side is the first to leave the road, and the weight imbalance almost makes the rickshaw tip over…if I hadn’t stuck my leg out to brace us, we would’ve flipped. The rickshaw’s tire on our side bent as we tipped. It was the driver’s fault. And we were a bit pissed he risked it like that.

To recover we got some tea and cookies at a riverside stand before getting in our boat. (pic: recovering at tea shack)

Got in the boat, which was about 3 feet wide, 15 feet long, and was covered for most of its length by a curved roof. It was pretty tippy, and Santa was freaking out near the beginning. Rightfully so, Shakil and I sat in back with the boat paddler, and so we were weighted down in back, with Santa’s end sticking high out of the water. The middle wasn’t a good spot to sit since it was covered, and you can’t see anything. So in a few minutes I crawled up to the front with Santa, and I stayed there because we were more balanced. Took tons of photos The two of them are a lot of fun to hang out with. The sun set while we were on the water; out there for about 45 minutes. (pics: Shakil, captain of our lil' craft; me/Santa at the bow of the boat; Shakil at stern, Santa in the bow, with the roof between; Shakil after the sun set; me laying down along the floor of the boat)

After, we took two rickshaws back to Mirpur, no tipping this time!!! Santa and I took a bus back to Gulshan since she lives near me, and Shakil went back to his house. Santa and I got dinner at a restaurant on Bishwa road, I had pasta with alfredo sauce!!! Yumm…and had some of her kebabs.

Week 3: No Rowing in Bangladesh or How I Learned to Ride the Bus

3^rd-1st in Dhaka 9/19

Today I had quite an experience trying to get down to BUET to meet my professor. I took a rickshaw down to North Avenue, the easiest part of the trip it turned out. Hailing CNGs the entire trip was difficult, as most were full, and I was competing with many others for a ride. The first CNG broke down right after I got in. So I got out, not knowing what else to do. The second didn’t understand where I wanted to go and got someone to translate since he didn’t understand my Bengali. I told him I wanted to go to BUET, and we seemed to agree on 70Tk, even through he wanted 100Tk. Well we didn’t go more than 100 feet before he pulled over, and called over another guy. Well this interpreter told me the driver wanted 100Tk, and I told him that the driver had said 70Tk was fine. He asked where I was going, and I said BUET. Telling the driver this, the driver seemed shocked, and refused to go there. He had thought I wanted to go to the Sheraton Hotel, since the Bangla word for 70 sounded similar. So he wouldn’t drive me to the university (perhaps because getting there is a pain). I had to get out.

I start walking with the interpreter to the closest major road to pick up another CNG. He’s looking for one as well. He ends up getting a rickshaw though, and while I’m still looking for a CNG, he asks me to hop in with him. Already realizing I’m going to be late to my meeting, I say sure, at least I’ll be making progress as he’s going in the right direction (though not all the way.)

The guy gets off in Mohatkali, and I as well. I offer him money, but he won’t accept. I go out to the main road to get a CNG. The ones I ask to go to BUET, won’t, very likely because of the tough traffic on the way there. Finally, as I’ve now walked a mile, and to the next major intersection, I find a CNG who’ll take me for 200Tk. That’s ridiculous. I say 100Tk, now resorting to the price the 2^nd CNG driver offered. The guy says no. I walk away. He drives up, and says 150Tk. Deciding it’d be nice to be only a half hour late to my meeting, I accept. In the scheme of things, its not much, just I’m way overpaying.

I arrive at my professors finally. Climb the six floors to his office. We chat for a half hour. It was good to finally meet the man I’ve been talking to for a year through email, who played a large part in getting me the scholarship. We talked about the Jatrabari flyover, my research road. Apparently, its construction might be delayed, or never happen. It’s very likely I’ll have to change my research focus. That’s okay with me. He has a lot of interests that mesh with mine. For example, he did his PhD work on the flow pattens of different size vehicles in traffic, e.g. rickshaws

We talked about the other research he has with his other students. My academic history and future. Baseball and cricket. He lived in Japan for his PhD, so he fell in love with baseball. We chatted about his family, my family, where he lives, where I intend to live. I asked about the possibility of a desk, and he said he’ll see what he can do. We planned to meet in a month, and he’ll know more about Jatrabari by then. Either way, I can always change.

I then headed out from there to Dr. Haque’s office in Mohatkali. This time I got a CNG for 100Tk. Still expensive, but I wanted to be there and not wait for a magical CNG that’s cheaper that’ll never come.

Dr. Haque and I met for a short time. Talked about his GIS project. Showed me what he’s done. We looked at the city map for a bit. Talked about his students and class. We then went to his house to grab another GPS unit so I can do some data collecting myself. Shall be very fun to use on my trips with Shakil.

3^rd-2nd in Dhaka 9/20

Dr. Hummer had asked me more about what’s causing the traffic so I responded with: Why the traffic is bad, I cannot tell, might take all year to answer that. The infrastructure is in horrible shape. For example, take a 4 lane undivided road. Many times, three of the lanes have huge holes or parked vehicles, so the entire road is reduced to one lane for both directions. And this type of issue might happen several times in a mile-long stretch. No one, rickshaws or cars wants to drive over such big potholes, and they all try cramming through the same bits of space. Short term solutions have included restricting rickshaws to side roads. A trip through town on a rickshaw used to be possible, but no longer is, as main arteries are for motorized vehicles only. This means that rickshaws become restricted to the small bits of area bounded on all sides by arteries (they cannot use nor cross.) So it reduces traffic on the main roads, a good deal, since rickshaws slow moving in the outside lane was a huge problem for turning and merging. However, you reduce the most popular mode of travel to small areas.

Fight #4…saw it at Gulshan 2 the other night. Some guy trying to hit another guy with a pole.

At the same intersection that night, I heard the car next to me talking about me. I knew when they said “shada” or “white” in Bengali. So I said back to them in Bengali: “You said white, I heard you!”

5 Favorite Parts of Iftar as compiled by a friend and myself:
1. When amongst many people, it gets silent after the azan is heard from the mosque for a couple of minutes as every breaks the fast, when right before the room was loud with chatter..
2. The fact that you hear the azan all through out the city in waves. (although this one applies year round)
3. How we put as much food into their mouth as fast as possible.
4. How it’s such an event throughout the city, affecting the traffic around 3pm and office hours.
5. How restaurants have specials just for Iftar, and all give you A LOT of food.

Went to A+W with Megan for iftar. Our goal had been Pizza Hut, but it was packed, sold out, locked down, because of the Iftar special. They weren’t letting new customers in. So A&W, equally packed, but it had room on the kid’s playground floor where others were eating as well. For $4, we got a burger, hot dog, unlimited root beer and fried chicken. Yum!!!! Had tons to eat. Lots of fun. The Pakistan/Bangladesh cricket match was on as well. Shouts could be heard through the whole restaurant anytime Bangladesh made a good play. Also should note that almost everyone their were between the ages of 15-24. (photos of A&W playground iftar below)

3^rd-3rd in Dhaka 9/21

Dad mentioned how they drive on the left, so I responded with the following:
They were under British rule until the 50s like India, so they drive on the left...or the right...or the center...depending on the traffic and congestion! But usually they aim for the left. Unless they want to go down the right. Or there's a big pothole in the left, then maybe the center. But the left is where they would like to be, most of the time. The right is always cool too.

Went out and bought 2 CDS (mix and Artcell) and first DVD.

Had dinner with Courtney and Megan. Delicious food. We played games afterwards. Chinese checkers and Parcheesi. It was fun. I won one of the games. And the other was a tight finish.

3^rd-4th in Dhaka 9/22

Starting to get nervous about finding housing in Dhanmondi. Want to find someone to live with. Don’t want to be alone and bored. Been checking myspace and other places to find a roommate or a flat to rent.

Also coming to terms with the fact that I’ll be likely traveling alone for Eid break. I really want to go with someone. All Bangladeshis are with their family, and all Americans who’ve been here had plans before I arrived.

Also got asked by the security guard downstairs for money. He said he had an operation for a hernia, and asked for money. He showed me the bill. I’m not sure what to do yet. Nervous for next time I’ll have to see him.
Advice given was to tell him you’re sorry for the situation, but you can’t give the money right now.

Today was a success! I navigated the bus/rickshaw system all the way to BUET to meet Farah’s nephew. I took the double decker Volvo bus to Shabag. The rickshaw to get to the bus stop cost 10Tk. Bus 12Tk. Then rickshaw from Shabag to BUET 12 Tk. I was glad to buy the bus ticket speaking Bengali. He showed me around the campus, the CE bldg, the gym, the dorms, the labs, and the soccer fields. Rasha then brings me to where I can get a bus back home. We figure out which bus I need to take back home. I board it, and get off at the right stop. Total cost for the whole trip 48Tk. And I got to see new parts of the city too. If I’d taken CNGs the whole way, I’d have paid at least 200Tk. It took a bit longer, but very little. Traffic is the same for all modes.

3^rd-5th in Dhaka 9/23

Shakil and I took a bus from Baridhara down to Motijheel/Gulistan. Our goal was to stop at Bangabandhu stadium and see the Rowing Federation. We were going to find out if there were any clubs in Dhaka, and where in Bangladesh there was rowing.

On the ride down we talked primarily in Bengali. The office of the federation, after finally finding it, was closed. Some woman told Shakil they’ll reopen at 4. Meanwhile, him and I went to explore. Ultimately, after wandering into Motijheel further, we took a rickshaw to the train station. There we bought tickets to go onto the platform. We walked to the end, watched trains come in, then walked through one which had just arrived. We looked at the different classes of seating. Took pictures. Then we took the skywalk over the train station to see it from above. Lots of people use the skywalk to commute it seems like. You could see the container yards from the train station. (Below, picture of stadium, view down very long train station, myself in 2nd class train car, train station from walkway above.)

We went back to the Rowing Federation afterwards. Simply put, despite all the signs and pictures, there is no more rowing in Bangladesh. They focus now on dragon boat racing. The only boats in the whole country belong to the Navy in Chittagong. Kinda disappointed. Wished I could’ve been involved here. Luckily Shakil was there to do the talking. I never would’ve been able to handle such a complex conversation. ("Rowing" sign, and rugby game outside stadium)

I’m keeping my bus tickets so I can remember which ones went where. So I can do it all again later.

Like any non-US country, the money is very complex. Different sizes/colors. It’s very hard to find small denominations. They’re precious, so I hold onto them when I can because you want plenty when riding rickshaws for less than the 500Tk notes the ATM spits out.

Today I snapped a photo of “a rickshaw being pulled around by another rickshaw”, as sung about in Modest Mouse’s song Steam Engenius.

3^rd-6th in Dhaka 9/24

Today after class I went down to Dr. Haque’s office at BRAC. We looked at my GPS unit, the data I collected, and updated the software on the unit he gave me, in hopes of getting better satellite reception from now on. He was real excited to know of all the places I was gallivanting about, since he doesn’t have the time to make it out everywhere. As long as the GPS connects, I’ll be a valuable data collector.

I got to meet his class as well. I introduced myself, and talked about what I was doing here. Took a few photos for him as well.

Overpaid a bit on most rickshaws today. Some guys we’re giving me a tough time about paying more. I gave in some, they do earn it.

Naira’s for iftar. Met her brother’s friends. Talked mostly in Bangla. I caught a lot of words though. I don’t know why. Maybe I’m getting better. But some conversations I can follow a bit. They do infiltrate their speech with a lot of English so that helps.

We then watched India vs. Pakistan cricket match. I was rooting for Pakistan as most people I’ve met here do. My heart was pounding at the end as Pakistan mounted a huge comeback. But, alas, they fell short, losing their last wicket with 4 balls remaining, down by 5. So close!

3^rd-7th in Dhaka 9/25

Today Nadia, a teacher in the other class, discussed why so many people here have a hard time understanding my Bengali, and don’t always think I’m speaking it (believing I’m speaking English words they don’t know instead.) One thing we thought of is that perhaps Bengali words sound similar between each other, so a word mispronounced, can quickly change the meaning of a sentence (or make it impossibly confusing.) In English, I told her I found mispronounced words could usually be picked out. But this didn’t seem to sit well with us. Bengali and English both have many words, and thus both should have confusions made between words.
Our second theory seem to be a much better fit. The English speaking world is huge. And those that speak as English as a second or third language perhaps includes the majority of the planet. Thus, an English speaker, encounters very frequently, others who pronounce the same language with a different accent, and/or with broken speech. Thus, one becomes accustomed to hearing English pronounced differently from how oneself speaks it, and is readied for differences. Bangladeshis, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. Only two countries speak Bengali, Bangladesh and eastern India. Although it is in the top 5 of most native speakers in the world due to the density of people in this region, outside of the area, it is not heard. Thus, people in this area are accustomed to only hearing residents of their region speak Bengali. Although dialects exist, a foreign accent on their language is very rarely encountered. Thus, my foreign accent, applied to Bengali, could be very difficult to understand, and thus confusing to many I may encounter.

Went to Nafisa’s aunt’s house for iftar. Met her cousins. Its cool to meet up with her once in awhile. Keep up with what we’ve both been up to as Fulbrights. She’s making a lot of headway on the school she wants to build in Khulna, in southwestern Bangladesh.

One benefit to the difference of time zones and weekends: I have my weekend on Friday and Saturday. College football games happen on Sunday morning for me, so I wake up and see the results. Then NFL happens on Monday and Tuesday morning. So I get to follow that throughout those days. Then, as Tuesday finishes, I only have two days til my weekend, then two weekend days til more football!