Week 41: Second cricket loss, first time trapped in an elevator, several disruptive power outages

41^st-1st in Dhaka 6/11

I’ve noticed that the midday highs and the nightly lows are now only separated by three to five degrees in the weather forecasts. It seems like the heat is trapped, and nights don’t really cool down anymore.

Took Ben to lunch to try some foods that, honestly, I don’t eat anymore here. At least one I used to love, biryani. The other, borhani, I’ve never liked the few times I’ve tried it.

After spending the morning at home, we went to New Market to pick up our clothing from the tailor. Everything fit very well, and we were happy with our results. Ben now has the task of bringing his stuff around the world. We also ordered some beach-like shirts, one for each of us, and went to a button store to choose what buttons we’d like. We walked around the market for awhile after looking for some items of interest.

We then headed to Gulshan for Aaron’s goodbye party. He leaves tomorrow morning. I’d never really been to any of the foreign clubs in Dhaka, and was amazed to see the luxury some people choose to enjoy. Tonight was their weekly cookout, with a variety of meats, including pig, which you never see in Bangladesh. I got chicken skewers, Ben got shrimp skewers. Lots of people came to bid their goodbyes to Aaron. The system they work on here for payment is through a complex booklet you have to buy of a set cost. As a result, Ben and I were left with $8.50 (yes dollars) of credit, so we bought a double cappuccino, a latte, and a slice of cheesecake.

41^st-2nd in Dhaka 6/12

Today is Ben’s last full day in Bangladesh. We were at home in the morning, Ben had to plan out a lot of things for his trip to India, and my slow internet makes that a long process. I went out and made some copies of things for him: maps, plane tickets, etc.

The day was centered around an international cricket match between Bangladesh and India at Mirpur Stadium. The game is the third One Day International match between the three nations in the Tri Nations Series: India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Bangladesh had already lost to Pakistan, and India had beaten Pakistan, so things were not looking up for Bangladesh’s match versus India (well, honestly that is known weeks beforehand.)

I had to pick up tickets for Luke and his friend Stephanie who were coming later, so I told Ben and Ayon to go inside and I’d meet them there. The ticket counter had three windows, two for the cheap Gallery seats, and one for the Reserved and VVIP seats. Well despite the prices attached to those latter tickets, that particular line was the only one that went through a giant mud puddle. You had to walk along the bamboo handrails separating the lines to stay out of the puddle. There are always penalties for sitting in the better seats.

I met up with everyone inside, already there along with Ben and Ayon were Hridoy (Ayon and Jayita’s cousin), Jayita, and her fiancée Apurba. Later Opu would arrive, and then finally Luke and Stephanie later on. (pic: Hridoy/Opu/Ayon/Ben at the match having a serious discussion on the state of Bangladeshi cricket)

Bangladesh had chosen to bat first, and the inning went well, they scored 222 runs and lost their last wicket in the final over. It looked like Bangladesh could have a fighting chance if they played well defensively in the second inning. The game was quite warm, and the sun blared on us for about an hour, causing people around to shield themselves with whatever they had around (flags, hats, bookbags.) We had several bottles of cold beverages and two ice creams to keep cool. (pics: India bowls to Bangladesh in the Tri-Nations Series, Ben/Opu/Hridoy/Jayita watch the match, Bangladeshi cricket supporters waving the national flag, blocking out the sun by whatever way possible)

During the innings break, a friend of Jayita’s found us. He works for the Bangladesh Cricket Board, and insisted that he bring us to the VVIP section to sit. He didn’t need to twist our arms. We arrived at this section by actually leaving the stadium and then coming back in through several security checks. But once inside, we had incredible field-side seats.

From our excellent seating position, however, we watched as Bangladesh got dismantled by India. India scored runs at a run rate of over 7.0, a high pace. The game felt a bit slower as we watched Bangladesh lose. At one point Ben and I found some excellent game food beyond the ice cream, samosas, chingaras, soda, and chips that were being sold in the stands. A meal of a chicken cutlet, two spring rolls, and an excellent bread roll. Our friends left slowly, Jayita and Apurba first, Luke and Stephanie next. At the end of the match, only Ayon, Opu, Hridoy, Ben and I were left to cheer on two end-game wickets collected by Bangladesh. (pics: Ben/myself in our new seats, field view from the new seats)

Upon coming home, Ben wanted to update his blog one last time, and get packed. Meanwhile we also watched the movie Darjeeling Limited. A perfect fit since Ben is about to go across India.

41^st-3rd in Dhaka 6/13

Got up very early and brought Ben to the bus counter to leave for Kolkata. No issues, he boarded, and is now on his next leg of his world tour: India for three days before heading to Sweden to meet with his family.

Spent the middle part of the day updating the blog, posting photos, and applying for jobs. Also caught up on all the blogs I read, as I’d stopped reading when Ben was here.

Moweena didn’t show up, so I didn’t have a fresh breakfast. This resulted in me not eating much today. I finally got lunch around 4pm, and it was just then that Jen and Ben called to invite me over for dinner at their place tonight. Good thing I didn’t order too much.

Before heading over to their place for dinner, a group of Muslim men came to my door. I answered, and they asked if there were any Muslims at home. They said they had come straight from mosque and they wanted to share a prayer. Finding it was only me, they proceeded to other doors. But when they came back downstairs from the floors above, I intercepted them, and inquired about what they wanted to share, and why today. It turned out that today was a great day of prayer at the mosque, and they wanted to share what they were feeling with others who had not come. They were reminding other Muslims how great it is to be a Muslim, and how great Allah is. It was neat to hear about the passion they had felt inspired to go out as groups and share. Although I didn’t get to share a prayer with them since I don’t prayers in the Koran, I was glad to be an audience to them and to hear the messages they had come to talk about.

Dinner at Jen and Ben’s was fun. Luke and Sam showed up as well, both were students with Jen last year in AIBS. Jen and Ben cooked tortillas and the appropriate fillings. It was delicious, and I ate a lot. Jen and Ben’s friends came over, two Bangladeshi girls, and this instantly changed the language of the evening to Bengali. Although they didn’t like the tortillas, we had a fun time talking with them for the hour or so they stayed.

A story I wrote for Fulbright when they requested stories from Fulbrighters got posted on the front page of their website. See the link here and in the sidebar.

41^st-4th in Dhaka 6/14

Today I really got back to work. I finished the pre-processing of all my buses I had collected data on, and then processed two of those. I did this all in two different restaurants, just to get out of the house.

I had been at home all morning, doing photo stuff, getting things done online. I joined a website that allows you to find travel partners. Ever since Landon got word from his company that he can’t come with me to Southeast Asia, I’ve had a feeling of doom that I’ll be traveling alone. So I joined travelchums.com and a few others. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

But I was also feeling real sick today for some reason. After being out working, I was feeling exhausted. Beat down. Weak. Worn out. I put a movie on and sat and enjoyed, didn’t feel like moving. After the movie was over, I just shut my eyes and slept right where I was. I was too tired to get up to brush my teeth or shower. Finally around 1AM, I woke up, showered, and went to my real bed.

41^st-5th in Dhaka 6/15

Woke up feeling very refreshed. Got a reply on travelchums from someone wanting to travel. That was great! Hope more show up. Signed up for a bunch more travel buddy websites, and posted on a few message boards. Hope some of these are effective. I would think people who post on there, or are active, are actually wanting to make something of their time there.

Talked to Dad since it was Father’s Day. That was very nice. Would be great to be at home sharing it with him, would be a real treat.

Processed three buses today. Local buses take longer to process than ticket buses because there are more stops, and more boards and alights per stop, and the stops are longer. This all adds up to what feels like less productivity. I don’t get as frequent feelings of completion because I go through stops and buses so slowly.

Felt very sick again at night. Couldn’t take my cold shower. Wore a shirt to bed for the first time since winter. Then woke up middle of the night sweating. Was up for awhile lying in bed.

41^st-6th in Dhaka 6/16

Today Shegufta had promised to start working with me on a more regular basis. We planned to meet in BUET’s computer lab at 10. I gave her the bus stop data to process. Although this takes a longer amount of time, I felt because it involved less types of data to work with while still requiring a fairly active regiment of work, as compared to uploading information to the database, it was fit best for her. As well, since it takes longer than the database entry, daily I can enter what she does the day before into the database quickly, and then move onto analyzing, which I haven’t done enough of yet.

Currently I’m learning visual basic and how to write macros and seeing how I can apply this to my project. This also involves making decisions on how I want to manage my data, and in what programs to analyze, and which to store.

Only hiccup of the day was when Shegufta lost all the work she’d done over 1.5 hours. I had warned her to save often because of the computer lab’s eventual power outage, and of course she didn’t save at all, and lost all her work when we lost power.

After she left, I stayed a bit longer working, and then headed out. I got in the elevator, and its doors closed, and just then the power went out. I was stuck. Then it came on, and the doors opened, and I decided it’d be smart to get out before the power goes off again, but before I could get out, the elevator reshut its doors (it seemed to be restarting a routine) and started going down. Just as we were going down the power went out again. I sat there wondering what happens when you’re stuck in an elevator when the power is out. Power went back on again, and the elevator started moving again, and reached the bottom floor, but the doors wouldn’t open. I was there for 10 minutes with some man outside telling me to “wait.” Then magically the doors opened, and he wasn’t even standing there, and I left the building.

I came home and spent a lot of time working on visual basic, learning more of what it can do and practicing writing small programs with my excel tables. I enjoy learning new programs, even though I don’t pursue new ones actively.

It got windy this evening, and a fluorescent light bulb that’d just been leaning on my balcony (Mohan left it here) got blown over and crashed, scattering glass everywhere. Had to clean that up.

41^st-7th in Dhaka 6/17

Another day feeling a bit weak and tired. Not sure what’s wrong.

At BUET Shegufta processed two buses for me, while I databased two, and then spent some writing, cleaning my data in the database, and fumbling around trying to get my Visual Basic operations to work.

Spending this time at BUET with Shegufta has allowed me to ask her what the giant bell is that rings at times throughout the day. She explained the bell announces exam times during the exam period, two hours left, one hour left, finish time. Heard all over campus. A neat idea that can stay a tradition for sure.

Working in the lab more often now has allowed me to discover some of the annoyances. For one, the computers won’t allow me to run macros or visual basic operations. I don’t understand how an engineering university’s computers aren’t allowed to do this. I understand the worry that students might make harmful macros, but other universities worldwide seem to figure a way out around this.
Like many offices and schools, certain words are blocked from being to be searched through a search engine. I’ve discovered one of those words at BUET is “analysis”, a word which I think could be useful for people in the fields of science and math.
The last and most significant are the power outages. Since we are all on PCs, when the power goes out, all the PCs turn off. BUET does have a generator, but nothing more, so although power comes back quick, we lose anything that hasn’t been saved. And since the power outages come randomly, you have to save all the time. Not usually a big problem, but because the computers are slow, and my files are large, saving takes about fifteen seconds each time. This adds up and slows down productivity. Today, in five hours, we had six losses of power, one for about ten minutes. We just sit there in the dark.

I've started to learn to read Hindi in preparation for traveling to India. It's not hard now that I already read Bengali with ease. I'm using an internet website that has simple pages with the characters on them and does it's best to make lessons

Week 27: Fed hourly in the village of Bhaberchar

27^th-1st in Dhaka 3/5

Today marks 6 months. Technically this is the halfway mark of my Fulbright grant. Yes, it feels like it’s been that long. I’m not the one to say, “Wow, time flies.”

I had a meeting at 10am at BUET with two of the undergrads who will help me, Arjun and Adnan. Arjun said a third, Shegufta, a girl in their class, was coming as well. After they’d all arrived, I went over what I’d been doing recently and how I need their help. Gave them brief introductions into the data collection process. Tried to establish times they could come out with me, and Adnan seemed to be the first to be able, coming tomorrow.

To get to the places I needed to today, I used bus routes that I’m studying. Even if they go past where I need to go, I take the bus to the end, and then backtrack if necessary. Headed up to Baridhara via the Winner bus, collecting data on the route to the end. Backtracked to the American Embassy to pick up my passport with its twenty new pages added into it!

Went to the American Center to pick up a package from my parents. There the security guards from the American Embassy the other day were working. Looks like they take shifts at the three American buildings. They were as chatty as last time.

Had lunch at the Mexican place in Banani. Wanted to get the lunch special, but it wasn’t being offered, because it has chicken in it, and they’re not serving chicken anymore.

Took a new bus today, Dibanishi. It has a neat practical route, hitting some real good spots. They are very organized at their bus stands with real lines and everything! Took it all the way to the end. Then took a bus from there, not doing data collection, to Mirpur 1. Picked up my camera there. The smudges and dirt which were ruining my pictures for about two months are now cleaned off, and I’m ready to start taking good photos again!

Took a bus back down to Pantha Path. There I paid for the bus ticket from Khulna to Dhaka for my parents. Then went to the rental car office and talked about it one more time before putting down an advance. Got all that worked out.

Since I was already there, I went by the furniture area and picked up my last dinner table chair and a desk chair. Now my furniture shopping is complete. Took them both back home by rickshaw.

27^th-2nd in Dhaka 3/6

I got to teach the undergraduates today how to do the data collection. Only two out of the three could come. Funny because Adnan, the one who didn’t come, was the only one who originally said he could come today. I took Shegufta and Arjun around, we took two routes. On the first one I taught them my methods and showed them how to record the data. On the second route I let them practice. It was a neat sight seeing the two of them sitting in the front seat of the bus, voice recorders to their mouths, and keeping track of the data. I think they did well, and was proud to have trained two team members. They seemed pretty excited about doing it. Their comments about it indicated that they thought it was a bit difficult. I think it was especially harder for Shegufta since she does not usually ride buses. Not only is she getting use to the routes, stops, and data collection, but just bus riding in general. It takes some getting used to.

Did three other routes by myself today too. So spent a lot of time on the bus today, riding 6 total routes. Met Megan and Aaron for dinner at Bella Italia in Gulshan for pizza and pasta. Was able to time my bus routes correctly to make it. After dinner Megan and I called Abusaleh and Ashraful and scheduled to come to their village on Saturday.

Came home, and ate a second dinner. Really the dinner at Bella Italia was my lunch, hadn’t eaten all day.

27^th-3rd in Dhaka 3/7

Today I finished Dune. So great to complete the novel. I enjoyed it more and more as I went along. Definitely in my top 3 of science fiction novels.

Headed out to New Market, and brought my suit jacket along. Wanted to get some things adjusted on it from January. Brought it to my tailor, and he told me he could shorten the arms and the body of the jacket without a problem. Then we went downstairs and I selected my fabric for my next suit. Wanted to get a lighter suit for summer occasions. The guy selling the fabric was real helpful like last time. They brought me juice too! And then he brought the price down a lot, without any bargaining. Perhaps he was just saying that to make me think I got a “deal.” But then, after paying, he decided to give another Tk300 more off! I didn’t even ask. He said I was a returning customer and would give me even more off. I wasn’t expecting it all. I was content paying the first price, but he gave me Tk300 and told me to take it. Made a big impression on me.
I then went upstairs to the tailor’s shop and we prepared the order for this new suit.

Met up with Nipu at DPavement, which we’ve been trying to go to for awhile. No success this time, “Private Party“ sign on the door. So we headed down the street to Nando’s and had some delicious peri-peri chicken burgers. Nando’s, famous for their chicken, has taken an interesting approach to the avian flu issue. At each table setting they have left pamphlets with 7 FAQs that you can take with you and read. Very informative, and spreads correct information in a good way. Have to commend them. And the t-shirts they wear at the restaurant are about how they are serious about Avian Flu, with the same logo as the pamphlet. Plus the food is always tasty. (pic: the pamphlet answering the FAQ about avian flu)

27^th-4th in Bhaberchar 3/8

Megan and I headed out past Sonargaon today to Bhaberchar where the guys, Abusaleh and Ashraful who we met on our Sonargaon trip, live in their village. Ashraful, however, didn’t meet up with us today, and we spent the day with Abusaleh. We had a lot of traffic heading out of Dhaka, so showed up to his place an hour late.

We were fed many times throughout the day. I count five. Of those, only one was a full meal, the rest were sweets and snacks. So full by the time we left. (pics: the full meal, Megan eating meal #4 of 5)

Abusaleh showed us around the village, his old school, his current school, the college his sister goes to, the primary school some of his family works at. He pointed out the homes of each of his aunts, uncles, and other extended family members. (pics: Megan/Abusaleh admiring the Shahid Minar at his sister's college, Megan talking with Abusaleh's sisters friends in their college, getting fed meal #2 of 5 at the primary school, Abusaleh asked us to pose with a poster some girls at his school were drawing)

The neatest school stop off was the primary school. After sitting and talking to teachers for a bit, they showed us each of the classrooms with about 30 students each. When we walked all the kids stood up, saluted us, and said, “Salam walekum.” The teachers introduced us to the top boy and girl in each class and made the kids ask us questions. Some were too shy to say a word. But the second we left each classroom we heard it explode in chatter and laughter. I noticed the top kids in the classes sat in the front. Megan explained to me after that in most schools in Bangladesh she has been to, the kids sit in order of their rank in the class, girls on one side of the room, boys on the other, So the kids with the lowest marks sit in the back row, and the kids in the front row have the best marks. The number one boy and girl in each class sit in the inner side of the front rows, directly in front of the teacher. (pics: browsing through the first level English book the students study from, the boys' side of grade 4 classroom, teachers have the top girl in the class ask us questions, students being told to ask us questions...nothing tougher than our name and where we come from)

At one point we meandered through a rice paddy to get to one part of the village. First time walking through one, despite it probably covers more land area than any other crop (or all other things perhaps. (pics: Abusaleh standing in the rice paddy, Megan/myself standing in the rice paddy)

Later one of the teachers took us back to her home and then to her husband’s home. It was then back to Abusaleh’s after that. His older sister and mother talked to us a lot. They enjoyed being hosts to us. As well, Abusaleh’s youngest sister, only 1.5 years old, was there and was constantly the center of attention. (pic: Abusaleh and his younger sister)

Tried a few swings on the field in front of Abusaleh’s home at cricket. Got to play 3 overs, batting twice, missing a lot! Oh well. Neat to play on a real pitch. They definitely were gently tossing them to me, and I still missed.

Abusaleh commandeered my camera the entire day. Thus almost every picture was taken by him, except for the few times I managed to get it back to take a shot of him doing something. He did this last time in Sonargaon. I also must note that I was asked several times if I'll be getting these printed out and giving them to him. (pics: some of Abusaleh's pictures he snapped: baby sister and younger brother, baby sister, father with his cows, myself/Megan with Abusaleh's three sisters (baby sister, in red, and in pink) mother (in white/yellow) and others at the household)

I also must note that Abusaleh's mother changed her clothing a minimum five times during the day. She also changed her baby daughter's clothes that many times too. I don't know if she was just trying to show us her entire wardrobe or just likes to wash clothes to keep busy. She didn't announce her new clothing at all. Just each time we saw her, she was wearing something different.

The bus ride back was a bit bad as I got stuck standing the whole ride back. I don’t mind standing for less than an hour, but after that it gets exhausting.

27^th-5th in Dhaka 3/9

Moweena was feeling sick this morning. She was exhausted and hot from cooking and asked me to turn on the fan in my bedroom just so she could sit below it.

Discovered today that the data processing takes a lot longer than I expected. Minimum one hour per bus to listen to my voice recordings and get the data to the computer. I thought it’d take long, but it just didn’t sit in my mind how long that actually was. Might need to collect 4 days a week and process 2. I spent today getting the database ready for all of that, making it easier for me. Was in the BUET lab all day working on this.

I had heard about a play that Ishita was performing in tonight from her cousins Ayon and Jayita. She called me about it midday and told me to come this evening. They were performing their interpretation of Agatha Christie’s “And Then There Were None”. I told her I’d come. It was being performed at the National Playhouse, a rickshaw ride away from BUET.

The play was being put on by Ishita’s school, North South University. Specifically their drama and cine club. They’ve been practicing for months. The students themselves (four of them in the club) took on the incredible task of translating the play into Bengali to put it on.

I got there early, coming straight from BUET. Sat around, and at least got to talk to her beforehand. Ayon, his sister, Onita and her new husband came later, and I sat with them at the back of the theater. I understood a lot more tonight than I did last time at NSU Cultural Club’s night. Probably because it was not songs, but dialogue, so you can follow it better. Also there I likely have improved in listening in the last three months. There were two acts, so during the intermission Ayon updated me on things I might’ve missed. I think the acting was good because even when I couldn’t understand what they were saying, their acting helped me. Ishita was great to watch, she brought her character out wonderfully.

27^th-6th in Dhaka 3/10

I worked 12 hours today over a 14 hour period! I realized the pressing need to get the voice data uploaded. I saw how long it took yesterday and made a push today to do as much as I could. I finished uploading six routes into the database. It takes time because I have to go through each voice file and record the time that each boarding happens. It’s like reliving each bus route. Almost gives me a headache listening to honking and bus driving all day through headphones.

I did the first three routes at home, and then finally decided to get a change of scenery and headed to BUET. Had lunch at Rifles Square on the 6^th floor bowling alley. I knew they had a gyro, but I have to say I was disappointed. But they’re garlic cheese bread wasn’t too bad.

At BUET I was in the lab for a few hours except for a few minute snack break. Lab closed at 9pm, and I could’ve stayed their longer. I was in a groove and could’ve worked at least another hour. But came home, bought some groceries from the streets, and had dinner at home.

27^th-7th in Dhaka 3/11

One thing you get to experience on the bus, when riding it all the time, is the continuous bus hawkers and beggars. The newest items I’ve seen being sold on buses are small quick use Bengali-English dictionaries and teeth cleaning scrubs which can be carried on one’s person. At some point I’m going to tally up how much I would be paying if I gave money to each bus beggar and bought one item from each bus hawker.

Riding the buses so much means I’m starting to see repeats in hawkers, and I’ve seen their song and dance for their products several times. Hear the same jokes again and again!

I spent the morning doing some data processing, than decided to head out to do some bus routes. Did three today on Trans Silva, which is a fairly long route. I tried out a new method today that I think could quicken the data processing. I am doing the data pre-processing on the bus, right after I collect it, instead of waiting days later to do it at a computer. The pre-processing only needs paper and the voice file, which I have with me on the bus. I plug headphones into the voice recorder and do the pre-processing while I’m stuck in traffic (which is a lot of course in Dhaka.)

Weighed myself today for the first time in a long while. Got it done on the side of the street, which costs Tk1. A man sits there with a scale and you just walk up, step on the scale, get your weight, then give him a Tk1 coin. The fancier weight peddlers’ machines also can measure height, and have flashy lights, these might cost up to Tk4.

Been meaning to see how skinny I’ve gotten here for awhile. I had lost 13 pounds in the first few months, but hadn’t weighed myself since. Well the newest weight: 23 pounds below my arrival weight! Yes, that is a lot.

Granted, when I arrived I was the heaviest I’d been in my life at 168 pounds, and dropping to 145 puts me just below some of my college rowing weights, and exactly where I was when I left South Africa at the end of sophomore year. And it’s still heavier than when I cut to 138 to make the flyweight division at the Canadian Henley Regatta.