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 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.

Week 26: Mohan's move was faster than some of the crowded buses I ride (Living and Working alone)

26^th-1st in Dhaka 2/27

Moweena, my boua, is talking to someone in the house next to us, both out the window. Moweena is picking up Mohan’s stuff on the verandah and their chatting away like best friends. I don’t think it is an overstatement when I say that everyone talks to everyone in Bangladesh. When out on the streets there hardly is a soul you would not talk to. Perhaps not a full conversation, but a little chit chat. Kids talk with adults. Police with beggars. Rickshaw drivers with bus drivers. Rich with poor. Store owners with shoppers. Men with women. On the bus everyone talks with strangers. And amongst big groups, no one hesitates to yell their opinion. I’m not sure how else to emphasize that everyone is talking to each other all the time.
This really does help to explain why so many people come up to me and ask me questions on a daily basis. A day doesn’t go by where someone has a conversation with me about what I’m doing here. They are not singling me out as a foreigner and pestering me, but rather acting how they would with any of their fellow countrymen.
One aspect of this, which I’m not sure causes the freedom to chat, or is an effect of it, is the way people address each other. The titles they use create the effect of having a big family, calling each other “brother”, “sister”, “uncle”, etc.

Today Mohan moved. We woke up early to help the rickshaw van drivers. We had to clear the room for them to get the bed, cabinet, and other furniture out for Mohan. There was no advance packing. Mohan that morning threw things on top of blankets, and then around the contents he tied the blankets into bags. Moweena really did most of the work for him. He had her pack all the blanket packages up. My assigned job was to wait in our flat and make sure nothing got stolen by the rickshaw van drivers who were doing the moving. I was also moving my stuff around into one neat pile so that they didn’t take any of that to Mohan’s new place. (pics: Moweena and Mohan sort through some of his stuff, a blanket splayed out with a pile of stuff on top, a blanket bag, the two rickshaw vans brining the second batch of Mohan's stuff down our street)

After the move was complete I got to by his new flat and see it. It is on the 6^th floor, no elevator. Although huge, it’s cheap because it’s up so high. He has a lot of space to waste.

Moweena was very helpful today. She assisted so much during the move, and then came back with me after and helped me clean the whole place up. She swept the floor and then cleaned it with water. The place looked so much better. It allowed me to put everything in the right spots without having to worry about cleaning the floors later.

The rest of the day I spent setting up my house. I went to Pantha Path and bought a desk, a bed, a folding table, and two chairs. This involved a bit of bargaining and finding the best deals. Brought them home riding on a rickshaw van. Was an easy move up the stairs and setting up in the flat as they were all relatively small compared to the cabinet I brought last week.

I set my room up which was lots of fun. I still need a good desk chair, something to put my TV on, and somewhere to put all my toiletries. I decided not to have everything pushed against the wall, but instead make it a tad interesting with my mattress couch jutting out into the middle of the room. (pics: my bedroom at time of posting, opposite view of bedroom with my couch (which is a mattress), and my dining area in the front room)

Went back out and picked up my curtains form the tailor, and some light bulbs since I’ll need them when Mohan takes his.

When Mohan came back at night from work, to grab a few things. He was amazed to see what I’d done with the place. Shocked that I’d completely changed the room around.

Tonight I finished reviewing Purdue University. Then started on Northwestern University.

26^th-2nd in Dhaka 2/28

Went to get coffee at Mango Café in Dhanmondi with Diya. Were there for an hour. Got an egg and cheese sandwich, interesting to see their interpretation of this staple of the American on-the-run breakfast. We walked back via Dhanmondi Lake.

Bought a ceiling fan, need two, but found one for what I thought was a good price, and hopefully might find one cheaper elsewhere. Tried finding some blankets, but none were at any stores in my area. Later I decided I’m just going to buy bed sheets. No reason to buy a blanket if come summertime I won’t even want to use it, and I leave in early September. A thin sheet will suit me just fine.

In afternoon I went searching for some DVDs. Was looking for three: Glengarry Glen Ross, Dune, and Willow. I went to Rifles Square because they have several DVD outlets. (had some good petha on the way over!)
Found Glengarry Glen Ross after a lot of searching, but no one had Willow or Dune. Oh well. Will check Bashundhara City sometime. I don't expect them to have it I guess. They mostly have new movies, with a very very small selection of older ones.

For dinner I met up with Karen, Erin, Erin’s husband (who arrived today from the US!), Nadia, and Laurel. Since all but Karen were coming from across town, they hit traffic, and so I showed Karen my home in the meantime. Also showed her the famous opening scene of Glengarry Glen Ross. Neat to have my first visitor to my place.
Ending up eating at Kozmo Lounge. Were there for about two hours. Met Erin’s husband, neat to meet the man she’s talked about for all this time. He was very glad to be back in his homeland.

Tonight I finished Northwestern University. That makes me more than halfway done with the review. I have completed 6 and have 5 to go. Tonight I did some extra color coding on the spreadsheet. Think it looks real sharp now. #7 to review is UC-Berkeley.

26^th-3rd in Dhaka 2/29

I spent some time researching Berkeley this morning. Also watching Bangladesh lose horribly at cricket over the internet.

Went to New Market. Bought more bed sheets and kitchen supplies. Hopefully that’s the end of my supply shopping. Also checked out a TV stand and a medium sized cane shelf, which I might go back tomorrow and buy. This furniture was being sold street side. Bought a measuring tape to measure the places at home to see if they’ll fit.

In the evening played badminton for first time in awhile. Was fun. Went 2-2 tonight. Came home and heated up my dinner from what Moweena made this morning, egg curry!

Let me describe to you what it means to be the densest country in the world. Okay, so maybe Bangladesh, according to wikipedia, is not the densest in the world, but honestly it’s the densest non-small country in the world. All ten of the countries ahead of it, including Monaco, Hong Kong, Bahrain, and Singapore are islands, city-states, or really small (Monaco is 1.5 sq km!) All of these are smaller than 1100 sq. km, meaning all of them are less than 2/3 the size of my home county, Monmouth County, in central New Jersey! Bangladesh on the other hand is the size of Minnesota.
Comparing Bangladesh in terms of population is one thing. US is #3 in the world, Bangladesh is #7, with about half the number of people. But in terms of density, Bangladesh is 33 times more dense!
What does that mean? How do you make someone understand what that means? It is hard to show that in Dhaka, since the whole city is surely like any other large South Asian city, with people every which way. In some places in New York City it may very well feel like Dhaka. Hidden amongst the buildings though, live many more people. Some women still don’t leave the house except to buy things, and even that could be rare. Thus you might be missing out on seeing a large part of the entire population! As well, there are semi-permanent communities built up in many patches of open land, and these can house more people than you can imagine.
But it’s not until you leave the city that the density of Bangladesh begins to make sense. Outside the city, driving across the fields by car, bus, or rickshaw, you see people everywhere. Wherever you go in Bangladesh, there is always someone else in view. There are no empty spots. When you drive in the United States, you can go miles without seeing another person, especially out west. But in Bangladesh, even in the hills of Bandarban there were still people walking along the roads from place to place. In the remotest fields, there are people farming. On the widest rivers, there are small boats ferrying a crowd of people across. I am serious when I say there are no empty places in Bangladesh. It is when you realize this, and take into account what this means, that you begin to understand the density of Bangladesh more. And once you understand and grasp this density, it helps to understand Bangladeshis as a people.

26^th-4th in Dhaka 3/1

Today I came almost to the end of my furniture shopping. I would like to find a desk chair as I spend most of time at my desk, but will go back to Pantha Path to find one. But today I bought from the side of Mirpur Rd furniture which looked handmade, and the cost seemed to prove it. A TV stand with two shelves below (Tk400), and cane four-level cabinet thing (Tk 200), that I’m using to hold toiletries and commonly needed items.

I just gave my rent and the rest of my advance. They explained to me how I’m going to get my advance back. I now understand that my two month’s advance is actually to partly pay for my last month’s rent. So when I leave in September, I don’t have to pay my rent that month. They will use part of the advance to pay my last month’s gas/electric bill too, so that I don’t “forget” to pay it. Ultimately, of the Tk12,000 I gave as an advance, I get Tk5500 back.

Mohan came by with a young electrician, who took out the fans, and installed mine. Mohan grabbed the majority of the rest of his stuff, and along with his brother-in-law, we all walked the stuff to Mohan’s place down the road. There the electrician installed Mohan’s fans. I also got to meet Mohan’s wife, and his son. His son is now 2.5 months old, his name is Rihan. An adorable boy. They referred to me as uncle.

On the topic of babies, many babies here have a black dot, about half an inch in diameter drawn on their forehead. It is called a “tip”, and its purpose is to ward off bad spirits from causing bad things to happen to the baby. The local belief is that the tip will keep the baby safe. The parents draw this on the baby’s forehead using what was described as something similar to mascara. (pic: look closely at the young kid next to the guy sitting in the window...above the kid's left eye is a tip)

Another tradition in regards to young children is to shave the heads of young girls regularly until a certain age. Tradition says that if this is done, the girl’s hair will come out much fuller when it is finally allow to grow. Thus, many young girls are seen with hair which is still very short at ages which you would expect it to be longer. (pics: young kids marching in a parade in Chittagong division...look closely to see that many of the girls have short hair, a mother and short-haired daughter at the Dhaka Zoo)

Today finished reviewing UC Berkeley, next up is Georgia Tech

26^th-5th in Dhaka 3/2

Today was my first day of data collecting with the aim of actually keeping the data. It wasn’t practice anymore. Took four bus rides, and was feeling pretty good about the data collection. Started wondering with the data I am using, if I could simply collect from street side, and thus get more buses per hour. However, I began to realize that with the amount of activity that happens on buses when it is not at the stop, it is necessary to spend time actually riding the routes. This is especially true for local buses. Also decided that without time on the bus, I would not be able to see the effect crowding has on overall travel time. Might spend sometime curbside later to complement the work I’m doing now.

Bought many things today including fish, pohnir, and lentils for the first time. Excited for the cooking Moweena will do when I know there are more ingredients to vary the dishes

After coming back from research I’m pretty beat. And disgustingly sweaty. After eating I take a cold shower (unless I want to boil water, it’s always cold) and then watched a movie, read, went to bed.

26^th-6th in Dhaka 3/3

Made a list of buses to ride this morning. I’m going to ride 3 buses of each type, 10 times. That’s 5 types for ticket buses, meaning 15 buses to ride, meaning 150 rides. If I can do four a day, that’s 37 days. I have enough time for that. Then afterwards I’ll do the local buses. I want to be done with the ticket buses my mid to late April

After doing my bus riding today, decided I had to scrap yesterday’s and today’s earlier data. I was missing things in my recordings that I wanted to have for all, and so I decided to only keep the later ones from today. One of the conductors on my last bus today asked what I was doing, as he saw I wasn’t getting off the bus. After telling him his expression seemed to say, “I can’t believe you’d CHOOSE to do this.”

Went by the American Center today. Picked up some mail and had a short meeting with Harvey and Shaheen about my progress here. After met up with Jen and Ben, since they were at the Center too, and we had lunch at a Korean restaurant that Jen loves. Also went to the Embassy, needed to add extra pages to my passport because I’m out of room. They’ll do it for free, just have to leave it for a day. The security at the Embassy today was especially friendly once they knew I spoke Bengali. Was actually hard to leave because they kept talking to me, asking and asking questions! I prefer that over the typical brashness I receive.

Stopped by DPavement on way home tonight, a neat restaurant that my friend Nipu keeps talking about. I was only asking to see their menu. But while I stood there for a less than a minute looking at it, the owner brought me a complementary lime juice felt great to my body, exhausted and hot from the bus all day.

26^th-7th in Dhaka 3/4

Got a text message on my phone this morning from my cell phone provider, forwarding a message from the government telling people that it IS safe to eat properly cooked poultry and eggs even under bird flu conditions. Very interesting.
I’ve seen some restaurants and stores which have hung signs saying they no longer will be serving chicken or eggs during bird flu conditions.

So half of my apartment building’s staircase and garage got painted white, and the other half did not. What I think happened is that one landlord (who owns the flats on the right side of the building) wanted to paint the place white to make it nice looking, but the other landlord (who owns the flats on the left) didn’t. So they got in an argument, and the right-sider decided to paint it white to show that the left-sider was being ridiculous. So now when I climb the stairs, I climb through a hallway of white, I turn the corner, and then it’s not white anymore, and I turn the next corner and it’s white again, and so on. (pics: the ground floor of the my building...half-painted, my landing...half-painted)

Did four routes today. Did a fifth but sat in a bad seat and it just didn’t work out, I couldn’t count what I needed, so I had to scrap it. Not a bad day. Got the data I needed, and did it correctly.

It’s been storming really bad at nights, and nights only, for the past few. I always wake up in the late hours of the night and hear major gusts of wind blowing. Sounds like a hurricane out there. Last night it was accompanied by a major thunderstorm. (UPDATE: Found this news article on March 9, it tells of 74kmh winds in Dhaka these nights!)

Today heard music being played on a bus for the first time. That was weird. I feel like all day I have interesting stories that could be shared, but by the time I get home I’ve forgotten them all. At least I’ll say that I usually am well entertained by the day’s activities.