So where to begin. It’s been a few days! I guess I can start
with 4th of July, last Thursday. I keep breaking my promise to
update more often...I’m sorry! And then I end up with these long posts that
cover a week at a time….ah, okay, well anyway, 4th of July. We
WANTED to do something, but we really didn’t have too much luck.
In the afternoon, I had a meeting with WaterAid, which is an
NGO that we have partnered with on my project up until now. However, we are
trying to stop working with them. It seems like we are paying way too much for
them to not do very much and they are trying to run the show with this next
intervention (even though we pay them…), so we went to discuss their ideas for
the intervention and tell them ours.
Oh, wow, was this a ridiculous meeting. It was like we were
speaking two different languages (granted, there was some Bangla used on their
end to discuss amongst themselves every once in awhile). They explained their
intervention enthusiastically, despite some enormously major flaws in design
that they couldn’t explain (they were still “working out the details”). Every
question we asked they looked at us like it was the dumbest question ever. One
of Ariadna’s comments they laughed at (or maybe they were laughing with us?).
It was all SO unclear. By the time we got to explaining our intervention, we
were pretty exasperated. They did NOT understand it. A major component is
having people make a public or private pledge to improve sanitation to see the
given effect on whether people actually improve. After explaining everything,
we asked if they could at least keep this commitment aspect in mind as they
wrote up their intervention proposal and got back to us. They looked at us
incredulously: of course we have commitment in our design. And there is a
pledge but it is best made at the end after the household has reached full
sanitation. What? Oh my god, we didn’t even try. Clearly everything we said had
gone right over their heads. Looking back, we laughed at the meeting. But
during it, it was very frustrating. While the PI’s (Project Investigators—the
two professors that run the project) are keen on working with WaterAid, this
meeting really pushed the limit. We can’t afford to work with them and we are
just completely on different pages. So we were happy when the meeting notes got
sent out and the PI’s officially said we could wrap up the contract with them.
Very good news!
So, that was a good two-hour meeting that took up a lot of
my afternoon—what with the hour long trip there and hour long trip back. I
headed home and Kishan brought home apple pies to try and be festive. Well,
they ended up being mini “blueberry” pies. I quote blueberries because not
totally convinced what this blue/purple jam stuff in the middle was. But,
heated up with some ice cream, it was pretty good! Sadly, that was about all we
did for the Fourth of July. We tried?
The next day was Friday, and we decided we would go track
down North End Coffee Roasters, which is a coffee shop that is popular among
expats here and run by an American couple. I had to go into work for a meeting
in the morning, which also ended in good news. We want to hire one WaterAid
worker who we have had a particularly close connection with and who has been
very helpful to us—he’s well connected in the field. He is willing to come work
for us, so our meetings last week were both win wins (in the end). After work,
I attempted to go find a dry cleaners so I could drop the sari off that I had
borrowed for the wedding last week. I headed down a long road to find the first
dry cleaners suggested to me, but it had shut down, even though the sign was
deceivingly still up. So, I had to go two blocks over and head back in the same
exact direction I had come from. It was hot and definitely time for lunch so my
patience was fading. I walked until I got to where the building should have
been based on the address. No sign of it. I kept walking a little ways and then
asked a guy outside a food place where a dry cleaners was. He pointed to have
me keep going. After a few more blocks I went into a store and asked another
guy. He pointed me the other direction. This happened two more times just like
this, with me heading back and forth within four blocks, assuming I had missed
it or something. Exasperated, I gave up. I grabbed a rickshaw and headed home
for some much needed lunch (I finally found a place Sunday…).
After lunch we headed out to find the coffee shop. We knew
the general area and it was near the American Embassy, so we took a rickshaw
right past there. Interestingly, the American Embassy is very discreet here.
And other than one American flag, the large ominous brick building is pretty
discreet. Well, the area was pretty crazy and on a busy street and there was no
sign of any buildings that may house coffee shops. We crossed the road and
walked a ways, but we knew it would be pointless to just wander. We decided to
sit ourselves down outside a little tea stall, whip out a laptop and our
internet USB stick, and look the place up. Very subtle. Very discreet. I was a
little less engaged in the search and bought a couple kids some bananas while I
waited for the boys to figure out where we should go.
Finally, they figured it out. And we headed in the right
direction. It was sort of a ways away, so I was excited when we got there. The
coffee shop was on the second floor, so you couldn’t hear the noise of the
street once you were inside. The windows had a white tint over them, so you
couldn’t see out either (but light still got in). There were tables and couches
and a barista bar that looked straight out of Starbucks. They even had a big
chalkboard menu with all sorts of drink options. We literally could’ve been
right back in the US at a nice coffee shop. I’m not going to lie; it was a really
nice escape. We ordered coffee and got comfortable and hung out, read, and did
some work.
Friday night, Alamgir, the head of the office, invited a
group of us over to his house for dinner. He had the IPA car pick us up and we
headed to his apartment. We met his wife and two kids. There were about 5 other
people from the office there—Ariadna, Prabhat and Kishan’s boss, Martin, and a
couple others. It was a lot of fun getting out and hanging out with a group.
There was SO MUCH food, too! His wife made a huge spread. Well, to start, for
appetizers we had mango and these spring roll things and little samosas. There
were also these sweets I can’t remember what they’re called but I need to look
them up! They’re like little cake balls—delicious. For dinner, it was like 20 different
dishes: two fish curries, two different chicken curries, beef, rice, two
vegetables dishes, fresh vegetables, these green vegetables I’d never seen but
were good, potatoes, and the list goes on. Those are just the ones I can think
of off the top of my head. Also, we didn’t eat until 10:30pm! That’s when
Bangladeshis normally eat—well, at 10pm but still! I can’t even imagine. And
they have these heavy rice and curry meals. I guess they do make you sleepy, so
it’s convenient if you can just go to sleep afterwards. I don’t know. After
eating we got a ride home. And even on a Friday at 11pm we hit traffic. Of
course. It took a good hour to get home. It was the four interns in the car and
we ended up having a very interesting conversation about Hinduism, Christianity,
and Norse Gods/myths. Basically just sharing information with each other. Pretty
diverse group in the car.
Saturday we had another low-key day. I feel restless coming
out of the weekend and know I will definitely need to plan more to do this
weekend! We meant to go check out some mosques, but we never got around to
doing it. This weekend! We are also working on going to see the new Superman
movie this week. You have to buy your movie tickets (in person) a day or two in
advanced here, though. It’s quite the ordeal and not some casual activity. So,
we are working on it.
Saturday I woke up and went to the gym. The guys sleep past noon like every weekend and I haven’t been able to sleep, so this has been a good option to kill time. People are VERY loud here at the gym! It’s sort of funny. Like as people are lifting weights or even just doing abs on the mat they are grunting and moaning and sometimes straight up yelling. It’s pretty strange.
After the gym, I went home and Prabhat was making kathi
rolls. He was improvising making some peanut sauce for them and ended up using
peanut butter, balsamic vinegar, and a few other ingredients. I was skeptical.
He cooked up the cubed chicken with tomatoes and onions and the sauce and then
got out frozen paratha we keep in the apartment and cooked that up with a layer
of egg on it. Then he rolled the chicken in the egg paratha to make the roll. It was SO GOOD. An
accidental dish that ended up being beyond delicious (accidental because the peanut sauce didn’t
really taste like peanut sauce…but we were both happy with the results).
For
those of you that don’t know what paratha is, it’s delicious. It's the shape of
a tortilla and basically just fried layered dough. Think a super thin croissant
in tortilla form. They are absolutely delicious and can be found everywhere
over here. This and naan are the standard bread options served with food (and
roti, which is more like naan than paratha). Anyway, the makeshift kathi roll
was delicious and we’re going to make them again soon. I’m trying to pick up
some things Prabhat has been cooking, since they are seasoned and made so
differently and in a way I would never think of but at the same time all end up
being so good. Like the other night he cooked okra, tomatoes, and onions with
yogurt and masala seasoning. He ate it with paratha and shared a bite with me
and again—so delicious! I don’t know if I winged it like him with those
ingredients and flavors whether I would have quite the same success, but we’ll
see.
After lunch, we headed back to North End Coffee Roasters
just to hang out again. The guys had work, and I just read. I have been reading
a LOT here—I’m on my tenth book…I did the majority of that while the guys were
away, but still, clearly I’ve had some time on my hands. Kishan ordered a
brownie and it was sooo good. Their cinnamon rolls are what they’re known
for—we’ll have to get them next time.
Sunday was back to work. I started the day in a sort of
short, cranky mood and it ended up lasting all day. All the honking and yelling
on the street sounded louder, the people staring and calling out were more
irritating and my attempt to buy fruit at the market after work ended with me
paying what I know was WAY too much (relative to what it should be—still so
cheap compared to at home). Gah I was just having an
I-don’t-want-to-be-here-day. I think it was partly after doing almost nothing
all weekend and then I knew I had a full week of work ahead of me with nothing
fun planned either. So, when the guys got home we started brainstorming what we
could do. We were all admitting that Dhaka isn’t too plentiful with fun
activities and options to do after work (or during the day…), which we hear
other expats say a lot.
Prabhat and I ended up making a late trip out to Lavender to
get some groceries. It was really nice out and not too hot, so the walk was
nice. Unfortunately, Lavender was closed when we got there. On our walk back, a
little boy started following us wanting money. Prabhat told him to follow us to
the market. They talked a little and we found out he was 9. We went to the
market by our house and picked up a few things. The little boy picked out
powdered milk and biscuits, so we bought those for him and he was thrilled
(mostly over the biscuits; I don’t think he meant to point to the milk). Prabhat
hadn’t eaten dinner, so we stopped into Dhaba, which is a very good, cheap
restaurant near out house. It’s Indian and Thai food, although I’ve just had
the Indian. We hung out and talked and he ate, and it was a nice little
excursion after my restless, cranky day.
Yesterday, fish was being served in the office, and when I
do this, I normally try to figure it out early enough to say I’m going out to
eat. Lunch in the office has been good! It’s rice every day and dahl, which
I’ve come to really like together, especially when I add squeeze some lime juice
on top. Then it’s usually a couple bites of chicken or beef (literally, two
bites) and some potatoes and veggies that have usually been cooked with fish so
are not my favorite, but I eat them. Today we had this amazing vegetable mix
that I guess translates literally to “sweet pumpkin” but Martin was saying he
wasn’t sure if it was actually what we would think of as pumpkin, but it
could’ve been because it was a squash-like consistency and sweet. Either way,
it wasn’t made with fish and was SO good! The other amazing thing she makes
every once in awhile is khichuri, which is a rice and lentil dish that also has
some other spices in it and is delicious and warm and comforting. It’s
traditionally made on rainy days (and for sick people) so it makes sense. The
couple days we’ve had it have been rainy ones; it’s one good thing about the
rain. I hope she keeps making it!
Well anyway, yesterday was fish so I went out to pick up
chicken shawarma. Ugh bad idea; I felt sick the REST of the afternoon. I even
felt feverish, so by 4:30 I gave up and headed home. I spent the evening
feeling very sick and in bed. Prabhat was nice and made me some rice for
dinner. Luckily, today I have felt completely fine, so I blame that chicken
shawarma. It’s hard to be completely careful here with the food.
Today was not too eventful. Ramadan will start either
tomorrow or the next day (depending on whether we see the moon), so it will be
interesting to see what that’s like. All the restaurants have signs up with
Iftar deals. Iftar is the meal at the end of the day to break the fast. It’s
traditionally all fried food and a LOT of it. We are going to try and head to
Old Dhaka one day for Iftar, because the street stalls supposedly have
delicious options.
Otherwise, I’m planning a trip to Nepal. I couldn’t at
first, because I knew we were going to the field at some point in July and
didn’t want to plan over that (again…) but I found out we will be going next
week to the field. So next week the field and the weekend after that Nepal and
then the week after Nepal I head home. I can’t believe it! I am sure the next
couple of weeks will fly by, especially with all of this traveling. I will have
to make the most of this weekend in Dhaka, since it may be my last full one.
Well, not much else to report. I will keep you posted on my
travel plans and other things going on around here! Weekdays tend to be slow,
but as I said we are trying to figure out SOMETHING to do! Hopefully we can get
creative and come up with something. We shall see.
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