Wednesday, July 10th

So Ramadan officially starts tomorrow. We got a text today from the office head, Alamgir, that the office will officially be open from 9am to 3:30pm for Ramadan. I’m not sure how closely the non-Muslims (like the PCs and PAs aka my bosses) follow this schedule, but I guess I will see tomorrow. I will not complain if I we end work at 3:30pm. Although, honestly, there isn’t too much to do with all of the extra free time. But still.

Only 6 of us in the office will be eating office lunch now, so we had to figure that out today with the woman that cooks. It’s crazy everyone else will be fasting all day every day for an entire month. I can’t even imagine. We are going to try and fast one day and then go out somewhere delicious for Iftar. I suggested we do it on a weekend day so that we can lay low and not be expected to use our brains. It’s sort of cheating considering everyone else continues on with their lives (the poor rickshaw wallahs!) but still. Also we are going to cheat and drink water, because it is just way too hot here to not drink water all day! I can’t believe people do it. I feel like everyone will be fainting left and right.

Anyway, this morning we got locked into our apartment. Prabhat woke up early to go on a run and used the key to lock us in. We have two sets of keys so normally this wouldn’t be a problem and we could just unlock the door from the inside with the key (it’s an old school dead bolt that you have to lock/unlock with the key from the inside or out). Well, we couldn’t find the key. So the cleaning woman came and was knocking and knocking and Kishan tried to get out the phrase book to explain what was going on and we were calling down for the building supervisor and he didn’t really understand so kept calling back and meanwhile I was looking everywhere for the key and trying to get a hold of Prabhat and the whole thing was a scene. And all at 8am right after crawling out of bed and a very deep sleep. We ended up not being able to open the door, so the cleaning woman left. Once Prabhat came home we were free, but after a bunch of searching we still couldn’t find the other set, so we are getting a new set made tomorrow.

Today after work I went to the gym. I had no small bills so I couldn’t take a rickshaw home afterwards, which was a bummer. If you don’t have 10’s or 20’s and you take a rickshaw you end up way overpaying because they won’t give you change. They’re smart and pretend they don’t understand what you’re saying when you ask for change or they say they don’t have any smaller bills. Smart, but it’s annoying.

After the gym and dinner, Kishan and I went to meet Prabhat at the market to load up on some fruits and vegetables. I usually get the fruit and Prabhat gets the vegetables, because he knows all the names for them (they are the same as in Nepal) and he is a better bargainer. Fruit prices are more fixed, so I stick with those. But tonight we bought both. I usually beeline past the vegetable stands to the back where the fruit is. The vegetable stands are the most overwhelming, because they are big and very tall (the venders stand up above on stools, I guess) and are along the sides of a very narrow path through the market and everyone on both sides is always yelling out “Madame! Madame!” and so I usually just keep on going. Also, I don’t recognize half the vegetables.

Tonight was interesting though, because we went to Prabhat’s regular stand and they were showing us all of the options. They were smart and kept showing them to me and having me smell the different herbs, because I was so interested in everything and kept wanting to buy everything they showed me. They picked up on me as the consumer of the group quickly. Prabhat showed me and named a lot of new vegetables, and we picked up a new spinach-like green and some herbs I have never tried and another small green vegetable that looks like a mini cucumber that Prabhat is going to cook for us. We also bought baby corn. I never knew what baby corn even looked like. I had only seen it already shucked and prepared at salad bars or in stir-fry’s. From the outside it basically just looks like mini shucks of corn. I guess I should’ve expected that, but I was still surprised. Also, I love baby corn, so I was pretty excited (and therefore bought some). We had to finally say no after buying a bunch of greens, carrots, potatoes, onions, baby corn, those new green vegetables and a few new herbs. We definitely loaded up, partially due to my consumer attitude to all the new vegetables they kept showing us, but regardless. This HUGE bag and just a ton of vegetables for Tk320 ($4….). I have pretty much switched my price expectations and gotten used to using taka so am always surprised now when I do do the conversions.

Tonight we laid low. We bought a bootleg version of Scrabble from Lavender last week, so we opened that up and played a game. It was basically the same as Scrabble, just with some notably cheaper parts. Otherwise, not very much to report since my last update. We are going to book everything for Nepal tomorrow, so I am really excited about that! One of the PI’s on my project is coming this weekend. He’s a professor from Yale and is doing a trip to check up on all of his projects in India and Bangladesh. It will be very interesting to meet him and discuss the project. Also we will be having another (final!) meeting with WaterAid that he will come to on Monday so that will good. Then, we will be planning a trip to the field for next week, so I'm looking forward to that! I’ll keep you posted on the upcoming weekend. I think we are going to try and fast Friday—should be interesting. I can be a bit cranky some may say when I’m hungry, so I have already warned Prabhat and Kishan that I need to do a lot of laying and lounging and sleeping while we fast. I wouldn’t make a very good Muslim…

Tuesday, July 9th

So where to begin. It’s been a few days! I guess I can start with 4^th 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, 4^th 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. 

Thursday, July 4th (HAPPY 4TH OF JULY)

So, Sunday we went to a wedding! Like I said in my last post, it was for a man that works in our office and everyone was invited. Women wear saris to weddings, so I asked Ariadna about getting one. She suggested I borrow one from Rafaiyat, who used to work on my project at the office as a Project Associate (the position that works under what Ariadna is, which is Project Coordinator). So, I asked Rafaiyat last week when we all went out to Thai, and she said of course. So, on Sunday I texted her to figure out a time to pick up the sari, and to ask for help tying it because I of course have NO idea how to tie a sari. She told me where she lived and that I could come by after work at any time. A random address in Gulshan 2….I knew this would be a struggle. Also, road 104—sometimes I can get lucky with numbers under 10 but 104?? Really?

So, I left work early and headed out to the street to get a rickshaw home to drop my bag off first. The guy that got me repeated the number 24 impeccably and then asked me how I was doing that day. Woah. I needed to hold onto this guy. So, when we reached my apartment I told him to wait five minutes and then I needed to go to Gulshan 2. He seemed to understand. I ran upstairs and when I came back he was waiting there and seemed to understand 104. Even though I wasn’t quite in the clear, I was so relieved. We set off, and actually road 104 is quite far (endless ways to get lost). We were going for a while and passed through some very, very nice areas with beautiful, big buildings. We made it right to her building with no problem. This truly was a miracle.

I headed up and Rafaiyat had the sari. I asked if she could help me put it on and she admitted she didn’t even know how to tie one, but her mother did and could help me. I went into the other room to put on the fitted blouse and petticoat. The fitted blouse is like an elbow-length, high-kneck scoop top that is very, very cropped. This one was also quite tight, and I was relieved that it even fit on me, because it was a close call (and that would’ve been very awkward…).  I put it on backwards at first and couldn’t get the clips up the back until I asked Rafyait and she was like yeah, it goes the other way…of course. So, finally I got the blouse on and the petticoat is just a heavy, full-length slip skirt that goes on bottom. Then, her mom came in and started tying the actual sari. It is SO much fabric. This sari was made of a sheer black fabric with a sequin/embroidered trim of dark red and little royal blue and yellow-y colored thread mixed in. It was very pretty. Her mother also gave me giant blue earrings to take to wear that were each like 5lbs. They were dangly and then also wrapped around my ear lobe. They were a whole contraption. I wore them for a little and then took them out because of how painful they were.

The sari seemed very complicated to tie, but after some folding and tucking and safety pinning, it was done. On the left side, my arm held up the extra cloth hanging off, so I had to keep my arm lifted to keep it from dragging. Also, the whole thing was heavy. Rafaiyat’s mother told me to keep the trim of the sari that drapes down the front right from twisting under as this is the “smart” way to wear it, and it looks bad when the trim twists under. Of course, the trim in no way wanted to stay up and was continuously twisting inwards, so I don’t think I was looking very smart for a lot of the wedding…

I am surprised by the cut of saris when they are worn in a part of the world that is otherwise so modest. My midriff was pretty visible through the one layer of sheer black fabric that covered it, and while mine was tied more modestly high in the back, I have seen saris that expose basically a woman’s whole back. Other than these points of exposure, though, there is tons and tons of fabric and it is quite uncomfortable to wear and to maneuver in. Prabhat worked at an NGO in India promoting women’s rights and said there is a big feminist movement that is against saris because they are responsible for a lot of women’s deaths in kitchen fires. They are such long strips of fabric, so intricately tied, that when a woman catches on fire, it is nearly impossible to get her out of the sari in time to save her. So, overall, some interesting things I was thinking about as I was getting wrapped up myself in this giant piece of cloth.

After getting dressed, Rafaiyat offered to drive me home with her driver, which I gladly accepted. I didn't know how I would get into a rickshaw in this thing and I would probably have gotten lost on my way home. So, I headed home and met up with the guys. We had to hurry back to the office to go with a small group leaving from there. It was raining and finding a CNG was a pain but after a good 30-45 minutes (actually) we found one. The six of us climbed into two different ones and headed towards the wedding.

The wedding was far away—it was pretty far south in the city. Upon “arriving,” it didn’t seem like we were close to a wedding at all. We were dropped off in a very narrow dirt (mud at this point) street lined with little shops (a lot like Old Dhaka)  and I could tell even the people who knew where we were going in theory were a little confused. But finally we headed down a little street off to the side and at the end were lights. For weddings, they use a lot of “Christmas” lights (I quote that because they are obviously not for Christmas but give you an idea of the type of lights I am talking about) in all different colors and they hang long strings of them down from buildings and/or over archways. This wedding had a long hall of lights you walked through to get into the makeshift tent they had set up for dinner.

A wedding in Bangaldesh, from what I gathered, is a three-day affair. The night before the actual ceremony, there is a small party with the bride and groom’s closer friends. It’s food and dancing and apparently a lot of fun. The day after that is the actual ceremony, where the two become married. And then the third day, the event we went to, is a dinner party that symbolizes welcoming the wife in to the husband’s home and “introducing” her to his friends and family. This is a bigger event that people they are less close to (aka the interns at the husband’s office...) are invited to.

So we entered the wedding and we were such a scene, as per usual. People were staring unabashedly. It was already pretty hectic with people shuffling around in such a small space and our group seemed to add to the chaotic movement within the tent. The tent was made with colorful strips of cloth, so it was all very bright. There were probably 4 very large tables and then at the front was a little stage with what looked like two thrones seating the bride and groom who were dressed quite ornately in gold and red and a few other colors. People were taking pictures left and right and were quite openly taking pictures of us. As we settled down and were seated, we recognized more and more people from the office who came and said hello and took pictures with us. Then, they started playing “background music”. Background music, I’ve come to notice in Bangladesh, involves either straight club music—dub step/techno/house music—or 80s/90s pop. Club music it was that night and LOUD. It created an interesting atmosphere…

Once we sat down, they brought out the food family style: big plates of chicken, biryani, beef curry and raw vegetables. The food was all very delicious and traditional. They also had this yogurt-y drink that a women from the office I was sitting next to had me try. After I generously said, “it’s good!” she poured me a HUGE glass of it. Usually, I am pretty good at sucking it up and eating/drinking whatever I need to out of politeness, but I just couldn’t handle this one. I took a few sips and then had to stop. It was a sort of sour yogurt vegetable drink, and I just couldn’t. Prabhat LOVED it. I tried to get him to drink mine but he was sitting too far away. Oh well. Nobody seemed to notice. For desert, there was sweet rice that was bright orange and had little sweet balls of a sticky sugary substance mixed in. The whole dish was a little too sweet and strangely textured for me, but I had a few bites. After eating, we got up and headed outside the tent to make room for other people to sit down and eat. We stood around with a few people from the office and talked and took pictures. One guy was spouting out little poems in Bangla, which Kishan and Prabhat understood (they are both getting quite good) but of course were completely lost on me. Kishan did broken translations to me after each one, but of course they sounded strange in English because they are only poetic sounding in the correct language.

After a little bit of hanging out outside, we headed out to find a CNG. Alamgir told us to leave early, because it is not the safest area and transportation basically disappears past 9:30 in Dhaka. There are very few CNGs at night and it is hard and more expensive than usual to get places. We headed out towards the main road and had to walk for quite awhile before finding CNGs. The area was bustling in spite of being late. A strip in the middle of the busy road housed stalls of food and snacks and dozens of rickshaws were parked along here. The other side of the street was a wide sidewalk with a fence on the far side and many people were camped out living along here. It was hectic and busy and we walked along looking for a CNG to take us back. Finally, we found one, and climbed in to go home.

When we got back, Prabhat wanted lemonade, so I walked with him to the corner store, but it was closed. Right around the corner from our house, though, is a fancy Arabian restaurant that is very modern and has cool décor. It has a koi pond and low tables and chairs outside and we sat to get a drink here and sit for a little. Mocktails are big on all the menus in Dhaka, since alcohol is not easily available, and I ended up with what I thought would just be a sparkling orange juice but tasted a lot like a non-alcoholic mint mojito. It was nice to sit out here and talk and hang out, although I was also happy once we got home and I could get out of my sari.

This week we have just been going along as usual, mostly. I’ve done a good amount of stocking up on groceries and have been cooking, which I actually have been enjoying. Also, yesterday was a hartal, so we stayed home from work. I ended up still going to the gym, since it’s close, and while it was noticeably more quiet out (especially along the main road) people seemed to be going about their usual business and almost nothing was closed. It sounds like there may have been some rioting activity in Gulshan, though, so it’s hard to tell. When they do stuff for the strikes, it’s usually on main roads so those are the ones to avoid. I guess this strike was a protest to demand the government release one of the party’s leaders who is currently in jail for war crimes. They have threatened to take more serious action than a hartal if the government doesn’t comply. As of now, the government hasn’t, so we will be watching to see what happens next.

Yesterday, we mostly hung out and cooked and watched a movie and did some work. It was a nice holiday-type day in the middle of the week. Also, today is Thursday, so it’s just about the weekend. I’m not sure what we’ll do this weekend; we currently don’t have anything planned. We want to check out this place called North End Coffee Roasters, which is an apparently nice coffee shop run by expats that has delicious coffee and cinnamon rolls. Today is the 4^th of July and we wanted to see if the American Club was doing anything, but we can’t get a hold of them! We’re going to try again later, and maybe we’ll have some luck. If not, I think we are going to buy an apple pie at the bakery by our house and track down some sparklers and have our own mini celebration. But anyway, I’ll keep you posted on the weekend! Sad I’m not home for the holiday today!

Monday, July 1st

I’m feeling very domestic right now. I finally went to Lavender (the super market) again this afternoon to stock up on groceries, and I just spent the evening cooking up a bunch of chicken to freeze and keep handy for a quick meal, so I’ll stop living on Indian takeout and cereal like I basically have been. I’m working on becoming more of a real human being that actually lives here, instead of a dazed and confused lost girl in Dhaka.  I definitely feel settled in now—I am 100% comfortable getting around on my own (if I know where I'm going…otherwise, rickshaws and I still don’t speak the same language…), and I am very happy with what I’m able to find at the grocery store and with the fact that I’ve joined a gym by my house. So, life is starting to feel somewhat normal. I can’t believe it’s July, and I’m halfway through my stay here. It sort of feels like I just got here, but then I think back to everything I’ve done and realize okay, I’ve been here for a month.

This weekend was eventful. Well, Friday we ended up not exploring. It was rainy and also 1pm by the time the guys got up and moving. Instead, we went out to a delicious Indian restaurant for lunch and then just sort of hung around, watched a movie, had a good and enjoyable, lazy, rainy day. For dinner, we went out with a group from the office to a Thai restaurant—us three and then three others. It was a pretty upscale with really nice décor. We just ordered a bunch of different dishes for the table and shared it all, which is the way I like to do. Also, I don’t know what I’m ordering at a lot of these ethnic restaurants, so it’s nice to leave the ordering in someone else’s more experienced hands.  I have yet to really have a bad food experience here (knock on wood). Honestly, everywhere I’ve been the food has been delicious. It’s been such a pleasant surprise. Also, a lot of the restaurants are nice, like they have good atmospheres and good service and are just nice places to sit down and enjoy yourself and a meal. I think eating out is a big form of entertainment here, since there are limited options of things to do. So the city really has its variety of restaurants and does a good job with them. 

Saturday, we decided we would be more ambitious with our time. We woke up relatively early and headed to Old Dhaka, which was what I had mentioned we were thinking of doing on Friday. It’s the area Dhaka first started in and still is a relatively nice part of the city. It’s where most of the historical sites of the city are, so a popular tourist destination. Traffic wasn’t too bad, and we got there pretty quickly (i.e. less than an hour). But three people in a CNG is cozy, and it was pouring rain, so we rolled down the tarp pieces they keep to cover the caged walls for when it’s rainy, which is nice because you stay dry, but make it so, so stuffy and sort of claustrophobic.

Our first stop was the boat terminal of Old Dhaka. Old Dhaka is in the southern most part of the city, and is right up against a river that spans the country. People take boats from here to various parts of the country, both south and north. During Eid—the festival at the end of Ramadan—this terminal is packed with people heading home to their villages for the holiday. We got to the terminal and it was hectic. Shanties lined the streets selling basic goods and food. We walked towards the entrance of the terminal and we were stopped by a man offering to take us out on a boat. We had heard this is something you can do—get a guy to take you out in his boat to see the area from the water—so we agreed.

We followed him along the dock and jumped onto a VERY large boat that seemed to be carrying pineapples and coconuts. It was a giant shipping boat. I was a little confused what we were doing on this random boat that was bustling with people working, but then we walked through and off to the side and saw the rowboat attached and climbed in. I call it a rowboat, but they have a different official name. They are longer and narrower and shallower than what you would imagine a rowboat to be. Also, one man stands in the back with a single oar that both propels and steers the boat. It was nice to go out on the water and see all the boats. And although the water was crowded, it was peaceful compared to the chaos that ensues on land. There were large rocket boats that take people on overnight trips to different cities in the country. And there were even large freight ships, some of which were on shore and getting built in a shipyard we passed. There were also boats just slightly bigger than ours carrying different goods across the river. But what we saw the most of were other boats exactly like the one we were in. Dozens and dozens of these filled with people were going back and forth across the river. Our impromptu guide who spoke some basic English told us they were sort of like water taxis. On one side of the river is where most of the people live; while on the other side is the area most people work in, so the boats take them back and forth. It was very neat to see from right inside of it all.

After our boat ride, we headed to the nearest tourist destination, the “Pink Palace” as it is known to foreigners (I forget the official Bangla name…those Bangla words get me every time). While I expected a coherent, important-sounding story and history behind the big palace, there really wasn’t one. It had been passed around by Bangladeshi elite, with one family primarily having it through the 1800s and 1900s, and it was where Indian and British officials would stay when visiting. Also, at one point in the 1900s, it was just overrun by squatters and had become completely dilapidated. They finally renovated it a few decades ago, and it has now been restored to a bright coral-ly pink color and with the inside restored for the most part (some areas they were still working on). It was neat walking through and seeing some of the rooms set up like they were in the 1800s. Overall, though, it was really nothing too exciting. But we felt like good tourists for seeing it.

 Afterwards, we were hungry, so we decided to go track down Haaji Biryani, which is a very well known biryani restaurant in Old Dhaka. Restaurant is a strong word, though, and while everyone could point us in the right direction, we ended up passing the place before turning back and finding it. It was about two shanty-stores wide—so tiny—and had no sign. We just asked the man stationed at the big pot outside if this was Haaji Biryani and he told us yes. And it was completely open on the street side. It had about five small tables and right outside sat the man who directed us in with the largest pot I had every seen (I could easily have fit inside) of biryani. And that was the restaurant. You told them how many plates you wanted and they brought you whatever biryani they had that day. Saturday, it was mutton. And, wow, was the biryani DELICIOUS—definitely the best I had had in Dhaka. And it was welcome after a pretty long morning getting down to Old Dhaka and then wondering around Pink Palace in the heat. The heat just makes everything a little harder. Lime is a big thing, and people eat it on most of their meals. I have sort of picked up doing this with my rice-based meals at the office and biryani. It really does taste good with the flavors they have already put into the rice.

Oh, also, on our way to finding Haaji Biryani we stopped at a little street shop to try the pastries they were making. The streets of Old Dhaka are tiny and narrow and wind this way and that for what seems like forever. It was easy to get lost in the narrow little streets and finding a way out and onto a main road with cars was a challenge. The only vehicles on these streets are rickshaws (and LOTS of them) and motorcycles. We saw endless traffic jams of rickshaws, with people just stopped and waiting for as far as you could see. But anyway, on our way to Haaji Biryani, we found these men making pastries with dough that they were forming into flat disks and then putting on the walls of an open oven set in the ground. We bought a couple to try and oh my god they were the best things I’ve had in Bangladesh so far. AMAZING. They are sweet and buttery and flaky and just so delicious you have no idea. We found out they are called Bakha Kani and are an Old Dhaka tradition. They also have unsweetened ones, which we tried later, that are savory and buttery and delicious. They are made with layers of ghee (clarified butter) spread between layers of dough so obviously they are super, super healthy and low fat. Ah, they are too good; I am going to have to travel back down to Old Dhaka again before I leave just to get some more.

After Haaji Biryani, we decided to go to Lalberg Fort, probably the biggest tourist destination of Old Dhaka. Finding a rickshaw or CNG that would take us was a nightmare. First, getting out of the tiny, narrow streets of the area to one of the very few main roads with CNGs was a challenge. Once we managed that, we probably waited on the side of the loud, honking, bustling, hot road for a good hour until we gave up on finding a CNG and all climbed onto a rickshaw who was willing to take us even though it was very far away. We did three on a rickshaw--what a scene. Kishan sat up on the back of the seat, while Prabhat and I sat up front. It was cozy to say the least. And thus we started our hour and a half (maybe 2 hour?) rickshaw ride to Lalberg Fort, part of which was in the rain. What took so long was getting stuck on these little streets. The lines of stopped rickshaw go on and on endlessly. You stop for five minutes, and then move ten feet up and stop again. It probably would’ve been faster to walk, but we didn’t know where we were going and we were pretty tired. Also, we kept thinking we were close because our driver said we were, but obviously every time he said that we weren’t close…so, basically, most of this hour and half was spent stopped. It wasn’t so bad; we people watched and just hung out on the rickshaw entertaining ourselves. It was nice to see such a different area than the one we live in. People, especially kids, were curious to see us and waved and said hello. After our very long and slow crawl, we finally, finally made it to Lalberg Fort and headed in.

The compound it sat on was a large garden and very beautiful. I hadn’t seen this much open space in Dhaka yet, and it was peaceful compared to the streets outside the compound walls. In the center sat a palace-looking structure, to the right was a mosque, and to the left was a structure that housed the living quarters. Along the back was a fort-type structure built into a hill. In the corner were the ruins from when large parts of the fort were destroyed in the Liberation War. We wandered around for a while (in the rain) and went into the buildings that were open. A group of kids all dressed in white were lined up on the back fort singing for what appeared to be some sort of music video, so that was sort of entertaining to watch.

After, we decided to go get a snack, and wandered down the street to a little restaurant whose front was shaped as a ghost and the door was the ghost’s mouth you walk through. Prabhat had heard of a haunted restaurant in Old Dhaka where they scare you while you eat, so we figured this was it. Inside, it was dark and there were green and purple laser lights and posters of ghosts and pumpkins (?) and 80s pop playing. It was a bizarre combination. The place was tiny, with four miniature booths and a table and almost no walking space. After about ten minutes of sitting while the guys got lassies (A yogurt based milkshake-type drink), the lights got even darker and ghoul-ish music started playing. Bright laser lights danced around the room. In the back of the shop, a door open, and a little figure in a black cape and a scary gorilla mask came out. A voice over the music in the back shouted out “I will kill you” and the little gorilla man came up to each of the five tables and sort of creepily stared at us and leaned in. It was mostly uncomfortable, and I didn’t really know what to do with myself…or my face. I guess look scared? The other restaurant guests sort of just looked bored. I was like seriously, no reaction? There is a midget dressed up as a gorilla coming up to your table while deafening music plays and a spooky voice shouts VERY loudly “I will kill you.” They must’ve been regulars… Kishan went in for a picture, which I captured and the gorilla man seemed willing to take. It was probably one of the strangest restaurant experiences I have ever had. Ten minutes later, after a group with three small kids came in, the same thing happened again (I wouldn’t want to spend too much time here with this show on repeat…) but this time a taller man dressed as the gorilla came out. The kids went berserk. And not in a good way. They were crying and screaming and hated it. We left right after this happened, which was just in time.  

Before heading home, we wanted to find more of the Bakha kanis. We knew there was a famous street food market nearby, and we tried to find it. Climbing on some rickshaws because it was pouring rain again, we started heading in one direction for like 20 minutes. When we clarified where we were going and the food we wanted to find, the guy looked exasperated and sort of explained (brokenly) that it was the other way—right where we had come from. Classic. So we turned around and headed back to the area we had started in. We stocked up on some bakha kanis to bring home and then went in search of a CNG. The same rickshaw was nice enough to take us to an area that had CNGs—sort of an impromptu CNG stand. We climbed in one, absolutely exhausted, and started heading home. At this point, there was traffic, and so it took about an hour of starting and stopping to make it back up north to Banani. At this point, we all just wanted to get home! It might not sound like we did a lot, but between the alternating heat and rain, and the exorbitant amount of time and effort it took to get from one place to the next, it was about the most tired I have been yet. I wanted to get home, and shower, and put on clean clothes and have some dinner. The CNG ride felt very, very long when normally I am pretty patient with these things. I was so happy when we finally made it back. There was a political speech going on near our house, so the CNG had to drop us off sort of far away, and nothing was more welcome after that rainy trek after a long, long day then my shower (albeit cold…) and the couch and a bowl of raisin bran for dinner. We all conked out in front of the TV and headed to bed very early.

Overall, it was a pretty successful day, and we were happy we made the adventure. Any attempt to do anything in Dhaka seems to turn into an adventure when it involves traveling. Between rain and road delays, you better expect a long day when doing something like this. But okay, anyway, this post is getting REALLY long, so I’m going to wrap it up. But I’ll write tomorrow about the wedding we went to on Sunday! It was the wedding I mentioned a while ago--a guy’s in the office. It was quite the experience. For now, I’ll keep this post to a weekend overview. Otherwise, things are good here! Like I said, I went grocery shopping today and also to work and the gym—a day that would be regular for me even back home. I’ll post later about the wedding!