Fresh Air

Today I spent most of the day in a village outside of Dhaka, and it was awesome. It was beautiful and green, the people were overly hospitable (I may turn orange from all the mangoes, mango flavored things, and jackfruit I was offered today), and the air was a little cleaner. You can definitely see the haze over Dhaka, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't all from the rain. In case you're wondering what jackfruit is, here is a picture of jackfruit in a tree. It's not the most informative, but if you do a Google image search, you'll see it better.

You can also see some wandering animals in the background (goats or young cows, I can't remember). Another thing I saw plenty of today was cows emptying their bladders.

While this village was definitely poor, I still thought they were all doing pretty well. They had nice clothes, the children, including the girls, were going to school (I even met a girl in class 10!), and they seemed to have plenty of food to go around. In comparison to N'gayene Sabakh in Senegal, it seemed much better off, actually, and much cleaner. Although there were a lot of kids around in this village, there weren't nearly as many as in N'gayene Sabakh, as far as I could tell. Of course this is all based on only one village in each country, but I'd say Bangladesh is headed in the right direction much more so than Senegal.

It was also interesting how all the new developments going up just outside the city look just like American housing developments in the suburbs - rows of large, identical houses, fenced off from the outside world with no integration of residences and businesses.

(I wrote this part yesterday, but with the generator issues the internet was down when I went to post it.)

My guesthouse is having issues with its generator today and the flickering light is driving me up the wall. Also it could get pretty hot in here with the fan going uselessly slow. The power hasn’t gone out so much in a few days, but this is the third time today I’ve found myself sitting in the dark for a minute until the generators kick in. I’m not sure if that power plant ever started working again or not because I haven’t gotten a paper in several days.

I went to a couple talks at the ICDDR,B (International Center for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh) with Bilqis this morning. It’s their 50^th anniversary, so the former directors are all giving talks. The two that spoke today were both American, and even though they directed the center way back in the day (like in the late 60s), I still found it odd that an organization founded in Bangladesh, that primarily serves Bangladesh, would be run by a bunch of old white men. But then old white men rule everything else, why should this be any different? Haha. Anyway the first talk was about ORT (Oral Rehydration Therapy) and how it could be adapted for medical conditions other than diarrhea, such as burns, and how the concept of having someone drink fluids rather than mechanically pumping them in through an IV or a tube down their throat is completely foreign to US doctors. Plus insurance wouldn’t cover it. And that explains why even the people in the pharmacy had no idea what I was talking about when I tried to find ORS (Oral Rehydration Salt, actually a mix of salt, glucose, and potassium in specific proportions) packets before I left. The second talk was about the out-of-control population growth in sub-Saharan Africa and why the things that have worked in Bangladesh to bring down fertility have not worked there. To name a few, there are too many political parties/ethnic groups/tribes fighting for power (and lots of babies = lots of votes), and ubiquitous polygamy means that if a woman chooses to stop having babies, her husband finds another woman who will keep it up and the first woman loses her livelihood. It was an interesting morning, not least because Bilqis once worked at the ICDDR,B, and so knew nearly everyone in the room personally.

Speaking of that, yesterday I left the office early with Sufia and Rabeya to go to New Market for a few things for the office, and some other shopping. We bought a rug, but I really didn’t know what it was for at the time. Turns out it was a gift for Bilqis’s friend’s wife, and we saw the friend at the talks today. While New Market wasn’t really any different than any other markets I’ve been in, other than being practically endless and somewhat cheaper, I was fascinated with the giant CFL bulbs they had in there. I’m sure they’re not unheard of in the US, but I’ve never seen one and I can’t find one on Google. Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture, but this yet again exemplifies how committed this country sometimes is to protecting the environment. I think the only non-CFL bulb I’ve seen here is the one in my bedside lamp, which I never use.

The day before yesterday I finally got the guts to go outside at night, partly because I’ve been sick for over a week and needed to call Bilqis to ask what to do if it didn’t go away, but had no credit on my phone for the call. Since I was out, I decided to grab dinner at Dhaba, which the guy from Ohio had recommended and was mentioned in the Lonely Planet guide. Although it is supposedly “street food”, and it is cooked next to the street, I had dal makhani, naan, and a small water and it was the most expensive meal I’ve had yet – almost $3! Good thing lunch was less than a dollar because I’ve only got $5/day in my budget for food, water, laundry, etc…

On Friday I met up with my friend Wahid for lunch, and then took a walk in this park in Gulshan. Unfortunately it was a mosquito fest, so I wasn’t keen on sitting around, although it was a really pretty place. Of course any green space is beautiful after being surrounded by dirty streets and dirty buildings all day. Here are some picutres.

So after confidently getting myself around the area last Friday (after Wahid went home, I did a little exploring on my own in search of some juice), and in the dark on Sunday, I was thinking I could probably get myself to the EPRC office and back on my own. For some reason, they have sent someone to pick me up every day so far. Tonight Rabeya suggested to Dr. Sabur, who has been taking on the task lately, that I could call the rickshaw myself, and despite my agreement, he said I still need a few more days with help. Other than crossing the street, which could easily be done by the crosswalk a few blocks from here without a close call for each of the 8 lanes created by various sizes of vehicle, I honestly don’t need any help. Anyway, as long as there is a mass of people crossing the street, the cars will actually stop. Really, though, they need another crosswalk on that road – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen someone make a run for it and miss a bus by a few inches. Not to mention the motorcycles and CNGs coming out of nowhere…

In addition to the horrendous traffic, I certainly will not miss the constant spitting that goes on here. It’s like being at a 24 hour baseball game, and it’s kind of gross sometimes.