Host Dad

My host dad, Nimai, has been in Dhaka for the last week visiting doctors and waiting for test results. He has a tumor in his esophagus that may be cancerous. It's difficult to fully understand everything that's going on with the language barrier. The operation was going to be either Monday or Tuesday, but today I found out the growth is probably worse than expected and no hospital in Bangladesh has the equipment or resources to do it. He will have to go to Kolkata for the operation, which requires obtaining a passport and visa (that's difficult to get approved). Doctors were hoping to do the surgery this week before it got worse, but referring him to a Kolkata hospital will only take more and allow the growth to continue. This has been hard on the whole family, especially Nimai's wife. Please pray for the family as they go through this time of difficulty.

Sheema, Nixmi, Sopnil, & Nimai

I didn't think my last 3 weeks (2 now) in Bangladesh would end like this. Despite all of this I am trying to finish everything I want to do and get "closer" before I leave. This weekend I printed photos I took around town and plan to pass them out to the people in them. They're mostly store owners or vendors on the side of the road so they'll be easy to find again. When I'm shopping I enjoy talking to a couple of the owners (when I'm in the mood and have mentally prepared before hand). Also, it's difficult to buy something and get away before they ask my country or name (country always comes first). I wonder how people will react when I give them the pictures? Will they even care?

I went for a bike ride this weekend in the country which is one of my favorite things to do here. It's only takes 10 minutes gets away from the noise of Bogra and lost among the villages. First I rode to the workshop and demonstration farm mcc is building, waited out the rain, and continued on a 5 km loop. The scenery during monsoon season is beautiful with lush rice fields, farmers out with their cows, kids playing, and swimming in ponds. The villages and countryside are a couple of things I'm going to miss about Bangladesh.

Bogra to Dhaka

The 4+ hour bus ride from Bogra to Dhaka is nothing to look forward. In the states the trip would only take half as much time. Most of the road is a two lane undivided highway that's shared with all the other forms of transportation: more buses, trucks, cng's, rickshaws, bicycles, and people all hauling or carrying something. Riding the bus is like being in a video game or in one of those space flight simulators at amusement parks where the meteors and spaceships coming head on barely miss. Buses weave around rickshaws and narrowly avoid the on coming bus for the entire four hours. Even though the bus ride isn't much fun I do look forward to crossing the Jamuna Bridge. 

Now that it's the end of the dry seasons the water has receded and chars have formed in the middle of the 3 mile wide river. On these islands people have built their homes and live together in small images. It's amazing to see them as I pass by on the bridge. I feel like I'm in the middle of National Geographic and discovering the villages for the first time. However, the monsoon season has started and as the water level rise the villagers will be forced to abandon their homes before they are washed away. Where they move... I'm not sure. But I've heard sometimes the men will go into towns and be rickshawhallas.

One of my favorite memories of Bangladesh is crossing the bridge in a diesel truck. I hitched a ride in the back with 30 Bengalis. It felt like we were being smuggled across the boarder, but really all of us were just going home for the weekend. As we crossed the bridge I stood to get a better look. As I raised above the sides of the truck bed with the wind whipping and sun warming my face I couldn't help but smile. It was one of those moments where I didn't want to be anywhere else. I soaked everything in for those 3 miles before I had to sit back down. 

As my time in Bangladesh is beginning to come to an end I'm trying to appreciate all the little things this country offers that I often look over. With only one more month before I leave there's still a lot to experience.

sprite

One of the things I think is cool here is seeing big name products written in Bengali.  Just thought I'd share.

Comilla

This past weekend my fellow mccers and I made a trip to visit a local staff member's home in Comilla. Comilla is a 2 hour hot and sweaty bus ride east of Dhaka. After getting off the bus and while trying to get transportation to the first place we were planning to visit, a WWII cemetery, we drew little crowd. This is a common occurrence in Bangladesh. People stand a few feet away from you and just stare. Then if they know a little bit of english they'll ask what country you're from. I know they're only curious, but it gets to be too much. After the staring, we went to the cemetery and I was pleasantly surprised. The cemetery is one of more beautiful places I've visited in Bangladesh. It had nice well cared for grass and plants, large flowering trees, and no trash. I would make a great picnic spot. It was interesting to meander through the cemetery reading the epitaphs on the headstones and thinking about the person that is buried there.

Afterwards we had lunch at the co-workers house. In Bengali culture hosting guest

 means feeding them a lot of food. Even when food is good I can only eat so much. We were served 3 big meals and by the 3rd meal all of us could barely eat anything.

My favorite part of the trip was the boat ride back to Dhaka. It's much better than taking a bus. There was always a breeze, no honking, no hard braking, or near misses with other buses

. Even though we didn't have a reserved seat on the boat it was still better.

As we approached Dhaka smoke stakes waited for us as they emitted some of the darkest sm

oke I've ever seen. As we got closer to Dhaka we also observed a color change for the worse in the river water.

When the boat docked, coolies, what I first thought were pirates, jumped from the dock to the boat and scaled the outside wall all the way to the third level where I was. It felt a little chaotic to have people climb the side of the ship as fast as they can and then run up and down the aisles looking for people who need help with their bags.

Another interesting site was a boy using a styrofoam cooler as a boat. At first I thought he was just having fun floating in the river, but he was actually working. He was collecting the plastic bottles people threw into the water. While on the boat I noticed people would throw their trash into the river... chip bags, candy wrappers, plastic bags, and everything else they didn't want. Before we embarked I watched a man clean his boat. He had swept the

 whole thing and had a pile of trash. As it sat near the edge of the boat I knew exactly what he was going to do, but hoped he wouldn't. But sure enough he did... He swept the whole pile of trash overboard into the water. It's sad to see people carelessly pollute a river. I'm glad there are people that do pick up some of the trash, even if they're doing it for economic reasons, and not because they care about the environment.

After the exhausting weekend of 8 hours on buses, 4 on a boat and enduring the heat it feels good to be home and relax. Now I think it's time to watch an episode of the office.

the last month or so...

It's been too long since my last post. Since I returned from India not much has happened... actually quite a bit has happened. The week after I returned I celebrated my birthday in Bogra. It turned out to be a relaxing birthday weekend. I bought a birthday lungi and treated myself to a banana split and enjoyed it beside the pool of the fancy hotel here. (Mind you the pool water was green that day... not much different than swimming in the local pond.) My host family cooked dinner. Which wasn't out of the ordinary, but some of my favorite dishes...  like the thick "boot" dal compared to regular dal that is cooked down to nothing and turns out like a very runny soup that is poured over rice or just dished out into the plate and consumed like a drink. (I think I just saw someone drinking dal from a cup at lunch today. yew... I doubt it was orange juice... but wish it was) There was also a delicious tomato curry thing (unfortunately tomatoes and all the other good vegetables are now out of season... sucks to be a vegetarian) and a tasty rice pudding. My fellow MCCers and my Korean friends that also live in Bogra came over and celebrated. More pics to come. And the cake above says "shobo jonmodin devit"... translated "happy birthday david" (if you couldn't guess that one). The cake here is like british cake. It looks good, but tastes awful.

Last Sunday was the ceremonial opening of LKP and AKB (acronyms for something in bangla I won't even attempt to spell. LKP is a work shop and house where new appropriate technology projects will be worked on (ie. rain water catchment tanks, environmentally friendly bricks, etc.) And AKB is a model homestead where new farming techniques can be demonstrated.

The opening brought out some of Bogra's big wigs as well as the local community. It will be interesting to see how the relationship with the villagers grows once people move out there and begin working on projects. 

Also, the last 2 weeks I've been sick. Nothing major just a fever and cold (don't worry mom). But when I'm sick Bangladesh is the last place I want to be. I'm easily annoyed by the innocent, but repetitive questions of "how are you?", "what is your country?" and "what is your name?"... when I feel up to going outside. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't get it everyday, but when I'm the slightest bit sick I don't feel like dealing with it.

That's been the highlights of the last month or so... now that I think about there's more to write, but good enough for now.

India

I returned from India about a week and a half ago. It was a great trip and I crammed as much as possible into the 2 weeks I was there. I went all the way from Kolkata to Rajasthan. India is completely different than Bangladesh, even though 3 of Bangladesh's borders are shared with India. The differences that stood out to me food (more flavors and variety in India), traffic (not as crazy in India), and foreigners (there's a lot more in India). However, I still did get a lot of attention in India. People even wanted to take photos with me... in Delhi of all places. It's common for that to happen in Bangladesh, but was surprised when in it happened in India.

Here's some of the highlights from each city. I started off my trip in Kolkata and visited the Mother Teresa's tomb and the Mother House. There's a very touching and inspiring museum that walks through her life. They also let you see her room. It's very basic. I didn't even see a fan in there. I can't imagine living in Kolkata and not having a fan. I was also impressed that she always used only one bucket of water to bathe. It motivated me to live with less. I also stopped by the Victoria Memorial and sampled the street food. You never know how your stomach will react, but I wasn't too worried. After living in Bangladesh for 8 months I have a stomach made of steel. The tea in Kolkata is served in little clay cups that you through out after using. They do this because of the caste system. People don't want to use the same cup someone of a lower caste has already used. In Bangladesh I think they too many people drink out of the same cup a too often.


After Kolkata I went for a night train to Varanasi. The trains are nothing special, but it's nice to go to sleep and wake-up in a new city. If you can sleep at all with everyone making so much noise. Then there's the 6 am wake-up call from the chai whalla, "Chai, Chai" He was annoying, but the masala chai was amazing. The best tea I had on the trip. One of the best days of my trip was in Varanasi. I spent it playing sitar and relaxing in a bakery reading a book on big cushions while it rained outside. The evening before I took a boat ride on the Ganges River that is lined with ghats. The ghats have stairs leading down to the water where people ceremonially bath in the morning. One ghat is called the "burning" ghat. Here people are cremated. Varanasi is a holy city for hindus and being cremated there is an honor. From the boat I counted 12 cremation fires. After Varanasi it was another night train to see the Taj Mahal!

I wanted to see the Taj at sunrise. I didn't make it in time, but still beat the rush. The Taj was an amazing sight, but after I was there for awhile I started thinking, "It's just a building. Why do people care about it so much?" At this point of the trip I was tired of being a tourist, sick of all the touts trying to sell me stuff, and being ripped off.

After Agra I took the train to Delhi. I only spent the day there. Everything I wanted to see was closed because of Good Friday, but our Sikh autorickshaw driver took us to a Sikh and Hindu temple. The day turned out to be surprisingly good after running into some frustration in the beginning of the day and still exhausted from the day before at the Taj. From Delhi it was time for a night train west to Jodhpur.

Jodhpur had a amazing fort over looking a section of the city where all the houses are painted blue. Here I had an amazing saffron lassi. Think of a thick yogurt smoothie. It was delicious. There was a steady stream of locals coming in... that's how you know it's good. These women had just finished their refreshing lassies after a long and hot day in the market.
Next it was to Jaisalmer for a 3 day camel trek across the desert. The worst part of the trek was sitting on camel for 5 hours a day... and camels smell. However, the best part was sleeping on sand dunes in the middle of nowhere under the stars. The night sky was beautiful. I hadn't seen that many stars in months. I couldn't believe how quiet it was out there. I didn't even hear animals at night. It was a nice break from being a tourist away from the cities. Below is the camel guide cooking up lunch. It was interesting to see him clean the dishes with only a little bit of water and sand. The plates turned out to be surprisingly clean.


After Jaisalmer I went back to Delhi and stopped in Jaipur on the way back. I was exhausted at this point and wasn't impressed by another fort after already seeing forts and buildings I already can't name as I look through my photos. The last day in Delhi I went back to the places I wasn't able to see the first time like Gandhi Smitri. This is where he was killed with a museum and memorial in his honor. This museum and his life had an impact on my just like Mother Teresa's. Both inspired me to be a better person after having a frustrating and draining days in India. Afterwards I relaxed and enjoyed a great salad and cheese cake for dinner before leaving for Bangladesh the next day.

india

i'm off to india for 2 weeks and will hopefully return with some great pics.