Out and About in Bangladesh

Almost immediately following my return from Kathmandu, I was back on the road in Bangladesh for a pre-election reporting trip. My travels took me to the northern Chittagong districts of Comilla, Noakhali and Feni.

The trip was productive and uneventful--the perfect combination. My colleague and I spoke with all sorts of people about their thoughts on the upcoming election. Almost everyone we talked to is excited to have elections (Elections haven't been held here since 2001, as in 2007 the Caretaker Government took over for a couple of years.) and they are ready to vote. Only time, will tell what the outcome will be.

While speaking to people through a translator can be tiring and frustrating, I do enjoy getting out to hear what people's opinions are. Plus, I also get a kick out of the crowds that come and say hi to me--it's like I'm a superstar. (Mom, don't be worried, they won't hurt me!)

Katy and the Bangladeshis (My driver is on the right in the white shirt.)

I loved this teenager. I wonder if someone has told him what the phrase on his shirt means?

I will admit I was nervous to stay in some of the more rural areas of Bangladesh. I always joke that I didn't join USAID for a reason, but I'm not really joking--I don't even like camping. But I was (fairly) pleasantly surprised by the accommodations at the guest houses. Mom and Julie, think French Chateau, but slightly worse in Comilla and much better in Noakhali. Perhaps that will give you two and idea about how fared during my short trip? :)

We traveled back to Dhaka on Friday, which is the big prayer day for Muslims. My driver stopped for a quick mid-day prayer about half way through our trip.



My driver was also kind enough to stop at the World War II cemetery in Comilla. He mentioned it was on the way home and thought that I would like to see it. I was so tired I almost passed him up on his offer, but I'm glad we made the quick detour. The Mynamati War Cemetery is a resting place for a few hundred people who died fighting in the China, Burma, India theatre during World War II. It was very moving and it was a good reminder of the various nationalities who fought in the war. It also made me think more about my grandfather who I know fought in the China, Burma, India theatre (They once had only peanut butter to eat for weeks. My grandfather never ate peanut butter again.), but at the same time, it made me wish I had asked him more questions about it when he was alive. Dad, maybe you can shed some light on his time there?


Back in Dhaka, the following week marked the celebration of Eid al-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice. Remember that bull sitting outside my hotel? Yeah, I finally figured out why he was sitting there. This Eid is marked by the celebration of sacrifice. Faithful Muslims are supposed to purchase a cow or goat (usually at quite hefty prices), become attached to the cow/goat, sacrifice the animal in the name of God, and finally share a third of the meat with those less fortunate, keep a third of the meat, and give a third to friends and family. It is the story of Ibrahim/Abraham.

I'll admit though, the whole concept is very different for me, as it is for many Westerners. My friend Kate and I did venture out to witness the tale end of one sacrifice. It was enough to make our stomachs turn. Phew. For a more visual depiction, I'll send you to my colleague's account of she and her husband's Eid outing.

And finally, a couple of shots from Dhaka.

The mosque near my hotel (taken from the rooftop pool area of my hotel)

Kate and Katy on a rickshaw!

Kathmandu, Nepal

The Himalayas from the plane

It's been a couple of weeks since I took my trip to Nepal over Thanksgiving, which makes me look at the calendar and realize how close to Christmas we are. Wow. Time does fly by.

But Kathmandu was great. It was a very nice break from Dhaka, with more to do and better food to eat. I liked being able to walk places more easily and take taxis. It was also amazing to see so many tourists. For the first couple of days I couldn't get over seeing so many white faces. The Nepalis don't stare at you like the Bangladeshis do, but I think that's simply because Nepal is used to tourists. With Everest and all of the other trekking to be done in Nepal, it's a mecca for hikers and hippies, and with so many tourists comes a much more well-developed tourist industry.

My one complaint about Kathmandu is the pollution. It felt much more polluted than Dhaka. I've been told this is partly because Kathmandu sits in a valley, but also because of the nearby brick factories. The most unfortunate part of this pollution is that you can't really see the mountains. Oh well.

The Soaltee Crowne Plaza is a great hotel and one that I would recommend. It's a little bit removed from the center of town, which I liked, but it did cause some problems for us (I went with my friend/colleague, David), as during our second and third days there was a bandh, or strike. Bandhs (or hartels in Bangladesh) are fairly common and generally shut down cities. In this instance, two little boys had been kidnapped and killed, so their families and university students decided to stage the bandh. During a bandh, very few cars are allowed to pass and those that do must dodge the burning tires. We took advantage of the bandh by having a relaxing day and just walked around our hotel and ate tons of food.

The Bandh

The second day of the bandh became a bit more frustrating and that's when you realize it may be better to stay in a hotel that's more centrally located. But we were able to finally go to Thamel--the heart of the tourist district--and walk and shop and eat. We also checked out Durbar (which means "royal palace") Square, the other prime tourist spot in Kathmandu, with it's old buildings and palaces.

Temple to Hindu God Ganesh

Durbar Square, Kathmandu

Our fourth day involved trips to the classic tourist sites--Swayambhunath Temple, more commonly known as the Monkey Temple, and Patan City, a very nearby suburb of Kathmandu where we saw another version of Durbar Square. We also went to Bhaktapur City, which had another Durbar Square, but was much cooler because there was no traffic and not as many people around. And then we finally went to the Pashupatinath Temple, a very large Hindu temple that I couldn't go into becuase I am not a Hindu. (Not to mention that David cheated--he is originally from Sri Lanka, so they just assumed he is Hindu. Not so, he is Christian. Good for him.)

Swayambhunath Temple (The Monkey Temple)

Durbar Square, Bhaktapur City

Our fifth day we were all set to go back to Dhaka. Upon our arrival at the airport, however, we promptly discovered our flight had been canceled. It was purportedly canceled because of a mechanical problem, which had to be fixed with a part from Bangkok. I'm skeptical this was the case though, because when we did fly out the next day, the Bangkok airport was still closed and nothing was flying out of there. My theory is that the flight didn't have enough people on our original departure date, so they just postponed to the next day. We weren't too upset about our canceled flight, but both the bandh and then the canceled flight meant we never got a chance to really go outside of Kathmandu for a day trip. Oh well. It just means we'll have to go back.

Kathmandu profited from our sixth day in Nepal though because we both ended up spending a lot more money in a cute, little shopping area, Baber Mahal Revisited. It reminded me so much of Carmel, California.

My greatest love in Kathmandu was the food. The produce was just so much fresher and there was much more variety. I hadn't tasted strawberries or avocados in months...yum. Fire and Ice is an AMAZING pizza place in Thamel (I liked it so much I made us go there twice.). They have a lemon vinaigrette salad dressing that is extremely tasty and one that I will probably try to replicate when I am back stateside. Mike's Breakfast was also great and reminded me very much of the Monterey Bay area. It was started by Mike, a hippie, trekker from Minnesota who has lived in Nepal for over 20 years. And finally, Chez Caroline, a wonderful, little French bistro in Baber Mahal Revisited that also reminded me of Carmel...kind of like the Hog's Breathe or the Forge in the Forrest, but way cuter. Caroline is a French expat who has lived in Nepal for 28 years. Wow. Bangladesh certainly doesn't have expats like them.

Chez Caroline

** For some reason, I can't figure out how to straighten the pictures. Any ideas? **

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yikes. I can't believe it's been at least three weeks since my last post. That's a long time. But my lack of posts is due to lack of inspiration. I have not been up to much in Dhaka lately and I will admit, going to the gym and the spa can get a little old after a while. At the same time, I think my lack of inspiration is due to my own laziness. I could have easily organized a day trip outside of Dhaka or visited a museum or two (For example, I still need to visit the Liberation War Museum that depicts Dhaka's fight for independence.). But I didn't, so it's in part my own fault.

I should be feeling some more inspiration soon, however, as I am traveling to Kathmandu, Nepal tomorrow. I'm very excited to get out of Dhaka and explore a new country. I should have an interesting post, along with interesting pictures, when I return. In the meantime, I'll post some pictures that I've taken over the past few weeks to keep you entertained.

A Happy Thanksgiving to all! You can think of me trekking in the Himalayas while you're eating your turkey and stuffing. (Incidentally, I received about 6 invitations for Thanksgiving. Never fear, the Embassy community takes care of each other.)

My Commute to Work: The Traffic and the Garment Factory Workers


Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Tacos: Outside El Toro, the only Mexican Restaurant in Dhaka (and I would bet all of Bangladesh). It's actually quite decent food for a Tex-Mex restaurant in Bangladesh.


Baskin Robbins in Banani: Baskin Robbins is my favorite kind of ice cream in the States. It wasn't exactly the same in Dhaka. If someone could explain what a "sublime and benignant" ice cream is that would be great. Also "artisan and aberrant" ice cream? I'm not really sure.


The Bull Outside my Hotel: I'm not quite sure what he's doing here.


The next few pictures are from a day trip I took to Gazipur. A colleague and I went to speak with various people about the upcoming Parliamentary elections, which have now been delayed until Decemebr 29th.

Traffic on the Way to Gazipur


The stuff people are able to put on a rickshaw--Amazing. I just feel bad for the poor rickshaw driver.


Narrow Roads: The roads were very narrow the further away from Dhaka we got. Thank goodness our drivers are great.


Crowds: This was a mass of people that surrounded my colleague and me. It doesn't take long before a crowd will surround me, especially in a smaller village.


Watch out for various traffic obstacles!


A Brick Making "Factory"


A Convenience Store


A Tea Stand (The picture is hazy because of the smoke billowing from the pot of boiling tea.)

It's Thursday!

(Ok, so now it's Friday here, but I started drafting this yesterday, so decided to keep the title.)

For some reason, "It's Thursday!" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "It's Friday!" I thought by now I would be used to working Sunday-Thursday and having the weekend on Friday and Saturday, but I'm beginning to think you never get used to it. It's always strange to watch tv Friday night and realize that financial markets are open in the U.S. and people are going about there regular business day. Not to mention the Sunday-Thursday work week makes it more difficult to connect with Washington. That's probably the hardest part. Due to our different weekends and the time difference, we only overlap with our Washington colleagues on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, making it sometimes tough to get things accomplished in a timely manner.

But our election event went great the other day. Like so many others around the world, the Bangladeshis that I've talked to are EXTREMELY excited about the election of Barack Obama. I think everyone feels that change is in the air and no matter what, it will be an exciting time. I particularly enjoyed reading the first paragraph of Ethan Bronner's NY Times article from November 5, 2008, which I think accurately portrays what people here are thinking of Obama's election: "From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth — call it America — where such a thing happens."

It's also interesting to juxtapose our American elections with the upcoming Bangladeshi Parliamentary elections that will be held on December 18th. Many Bangladeshis are skeptical as to whether elections will even happen in the first place, but if they do happen, the transition from the current Caretaker Government (which came to power in a "quasi-military coup" in 2007 and has attempted to make significant reforms over the past two years, all the while maintaining a State of Emergency) to the next government will not be smooth. As a result, it makes people nervous and anxious as to what the future holds for Bangladesh. Which, makes me grateful that I am from a country where, despite political differences, the transition from a Republican administration to a Democratic administration will be smooth. It's quite an amazing feat when you think about it.

Dhaka's Simple Pleasures

In an attempt to avoid watching CNN International for, oh, about the next 17 hours as we await with bated breathe the election of our new President, I decided to blog. (Incidentally, we are having a pretty bag bash tomorrow morning [since that's when polls will close in the U.S.] so that 800 of our closest Bangladeshi friends can watch the election returns with us and recognize the importance of voting. Perhaps I'll have more interesting anecdotes on that tomorrow.)

I've been meaning to blog about some of the other things I really enjoy about living here. They are small things, but always make me smile and make me thankful that I'm here experiencing a different culture and country.

1. The Call to Prayer. There's something very soothing about hearing the call to prayer a few times a day. While I typically don't hear calls during my day since I'm usually inside working, when I do hear it I try to relish the moment and pause for a few seconds. As my colleague Bob said, hearing the call five times a day is a great little reminder to be thankful for what you have and say a prayer (or at least think good thoughts) for family and friends. (I will admit though that, for obvious reasons, I could do without the 4:30 a.m. call to prayer. Fortunately, I usually don't hear that one.)

2. The Oodles of Sari Stores. While I'd heard that South Asia is full of beautiful cloth, I wasn't prepared for the inordinate amount of saris. There are entire stores--big stores--dedicated to saris and there are tons of shopping malls with one, two or three levels devoted entirely to saris. Each store will have a myriad of saris lined along the wall in what are basically bookshelves. When you enter the stores, barefoot men sitting on an elevated, padded bench will ask you which sari you want to see and they will pull out sari after sari from the shelf until you are satisfied. Plus, they'll even try it on so you can see what it looks like! Frankly, the number of choices are overwhelming and I have yet to buy a sari. But I am getting more confident in shopping for one, which makes the epxerience all the more enjoyable and, simply, makes me happy. I'll try to snag a picture of one of these stores soon so you can see better picture what I'm talking about, but in the meantime, check out one of my colleague's posts' on her sari shopping experience. It's much more eloquent than my account.

3. People Singing on the Street. Perhaps Bangladeshis are just more uninhibited than Americans? Probably not, but it is true when it comes to singing in public places. I often pass by men randomly singing to themselves while carrying a load of fruit on their head or rickshaw wallahs singing to pass the time before they get another fare. I appreciate this attitude of not caring who hears them and wish we could import this to the States (perhaps this is because I like to sing?). If only I could understand what they were singing, I'm sure I would enjoy it even more.

4. Splash (at the Westin). Ok, ok. So this is actually a Western import to Dhaka, but I find this cafe that sits by the pool extremely relaxing. There's a great waterfall and lots of plants, not to mention the food is pretty darn good, if expensive, particulalry by Dhaka standards. I only just discovered Splash, so perhaps the novelty of it is why I'm including it in this entry. But still, I haven't found many cafes in the States that are as enjoyable. Although, really, let's be honest, that's probably because I wouldn't be able to afford going to a place like this in the States! But, hey, at least I recognize number 4 as an elitist, Western simple pleasure.

I'm sure there are other simple pleasures that I'm missing. As I think of them, I'll let you know what they are, but for now, back to watching CNN!

A Weekend of Culture

So I haven't posted in a while because, frankly, not too much has been going on. Life is well--full of squash, swimming, dinners with friends, but nothing majorly exciting. But, this weekend was full of culture.

Friday, I went to the studio/apartment of Kalidas Karmakar, a fairly well-known Bangladeshi artist. A few of his pieces are at the Embassy and I've really admired his work, so I lucked out when my boss organized an outing so we could check out some of his art. Frankly, I was hoping for a free piece of art, but I knew that was wishful thinking. Instead, I got a cool poster featuring one of his works, a booklet of some of his pieces, and a tasty Bengali lunch with nice company and good conversation.

Continuing my culural weekend, my colleague and friend David and I checked out an event at the Lalbagh Fort hosted by the Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It was an evening of "Sound and Light" and ended up being pretty cool. The Fort is in Old Dhaka, and while I haven't seen it during the day, it was impressive surrounded by lights and all set up for this big event. A brief sound and light show depicting Dhaka's 400 year history started the night and then that was followed by...a fashion show! That's right, a fashion show. You can check out a picture of it here. It was the first fashion show I've ever been to and I felt very Project Runway/America's Next Top Model-esque. The show portrayed various fashion in Dhaka throughout the years--the Mughal influence, the British influence, post-1947 Dhaka, and post-independence Dhaka. It was definitely cool, although it went on a little long. So long, in fact, that we skipped out on dinner and went to Pizza Hut, where we knew what kind of food we'd be getting and wouldn't have to stand in a long buffet line.

Here's David and me with one of the "guards" for the evening. Incidentally, another "guard" offered to take our picture, we had to kindly turn the camera around for him since he had no idea which way the camera should face. Oops!


I topped off my weekend with a shopping trip to Dhanmondi with a few girls from work, where we visited the the Bengal Gallery of Fine Art. A weekend full of art and culture...in Dhaka.

Backtracking: Durga Puja and Cox's Bazar

I was a little bit run down with a cold this week after my trip to Cox's Bazar, so am now playing catch up with my posts. I'll try to wrap them up and get back on track.

Durga Puja
Durga Puja was great fun. From Dhaka, it took us about an hour and a half to travel to the Kumudini Trust in Dhamrai where we watched the festival. Unfortunately, most of my pictures did not turn out so well, but in this one of my friends Katie, Sydnee and me you can see the elaborate set-up of the goddess Durga in the background and us wearing our teeps (or, in Hindi, bindis)--the little dots in the middle of our foreheads.

After the ceremony, the owners of Kumudini invited us into their home and below are a couple of shots of the kicthen--it was huge and as usual, this woman was very proud to have her picture taken.










Cox's Bazar

The day after the Durga Puja ceremony, I flew to Cox's Bazar in the southeast cordner of Bangladesh. It was a nice break from Dhaka and I enjoyed seeing more rural areas of Bangladesh, which are still full of people, but at least there is a lot more green than Dhaka. As I wasn't in Cox's Bazar for vacation, I didn't get to see too much of the beach. But I did love seeing people swimming in their clothes. I can only imagine the stares I would have gotten if I'd stripped down to a bathing suit and jumped in the Bay of Bengal.

The purpose of my visit to Cox's Bazar was to visit two Rohyinga refugee camps, Kutupalong and Nyapara. Since 1992, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has run these camps for the Rohyinga, who are Muslim migrants from the northern Rakhine state of Burma. Many Rohyinga fled persecution from the Myanmar government to Bangladesh, although Bangladesh has not necessarily treated them much better as the majority have not received citizenship and they remain a stateless population trapped in the camps. As it was my first visit to a refugee camp I wasn't sure what to expect, but it really was an interesting experience. Apparently conditions in the camps have significantly improved over the last few years and many of the NGOs we visited with are doing great work there, including Austcare and Handicap International. I was amazed at how close we were to Burma, too--only about six kilometers.

The women in this picture motioned to me that
they were hungry, but supposedly only a few
people of the 10,000 that live in each camp suffer from severe malnutrition.

These children look so proud and loved having their picture taken.
















And finally, Cox's Bazar from the plane. It's amazing to see how much water truly surrounds this country.

Back in Dhaka: the Bihari, or the minority Urdu-speaking Bangladeshis
Back in Dhaka, we visited one more site where the Bihari, or more correctly, Bangladesh's Urdu-speaking minority, live. The Bihari have been stateless since the founding of Bangladesh in 1971 and it has only been over the past year that they were allowed to register for id cards in Bangladesh, which basically means they are now citizens. The Bihari still have a long way to go, as the conditions we saw at Mirpur camp were deplorable. (Really so terrible I've never even imagined such conditions.) But al Falah, an NGO working in the camps, advocates on behalf of the Bihari to improve conditions and are making some important strides. Surprisingly, most of the people we spoke to are employed, but their poverty is so great it's difficult to save much to improve their lot. This man works six days a week for 12 hours a day. He can make about two saris a week and then sells them to a middleman for about 1000 taka, approximately $14. For Bangladesh, this is actually a fairly decent wage, but again, the poverty is so great it makes it difficult to end the cycle.
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Ok, that about wraps up last week. This past week was also eventful--I went to a birthday party for my friend Khaled's daughter and son. It wasn't so different from American kids' birthday parties, but it was fun soaking up all of the liveliness and meeting new people. And to top off the week, last night I went to Dandiya, a Hindu festival celebrating something (what that something is, I guess I'm not really sure) where we danced a lot with sticks. I had a great time, but learned that I am terribly uncoordinated when it comes to dancing and hitting sticks at the same time.