between holidays

Christmas is finished and New Years is on the way. It's hard to believe how much has happened in the last year! I left Peace Corps, came home for a month, went back to Bangladesh, stayed for 6 months and now I'm home for quite some time.

Christmas is lovely to experience in a Christian country. I was overwhelmed at the amount of stuff given and received (the malls were frightening), but I'm not sure if I want to become habituated to it. Talk about alot of rampant materialism! And everyone has so much stuff! It makes me want to weed out my stuff (that's my heart speaking and not my lazy butt!).

Well, I hope that everyone had a good holiday and I hope to see all my American friends soon.

Take care!

the day that wouldn't end

I'm home! I left Dhaka, flew to London, flew to Chicago and finally landed in Columbus all in one day. That's right... over 30 hours of travel and I arrived the same day I left. International time zones and constant travel can really screw up your head. I'm very excited now that it is actually Sunday.

So, I'll catch up with everyone soon... once I've caught up on my sleep. Take care.

and the beat goes on

I've been sick for the past couple of days and it reminded me of what will and won't happen in the States. Here is a small list of stuff that I've been thinking about in the last week.

I probably won't contract a parasite. (I'm currently infested with pin worms! GROSS!)
I won't have black snot from the pollution and dust.
I will be able to eat pork and cheese.
I won't be able to wear extremely funky clothes.
I will freeze my butt off.
My work week won't start on Sunday, but on Monday. Therefore, I can say "Thank Goodness for Friday," instead of "Thank Goodness for Thursday," which doesn't have the same ring.
I'll be home for Christmas just like the song says.

There is probably more, but I can't think of it now...

Take care and I'll be seeing you soon.

repeat

So, a few more bombs are going off in Bangladesh this past week. This morning ('Deshi time) another one went off and possible one went off last night in a tiny village up near where my PC friend Peter and Helyn live in Naogoan. So, they got off the plane after a vacation in Thailand today and they are consolidated in Dhaka. This is just a regional consolidation, so not all the PCVs will be brought into Dhaka. For of those not habituated in PC talk, consolidation is taking where you take all the volunteers and make them stay together, so if you must evacuate, then they are easier to reach. What is really translates to, Helyn, Peter and their sitemate Mr. Bill-O get a free trip into Dhaka and I'll be seeing them this evening at Happy Hour in the American Club.

Please note, I was very calm when I wrote this and please don't worry about the bombs. It's ok, no one panic. All the exits are clearly marked....

As for my own leaving plans, the plane leaves on the 17th and arrives 30 hours later on the 17th. Confusing? Slightly. Will I be mildly insane from the travel? Definately. Since I'm arrive at 9 pm, Mom asked if I wanted to stop at Schmidt's for a bratwurst on the way home. We'll see... We'll see... A nice brat with a cold beer will be heaven on earth. Mmmmm... pork and cheese. Will this make up for the cold? Hmmm.... I'll think about it....

For this evening however, it is a post-GRE/good-bye Happy Hour for fellow B-5 Wendy. She is has finished her 6 month contract and will be leaving the 'Desh for good in the next day or two. First, she's going to travel around India and also other parts of South Asia before going home to Arizona. Sounds like a ton of fun! Good luck to her!

purgatory

I've seen my own personal version of purgatory. While it wasn't hell, I sure could see it from where I was seated. This morning, Danielle and I met in Gulshan-1 circle and caught a CNG (baby taxi) down to Dhaka University area to an auditorium for the World AIDS Day program. We had to get down about two blocks from the auditorium for security reasons, so we had a lovely walk down there. We come across one of our colleagues also walking to the program and follow him in. We are shown where every NGO that has something to do with HIV/AIDS has information booths and look around. We are then informed the starting program (to officially start the whole kit and caboodle - we were officially not started before, I guess) is starting and we should really watch it. So off we go. We find seats in the lower section, in the back row and on the end. This was a little after 10. We didn't get up until after 1. We were supposed to leave at 12. They were on Bangladeshi time and we believe that they were on American time. Silly us. The thing that got me was the fact that everyone was 'rude' in an American sense, but it didn't faze a single person there. A huge group of people got up to leave in the middle of a speech and the guy in charge of my office had to go and convince them to sit down. He did this multiple times! Finally, the talking heads have finished talking about the same crap that the fella in front of him said and then the cultural program started. The first group was about 7 young adults who were singing songs about AIDS in a traditional form, with a haromium, tabula and small cymbals for background music. It was so loud that I couldn't focus on what was being said. Luckily, they only sang one song. Then came on another group of traditional singer and they sang two songs about AIDS and were more entertaining overall. They didn't give me a bigger headache, in other words. Then! A minister stood up and started to talk more!!! I finally translated that he was opening the main programs and then finally.... our suffering was over! We hurried out and said our good-byes and fled.

Outside the auditorium, we walked back the two blocks to a larger road and tried to get a rickshaw. A group of well-dressed men came over to us and asked what we are doing there. We said that we had gone to the AIDS program and were going home (all this in English) He told us that it was a hartal and that we would have to take a rickshaw all the way to Banani. I whipped out my Bangla, informed him that we know about that hartal and that didn't stop us getting there that morning. He then told us that he would manage a rickshaw for us. He called one over to us and I asked the wala if he was going and the jerk shushed me and told the rickshaw wala that we would give taka 100 to go to Banani. I said that I was a cheap bhabhi and that I would not give 100 taka when the meter for a CNG was 60 taka (thus making the rickshaw price 40-50 taka for the same distance). I thanked him and asked which direction was Banani. At the next road was a ton of CNGs and rickshaws and I paid 80 taka to go where I wanted to (hartals equal baksheesh). I hate it when men tell me that they will 'manage' stuff for me that I can do perfectly fine for myself. However, since he was probably in charge and could hire local ruffians to break my knees, I decided that silence was the better part of valor and kept my mouth shut. But, I'd pay good money to give him what for.

As a treat to ourselves for sitting through multiple talking heads, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut. The week is done and yeah for the weekend!

On the 'Don't worry front': There was a bombing in Gazipur today and some people were killed, but they are still targetting the courts and justice system, so good for my foreign self.

Take care!