The Journey:
I left my cozy air-conditioned apartment at around 11:00am
on Saturday morning. It was nice that I could still sleep in and had some time
in the morning to get stuff ready, before I walked the 45 min to my office,
with my backpack weighed down and my purse busting open full of all the
clothes, equipment and camera stuff I would need for the week. It was a pretty
steamy day so I was pretty wet by my arrival, but when I got there, my team and
I piled in a rented bus for the trip. There were 4 men and one other woman, and
then the driver. I think we made pretty good time because we arrived in 5 hours
when they said it should be something more like 7+. It was really exciting to
get out of Dhaka and see some more of the countryside. It was SO green! Trees
and rice-paddies everywhere with massive water-buffalo type things wandering
around. There were huge rivers and lakes with fun bamboo contraptions for
catching fish, and houseboats floating on them. There was still people
everywhere, and often drove through little villages and towns.
We stopped by a little roadside restaurant for lunch. It was
pretty yummy, but also a little scary. I am still trying to master the art of
eating rice with my fingers, especially when it is even less sticky with saucy
stuff poured over it. I wanted to prove myself competent early on, so this was
kinda my test. I did pretty well with the rice and everything, and I thought I
had won their respect when I could name every food item in Bengali, until my
friend placed the dhal on my plate. Dhal is basically like soup, usually you
put it over rice and that helps sop it all up, but this time we were just
supposed to eat it off your plate….with your fingers. I looked at it and I knew
my time had come; I had been beaten. The lady next to me was able to get all
hers up in a few scoops, and I was left trying to suck my fingers dry quickly
to get some more. Needless to say it took me much longer to get it all up, and
unfortunately here you do need to eat all your food because it’s a sin to waste
any. Eventually with much slurping I was able to get my plate completely clean
and as white as when they gave it to me, just like everyone else around me,
just needed a little more time.
We arrived at our hotel at around 5pm, the men stayed in one
hotel, and me and the other lady in another. I did get my own room, which was
nice, I had a fan, and a bed, and a personal bathroom (squatty-potty and shower
head over it), and a little stand I can put some of my stuff in. We had some
time to settle into our rooms, I unpacked a little, wrote some, and took a
quick nap and read some. My Kindle as of yet has been nice to have on the trip,
but it wasn’t until this weekend that I have really grown to appreciate my
super stellar deal on this great purchase. 20$ from a friend, brand new, never
been used. Can’t do much better than that! I have been reading Game of Thrones,
and I should have put two books on as opposed to just the one for the week, but
I guess it made me read the journal articles I needed to get to anyways.
I got a call on my room phone at about 8, which was good as
I was STARVING and was unsure if I should go scope out the dinner situation, or
just go get some alone (which I had basically ruled out, I’m independent, but I
think it was beyond my abilities and desire to go find a place to eat alone,
and order food for myself in strange small village) I had come to the
conclusion I would just go hungry for the night. However on the phone it was
the other lady that came with us today and she asked how I was and I said I was
just fine, and then it sounded like the conversation was wrapping up with no
mention of dinner, or the plans for the next day so I tried to keep her on by
asking about tomorrow, then in the middle of the conversation I got a knock at
my door. So im on the phone trying to figure out the plans for tomorrow in a
mix of English and Bengali, im in shorts and tank top (Hugely scandalous if
even a woman saw me in this), unsure if I should open the door, or hang up the
phone or what! I decided to try and do everything at once. While still trying
to listen I shimmy into some pants and wrap my top up in a scarf, hoping that
it was just some hotel boy asking about something and I would never see them
again. By then the conversation on the phone was over and I was able to put the
phone down, (which was good because I had managed to knock the counsel off the
table in the meantime) and open the door, to two of my work colleagues from the
center who I had no idea where here! One man and one woman, I had met them
before and I work near them, but I had since forgotten their names. However I
was more horrified and embarrassed by what I was wearing. My top was not long
enough to cover my bum, so to the man I must have looked like I was in my
underwear, and although my top was well covered I realized later my scarf is
pretty sea-through, so he probably saw plenty of shoulder and body shape.
Needless to say I have learned my lesson, when hanging out in my room I need to
stay more than partially clothed, but it was at a high price of embarrassing
myself and scandalizing my co-workers.
They were inviting me to dinner in a few hours, and I said I would love to, and
I made a point of trying to be even more modest than normal at dinner in hopes
of trying to make up for the earlier debacle. Dinner was more of a success than
lunch for effective food intake, and since I was so hungry I scarfed down a lot
of rice and dried fish. It’s a good thing I like spicy food or I would be in
TROUBLE, my lips are always on fire and my nose is always so runny even midway
through the meal, so its nice that there is always cucumbers and lemons on the
table to much on, they are surprisingly effective at cutting the spice!
Mealtime conversation is always in a quick buzz of Bengali, and usually its too
fast and advanced for me to pick up more than 1 or 2 words the entire time,
hopefully they don’t get bored with me just sitting there. Its usually for the
best anyways, I need more time to eat then they do, and its basically all I can
focus on at once.
The power was out walking back to the hotel, when the power
is off when I am inside it scares me. I will admit it, I’m a 22 year old adult,
and I don’t think I will ever get over my fear of the dark. However when it is
dark outside, I am not afraid. Darkness outside is magical. It doesn’t matter
where you are in the world actually, when you are outside at night, it always
seems more beautiful, and im not just talking about seeing stars or anything
like that. Nightlife everywhere in the world, is very different, but always so
beautiful. Even Dhaka is nice in the dark. But here, this little village is
much better. Little lanterns in shops shone out from the little stalls helping
light the path back, the rickshaws need some light too so they have little tiny
lanterns attached to the base, underneath the seat to help. Its so cute to hear
the bells ringing and see the swish back and forth of the lanterns as they
peddle, making the light bounce off the aluminum and brass decorations they
have splayed over the seat covers. Everything seems quieter and more peaceful
when the power is off.
The power was back on at our hotel, and when I came back to
my room I showered real quick to cool off, then sprayed myself down with bug
spray for the night (my fav thing to do once freshly showered). And with the fan on full blast, and my
earplugs in to drowned out the sound of rickshaw bells, CNG horns, and the
mosque call I fell fast asleep for a short nights sleep before my first day out
in the FIELD!
Day 1:
Today has been less awesome than anticipated. So I should
start with where I went wrong first thing in the morning. My roommate back in
Dhaka had told me to never leave my computer in my room of the hotel, take it
with you. She said it would be safer to leave it in the car with the driver, as
opposed to my room. HOWEVER, we did not have a car nor driver, I was CNG’ing to
the field site, then walking around ALLLL day, (plus they must have different
looking hotel rooms because on retrospect mine is very secure). So in my
backpack walking around ALL day I had no less than my whole computer, my camera
and one additional lens, a 2 liter bottle of water, and my phone and wallet.
Needless to say it got pretty heavy REALLY quick.
We started our morning at 6:30 am with some breakfast at a
local restaurant/ hole in the wall before finding the “bus” as my partners
called it, which was a CNG front with a wooden platform on the back we all just
sat on (4 of us, so not too crowded), and rode 45 min away from our small town
into some very remote villages and ‘barrios’ which are little house groups,
usually of 3-5 houses. It was me, the lady I had come in with the day before,
and the two other workers from the day before that I work with in Dhaka some
too; we got off our transportation at what was I guess the major intersection
which was a tea stand on one corner and a mosque on the other, and stood around
for a little waiting for some others, though at the time I was unsure who. We
drew quite a crowd while waiting, and I was glad when two other men showed up
and introduced themselves as the ones we had been waiting for. They were kind
of the field workers in charge of the whole area, and knew most of the people
in the surrounding villages from all the studies going on.
That is when I found out I was being separated from the
other 3 I came in with, who were my English speaking companions, an the ones
collecting data, and I was to go with one of the other men to visit all the
little barrios and get an idea what was going on and to hear about the other
interventions and studies that had been going on here. Only I didn’t know how
much I would learn if the guy hardly spoke any English, and I don’t speak any
better Bangla. But my friend told me today she was too busy to have me and I
would go with him. So we then proceed to wander through house after house and
village after village on foot (me lugging my 25lb backpack with me) in well
over 100 degree heat. And each house and each village was the same. Don’t get
me wrong I did enjoy seeing these people and seeing a bit of their lives and
practices and things, but it was the same each place we went. This mother and
this baby were in the nutrition study, here are the empty packets. Here is the
handwashing station and soapy water we give, here is the water they use for
drinking and the use of the aquatab solution to purify it, here is their
latrine with a hand washing station as well. Every house we went that had a
basin for drinking water we had to stop and smell it and ask “5 lt water, and
one tablet”. It was interesting, but it
didn’t take too long for this to become pretty repetitive, especially since
wherever we went people would bring out chairs for me to sit on, and I was just
embarrassed. I get so much special treatment and notice, it makes it seem more
difficult for the guy and just made me feel ridiculous. Like I don’t need a
chair at every household, but then I feel rude declining it after they have
already cleaned it off, wiped it down, and brought it over. Then once im sitting they start offering me
all sorts of fruit and cookies etc. Today I had Jackfruit for the frist time. I
have had very mixed reviews of the fruit from many people, and one person told
me that it depends on the frit, some are chewy, but some are nice and slimy I
guess. I must have gotten the good one cuz it didn’t strike me as chewy and
nasty. The giant seed inside caught me a bit off guard, and honestly I didn’t
know jackfruit grew in those little balls anyways. I thought it would be more
like a massive papaya. I also had another thing for the first time, but they
call them blackberries, and I can tell you for certain they are not the
blackberries we know. They kind of
looked a cross between a black olive and a date. Like skinny and oblong, but
then with a black/ dark purple color with a seed in it very much the same as an
olive seed. But when they brought it out they also gave us salt, which I was
like weird, but ok. I bit into one, and it was like biting into a lemon with a
twist of cherry, or maybe a tiny bit more sour. And you just kind of pop the
whole thing in your mouth and chew away the meet of it, then spit the seed out
on their floor. Apparently that is totally fine. The salt actually helped the taste significantly
somehow, and the more I ate the more I liked them. But it was still a very
different experience, and also made me concerned for the health of my GI tract. Other houses I got some biscuits and a mango, all very good too.
I remember at
one time in the walk I was thinking “oh it MUST be at least 11 by now, and then
I looked at my phone a half an hour after that, and it was only 10:30” Then is
when I started getting worried for the day. If I am to be honest, I was feeling
like my backpack was really heavy, and at first with all the chairs being
brought out I was embarrassed, but by then I was gladly sitting for a few, I
was so hot and SURE I was getting sunburnt. I had sweat out so much of my water
and was running low on my supply, but also didn’t want to drink too much more
as I was unsure of any place I could use the restroom. Although I didn’t show
it, I was also getting pretty frustrated with the language barrier. How much
can I learn when I cant hardly ask any questions, and then when I can, I cant
understand the response. And all the people would be talking to me and I WANTED
to talk back, but I couldn’t say anything and didn’t understand what they were
saying to me. The most exciting interaction I had was when a lady asked me
about my Monroe piercing, and asked me what it was, and why it was there. And I
showed her how it went through my lip, and it was just like a nose ring (like
the one I had, and she had two of). It got her very excited, and I wonder if
ill start a new fashion trend out here. But even children who I usually have
good luck with seemed to be super afraid of me out here.
Speaking of children, I have never seen so many naked cubby
babies in my life as I did today. There were so many children everywhere, and
not just children, but ever step I took I had to be careful not to trod on a
baby duckling or chick scuttling around at our feet. One little boy was even
holding a baby bird of some sort (not a chicken or duck), looked a bit like a
little robin or something like that. It was super cute, and I wanted to get a
picture, but it was my very first village of the day and I was hoping to hold
off until I got a better understanding of what was up. As soon as I did start
taking pictures however, people started running to and fro putting on fancier
clothes, and every women wanted a picture with her baby, but they would always
put clothes on them, when I personally though their naked protrusive bellies
were way cuter.
So it continued like this for hours, and I couldn’t believe
when I looked at my phone that it was only 12:00 noon, and I felt as though we
had been wandering for many hours (as opposed to the 4 hours we had been). This
was at a house were we got some biscuits, and we had run into another one of
the men from the bus the day before. He told me I could go with him at 2:30 to
watch some stuff (I couldn’t figure out what) if we stayed that long and I said
great, since moving on sounded good. But then after he left I guess we only had
one more barrio to go to, and as soon as we were done there he walked me back
to the main road and sent me on my way in a CNG back to the main city.
I was kind of confused, but then I decided the man must have
meant yesterday at two, and my “work” here for the day was done. I also wonder
though if a) he was just tired of dragging me along with him when I caused such
a commotion, or b) he was concerned I might drop over dead with the amount I
was sweating. I tried to assure him I was just fine and I could keep going, but
he was adamant about me “resting”.
Well rest I did, It was a pleasant hour ride back, where I
kind of just zoned out and watched the beautiful country zoom by, and not talk
to anyone, although everyone in the CNG with me was clearly talking about me
the whole time and staring and pointing, but I think I got boring after a while.
It is so beautiful out here, so green. So many rice paddies, and banana and
palm trees, random streams with huge fish-net bamboo structures slung across,
and it even started raining a bit for me, which made it even more magical. When
I got back I stopped in a store to get some water much to the whole
neighborhoods surprise I could ask for 2 bottles of water and the price and
even ask the price for mango juice all in Bangla (hopefully that will get me
better prices on CNG’s in the future here). Then went up to my room, and after
a brisk cool (there is no other temp for the water here, other than what comes
off the roof) shower, lay down for a bit of a “rest”. I woke up every hour and
looked at my clock, and though I should get up now, then though…what for? I didn’t
expect my team back until pretty late (although they ended up showing up at
around 6, much earlier than expected), and I had nothing to do (well I could
have read some of the 50 billion journal articles I need to work on for my lit
search, but that is pretty hard to be motivated for). So I ended up sleeping
until basically 5. Yes, I took a massive
4-hour nap, it was amazing and weird.
When I woke up I was still pretty dehydrated, I stood up and
felt pretty dizzy, I debated drinking a pack of saline to help, but decided to
just guzzle the rest of my water that I had bought when I came back. After a
little bit of reading and stuff I got a knock at my door (this time I was sure
to scurry into some real clothes), and it was the two ladies from earlier, my
friends. From here on out I will give them names, since they are big parts of
the story, one is Dhalia, the other Dhania (was so glad when I figured out Dhania
name from listening, as well as the other guys name who is Arnob). They came
bearing gifts, I don’t know if they felt bad for leaving me earlier, or if they
had acquired them while working as well and wanted to share, but they had also
heard I came back early, so I think they knew I was a bit bored. They brought a
whole bag (maybe 2-3 kg) of mangos; I got four, then part of the bundle of
lychee, and much to my excitement some more of the blackberries! I can’t tell
if I like them, or my mouth just finds them very confusing! I guess someone
must have given my team a heads up for my fruit obsession!
That is when I realized I had not eaten any real food since
breakfast (now 6:30), and the jackfruit blobs, a few slices of mango, and a
cookie had been my sustenance up till now. Two lychee a mango and a handful of
blackberries later I felt much better, but my work buddies had to go and rest
and shower etc, and then were going to have a quick meeting on some changes
that would need to be made to their questionnaire, before we would hit up
dinner around 9pm.
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| My Flash Cards of Vocabulary |
I continued working on some reading, and looking at my
flashcards, and honestly played a few games on my cell phone (somehow playing
snake never gets old), when I got another knock on my door and it was Dhalia
bringing me a bag of something (turned out to be a bag of shredded cucumber and
two spicy potato balls), saying dinner would be later because of meetings and
things, I invited her in and we had a nice long talk about my objective for being
here, and what the next few days would look like.
As the day had honestly been pretty frustrating, and I felt
like I had not accomplished much for MY study, nor helped theirs in any shape
or form, and was more of a burden than anything, I told her it would be nice if
things were a little different. It would be nice to just follow someone around
doing the surveys and questionnaires and see how that is. But then she told me
that this study is very much in its pilot stage, and they are trying to be very
discreet about everything. So bringing the tall white blond girl around would
not exactly make them blend in very well. She was going to go ask one of the
other guys in the meeting what they would let me do, but it sounded as though
there wouldn’t be much for me to do tomorrow if I couldn’t do that, the next day
(Tuesday) that I might be able to go observe a community training on sanitation
for half a day, but then would have nothing for the rest of the day, Wednesday
was another big unknown with nothing for me to do, and Thursday morning before
taking the bus back to Dhaka we could go look at some hand washing facilities.
Basically it just did not sound like enough to make me happy, but they were
going to talk about it in the meeting. I suggested me taking a public bus back
into Dhaka, it really didn’t sound that complicated. Catch a bus, sit on it,
get into Dhaka at some random, unknown place, but then I could just tell the
CNG driver Gulshan 2 and he would take me. But the lady sounded really against
it, so I guess im here till Thursday unless things change miraculously. Either
sitting in my hotel room with no internet and no AC reading through my
literature, or taking short trips that are highly inconvenient for everyone
else out every once in a while to the field for half a day.
I don’t know what to do. I’m wasting their time, and I’m
wasting my time. This has nothing to do with MY project and cant really get too
much done while here, and I am doing nothing to help them with theirs. Yes I
get to see a rural field sight, but there are other times when I know I will go
to a rural sight for MY project in just a few weeks, so I don’t see the need
for me to be here only for “the experience”, especially since the experience is
pretty week as I cant even participate or observe in data collection! Guess we
will just see what tomorrow holds…
Day 2:
Today I was able to go out to the field for a little, though
it was not much different then the day before. Again I had to come back early
(although was able to stay out until 2 at least) and I spent a large majority
of the day wandering around tiny villages, sitting in chairs set out and
provided for me, and being the town attraction. I think it was basically this
one dude set to be my babysitter for the day, who took me from chair to chair.
I knew interviews were being conducted while this was all going on but the one
we tried to pop in on, we basically brought the whole town along with us, and
that isn’t good for the study so we had to leave. Near the end of the study, we
were able to make a break from the crowd and acted like we were leaving, and
actually went to a house on the outskirts where a survey was being conducted
then, so I was able to watch that finally. But it was basically 5 hours of
waiting and being watched and trying to talk and being un able to, before
observing that 45 min survey.
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This is what is used for fuel for fires. Its is cow dung that is
smooshed onto sticks by the women, using their hands, dried, then
stuck into little ground fires to heat up food! |
The scenery of where we are is so amazing and unique though,
I do try and take it all in when sitting and walking so as to remember. It is
something so picturesque and right out of a book or movie. The people are so friendly to, I always get
so much fruit and stuff, and everyone is always talking to me. Usually asking
where I am from, how many brothers and sisters I have, how old am I, if I am
married, WHY I am not married, what is with my Monroe piercing, basic normal
conversation like that. Today I was able to reciprocate some of the questions
by asking some of the mom’s how many children they had, and which ones of the
TONS of children were theirs, but this took me pretty much the whole day to
work up to that sentence.
I found out today the reason there were so many children
around is because it was summer vacation, or as they call it here the ‘mango
jackfruit season break (am-carkhal)’. Personally I think that is the most
awesome name for a vacation EVER, and I might start calling it that from now
on.
So at 2pm my babysitter said it was time to go back to the
hotel for lunch and a rest, I think they must think I’m just the most frail
person ever the amount of time I spend “resting”. So we hoped on the CNG back.
Honestly, I just love CNG rides; they totally put me to sleep, especially out
here. They are just the perfect amount of jostling, fresh air, and ‘wir wir,
hmmm, klick klick, beep’ sounds that lull me right to sleep, or into a very
peaceful zone looking out on the passing countryside.
We grabbed some quick lunch when we got back, I got some
yummy fish to eat with my rice, and my babysitter got a delicious looking fish
head (sarcasm). He might have been offended when I didn’t try any of his but I
honestly didn’t even know where to grab meat from! Then I came back to my room
and read some journal articles and also watched an episode of firefly (thank
you to the Coxes who gave me the season on my computer to watch over my winter
break and I never did! Right now Im so glad I held off!). The only problem was
the power was off in my room for the better part of 5 hours, and there was no
way of opening any windows. So this was a pretty hot, stuffy room, with
absolutely no airflow from a fan, and I just sat there, soaking in my own
stuffy air and sticky sweat. It was a lovely way to pass the time doing work.
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| View from my Hotel Window, Kishringonj city! |
Eventually it was time for dinner, we decided to go
someplace fancy I guess and stepped it up to Chinese food. It actually was a
pretty decent place, I’m surprised it was here and I’m unsure who their
clientele are. The best part of it was that I was able to eat with a FORK.
First meal in 4 days with a fork, it felt so good. It was also pretty good meal
also, because I felt like I was finally really connecting with my team members,
all the conversation was basically still in Bengali, but a) I could sort of
track the conversation, and b) they talked to me a bit more. They must be
accepting me more though also because of the girls decided to tell me that one
of the guys on the team is apparently in love with me and wants to marry me. We
did have a nice conversation about photography, and that is usually all it
takes for me to fall in love too, so I understand. But anyways, I feel like if I’m in with the
gossip, I must be in! They also showed me some pictures of an old trip they all
took together and it opened up some good conversation. Much better than just
sitting in my room. That night I slept really well, I must have been pretty
tired, but morning still felt to early for day 3.
Day 3:
Today I was FINALLY able to have a whole day out in the
field, and see and even sort of HELP do stuff. It was very exciting, and a
pretty fun day. Even early in the morning you could tell it was going to be a
super hot day and not really any chance for rain. We started off at 7:00, a
little later than we had been the past 2 days, which was a nice break, and got
some yummy breakfast. Breakfast I think has been my favorite here this week as
it is a break from the ever-constant rice and dhal. I COULD get that at
breakfast too, but I tend to opt for chapatti and eggs, plus that is more in my
comfort zone of eating as well, as I can eat with bread as opposed to just my
plain fingers. Then again onto our CNG out to the more remote villages. This morning the plan was now for me to go
with a girl who had just come up the evening before, and was going to be doing
nutrition training with some flip charts and cue cards for pregnant and
breastfeeding mothers. I could go along and watch, and hold the cards. Also…the
real reason… I was the best bait for drawing a crowd, and the bigger the crowd
the better.
So we went off to our first
nutrition site village, and it didn’t take long for every mother in the village
to be hanging around us, so we set up camp. We laid out a mat in a shady spot,
and my new friend stood at the front and talked to the women and got responses.
It was really fun to see the whole village of women come out with their little
babies and talk about these things. I even understood some, since I know a lot
of food names. It was also pretty cool cuz we asked the women if I could take
some pictures during the training, and they were all really excited for that
(usually women are a lot more shy about that here). So the training took a good
while, and then at the end, the leader said she had to now go have a one on one
interview with one pregnant mother to get some feedback, and I should stay
where I was so as to not draw a crowd to the interview.
So there I was, the star attraction, sitting
on a chair in the middle of the courtyard. As soon as she left I was SWARMED by
the whole village. Im not exadurating, I think I had somewhere to the effect of
15 mothers and their assortment of children, and some of the neighboring
children all in a big circle around me. They all just stood there talking
amongst themselves looking at me and whispering about me and my hair and my
piercing, and where I was from, and if I was married, and how old I must be, and
If I spoke any bangla. I tried to answer some of the things they were asking
about me, if I understood. But then it kinda just got me in trouble, since then
they think I can speak…and I cant. It
was kinda funny to see some of the women kind of take ownership of me as well,
and would shoo away all the other people who for some reason didn’t belong in
the huddle. So in the midst of all that conversation though, I was talking to a
women about how many children she had (my safest sentence to use), and I complimented
her on her henna (most every women has it on their hands though, and apparently
here its called mindi). And that is where the fun started.
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| Village pulling henna leaves off for me! |
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| Me and my Beautician...and the village in the background! |
Then it was a hustle bustle to go take me to the tree where
they get the leaves, then they started pulling the leaves and grinding it up
for fresh henna. That is when I realized what was happening; I was getting
dyed. I was totally fine with it, cuz I honestly like getting henna and things,
I just kind of like being prepared for it, plus we had a big day ahead and my
buddy just had an interview to do, so did we have time? I wasn’t sure. But then
we were swept away in to a house and all the women started gathering around to
put in on me.
They do it different here than in Yemen. The same blobs on the
fingers and nails, but then one big circle in the middle of the hand. It makes
me feel like my hand has become the Bangladeshi flag. Compare below:
Aparently though we had all the time in the world, when
Rizona (my friend) was done with her interview she found me there and said we
had tons of time to kill since we wernt going to the next village till after
lunch! (It was like 10:30 at this time, and in Bangladesh you don’t eat lunch
till at least 1:30. So alright! So we sat there for some more time, maybe half
an hour, but then we decided to go and get a snack before lunch at Rizona’s
friends place I guess. So then I said goodbye to all my lovely beauticians who
I was very sad to leave, but glad to be moving. So off we go wandering again,
this time with my hands still in the muddy henna blobs which I’m sure makes me
so much less of a spectacle. We then got to a different village and sat down in
these peoples house for a snack of some biscuits and I actually got some 7up! I
couldn’t eat anything with my hands as they were so I just drank, much to the
hostess chagrin who wanted to hand feed me, I line I could not cross.
When we were done there, we headed back to the center of the
village to catch a CNG back into the main city (back another hour). On the way
I scraped off my henna, and arrived at the restaurant and was able to rinse off
my hands. Lunch was rice and some small little fishes with heads and all, all
cooked up. I picked the heads off, but my travel buddy clearly chomped on the
head and spat out the leftover. I hope she didn’t judge me too much for not
partaking. Then it was back to the
village, but we stopped by the field office for another hour or so, to just
kill time as most people would not be able to come to another session since it
was lunchtime. That was kinda chill, less work linguistically and also less
inquisitive eyes, just one, the landlady.
We went to a completely different village when we returned,
and it looked even lower income if that could be possible. Same sort of story,
go into town and “called” everyone
around. Here in this village I met two of the most amazingly beautiful and
awesome old women EVER. They were almost like twins, they looked so similar,
and were the oldest looking people I have ever seen. They had absolutely no
teeth left, gloriously wrinkled everywhere, and their skin was so saggy that
their beautiful gold nose rings were dripping out of their noses, from years of
the weight. They both just sat there in chairs right in front of me, and asked
everyone around me questions about me, and stared at me some more. I’m not sure
if they approved or dis-approved. I wanted a picture of them SO badly, but I
didn’t know how to ask without just making a ridiculous kerfuffle. We had
another meeting/ gathering, and at the end the whole villaged asked to then
hear ME speak, “we want to hear the videshi’s voice”. So then I had to stand up
in front of the whole town and say the like 3 sentences I know “ hello” the
whole town responds in unison, “how are you” the whole town is very good. “My
name is Laura, and I am from America. I work at the Cholera Hospital”. Cell
phones were out recording me like it was some grand speech, and giggles and
shrieks of delight soon followed. It was a very weird experience. My friend
then again had to go and do another interview, but this time I was ushered into
a house and the lady INSISTED on fanning me…non stop. No matter how many times
I insisted I was fine and not hot (it was hot I was lying), she would not stop.
She wouldn’t even let me fan myself, and a second fanner even came along after
too long. The whole town had then gathered in the house I was being fanned like
an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh in, and these people were a lot harder for me to
understand unfortunately, and I couldn’t really communicate at all. So it was a
very awkward 30 min or so I was there, just sitting and staring back at them
staring and whispering about me, and being constantly fanned by my little posy
of personal assistants, who also brought me some fresh lemon juice.
It was a nice village, but almost too nice, I was glad to
leave when we were done, and call it a day. It was a very relaxing ride back
into town on our CNG, my buddy fell asleep and I enjoyed taking a break from
trying to talk all the time, and just watching the countryside slide slowly by.
I wish I could capture it all, and today was extra beautiful because it was
evening and the light was casting nice orange shadows. I didn’t get back to my
room until 6, so it was a full day. After a nice brisk shower of cold water,
and some time reading, it was dinner. More rice and fish, and the whole team
excited by my new orange hands.
I sliced my finger open on my door when coming back, pretty
bad. Lots of blood everywhere. At least its on my left hand though and don’t
(and cant) use it much, so my lack of band aid might be ok. Tomorrow we will set off at 7:30, so again a
bit of a lie-in (sort of), before another day like today apparently, but its
always a mystery where how I actually end up, so I’m not making any promises.
Day 4:
Today started like all the rest, up early, breakfast, CNG to
the village (different one again). This time I went with the same girl as
yesterday, and rather than meeting with women in the village, we got together
with all the (CHA) Community Health Assistants. These girls are sort of like
the local connection of sample villages to the ICDDRB, and have sort of
volunteered for the position. We got together with about 8 of them and went
through a whole stack of flip charts and educational tools and got their feedback
on it all. I got REALLY sleepy in the middle though, like SO sleepy. I was
sitting in front of all of them too, holding the used charts. I was frantically
looking around to try and wake my mind up, and looking outside and inside to
try and keep my brain occupied, but it was just no use, I was SO sleepy. I
think there is a point in our brains that when they want sleep they have to
have it, if even just for a second. That is all I needed, In one of my frenzied
looking around times, I looked down at the numbers on the charts and tried to
learn the characters, and I think I dozed off for just a second. Not long at
all, I don’t think anyone even noticed. It was the weirdest thing though. I
guess my brain just needed one little re-boot or something. It couldn’t stay
away for one more second no matter how hard I tried, and I was only asleep for
a split second to revive me.
After that I was just fine for the rest of the session, and
then we all got tea, samosas and bananas at the end. Then we went to another
village area. All the flip charts I have mentioned are drawn pictures, and my
partner wanted to get some real photos with a camera of mothers breastfeeding,
different age children, healthy cooking, etc. Unfortunately, even though this
was something I would have loved to help with, I would have drawn too big of a
crowd. So I had to sit and detain the people while my buddy went and found
volunteers. The good part was though, that I wasn’t the only one with a camera,
so I was able to bust it out for a bit and take some pictures. So this was
again just sitting for a few hours in someone’s house, meeting the whole
village and the children. Talking about myself and my life story, and answering
questions about my strange ‘bindi’ which is my Monroe piercing. They are the
most curious about that as ANYTHING. In a way its nice, cuz it gives us
something to talk about, but then I wonder if I didn’t have it if I would be
less strange to them, but probably not, so actually hidden blessing. Today I
got to try pickled mangoes for the first time though, so that was pretty tasty
actually! I also got to hold lots of chubby little babies too, so I was for the
most part happy. It was a fun little
village and I got to also shuck some rice, which was quite an experience, and
also cross over a teetering thin bamboo bridge.
After that it was time for lunch, so we took one of those
wooden platform tractors back into town; a good hour ride, but honestly so much
fun. We got in for some lunch, and then some tea, then on the CNG ride back
into the main city we also got some of the awesome ‘blackberries’, which I now
know I love. Then got some ‘sweet curd’ when we got back to town. So I was
feeling pretty well fed. BTW sweet curd is like plain yogurt that is somehow
sweetened, and then a little bit extra fermented, and also has a hard layer of
drying yogurt on top. It was a little strange… but I liked it. I think I just always like food.
 |
Me and my two research buddies!
Rizona and Dalia
|
 |
Delicious Street food. I cant remember
exactly what they are called..
something like 'fasle' maybe? |
 |
My PI (Dalia) wearing the scraps of the palm fruit as a
bracelet and crown. We have so much fun! |
We had really finished work for the day, somehow we got
everything done before schedule (it was now like 3:30 pm), so we decided to go
back to the hotel to clean up and rest. I finished Firefly, so now I am a real
nerd, and took a brief nap, before my friends came to the door, saying they
were going to go shopping. I guess this is the area of Bangladesh for super
cheap material, so we were going to go material shopping for Salwar Kameezes. In
the end we only purchased some delicious street food and they got some prayer
hats for their husband/brothers. We got back at around 8pm and decided to go to
dinner at 9:30 (which actually ended up being 10), so we didn’t get back till
pretty late, and I pretty much had my evening shower to cool off and went
straight to bed, as tomorrow would be a big day of traveling.
Departure Day:
We all woke up at 5am to try and beat the traffic, it was a pretty chill ride home, although we did get traffic. Pretty un-eventful, only one near-death experience with a bus but all was well. I made it home by 1pm, and had a NICE long shower, and turned my AC on nice and high, and caught up on lots of emails and internet things for the rest of the day. Good trip...and now im sleepy. :)
