Public at Last

So I have no excuses for my lack of follow through with regards to writing about India, except that I have been incredibly lazy in the 2 weeks I've been back.

Being back has been great, and I honestly have experienced a lot less reverse culture shock than I anticipated. Basically, I am incredibly grateful to be living in Ann Arbor (which I am starting to love more and more), and to be an American woman. It's obviously not perfect, but I wouldn't trade it for anything else.

Since I'm back in the land of the free (only slightly facetious) I'm making the blog public again.

Bye Bye Bangladesh (for real this time)

My true departure from Bangladesh is just a bit anti-climactic. I feel like the real one was 2 weeks ago, and this one is just kind of an addendum.

I arrived back in Dhaka on Monday morning, after a truly terrible night spent a the Calcutta airport. I had an 8 hour layover from 11pm until 7AM, which even at a nice American or European airport still really sucks, but at a rundown Indian airport is nearly unbearable (especially with a bad cold).
The thing that really struck me the most about India was the contrast between the rich and poor. I would actually bet money that the gap between rich and poor in Bangladesh is greater than in India, and that the money here is held in much fewer hands, and there are a much higher percentage of really really poor people, but in India it is striking because there are really nice places whereas in Bangladesh even the fanciest places for the most part seem kind of run down by the standards of the developed world. In India there are places that feel almost like America or another rich country. The difference between the airport in Delhi and Calcutta really brought this point home. The Delhi airport (especially the international terminal) is incredibly nice and clean and modern and even has a KFC (yes... not exactly the stamp of modernity but I was impressed, you know how I feel about KFC). The Calcutta airport is kind of gross, really dingy, uncomfortable, filled with mosquitoes and barely had a working bathroom. Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep that night and was completely exhausted when I arrived back in Dhaka.
The hotel picked me up, and the AC in their van was not working. For some reason they also didn't open the windows, so I honestly thought i was going to die of heat stroke. Welcome back to Bangladesh!

I spent the rest of Monday basically sleeping, completely exhausted and still feeling terrible from my cold. I managed to get up to go to dinner with Ravid, and some of his friends, which turned out to be a really nice evening. All 3 of his friends grew up in Bangladesh but went to college in the U.S.

Today was incredibly uneventful for it being my last day. I slept in really late, got a much needed pedicure, and managed to find an open restaurant to eat a late lunch (it's Ramadan, so almost every single restaurant in the city is closed).
Sayed picked me up from the hotel and drove me to the airport.
Now I am sitting here in the Dhaka airport and have a few more hours before my flight to Dubai departs. I expected to be feeling a lot more than I am. I think I'm just ready to get back to America. The 2 weeks in India were great, but completely exhausting, and they really reminded me how stressful it can be over here.
I think the thing I am the most excited about is going back to a place where I do not draw attention everywhere I go. I really think this above all else (the crazy traffic, language barrier etc.) is what has worn me out. It constantly makes me feel out of place, and self-conscious. The attention is for the most part not negative, but it is still very unwanted. Today while I was getting a pedicure the girl next to me kept staring at me, and would talk to the woman giving her a pedicure in Bangla and then they would both look at me. I have no idea what they were talking about (I imagined they were making fun of the terrible tan lines on my feet resulting from wearing my Chaco sandals every single day for the last 3 months).
I am also excited to get back to a place where I know what's going on, or I can at least fake it. Bangladesh is just so different in so many ways that it was really impossible for me to feel like i fully understood anything I witnessed.

Now this is definitely not to make it sound like I had a terrible time here,. All in all, I had an absolutely amazing summer that I wouldn't trade for anything. I think I gained a much needed and invaluable perspective on just how big and varied the world really is. I don't think I will realize how much I have learned until I get back home and experience reverse culture shock.

Although my adventure on the Indian subcontinent is nearly over, I am going to go back and write a few entries (as promised) about my 2 weeks in India, and maybe any other thoughts I have about returning home. I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience, I really enjoyed writing about it and I think it enriched my time here.

Alla hafeez Bangladesh, you will always have a special place in my heart.

Alive in India

Hello everyone. My Mom and I are alive and well in Rishikesh, India. Rishikesh is where new age spirituality meets old world Hinduism, so is filled with everything from hippies to holy men. It's also where Beatles discovered meditation and LSD. We have been without internet for the past week, so there is lots to write about.
Some highlights:

• The Taj Mahal lived up to expectations as the most beautiful building in the world.
• Taking a boat ride on the Ganges river through Varanasi and seeing a public crematorium where bodies are burned then the ashes are released in the river (long story)
• A train ride from hell that involved waiting in the Agra train station (AKA train platform) amidst the rats and pigeons for a few hours in the middle of the night, then to be on a train that was supposed to be only 8 hours and ended up taking 14!
•  A ceremony dedicated to the Lord Shiva in Varanasi.
• An elephant ride up to the Amber Fort in Jaipur.

 We only have a few more days and we are both completely exhausted. Tomorrow we drive back to Delhi and are both flying home Sunday night. I will have one more day in Bangladesh and will be returning to Ann Arbor on the 18th. I have enjoyed my time here in India and of course in Bangladesh, but am definitely ready to return to the States.
 

More from India

I am having an amazing time in India, and have just loved my time here so far. I am in Jaipur right now and spent the last 2 days in Pushkar. It is one of India's 7 holy cities (we are going to also visit Varanasi and Haridwar later in the trip) and legend has it that the Hindu God Brahma created the world from a lotus flower and Pushkar lake was the first part of the world he created. Needless to say it is old. I have much to write about, but the internet here is paid for by the hour, and so will post a more detailed blog later. (I've been keeping track of all the good stuff.)
One really weird thing is that I figured since we were hitting the very well traveled areas of India that I would not draw as much attention as in Bangladesh, I was wrong. The staring is the same, but here they are a bit more aggressive and every single time we have gone to any sort of tourist attraction (even in Delhi) I have been asked to be in countless pictures. Guys have asked me to be in photos with them, guys have asked me to take pictures with their wives, families have asked me to pose with them. It has actually gotten to be really overwhelming.

Mom is doing great! She really likes India so far and is adjusting really well. Things are pretty crazy here, but in a much more fun way than Bangladesh.

Dhaka to Delhi

I'm in India! This means I made it through my summer in Bangladesh (almost -- I still have one night there on my way back to America).
I am definitely still reflecting upon my time there, and am just so grateful for the experience. All things considered it has been a wonderful and life-changing summer.
I spent the last few days wrapping up loose ends and saying my goodbyes. Leaving Ayub and Sayed was very hard and I definitely cried when I said goodbye to them. I was still crying while standing in line at the airport, and the man in line next to me turned around, raised his eyebrows and said, "you're scared of flying?"

I had a 4 hour layover in the Kolkata airport which was pretty terrible. I arrived at the international terminal and after a few wrong turns realized I needed to get to domestic one. I headed outside to look for a tram and it was completely pouring down rain and I was surrounded by men trying to get me to take a taxi. Everything was pretty crazy, and I also had not managed to get any rupees yet. Eventually I managed to get a taxi driver to drive me to the domestic terminal for a few American dollars (the first guy I talked to wanted $10.00! While at the domestic terminal (which was not even as nice as the Dhaka airport) I got eaten alive by mosquitoes and am still recovering from that today.

Arriving in Delhi was pretty surreal as it is a very nice airport, and is definitely the fanciest thing I've seen in a few months. I finally found the guy from my hotel amongst the nearly hundred of men with signs for new arrivals. We headed out to the hotel and I finally started to relax until... the driver slowly pulled off the freeway and stopped the car. I was like "WHAT IS GOING ON?!?!?!" and he in his very limited english said something about another driver coming, and I was like "I DON'T UNDERSTAND!!!" and so he called the other driver who was picking up my mom, and they put my mom on the phone and she explained how she had just arrived and the driver she was with was coming to meet us. This obviously eased my mind considerably although it was still strange being reunited with my mom on the side of the road somewhere in Delhi.

We arrived at our bed & Breakfast around 1AM completely exhausted.

Today it rained for hours and hours in the morning, flooding the road in front of the B&B leading to a very uneventful morning. Later in the day we got in touch with the travel guide that had been recommended to us and they sent a car for us. We met with them and got the rest of our trip planned out. I have a feeling it's going to be an amazing 2 weeks.

After that we went to a Hindu temple and then dinner. All in all I really love India so far.

Dining with the "enemy"

Friday night Charlie, Karen and I were invited to dinner by Khaled Yusuf who is a jute mill owner, and a member of a very well-connected family. He can only be described as the upper-upper crust. (He family literally was the landed gentry, how many people can you say that about).

He and his wife Afroza were quite possibly the most hospitable people I have ever met. They made us feel so welcome and served us an assortment of traditional Bengali dishes. I finally understand what people mean when they talk about Bangladeshi hospitality.

At one point Afroze's brother stopped by. He happened to be a garment factory owner, so Mr. Yusuf introduced Charlie and I as "the enemy". He was kidding, but the brother decided he should fill us in on the owner's perspective of things. Listening to him made me feel that I had done my homework as there was not one thing he said that I hadn't heard before. Some was, in my opinion, slightly far-fetched. He said any increase in the minimum wage was going to put nearly half of the garment factories out of business. From everything I've read that simply can't be the case. He also hinted very strongly at a conspiracy of some sorts leading to worker unrest, a theory that even industry sources view as ridiculous. He also said that every single worker at his factory is happy, and at least 9 out of 10 factories are completely compliant with every law. None of this sounded realistic.

Overall the night was great, even the conversation with the "enemy".

Later in the week they invited us (including J.R. too) to the Dhaka Club for dinner to celebrate Charlie's last night. This meant they had to take 2 separate cars to pick us up and take us across the city. The Dhaka Club is the most elite institution in the city, It was originally founded by the British colonialists but gradually has been overtaken by the Bangladeshi upper crust. Brandt describes it by saying that when you are taken there "you know you've arrived." This isn't exactly true, but was definitely a nice send off for Charlie.

Old Dhaka Take 2

Last Friday we were lucky enough to be invited by Megan (Charlie's family friend who lives here permanently) to join the tour of Old Dhaka that she was leading for the new arrivals of her NGO. Karen and JR also accompanied us.
Besides the 4 of us the group consisted of Derota (the woman we are sharing our car with, who was also put in contact with Megan through friend of a friend connections), Sarah (who I had met at Megan's previously), Nancy, and then an absolutely wonderful family from Togo, Grace, Anthony and their absolutely adorable 6 year old Jerome. Jerome is quite possibly the best kid I have ever met. If not at the top of my list then definitely in the top 5. He was fearless, outgoing, funny and extremely positive. We all joked how it would just be impossible to remain in a bad mood with him around.
You can probably imagine that a group of white, asian and black people drew A LOT of attention. At the very beginning of our tour we stood in a group listening to Megan give us an overview of what we would be doing that day and we attracted a crowd of nearly 100 people completely surrounding us, looking at us with a mix of confusion and interest.
As we walked towards the docks (where Megan had arranged for us to take a small boat in the Buriganga river) it became apparent that Jerome was attracting even more attention than I could even dream of. He was dressed in a traditional Bengali outfit that was a bright green. Everywhere he went people stared, and wanted to come up and talk to him, especially the street children. My anxiety levels were definitely on the rise as I watched him randomly talking to people and just wandering around the street in general. His parents were incredibly good-natured and have like a 1000% more laid back approached to child-rearing than I do.

After some haggling with the boat owner Megan got us 2 large gondola type boats. We climbed aboard and set sail. It was incredibly hot, and being on the water made it even hotter. We passed other pleasure seekers (so to speak) who all gaped at us. The shores of Dhaka are not the most picturesque, the river being filled with rusty boats and the shore filled with dilapidated buildings. If you squint your eyes it almost looks kind of pretty.

The boat ride lasted about 30 minutes, and we were all drenched with sweat when it ended. As we climbed onto the land the gondolier (think Venice, if Venice was a poor, third world country) rather aggressively asked us for more money. Of course.

From the boat ride we walked down a tiny market street filled with stores selling all kind of goodies from vegetables, to grains, to live chickens, to slabs of raw beef hung on a wire. The street was so narrow that we were constantly being nearly collided into by rickshaws, CNGs and mobs of people. Much gaping ensued of course. At this point Karen and I thought it would be fun to walk hand in hand with Jerome and lift him up and swing him on the count of 3. Because kids are the same the world over he of course loved this game. I have to imagine that a white girl and an asian girl lifting up an african boy and swinging him around while yelling "whoo whoo" is an event that hasn't occurred before in Old Dhaka.

While in Old Dhaka we went to the Armenian Church. It was a nice respite from the nearly intolerable heat, but as far as old churches go was not really anything to write home about. There was this really creepy street kid, who grabbed my hand, kissed it and refused to let go, then tried to get me to kiss his cheek. I wrenched my hand away and made a "no no no no" gesture and ran away. He followed us around the rest of the time, staring at me with very creepy, dead eyes. This was especially awkward for the 10 minutes we were locked behind the gates of the church waiting for the guide to let us out, and he just stood there looking at us.  (my attitude towards street children growing a little more hard-hearted).

Next we drove down Hindu street which I guess is some famous market street in Dhaka. Driving down it is one of the more ridiculous things you can attempt in this city, but some reason the driver of the van (whom we were following in our car w/ Sayed) thought because it was Friday we could do it. We drove slower than it would have taken to walk, as the street was completely jammed full with rickshaws and people. Sayed got very upset, and stressed understandably and gave the van driver an earful as we finally got through the street. My descriptions if you notice are becoming less and less detailed as I was by this point hungry and tired and just wanted to eat lunch.

We ate lunch at an Indian restaurant, which had a decent lunch buffet. It took them forever to seat us (of course) so we all entertained ourselves by taking a bunch of pictures with Jerome.