dear friends,
all is well here. dhaka feels so much more like a home this week than last week - much of the surprises have been uncovered and a busy school routine has arisen. i'm enjoying the teacher who is stewarding me around; she is really experienced and kind and good at working with young kids. this week i also had a beautiful experience of uniting with old family friends, the Sinhas, who used to live in roanoke but are now spending much of the year here in Dhaka - just about a 10 minute walk from me. we had bengali dinner together this week, and Mrs. Sinha sent me home with lots of traditional clothes to wear. i have fallen in love with salwar kameez, which is a tunic, pants and scarf outfit that usually comes in ornate color and design.
i'm getting a little more responsibility on the teaching front every day, and i'm participating with 5 different preps (subjects) - at least one class with every grade level in the middle school. it's quite good exposure. i've been going to bed really tired at night, and the early morning runs have disappeared from my routine for now. this weekend i'm going to try to 'hash' in the wild bangladeshi humidity...but it hasn't been too hot lately. we have a new housekeeper/cook working with us at home. the Rehanna situation continued to go downhill until we (the roommates and I) decided we needed to fire her. what a strange experience. our new helper is very nice and i like the food she makes a lot, which helps me feel physically a lot better day to day. breakfast every day is mango, pineapple, and pomegranite fruit salad. it doesn't get much better than that and she does our laundry for us, and much more. at this rate i'll be so spoiled by the time june comes around. tomorrow is thursday, which is like friday there - it kicks off the weekend. on friday we new teachers are going out on a boat ride to see some of the land outside of dhaka. i'm so looking forward to this, and will certainly aim for some nice pictures of the adventure. it'll be a good time to scout for birds - the birds here are so tropical and cool.
yesterday my first piece of mail came; it was jen and brian's wedding invitation. that was so fun to get and such exciting news. with all the people and happenings, virginia is so easy to miss. for the charlottesville friends, look out for my sister cristina! she starts college there this week -
