it's one month in to life in bangladesh and my feelings about this place have really swung from one extreme to the other and settled somewhere in the middle for right now. ross says not to make any conscious judgments til at least 3 months in, and i'm sure that's a good idea.
since school began i'd say the faculty has all been working hard. i am not leading any classes right now, just co-teaching in 6 classes. inevitably, and greatly, all the teachers get pulled in a lot of directions. for me, some of these directions are just plain funny. for example, when no one signed up for my offered 'knitting and crochet club' i was made a leader of the girls soccer club. the thought of that is probably making you guys laugh. middle school girls soccer at 1:00 on thursday afternoons has become a fun time for me, and i am a joke of a soccer coach but i try to play on one of the scrimmage teams and strip the ball from my students when possible - they seem to like me for this kind of effort if not for my skills. luckily there's someone else helping too.
next week i start some tutoring gigs, 4 hours a week outside of school time, at $13 an hour. i am seriously chasing Taka$ these days, and an extra $50 a week will cover my every expense here, i think. this week is the first meeting of the middle school photography club, and we have been commissioned (i'm serious about this) by DIESEL magazine to shoot photographs of compressed natural gas engines, and if we get some good results then we could be published in the magazine. the school activities director was contacted by this magazine's editor and put him in touch with me. another funny dhaka happening - it would be really cool if this goes well and the kids get published.
the school routine is so busy that i often leave our apartment by 7:30 and return home in the evening at 6:00 or later. come home, have dinner, chill with the roommates. it's easy not to get too far past this daily routine but between the 3 of us we do a pretty good job of getting each other out. and when we get out into the city, even if its still in the 'diplomatic' neighborhoods, dhaka shocks us.
it is so poor. the infrastructure is in terrible shape. sewer system, power systems, water systems, road systems, internet systems, sanitation in general is terrible. the feel and smell of being out on any dhaka street is intense and sticks to you. ...our roommate jimmy speaks good Bangla. whether this is good or bad? it is both. he hears much more of people's stories and pleas than i do... it is true that much of the times friendly people have a conversation with you that it leads to a request for money. quite unlike china, where i could have fun conversations with cab drivers and shop owners, waiters, people in parks, etc, in this country there is a whole different kind of need - basic human needs are not being met everywhere. it's true that there is also a culture of begging; there is so much begging and it seems to be fruitful enough such that, we have heard, many people are able to beg to make their living day in and day out - it's like their job.
from the pictures you can see some of the intensity of this place. people stare at foreigners, but often our smiles in response are not met with any sort of change in expression. it's a cultural thing, and i guess it is an economic thing. from my perspective it feels a little weird and sad.
tomorrow i'm going to 'hash' again, for the second time. the Hash is great fun. it is an international body - there are americans, and aussies, and 'kiwis' and swedes and indian people and bangladeshi people and more and more, including the ambassadors of the US and Asutralia out in their sweaty running clothes - give ror take 70 people were out last week. and together the people go, wearing matching Tshirts, and descend upon some village or neighborhood (there has always been preliminary checking-out of the area). then the 'hares' lead the group: one running group, one hiking group, on an hour-long venture. i hiked last week through the rice paddies of Ashulia town about 2 hours outside dhaka (BAD traffic). at the end of the run/walk there is a big circle formed, and lots of chanting and drinking songs go down as people get teased and made to drink in a very fraternal style. your weekly $1 hash fee pays for water and heineken beer and often a free T-shirt. this week i'm going to take my camera - the villages are beautiful and feel fresh; i keep thinking that if it were me in the long run i might rather be living there in my simple simple simple house in the forest than in dhaka city. we run at the right time of day, 6:00, for photographing light and i am planning to take advantage of it this week. i hope you're liking the blog photos. it takes forever to upload them so they show up slowly. i think the photographing is going pretty well and CANT WAIT to start working with the kids on their own photographs this week.
enough for now. it is friday morning; i slept in and feel great. haha, suckas! friday off :) instant coffee and reading is my morning plan. much love to you guys. lots of love.
