walking distance

In our family, we have a concept of walking distance. It's usually the point where the noise from the backseat of the car would get to be too much for the driver and I'd say, ok kids, we're within walking distance now. Usually we would indeed be 2-3 blocks from home at that point; however, I have been known to say this at about Eau Claire when returning from Chicago (about 100 miles from home).


The concept is getting a workout here. Matan's school is acutally walking distance -- about a 45 minute walk, but could be done. My school is about twice as far. Lately I've been walking a lot. Sometimes it's easier than dealing with a rickshaw driver and a bumpy ride. Sometimes it looks faster to walk. Even though I was warned about the traffic congestion, it's not like anything I've ever seen or imagined.


Yesterday, for example, Matan and I went by rickshaw to his school since I had a meeting at the embassy and it was the same direction. We made great time -- less than 20 minutes. We know now to get off and walk through a gate when we enter the school's neighborhood and change to a different rickshaw. Apparently it's territorial.


Then I walked to the embassy. I was walking against traffic since the waves of people were heading downtown. This main road would usually be 2-3 lanes on each side, but multiple lanes form with rickshaws and CNGs (motorized rickshaws), cars and bikes. Didn't see many busses on this road. (btw, got to the embassy too early and they said to come back in a half hour. didn't mention that I was at the wrong gate and would have to hike about 3 blocks around the compound when it was the right time. AND I had been warned not to be late or they wouldn't let me in to the briefing). So I walked back down that road and figured I'd see 15 minutes worth in each direction. Found a new atm to add to my collection. (I'm still not used to needing cash for everything).


Back to the embassy and almost late. Last one into the meeting. It was for new embassy staff and fulbrighters. So they describe all of the levels of danger and how they provide security for their staff (alarms in the homes, two-way radio, 12 hours of guard, etc) and then they would say, oh, but not for you fulbrighters. You just need to use common sense. Lock your doors. Then on to transportation - for the embassy folks, no public transportation. Ok, you fulbrighters will have to use public transportation. Use common sense, etc. Fortunately we fulbrighters left together and sort of decompressed. My friend from the orientation had his aunt's car and driver so he offered me a ride to my next destination -- the college where I'll be teaching.


What a drive! It was a pleasure to be inside air-conditioning and to see the route a little less in my face. It probably took 30 minutes to go 4 miles. I got to the school and someone was sent down to find me (I stand out in a crowd, to put it mildly) and we went in to the university. Elevators have long lines. But there was an office and a computer waiting for me! I'll talk more about this later. Great news: they will send a car to pick me up and return me on the days I teach!


Return trip home: I decided to try a CNG. That thing zoomed along without me feeling a burden in the rickshaw. Less open to the sun and to the folks in the rickshaws along the way.


Waiting for Matan to get home, it got later and later. We're still not up to speed on the cellphones (no voice mail?) and need to text rather than having a missed call. He tried to tell me that volleyball practice would be 4:30 to 6:30 pm. When we did talk, I asked him to get to the shopping mall before dark and I'd meet him there to eat and walk home together. I got there and waited and waited on the steps. Did see at least 3 other foreign women in rickshaws going into our neighborhood. What a surprise!


So, logistics are the biggest concern for me right now. Our apartment being out of the school district bus route is an issue that I'll have to solve. Maybe we will have the complex's driver take him and pick him up, especially in the dark. Do I even know when it gets dark in Bangladesh? Today it's 7:30pm, but I don't know about next month or 3 months from now. So much to learn.

starting the routine

Matan went off to school this morning, strolling down our "lane," looking like this is what he's done on the first day of school, every day of his life. He had to walk to a busier street to find a rickshaw.

It sounds like he had a fun day at school, including a climbing wall and working out after school. He made it home a few hours late and, of course, I don't know much yet about how to call the school (what area codes do I need?). He stopped on the way home to check on the pants we'd bought that were being shortened. In other words, I was looking out on the balconey every 20 minutes or so.

Tomorrow I get started: briefing at the embassy in the morning and meeting with my department head in the afternoon. Still some logistics are not clear. Rickshaws are banned on some roads and I don't know how I get to the university otherwise. I guess I'll ask questions.

Only 3-4 electrical outages today. They certainly cause us to pause. Also to save frequently.

...and in Minnesota: Happy Birthday to Shaked!!! YEA!

rickshaws go astray

We went to Matan's school today via rickshaw. The driver claimed to know what we wanted and we knew enough to get him started. He went off in a congested and totally unnecessay direction before we convinced him to ask others for help.

We ended up on a very crowded, major street that I knew was beyond the range of where we needed to be. Still, having left early, we got to the school with plenty of time for Matan to write his English placement test before the orientation began.

Met with other parents a bit. We're pretty much out of our league here -- they're coming with drivers from places close-by (the really upscale neighborhoods), but we've arranged, at least, a pickup point for Matan to get on the school's bus transportation. At least one of the parents was shocked that we came by rickshaw this morning, but Matan is going to have to do that to get to the pickup point.

He also took a math placement test and I was able to get his most recent transcript from the online system in MN. At first I blanked on the passwords, but it came back. Got him out of the French placement test, too. But since his math placement depends on today's test, we have to go back tomorrow afternoon.

Got a lot of little errands done, in typical Bengali fashion, the hard way. The next rickshaw driver took us totally out of the way (but at least on this tour we saw where the earlier one had missed the turn!), and eventually got us to the point we'd asked for. It was noon and hot and I was not doing particularly well with the crowds. The first atm rejected the withdrawal request. Then a guy turned up to help us. Actually, he really did help us. He found the right atm and then asked what else we needed to do -- passport pictures, photocopying, sim for the Matan's cell -- and guided us through the maze. Even lunch, and he joined us for lunch, which was in a place I'd never have seen and probably wouldn't have dared - it just looked too fancy. Cost $7 for all three of us and there were leftovers. That was pretty much the end of what we had energy to do, so we also took his recommendation of a rickshaw driver -- one who spoke English and pointed out many landmarks, including the pick-up spot for Matan's school bus. We got to the local pick-and-pay, got laundry soap and walked home.

I'm trying to stay awake now (at 8:30 pm) since I did take an hour nap, or maybe it was 3 hours. Didn't feel like I was asleep until the last hour. Need to sleep through the night tonight.
Cooked supper here. need to learn about the spices. keeping in touch with folks by skype. haven't unpacked and organized, but I think I'll spend some morning time on that tomorrow. Today I postponed the meeting that seemed impossible to get to, and I may pass on the one tomorrow morning and just go to Matan's afternoon counseling at his school.

slowly, but surely.

day two in Dhaka

well, it's 2am and I'm awake. hard to get that energy and sense of competence back when it's so undermined by a lack of sleep. yet I need to jump into some functions in order to get tired at the right times again.

today we started out very early -- walking at 7am, looking for a small grocery store. we had nothing in the fridge except water and peanut butter cups. too early for anything to be open, but we got sort of a feel for the neighborhood. found the lake that seems too rectangular to be natural. it has a walking path around it, clearly labeled "for residents of this neighborhood only" which surprised me. our neighborhood is gated with only several points of entry, but it seems to be full of people all the time. we found few people who understood English and only one couple at the end of our walk who could tell us that we'd have better luck around 9am.

we came back and waited. still haven't unpacked and sorted out much stuff. I guess Matan is going to take the air-conditioned room for now, so we could move clothes into the different rooms. meanwhile everything is in the small bedroom that will be a study? if I find that I need the air conditioning, I may move the small bed from the study in there, just to sleep some of the time. I'd prefer the room with the morning sun (not the air-conditioned one) anyway.

we went out around 9am and found our way to the major shopping area and continued walking in the direction of his school. we didn't walk far enough and turned around, too hungry to continue at that point. we headed back to the shopping area -- walking on pretty muddy streets -- with lots of people walking, taking rickshaws and cars. didn't see any buses on these narrow, yet major roads. found the atm -- seems like it was hidden behind posters for an atm -- but those were the doors to the machine. we took out about $30 just to see if our bankcard would work; not sure since it wasn't listed on the signs. it was fine. we bought food: rice, chicken breasts, oil, the kind of milk that doesn't have to be refrigerated, lots of stuff. packed it into a backpack and got into a rickshaw. explained to the driver where we needed to go, he got help from someone in understanding it, and set the price: 10 taka (about 15 cents). we were home quickly. talked to the manager of the apartment's dad about getting a ride for Matan to school tomorrow. there will be a rickshaw waiting at 8am (we hope).

I think we cooked some eggs and toast and I'm sure I fell asleep by 11am and slept until 1pm when I woke up to talk to Shaked on skype. groggy indeed since that was my deepest sleep in quite awhile. I seem to be doing that a few times a day and it's wearing me down. we messed around on the internet and didn't do much -- got an email from his school that our apartment is out of the range for the bus to pick him up and that I would have to be responsible for pick-up and drop-off. talked to my department head, so I know my phone works. could not meet with her on Sunday since I already have two things scheduled for then. so I'll probably go on Monday to the university.

we decided to go out again -- took a rickshaw this time to the shopping center and got there less exhausted (just the heat and the humidity, not the walking, though I must say between the 5 flights of stairs and lots of walking, I am getting lots of exercise). Matan watched me try to decide about a local garment (shalwar kameez) - the loose pants, tunic, and matching scarf. I found one I really liked but then understood that I would have to sew it myself. they probably just meant to take it to a tailor, but I didn't understand since they were talking about it being ready in a few days. I decided to wait this time. Matan did find 3 pairs of lighter weight pants at a nearby store and they will be shortened for him and ready in 2 days.

we explored the whole complex, found the pencil sharpener that he wanted (ok, not electrical, but mechanical and better than the little one he brought with him), and decided to eat. we were surprised that the menu at the little restaurant was identical to the one at our apartment -- I guess we know now where they're getting the food they said they could provide! prices are significantly lower if we go out ourselves.. we also went back to the grocery store and this time they had fresh milk so we got that and corn flakes. have to take out more money since it's not a good idea to pay with the VISA and deal with exchange rates (at least that's what I expect).
the rickshaw driver was not happy with 10 taka this time and we hadn't set the price in advance, which we'll know to do next time. still I told him that we'd taken that same route 2 other times yesterday, for that price, though I suspect he did not know any English, so it was not a good feeling in the end. he talked to our security guard for a few minutes, but the guard also knows very little English so I couldn't explain to him either. (later I thought about it -- not so much the price as not having much money on hand for the next day's outing to Matan's school. Also it was somewhat unnerving to feel like one gets a piece of knowledge -- the price -- and it can change so quickly).

that's about it. I fell asleep around 5pm. woke to an electrical outage - which was unusual since only one fan worked on the generator and no lights. we hadn't had any outages in the dark, so hadn't thought to set up candles and flashlights.

I did get back up by 7pm (another 2 hour deep sleep), but didn't have the energy to prepare food or even get organized for the next day. talked to people on skype. fell asleep. talked to people on skype. fell asleep.

hope I fall back asleep now at 3am. these nights make it really hard to remember that I will be able to handle most of the challenges. right now I don't' see how to even get to two meetings tomorrow, much less Kolkuta for a cello. or how to get to the University the next day, or what do I teach? sigh. sleep is probably the best thing I can do to get back that feeling that this will work out!

middle of the night in Dhaka

rainy outside. noon on Friday by my internal clock, midnight on Sat am here. wish we had something to eat other than peanut butter cups. why didn't I bring the peanut butter and some crackers?

landed on Friday afternoon - about 12 hours ago - after amazingly easy flights. The MN-Tokyo flight was long, but we had the gift of an upgrade to business class for the price of one mile (!) and the flight started with champagne. we were in the upstairs section where there were two small sections of about 10 pod-like chairs. We could sleep easily as they flattened out into pretty much beds. The flight from Tokyo to Bangkok was similar. In Bangkok we had to find our hotel shuttle, change some money, get a smoothie and then get to the nearby hotel. Air-conditioning, wireless and a shower made it a great place to be. Then back to the airport in the morning.

Day two of the trek started with a good, but very quick breakfast at the hotel, the shuttle driver coming to look for us, and an airport fee that was a surprise: $20 each that usually is included when one buys the ticket. So more money was exchanged. We hung out drinking coke and cold chocolate milk for nearly a half hour before we realized that we could get 20 minutes of internet time for just getting those drinks at the cafe! So we logged on and updated folks a bit.

The flight to Dhaka seemed like a trip to Disneyland. There were 2-3 kids in every row. I guess school is starting next week at more than one place, not just where Matan will be going. The expediter found us (yea! sign said Dr. Peleg and Matan) and got us through quickly and all of the luggage came. He got us out a back way avoiding many people. The ride to the apartment was swift since Fridays are not business days. Then we got here. It's a big place. I think it's been closed up (and with smokers) for awhile, but I assume that it will air out. There's one bedroom with air-conditioning and a bathtub in the attached bathroom! So far, I'm not there.

The wireless is good (the whole building's router is in one of our bedrooms!), but the electricity is unpredictable. So it's gone off about 4 times for a few minutes. I think a generator kicks in pretty quickly but only for part of the apartment (not air or wireless), so those breaks are longer. got to talk to Shaked at 3am/3pm on skype but the connection was miserable at 7am/7pm when I tried again.

Need to figure out how to get to places like the school orientation on Sunday (which overlaps with a meeting at the American center with my contact from the embassy) and the university. Also to take money out of the account -- and not via Visa or Mastercard. Some groceries would be really good, too. Or did I start with that idea? hmmm. maybe I'm hungry. Think I'm going to go take a shower and try to convince my body that night is a good time to sleep.