Article here: Does Bangladesh Use Foreign Aid Wisely?

Apropos, coming after my posts of train travel in Bangladesh. It would be great if the Dhaka-Chittagong trains were faster...and even better if the political system was less corrupt.

Srimongol

We had a week off in April, and I decided to stay in Bangladesh to see more of the country. It was the right decision; I'm really glad that's what I did! We spent about half the week in Srimongol, a nature preserve in Syhlet division (famous for its tea plantations), soaking up some fresh air. The other half of the week we spent in Dhaka seeing the sights and eating American food (i.e. real coffee and pizza!).

LB and I traveled around the country by train. It was really comfortable and much less nauseating than the bus, which weaves through traffic at an alarming rate. On Day One we arrived half an hour early to the Chittagong train station, the first people on the train. A man sat down next to us and helped us get into the right seats. Then he asked the usual questions that we answer 15 times a day: What is your country? What is your job?, etc etc. It was 7am and we weren't in the mood. Next question: Do you speak Bengali? We said no. Then he called someone on his cellphone and proceeded to talk about us on the phone in Bengali! We couldn't hold in our laughter and he got up, embarrassed. He sat back down about 10 minutes later when the Koran was being read aloud on the loud speaker and said ascerbically "You know Koran?" Needless to say we did not make a new friend.

Between the chop shop across the street, CNG motors, rickshaw bells, howling dogs, huge trucks, blaring horns, burning garbage and car exhaust, Chittagong is incredibly noisy and polluted. Arriving in Srimongol at our guest house-- about a 20 minute ride past tea plantations and into the "jungle"-- was incredibly refreshing. My lungs ached from the fresh air and my ears were ringing from the quiet! That first night, the power went out, the fan turned off, and my ears were ringing so loud that I couldn't sleep. I actually heard my stomach growl for the first time in months.

Our guest house:

We stayed at the guest house of Christian NGO that does a lot of health work in the area, especially with leprosy. The whole missionary thing was a little awkward, but we're used to it by this point (not the first guesthouse of that type we've been at this year!).

Some shots from the village:


This cow is too skinny.

It was jackfruit season! Jackfruit everywhere, growing out of every corner of the trees.I stole this picture from LB. The guest house didn't have a generator, so we spent a lot of time hanging out by candlelight.

One day we took a tour of the area with a guide. First, we went walking through the nature preserve.
So much bamboo in this country! I showed my pictures to some students, who thought it was hilarious that I took pictures of bamboo. But I've never seen it growing before!
Welcome to the village
The zoom on my camera is pretty good. A monkey munching on jackfruit!

We visited a pineapple plantation:

So many pineapples.
We got to eat some! They were extra small for the season due to lack of rain.
Seriously, jackfruit everywhere.
Pineapple bushes are the best. It looks like someone just set the little pinapple on top.
We walked through a tribal village. . .
A pig! Don't see many of those in this country.
The village school. The boys and girls didn't stand together at recess, or so it seems.
These guys were chasing a rogue cow. They didn't catch it.

Boy games.

LB took a picture of me showing them the picture above.

Tea plantation!


The famous 7 layer tea of Srimongol. An experience.


We got in trouble for taking a picture of the kitchen, as we might deduce the "secret" recipe.

Rubber trees! They look the part, don't they?Little grooves are cut into the trees and the rubber runs down the groove into a cup waiting to collect it.


Last stop was a nice quiet lake.

A boat. The fishermen had just come back in for the day and were relaxing on the edge of the water.
Mangoes. Mmmmm.
Stopped to get some watermelon on the way home. Perfect end to the day.


Next up...train ride to Dhaka!

Flooding in Bangladesh

See some pictures of the many problems caused by the rainy season:

Here, from the BBC

Shubho Novo Borsho!

Apologies for not updating for a long time. Here are some pictures from Bengali New Year...way back on April 14th. After ringing in the new year at midnight with the students (it was the New Year in some other cultures as well-- Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and parts of India). I was exhausted. We had the next day off from school. I was planning on sleeping in but my students didn't let me! We went to Chittagong University (about 45 outside of town, by CNG) where they had a huge festival. It was a really fun day. One of my most memorable in Chittagong, for sure.

New Years has, hrmm, its main celebratory traditions both at home (party! champagne!) and here... businesses open a new accounts book! Halkhata, I think it's called. And they offer sweets to their customers, especially the indebted ones who come to pay up.

Some snapshots:

We watched a puppet show:

Me with the students:
The cafeteria at Chittagong University:

There were CROWDS of people there. And yes, I stood out a bit, as you might guess.

Man-powered wooden ferris wheel! I rode it-- a definite highlight!! Men push it around and you have to hold on tight to the bar in the middle of each bench or you'll tip out!

Getting my face painted with 'happy new year!' I think it sweated off my face soon thereafter (it was in the high 90's all day, not a cloud in the sky...).


Stopping for a snack:

Apparently wrestling matches are some sort of new years tradition. It was an interesting match. So interesting that people climbed the trees to get a good view!
CNGs lined up at the gas station. An excellent example of photos I take that the students think are hilarious-- imagine someone getting excited and taking a picture of a gas pump in the U.S.

bundarbun

A few weekends ago we took a trip to Bundarbun, a small town about two hours from Chittagong, in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Although not the most relaxing trip, it was really nice to escape the noise and pollution of the city. Some Bengalis live here, along (not always happily) with the indigenous tribes, and some refugees from Myanmmar.

Taking a walk through some rice paddies:

Going fishing!

Tree farm:

I really like this tree with its tennis-ball fruit that tastes like apples:

It's clearly the dry season:

Varanasi

Finally, I'm getting around to posting more pictures from India. These from Varanasi are unfortunately the last of the photos (both for Varansi and India) because my computer crashed a month ago and there is no place I can take to get it fixed around here. At least, Varansi is one of the oldest continually-inhabited cities in the world, so it will most likely be the same if I make it back someday.

From Kolkata we took a train up to Varanasi, then to Agra, then to Delhi. Since we didn't start planning our India trip until the night before leaving (not a strategy I'd recommend), we had to go buy train tickets at the ticket office in Kolkata. It worked out fine and the ticket seller was really nice. "As your elder," he said "Can I offer you some advice? People will try to make friendship with you and then offer you food or drink. Don't take it! It will make you senseless!" He was exactly right. On our train ride there, a man tried repeatedly to befriend us by telling us his daughter our age-- that he never lets out of the house alone and would never allow to travel as we are. Not the best tactic. He wouldn't leave us alone. We clearly didn't take any of the "special homemade food" he tried to force at us!

Otherwise, our 20 hour train ride to Varanasi was really nice, despite the fact that it was about 8 hours late. We learned later that there are different "priority" levels of trains, with the higher ones being kept on schedule. Here's LB in our sleeper car:


We got into Varanasi after dark, and found our way through the winding streets of the city to our hostel. The old part of the city is laid out like many "old cities", I guess. All the lanes are narrow, winding, and nonsensical (and all the more interesting!). Our hostel was on the bank of the Ganges, right in front of one of the ghats. The Ganges is a holy river for Hindus and hundreds of people bathe in it each morning at Varanasi. The dead are also cremated into the water at a special ghat, which we got to see. They are cremated on special, expensive logs. As we were wandering the narrow alleys of the city, we occasionally would turn a corner right into the middle of funeral procession. A body propped up on logs, and a procession of men (only, of course) following behind in a line. We also stumbled upon a lot of cows.

We took a boat trip in the morning, at sunrise, and watched people bathing in the river . . . it's one of those things that sounds fine before you go, but makes me feel really uncomfortable as a tourist! It is a special something that I can read about, but am not part of and shouldn't be watching...

Cows are sacred to the Hindus. So, there were lots of cows. After awhile they just blend in with the crowds.

Bathing on the banks of the Ganges:

Cows have this much coordination?

One of the ghats:

Cow dung is saved and dried out in cakes for use in fueling fires (you can see this all over Bangladesh as well):

Along the water:

Veggie market:

The ghat in front of our hostel. They made the monument too big, and it sunk in!:

Cow, taking in the view of the Ganges:

India = Colorful

We stumbled upon one of the famous temples in Varanasi, where a lot of people were heading to worship:

Busy streets! On our way back to the train station, rushing through the narrow lanes at night, we almost plowed over a cow. I think it got a little irritated. "Slowly, slowly!!" an Indian shouted at us.

chhaupadi

"Nepal's 'confined women' want change"
(from the BBC)

I used this article for discussion in my classes on Thursday. It’s about the practice, in Nepal, of isolating women and their babies for the first 11 days after childbirth. Not all students were against it, making for an interesting discussion. It does sound harmless initially. As one student pointed out, maybe it’s good that the baby is not exposed to all the germs, bacteria and viruses carried in the outside world by other people. However, this means that these women and children do not receive medical care if they fall ill. The mothers are not allowed to eat normal, nutritious food like lentils and meat, forgoing the protein and iron that they surely need after childbirth. Finally, the two are typically kept in isolation in an unsanitary, dark, dank place with animals, such as a cow shed.

Depressingly, one student noted that even though the women in the article are upset, it only lasts for 11 days. Surely she will remember her experience when it comes time to force her daughter to do the same, but the pressure of tradition will overrule and the cycle continues. Many of our families still practice these things, the students noted, even though many of us are sitting here thinking they should not.

Apparently rules like this apply to menstruation, too. And they are found across religions—my Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist students all compared similar restrictions. Frequently, women are not allowed in places of worship while they are menstruating because they are not “pure” in this condition. There’s a temple in India where no women are allowed to go from the age of 8 to 60. Why, asked one student, are we pushed away from God while in a condition God created for us? On a more uplifting note, one student made the very good point that while these rules are followed in the name of God, they are not written by God. There is no evidence of them in any holy book. They are created completely by society and therefore can be changed by society, too!