Bangla Home

Life has been very busy for the last month or so. The teachers all moved into a new building, about 7 minutes (by rickshaw) from the school. It is so nice to live and work in separate buildings! I love the students, but it is such a relief to not open my door to a chorus of "Hello Miss!!" every hour of every day. The new building is absolutely gorgeous, too. Next year, the "real teachers" -- the university faculty-- will be living here. We'll probably have to move out in June, so they can move in.

My new room (ignore the laundry hanging up to dry)

It's not perfect, of course: there's no hot water, a zillion mosquitos and ants, the noise outside is deafening (cars, CNG's, people, wild dogs and jackals at night...), and the pollution gives me a horrible cough. But really, it's pretty nice. When I came to Bangladesh, I sure didn't expect to be living in such a nice place. On the other hand, I also didn't expect to be teaching high school level English literature without a curriculum. Hearing stories of volunteers in rural villages in remote parts of the world, where just getting through the day is a struggle, I recognize the fact that decent living conditions enable me to put a lot more energy into my teaching. Enable isn't the right word-- more is expected of us. And that seems fair to me!

The mechanic shop across the street. Apparently it's open 24-hours, as I've woken many nights to the sound of drills, hammers, engines, etc . . .

The view from my window

Fun fact: House values in our neighborhood have risen since we came to this new building. And no, it's not the result of some convoluted market theory. They rose because 15 Western girls moved in.