as of midnight the night before the students arrived, there were still construction workers in our building fixing things up. To be frank, it's 4 days later now, and there are still staff members running around like mad fixing everything in sight. However, considering the university only actually acquired access to the building in January, things are looking pretty slick.
how things are delivered, bangladeshi style
our shnazzy signboard
our computer lab!
30.03.08
Starting on Friday, our students arrived --- Bangladeshi, Nepalese, Sri Lankan and Pakistani on Friday, Cambodian on Saturday and Indian on Sunday. I led a few tours of the building, back to the glory days :), and was able to get to know the students and their families. I felt slightly like I was back at UVA in my RA role, and can already tell I'm going to have to consciously draw the line between being a pseudo-mom versus strictly being a teacher. The line blurs a bit since we're living, literally, among the students.
Speaking with a lot of parents on Friday was really really inspirational - to hear mothers and fathers speak so highly of the university's facilities (they ARE rather swank...) gave a whole new perspective on the University and its mission. We even had one dad ask if he could enroll at AUW...his wife turned to him and said, "it's for girls ONLY" - amazing.
Just to paint you a bit of a picture...all the bangladeshi families turned out in their best outfits with multiple extended family members. A few of the fathers of families from Dhaka ended up giving me their business cards, insisting that anytime I went to Dhaka i MUST call them and MUST visit them and MUST stay with them. It is a very cultural thing to give out business cards and network anywhere you go. The hospitality we've encountered thus far has been incredible.
Saturday and Sunday I accompanied some staff members to the airport to meet the Cambodian and Indian students, to have a friendly face and to document their arrival...the poor Indian students ended up spending two hours going through immigration because of special regulations for Pakistani and Indian students arriving in Bangladesh. and then 8 of them were missing luggage...i'm not so sure they've even gotten it yet. ps, if you are flying within SEAsia, especially on the subcontinent, don't fly GMG. apparently they have trouble delivering all baggage.
The girls, and their Country Coordinators, were probably my favorite people to speak with --- once the students got over their initial shyness, they were especially excited to finally GET to the Access Academy. granted, usually the first question i got was, "how old are you?"
We can't wait to start to get to know the students better, they all seem to have incredible stories. i'll make sure to keep everything a bit better updated from now on :)
a few extra random pics...
the view from my balcony :)
The volunteers (minus our last arrival, Jill), on the future site of the AUW -- veeery exciting!
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