oh man...

this is what i'll be wearing tomorrow during our talent show - there are 6 of us teachers performing with some of our Sri Lankan students. let's just say they're not the most flattering...hopefully we'll grace the audience with our dancing and they won't be looking at the particulars of our costumes...

y'all are making me miss home...

So yesterday, Thursday June 12th, I got a package in the mail from one, fabulous, Arion Moser...in it, along with chocolate and music and pictures were FOUR Riley's tshirts...

for the first time in, um, about 23 years i won't be at the bay this summer. Bangladesh will certainly keep me busy and i am definitely starting to find a routine and love my life here, but i miss everyone at home, and at the bay, LOTS and hope this summer is only the greatest one ever. Arion, you're incredible!

foy's lake: round 2

On saturday June 7, my two roommates and i decided to head to Foy's Lake (the crazy ridiculous amusement park in Chittagong) to get out of our building for the early afternoon and take a break from work. Within about 5 and a half seconds of walking into the park we heard, "Miss!! Miss Kate!! Miss Angela!! Miss Mahmuda!! OVER HERE!!"

We'd heard that three students were going to Foy's Lake with another teacher, and had hoped we would run into them, but instead we were faced with about 14 students, the siblings and cousin of one of the Bangladeshi students, no other teachers, however there WERE guards to accompany the group while they went through the park (this one student's father hooked them up while he was in Chittagong, staying next door to Foy's Lake...connections here are endless...). So, we jumped on in...bumper cars was hysterical not only because they operated as if they were approximately 30 year-old-bumper cars, but because most of our students have never driven cars, any type, real or bumper.

We then headed to the water park --- it's a bit hot over here at the moment --- to check it out. meaning we hoped on a boat to be driven through a maze of rivers to eventually end at the bangladeshi/chittagongian version of Sea World...


What's Sea World without it's own ridiculously large sign out front?

None of us had brought a change of clothes (the girls were heading to a nice lunch afterwards and had come dressed in their best to begin with...), but no worries - you can rent tshirts and shorts. too bad they're all probably a girl's size 10 since most bangladeshis are teeny tiny!! In the end we decided not to rent clothes, more because we thought it would be fun to go on the rides fully clothed. 

Here are some of the students riding down the gigantic water slide in the middle of Sea World (which, btw, consists of this yellow water slide, 2 tube slides, 2 'luge-type' slides and a wave pool...not too shabby)

Mahmuda was the only one who didn't go in fully clothed...she opted to stay dry (a decision that would reward her with comfort as we had lunch in an air conditioned room very soon after leaving the waterpark...after about 10 minutes the students, angela and myself were all shivering from being cold).  that didn't save her, however, from getting huge hugs from angela and i when we were getting ready to leave. 

pretty much - foy's lake, as cheesy as it is, is a nice getaway for the afternoon, and i love our students...they had so much fun running around the park.  it's amazing to be with them during so many 'firsts' ... first airplane flights, first time in a different country, first time at the beach, first time seeing a pool, first time on the bumper cars...it definitely makes me appreciate everything a bit more. 

friday night on the town

friday nights are, normally, not a popular night to go out in Chittagong.  in the few places where beer or alcohol is available, friday nights are the only night they will not serve you in a bar, and even some restaurants (as it's the holy day).  most shops, if they are open at all, will not open until early afternoon.  it's a nice, forced relaxation in a way. 

however, 4 of the other teachers and i took the opportunity to try some more of the local fare for dinner and went to a small restaurant, dhaba, that we see everytime we drive away from our building.  we had a lot of fun crossing the major road of traffic, almost getting hit by several rickshaws, CNGs and cars along the way, but were well rewarded for our efforts by the food.  it was really fantastic - amazing nan (tandoori oven baked bread...delicious!) and other traditional dishes (a traditional potato/yoghurt/spices entree is featured below) and had an atmosphere similar to a small, hole-in-the-wall, lively pizza kitchen in nyc...complete with some countertop seating in front of a huge mirror.  can't seem to get away from that setup anywhere. 

after dinner we were attempting to cross the street back and heard music and announcements in bangla being blasted from a speaker...behind the speaker were thousands of white lights directing people to an entrance.  we, of course, thought it was the entrance to a wedding party (which we've been informed are completely crash-able and that we would be welcomed wedding crashers, given our 'foreign status').  we wandered over, thinking we might have the gall to crash a wedding if it was indeed a reception, but alas - no weddings were to be crashed this evening.  however there was a small, month-long outdoor fabric market, apparently in place for a month, until june 17th this year, and we spent a good amount of time wandering through, examining the fabrics and other wares for sale (honey, shoes, sparkly jewelry, etc.).  i was able to find a replacement pair of sunglasses for mine that broke while i was traveling in thailand...i've been wearing them with a gigantic crack in the lens and frame for the past three months.  when i showed selena, one of the other teachers, she said, "finally. you won't have to wear your broken glasses anymore," hinting that maybe i should have chucked them a while ago... 

it feels really good that we're starting to get to know our local neighborhood a little better. it's taking some time, just because we don't get out that much with everything that's already planned for us (plus that whole teaching/work thing)...but i'm sure in the next few months we're going to learn much more about mehedibag (name of our neighborhood). and eventually i'll find a wedding or two to crash. 

aloo tikki (traditional pototo/yoghurt/spices dish)...normally would be eaten with hands only, so obviously this restaurant was a bit more upscale than others...

outdoor fabric market. there were stalls upon stalls upon stalls upon stalls. it could potentially take you days to go through everything. 

sri lankan dancing, guest speakers and lychees

Thursday June 5th

this week's been a little nuts.  not only have classes shifted into high gear (term 1 finals are less than 3 weeks away. yikes!), but we have a talent show next weekend and i'm one of 5 teachers that are taking part in a student act - a Sri Lankan dance performance.  every night we practice for about an hour...and thank goodness because even with all the practice we're going to look incredibly awkward compared to the students. ha. 

Today I also was the 'guest speaker' for our students.  Every thursday, or every other Thursday (depending on availability), the administration arranges for a guest speaker to come for an hour right after classes end.  Our students have had the opportunity to listen to some pretty impressive people so far, some that are rather important in Chittagong and Bangladesh.  Us teachers, however, have pinpointed that our students lack the ability to manage their time effectively - so i put together a 45-min presentation on the basics of time management and study skills.  

while i kept everything simple, and thought i might be insulting some students with just how very basic all my points were, i still had a lot of girls come up to me after the talk and since then in the hallways thanking me.  it's one of those situations that's stopped me in my tracks.  the students i have in class are pretty spectacular, and at times i really don't feel like i'mteaching them anything (just providing some entertainment...because they seem to think my facial expressions and explanations of terms and vocabulary is HYSTERICAL).  Yet simple ideas like 'avoiding procrastination by using a planner' and 'prioritize your tasks and write a to-do list', ARE completely new to them.  So that made me feel pretty good, at least i'll be able to do something for some of these students while i'm here - even if it is just to rub off my organizational skills (or the skills i know i should have/use). 

in other news, and to make sure a picture can go with this post, in our Bangla class yesterday we learned that the season we're in right now (right before the rainy season/at the beginning of the rainy season) is called "modhu maash " in Bangla.  Literally translated it means "honey month"...which pretty much means that every fruit that people love are in season and available EVERYWHERE.  lychees have become my new favorite, and we can pick up 100 of them for 250tk (rip off, white person price...they're usually 200-220tk), which is about $4USD.  most other fruits are cheaper - per pinapple, about 50cents, a kilo of apples, $2.  it's rather fantastic, and as much as i'm looking forward to monsoons, i'll be missing the ridiculous availability of fruit in a few months. 

this is how they sell lychees. in bunches of 50. according to local bangladeshis, you have to count them when you buy them because people WILL jip you. or miscount. 

they're sold at market stands, or off the back of wooden carts on the street. 

teatime!

tea picker. in action.

Friday May 30 - Saturday May 31

This past weekend we got the AMAZING opportunity to go to the karnaphuli tea estate, 60 km outside of Chittagong, that has just recently restarted operations after the dry season (did you know from december through the end of march tea is not processed in bangladesh? well, now you do!) 

On the way to the tea garden (garden, estate, plantation...they're all used interchangeably to describe where tea is grown in vast quantities) we stopped for a picnic lunch alongside the road, where we saw a small pond with steps.  As we should have anticipated, the family that own the land and pond came to introduce themselves and invited us to their home for food and tea.  this is so typical of the hospitality we've been shown in Bangladesh, and the locals tell us that it's the same everywhere throughout the country.  it really is astounding when i think about everything we've been given, and the amazing hospitality we've been shown, just in the three months we've been in Bangladesh.  

The tea estate, Karnaphuli, was recently taken over by BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) and covers 6.5 thousand acres.  There are approximately 7,000 workers that live on the grounds of the estate, and according to the manager on any given day about 2,000 will be working.    When we arrived, i immediately felt like i'd been sent back about 100 years to live on a plantation.  we were staying in the 'guesthouse' which was a huge complex with high ceilings, room after room, and a HUGE veranda.  Of course, within 30 minutes of putting our bags down we had flowers in our hair from local bushes and tea brewed right in front of us - strrrrrong stuff, but really really good. 

Friday afternoon we took a walk once it got a bit cooler and i ended up talking/walking with the director of the Access Academy, who was accompanying us for the weekend.  It was particularly amazing to split off from the group (in actuality they just walked quicker than we did ...) because once we did, our director would speak to the workers on the estate and ask if we could be shown around.  therefore, i was able to see a bunch of the houses that are provided for the workers on the estate, and conversations were translated for me explaining the education level of the children of working families and how things were going.  of course, i spent most of the time taking pictures of cute little kids and playing a version of hide-and-seek with huge groups of children...making them laugh hysterically at me and then promptly run behind their mother's saris.  All the workers are provided with land, shelter and basic amenities (different amounts of food depending on how many people are in the family).  the houses are either mudhuts, tin-roofed, or thatched, and it's luck of the draw when you start working on the estate and which type of housing is available.  

The highlight of Friday, however, was after a fantastic dinner of freshly caught fish, a game of taboo (Mihiri - you're AMAZING!!! thank you for the box of games!!!) and conversation late into the night on the veranda, the heat broke and a huge, crazy thunderstorm started.  as we sat, the storm got so loud we couldn't hear each other speak, and we were all forced to enjoy watching the rain and lightning, and listen to the thunder roll by.  it was simply incredible.  definitely how i would love to pass monsoon season. 

Saturday we got a tour from the BRAC manager of a larger radius of the estate (thanks to their amazing 4-wheel drive vehicles) and then a tour of the production area of the tea leaves after they've been picked.  it was AMAZING.  i still almost can't believe our luck. check out the photos below. pretty incredible. 

the inside of a fresh jackfruit awaiting our arrival :)

teatime! (i mean, what else would you do at a tea estate, really?)

the path in front of the guesthouse leading to the fields

an older woman and her son or grandson walking along the path home (the boy was playing with an empty syringe...)


baby tea plants! (the nursery) when the plants reach a certain height, with enough leaves to be considered healthy, they're moved into the fields

two of the children i met while walking. freaking adorable.

these two ladies are working tea-pickers, carrying the leaves they've picked that morning to another area they need to work on.  while the labor's hard and intensive, there was definitely a camaraderie amongst the workers we met and were able to watch for a short time. 

at the last stage of our tea factory tour we got to see the tasters brewing fresh tea and checking the quality of each grade. pretty incredible.

masquerade-ness

Thursday May 29
Our recently elected student government planned their first event last Thursday - a masquerade ball. adding to the excitement was the fact that we only got word of this party on monday or tuesday, meaning everyone was scrambling last minute to find costumes...also because most of the students aren't used to having such events at school, myself and a few other teachers made it our job to be as EXCITED as possible, hyping it up.

my roommate angela had been doing a project with her class, learning a fairytale called "the paperbag princess", rewriting their own story, illustrating a book and performing it for other classes. it worked PERFECTLY because we then dressed up as the paperbag princess (Angela) and I was the dragon that takes her prince (who turns out to be a huge bum) on their wedding day. it was a huge hit (the party itself, and our costumes), which couldn't have been a better kickoff event for the student government.

Angela and some of our students (pretty impressive for last minute costumes, eh?...there were quite a lot of princesses, but what can you expect from a culture of gorgeous saris?)

elizabeth, the paperbag princess (angela), and the dragon (me)

my with two of my students, who came as the paperbag princess and her prince, ronald

fire drill?

Wednesday May 28th

i've been through my share of fire drills, but today's 'run through' fire drill was the most crazy one i've ever been a part of.  we had all the students, faculty and staff meet on our roof, where the local fire department was waiting, to instruct us what to do.  they explained the process to the students, many of whom failed to follow the directions in the end regardless, and eventually the alarm started and everyone had to make it from our 10th floor rooftop to the ground floor (through the fire escape stairway. which is teeny tiny. gets narrower as you continue down. genius, really).

the highlight of the fire drill was the fire the department wanted to start to then demonstrate how to use a fire extinguisher.  our students still shriek when the lights go out at night due to load shedding in chittagong (happens at least 5-10 times/day on average right now), so i'm not even sure their first reaction would be to grab a fire extinguisher, but it's good for them to know...however the fire department thought it would be a great idea to have all our students stand in our enclosed parking/lobby area and pour gasoline onto cardboard right in the middle of the gate opening...thanks to one of the other teachers they realized that might not be the greatest idea, so they then dragged the cardboard with gasoline already poured over it to our driveway...proceeding to then demonstrate how to use an extinguisher to put out a fire.  our students were enthralled and excited, no doubt. 

however i'm not so sure that in the event of a real fire it would go as smoothly. never does, i guess. oh chittagong. oh bangladesh.

beware: chocolate will melt

Monday May 26

i LOVE getting mail...and my aunt maureen sent me my birthday present...which is AMAZING, see my absolute excitement (because somehow, with packing for bangladesh, i forgot a daypack backpack, which was very silly of me) after getting my new dakane backpack :)

inside was a 72 oz. bag of chocolate (which will be WELL used since we finally got an oven for all the teachers!!). i loved it, especially because the chocolate chips melted together a bit (see picture for entertainment).  i really wonder what the customs officials think of us crazy americans and the funny packages that make it through their office.

a day of play ...

Saturday May 24th

one of the perks of being part of a very well-connected community is, apparently, full-day events at the swankest hotel in Chittagong, the Hotel Agrabad.  One of the owners is very interested in the AUW project and was the guest speaker a few weeks ago, and invited all the students to swim, eat and dance for the day.  They hotel went all out, even bringing in a magician and putting together a short cultural program for our captivated audience.  The students were besides themselves with glee...

me and part of my class...ain't they adorable?



the banquet hall decorated for the day


the view from the rooftop garden at the Agrabad. oh chittagong.

i was doing so well...and then apparently fell off the wagon...

so here is a barrage of posts with mostly pictures, a quick update on the last two weeks of my life...

Friday May 25th 

some of us teachers were treated to dinner at a local family's house, and then with their daughter (who's a teacher at the best primary/secondary school in Chittagong) we headed to the 'riverside'.

there's a 'beach' nearby (that people don't really swim in), and on the way there's a stone wall protecting the road from rising water...especially during monsoon season, apparently.  we got to hang out for about an hour, looking at the stars and the lights from all the ships on the karnaphuli river, and enjoying the continuous stream of vendors selling spicy hot pieces of crab, peanuts, tea and the like.