life, travels and bangladesh: August 2008

Mid-August...
Dukito. (sorry)

I never meant to completely ignore my blog for almost three months. It kind of just happened, out of necessity and in the interest of staying sane. As a result, my mom’s been bugging me to update my blog quite consistently, because apparently people really do read it – thanks, by the way.

I’ve mentioned this to some people but part of the reason that I’m keeping this digital account is purely personal; I rarely get time to write in my journal, so the attempts to keep a written account of my 18 months in Bangladesh are faltering. THEREFORE, before I get swept up in the next big hullabaloo of the Asian University for Women Access Academy, more on those later, I figured I’d write a brief (I swear I’m going to try) synopsis of the last two months…(and obviously, by synopsis I mean the first three major events are written about in rhyme because what else would be better than that?)

On the 19th of June, there was a surprise
We teachers were told to arrange a ride
To the Muslim Hall, not too far away.
And when we arrived, there on the stage
Was a band of punk rockers with a banner behind
With the names of the 8 bands that had felt so inclined
To entertain the crowd of fans through the night
(the crowd was all men, therefore no need to fight
to reach the front of the small group crowded at the stage
the headbangers easily parted – females, apparently, don’t normally engage)
we had a great time, the performances were okay
although it was slightly ironic that most bands chose to play
Creed, an American Christian rock band
In the Muslim hall of Chittagong, an Islamic land.

The next week was my birthday, my golden 23
My students arranged a midnight party during which they happily
Fed me cake, played blind man’s bluff and sang the birthday song…
The next day was their final, so it all felt slightly wrong
Thanks to everyone who left me birthday wishes
I missed being at home in the US, but had a fantastic time nonetheless.

Not 4 days later I was on my way
To Dhaka, then India! With lots of time to play
Katie Trumbull was working on the West Indian coast
Doing research at a hospital, which acted as her host
Mangalore hospital – children’s dental clinic – Bombay
We spent our week together in the most exciting way
A full three days in Mumbai was all the rest I needed
Which worked out well because in the end that’s all that I received.
We saw the Gateway to India, Haj Ali and the hindu temple,
The ghandi museum, the shopping district and the local fabric shops.
It rained three days straight, but it did not get us down
It gave the excuse to stop in coffee shops while we were seeing the town.
Only upon my return to Bangladesh did I realize that
How exhausted and tired my body was from all the overnight rides.

*this is the first time that Katie and I, who have birthdays just two weeks apart, in the five years we’ve known each other, have been together around that time. It’s amazing how life works in mysterious ways – and it was SO nice to see a familiar face, especially of one of my best friends, after months of settling into Chittagong.

Since my return at the beginning of July, the Access Academy, and the AUW in general, has undergone quite a few changes…resulting in a very hectic, very impromptu schedule. We have a new academic dean, our former executive director took a different job under the auspices of the university (versus the access academy) and our new executive director arrived only a few days ago – we’ve been eagerly awaiting her arrival to Chittagong.

July and August seem to be the months of visitors; we had a young girl come to live with the students for a month doing a documentary on the AUW/Access program. Another student from the US has been with us for 5 weeks writing for the AUW Support Foundation newsletter, a woman from Goldman Sachs taught a two week course on effective communication, a Harvard student from Bangladesh has been running an introduction to Model UN for the past month which will culminate in a Model UN full day conference next week, a professional Bangladeshi photographer was visiting for 3 days to do a photo essay on the school and yesterday we had a GRAND event for Marina Mahathir, a Malaysian HIV/AIDS activist who also happens to be the daughter of the prime minister.

If none of that made sense, worry not. I just wanted to illustrate the large number of visitors we’ve had lately. As teachers, it’s getting to the point where we are starting to wish that there was another way to fundraise and increase the knowledge of the AUW to the local and international community without the students missing so much class...there is obviously the need to incorporate guests and make available the students and their talents to eventually attract more international attention, and hopefully funding, for the University itself. Somehow, however, the bulk of the visitors for this term ended up all coming within the same 3-4 week time period…making for some very stressed students. Everyone is looking forward to this weekend because we have a holiday and thus, THREE days we can catch up on sleep, work and grading. More to come later...