We made it!
Our journey to Bangladesh was astoundingly easy and smooth. (For those who don't know, Aaron Billheimer, another employee at Penn Museum, has accompanied me on this trip and will stay for about a month to help with all the tech issues of the documentary.) Aaron may also post updates to this blog so you may be hearing another perspective on the circumstances at hand.
The whole trip-including the 2.5 hr drive to JFK Airport and the 6.5 hour layover in Qatar- took about 34 hours. It was a miracle that we weren't delirious went we finally arrived in Dhaka. After picking up our luggage and bizarrely going through customs with zero hassles (I was told we would be hounded about all our equipment and would have to do flips to get out of paying taxes on it) we were met at the exit by one of the employees at the hotel we are staying at called the Marino Guest House.
The Marino is very comfortable. I am enjoying my last hot showers before heading south to the villages.
First Impressions of Dhaka and Bangladesh:
The city is busy and loud, but not as much as I was anticipating. Having been in Hanoi, Vietnam and Kathmandu, Nepal, Dhaka seems pretty manageable. There are few stop lights and even fewer rules of driving here; cars just move in and out, narrowly colliding every moment with each other, with rick shaws and with motor bikes. Luckily, we have been driven around the past day and a half by wonderful Adil Hossain. Adil is the brother of my friend Sharmin. Sharmin now lives in Philadelphia and volunteers at Penn Museum. Through Sharmin, Aaron and I have been given royal treatment by her family.
Our first day here, Adil took us to his family's home, a beautiful apartment with balconies overlooking the few green areas of the city. The home is decorated in a peaceful, elegant way. Sharmin, graduate of an architecture program in Dhaka designed much of the family's home. Kudos Sharmin! Will you design my house whenever i have one?
We were fed generous helpings of amazing Bangladeshi food by Adil and his warm parents. ( Adil: "We Bangladeshi's like to eat, food is very important to our lifestyle." And yet, the Bangladeshi's i have seen are in much better phycial health than the average Americans.) Right when dinner began, the exhaution hit me. I was barely able to keep my eyes open and follow conversation. Aaron did great and kept the dialog up while I was led to a spare bedroom to lay down and rest.
Before we left, Adil recieved a call from our hotel saying that another friend had arrived and would wait for us at the hotel. This was Dr. Nafees Rahman. Nafees is my new friend I have been in contact with through the Eisenhower Fellowships, where I worked at my previous job. He graciously booked our hotel and has been another source of great info and support here. Exactly how or why the hotel called Adil's cell phone about this I am not sure, but it reflects the way that Bengladesh culture is very open and personable.
Adil dropped us off, we met Nafees and then passed out.
First Full Day in Dhaka
Yesterday was another packed day. Adil picked us up again and took us all over the city. We had lunch at his family's home again and then his mom came with us to shop for local clothes and to get a cell phone to use while we are in country. Instead of going through all this, I am posting photos from yesterday which are more descriptive and interesting than me yammering on and on. Here is the flickr account with photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/34280572@N08/
And don't worry, posts from now on will be less text and more photos. I just wanted to introduce our Bangladesh friends and assure everyone that we are in very good hands. Next post will probably be from Jessore or the Sathkira district down south where the documentary will be filmed.
Salam!
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I appreciate the introduction and I will certainly read any text that you write, so feel free to expound away. How close did you get to the Parliament Building? A little bit of Philadelphia all the way in Bangladesh! It was designed by Louis Kahn who worked out of Philadelphia and was a Professor at Penn's design school until his death. see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Kahn
ReplyDeleteThere's a good documentary about him called "My Architect" with the Jatiyo Sangshad Bhaban on the cover. see: http://www.myarchitectfilm.com/
In fact the Arthur Ross has an upcoming exhibit about him:
http://www.upenn.edu/ARG/
But perhaps you knew all this....keep the updates and photos coming.
Beautiful pictures!
ReplyDeleteAsian Section: thanks for following along! The Parliment building is surrounded by a chain-link fence all around, so we were only able to get to about 150 years of it, but it truly is a tremendous and very unique building. We were aware of its designer and the way our friend Adil was talking about it, it seems to be a big point of pride for Bangladeshi people. They are proud that is is truly one of a kind and have deep respect for Mr. Kahn.
ReplyDeleteNOw that we are in the south and will be moving to an even more rural area in another day or two we are seeing how the villages are constructed to deal with the annual flooding. We are also impressed by the number of people we see traveling the streets and the markets, as Aaron said, "This area is like Lancaster, Pa but with the number of people in Philadelphia."
The population issues is not one that we are focusing on for the documentary, but it's still a major factor to the country's development. I'd be interested to hear about this from you all when I get back if it has come up in your work.
I love the photo "flowerstall3" cause its so tranquil with the guy in white and the great colors in the foreground, but then you see the guy peaking around the corner, awesome.
ReplyDeleteexcellent lauren per usual. Can't wait to see more!
So glad you arrived safe and sound! It seems like an amazing place already. Your photos are beautiful! Enjoy yourselves and good luck!!
ReplyDeletehey sis! beautiful pictures, keep them coming! So glad things are going well. love the blog, its nice to hear from all, especially you ;)
ReplyDelete