Arrived yesterday and took a one hour (air conditioned yay!) bus ride to Narsingdi where I will be staying for the next 5+ weeks. The trip and ensuing day was definitely a crash course in Bangladeshi culture. Again, I can only describe it as an assault on the senses.
But before I elaborate further, I need to comment on the heat. I am pretty sure that with the humidity it is (minimum) 5000 degrees. Every small movement leaves me sweating profusely; even breathing seems to take a lot of effort. We carry around towels to wipe our faces. I went to sleep after a cold shower and woke up SOAKED in sweat. I was just lying there and yet appeared as if I had run a marathon. Twice. OK, digression complete.
So I arrived in Dhaka (amidst applause) around ~8 AM. The flight from Dubai was not as comfortable as my first flight, given that it was quite crowded, everyone was very pushy (the announcement was made that zone A was boarding and all 400 passengers rushed the gate) and deodorant was clearly optional (myself included, as I had not packed it in my carry-on). I realize many aspects of this are cultural, so I tried not to become irritated, though it was occasionally difficult. I had a lovely little Bangledeshi lady next to me who kept trying to speak to me in Bangla; I estimated she was about 50 years old, but in helping her fill out the passport paperwork discovered she was a mere three years older than myself. During the flight, she would intermittently grab my wrist (didn’t matter if I was sleeping, wrapped up in my blanket, engrossed in the inflight movie) to check the time on my watch: initially this was endearing, but mid-nap it became rather annoying (especially when it occurred what seemed like 20 times; I would be sleeping or watching TV and I’d feel this random clawing at my wrist... it was also apparently impossible for her to get anything out of her bag without elbowing me(hard!) in my left boob at least fifty times.... impressive given that she was shorter than I and very petite).
When we landed I was carried by a sea of Bengalis to customs and then to the baggage claim. As expected my 900 lb bag was amongst the last to appear. And similar to boarding the plane, all 400 people vied with several baggage carts to be RIGHT next to the conveyor belt. If they saw one of their bags coming around they would simply run up on the conveyor to the other side and grab it, rather than wait the 10 seconds for it to come around. The whole process took well over an hour and a half. During this time I met a young, English-speaking Bengali lady thought it was very amusing that I was there and who was clearly skeptical that I would survive the encounter. Which of course is exactly what I wanted to hear upon my arrival. In my head, I was like, “I’m from New York... I’ll show you.” And then on the walk to the bus I almost got pickpocketed: we were walking through the street and I was carrying my two carry-ons, trying to avoid being runover (by cars, buses, rickshaws, you name it) and avoiding the persistent stares, when a little girl of about 6 literally latched on to my pink backpack. I (again literally) could not shake her; I was in the process of bringing said backpack to the front (with her attached, I guess), when I noted that her hand was already rummaging around in the lower pocket. Nothing was lost as the entire crowd quickly starting yelling at her.
Managed to make it to the bus in one piece and quite fortuitously, it was just leaving (ie no waiting in the crowd for me). The air conditioning was savory, the child intermittently retching into a plastic bag (which was then flung out the window and shattered on the pavement) in front of me not so much. Despite the heat, my desperate thirst and overwhelming exhaustion there was no vomiting from my end.... yet.
Am about to embark on my first day of survey administration this morning. Am praying the sun goes in during our ~1 hour boat ride. Have I mentioned the heat is oppressive? OK, more on my lodgings (and rickshaw rides) later as well as my first day in the field.
(Also forgive my my misspellings and any format issues. The internet won't let me preview anything so I have no idea what it looks like. Will try to post pictures as well, though this may also be limited by internet capabilities).
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