First Day in Dhaka

I’ve arrived safely in Dhaka and the first day has already passed. The flight in was pretty uneventful. I flew Etihad which is the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I had never really heard of them before booking the tickets so I did not know what to expect, but they are actually considered one of the nicest airlines in the world. The first flight was roughly 13 hours from JFK to Abu Dhabi. I was stuck in a middle seat, but fortunately I had courteous neighbors who did not infringe on my space at all. I slept for a bit and watched a couple movies (Chronicle and Sherlock Holmes 2). There was a brief one hour layover in Abu Dhabi before another 5 hour flight to Bangladesh. The airport at Abu Dhabi was beautiful. It might have been one of the nicest airports I have ever passed through. The second flight went by quickly. I finished a book and took a brief nap and before I knew it, the plane was decending over Dhaka. One thing that I noticed that was different about this second flight was that I was one of maybe 6 people of Western decent on the entire flight. While this is to be expected to some degree, it was very different from my trips to Kenya and Uganda, where on each almost half of the flight were westerners. While there are many expats in Bangladesh doing humanitarian work, it is not on the same scale as in the African countries I have traveled to. It seems to me that quite a bit of the humanitarian industry is driven by Bangladeshi’s themselves, if the Grameen Bank is any example of that.

The flight arrived in Dhaka around 4am. I was able to pick up a visa without any difficulty, though the process was a bit confusing. I first had to go to a bank to pay for it. The teller was asleep when I arrived so I had to wake him up. I then needed to go to a visa desk to pick up the actual visa, before proceeding to immigrations for them to stamp my passport. As I bought my visa on arrival, I had to go to a desk that also served the flight crews. There were supposed to be two people working there, but there was only one, so when the flight crew arrived from the plane I had just departed, they were allowed to cut me in line. While I was waiting, one of the flight crew came over to say hello to me, and two other Americans who were standing behind me. I think he felt bad that we had to wait on their account. He asked us each how long we were staying in Bangladesh. I told him two weeks. One of the other guys behind me though frowned and said “too long”. That really struck a chord with me. I know that he was probably joking to some extent, but he obviously had negative feelings towards the country as he said it with a frown on his face. I wanted to call him out on this, but I could think of nothing to say in response that would be appropriate. I imagine saying something like "Wow, way to devalue an entire country and its people" might not be the most productive thing to say on a visa line at the airport.

After passing through immigration, I waited at the baggage claim for Maia and Kate to arrive. They flew on a different flight that got in about an hour later than mine. After meeting up we exited the airport and met up with two of Maia’s uncles. They took our stuff and drove us to one of their homes where we remained for most of the day. Driving through Dhaka was very reminiscent to driving through Nairobi last year. There are certainly some differences. Bangladesh has quite a few rickshaws and does not have as many motor bikes or matatus, however the type of congestion, the way the roads and advertisements looked, and the types of stores were very similar, though everything was in Bengali rather than Swahili.

At Maia’s uncle’s house we ate a nice breakfast of bread, eggs, potatoes, and mango juice before hanging out and talking for a while. Exhausted from jetlag, we then each went to read our books or to take naps for most of the rest of the day. It is very hot here. Today was a milder day, though it had to be around 80-90 degrees with at least 90% humidity. It is going to be a warm stay, and we will have to drink prodigious amounts of water to stay hydrated. After eating a dinner of rice, chicken, lentils, and some other vegetables, we left the uncle’s house to come to Maia’s grandmother’s house where another aunt, uncle, and cousins live. The bedrooms here are air conditioned which will be nice. Maia and Kate are in a room together, while I’m staying in a room with one of Maia’s cousins. I feel bad that I’m infringing on his space like this, but there are two beds, and I think he speaks English pretty well so I think we will get along fine.

Tomorrow we will begin our work with our first meeting at the ICDDRB. It is exciting to finally get to work on something that we have been planning all year. That meeting should lay the groundwork for some of the rest of the trip. We are also starting to make plans to take a look at the types of phones that are available, as well as what organizations have community health workers we can work with. One of Maia’s uncles might even hook us up with a TV interview sometime during our stay which should be interesting, though incredibly helpful in raising awareness.

This is the beginning of what will be a long trip, though one that will hopefully be full of excitement and success.