The Past Few Days

Sorry that I have not updated for a few days. Not a lot happened so I did not take the time to write a post.  Right now I am at the ICDDR,B guest house which I will get to in my next blog post (which will probably even be posted later today).

A few days ago we took a trip to the Dutch embassy. It was in a part of the city called Gulshom which took a little bit of time to get to with all of the traffic but it was not too bad. It was a nice part of the city, and many of the foreign embassies are located in that area. We passed a few from other countries when we passed through. The Dutch embassy was a nice building. There was a pretty garden in a courtyard near the entrance once you entered through the gates. We met with the Director of the Dutch Development program in Bangladesh who worked at the embassy. He told us about some of the work the embassy was doing with BRAC as well of many of the clothing factories in Dhaka. He seemed interested in our project and while he could not offer any resources to us directly, he was able to connect us with some of his contacts in the field of development who we are currently following up on. Before leaving he introduced us to the Dutch ambassador who we said hello to before heading home.

The next day we went and did some shopping. The store we went to was busy, but had almost every type of Bangladesh crafted item you could think of. There were decorative pieces like paintings and carvings, but there was also a lot of clothing and household objects ranging from kitchen dishes and silverware to candle holders. I picked up a few things to being home that cost only about $8 USD. There was no haggling involved, but it was still probably the best prices I have found in really any country I’ve traveled to in the past couple years.

Aside from shopping we did not do a whole lot over the past few days. At times it actually got a little boring. I was more than able to entertain myself. I have plenty of TV to watch and I’ve finished 8 or 9 books already, but aside from the one thing we did during the day, the rest of the days have been pretty uneventful so I had been getting a little stir crazy. Yesterday was a little more interesting however. We did not do anything in the morning, but in the afternoon we decided to go to the movies. There is a huge 8 story mall not too far away from the apartment we are staying at. On the top floor is a cinema that is currently playing Hunger Games, Mirror Mirror, and Planet of the Apes. We decided to go and see the Hunger Games, which Maia and Kate quickly read through beforehand. We were going to go with Maia’s cousins who were interested in seeing it, and it was shaping up to be a great evening, until I got sick…

As we arrived at the mall, I started feeling my digestive track acting up. I knew that I needed to get to a bathroom so I tried rushing the group through the mall as quickly as possible. I began to feel quite a bit of pain in my abdomen, and also began feeling queasy. I rushed into the movie theater and ran straight to the bathroom where I remained for the next 40 minutes. I did not throw up, but suffice to say, quite a bit came out the other end. Fortunately, the bathroom was pretty nice.

I eventually made my way into the theatre about 20-30 minutes late. I had already seen it so I did not mind too much. The movie was good for the second time and the theatre was quite nice. The seats were very comfortable, though it is culturally acceptable for people to talk and have conversations through the film here which was distracting at first, but after getting used to it fine.

After the movie we headed back to the apartment. I was still feeling a little sick so when we got back I had a few slices of toast for dinner, and drank some oral rehydration solution, the same solution which the ICDDR,B is credited with creating. It tasted like saltwater and was frankly a little disgusting, however, whatever it took to get me back to 100%. There was some question about whether I’d be well enough to come to Matlab today, but as I mentioned before, I was obviously well enough to make the trip.

I will try to write about that and more later this evening to be published soon.