Village visit, Jaago Foundation

This weekend was a busy one, and they will only get busier during the rest of the summer. On Thursday, after having class and a lecture in the morning we all went to the American Center to talk to Bangladeshi students who are interested in pursuing degrees at American universities. I met a Bangladeshi archeology student! After the meeting, I took the bus to my LP’s house. The bus ride was exciting, because I rode in a double decker bus that let me out in a different location than I was used to. The rickshaws wouldn’t take me to her house, and I became very confused. I put Afrida on the phone with a rickshawallah and a fruit seller, to figure out what was going on. They figured it out, and I waited by the fruit seller’s stall until her dad came to get me. At least I got a free mango out of it! On Friday I visited my LP’s village. We started out very early, at 7:30, and drove North out of the city. On the way, we stopped in one place to get katal (apparently Mymensingh is known for its quality katal), and another place to look at jewelry. I love the Bangladeshi countryside, and this time we drove through the really rural areas. I was happy that I was not the one driving. Near to my LP’s nana (=maternal grandfather)’s house there were preparations for a village fair. We walked to the homestead and visited with her nanu (=maternal grandmother) and other family members. I was surprised that I was able to understand Afrida’s nanu, but her Bangla was relatively clear. She has a hearing problem, so I’m not sure she understood me as well as I understood her. I noticed that the buildings were made of mud bricks, which is perfect insulation for the climate, and that their houses are very clean and well-kept. A lot nicer than Dhaka. After a little while visiting, we changed into nicer clothes to attend a wedding. I had prepared for a city wedding rather than a country wedding, so I wasn’t as comfortable as I would otherwise have been. I wore my new Benaroshi sari. The wedding itself was huge- they were apparently going to feed three thousand people. There were a few tents where everyone ate in shifts; inside the buildings there were more people sitting around and talking. The bride was Afrida’s mom’s niece. We left and went back to the village, where I changed back into salwar kameez. Afrida took me to meet all of her relatives who had houses nearby. I talked with her family members, most of whom spoke another dialect. After listening to it for a few hours, I finally started to figure it out (my language accomplishment for the day). It was dark when we started back, and one of her cousins caught a firefly for me. The fireflies here are tiny compared to the ones in the states; this one was about half an inch long. On Saturday our field trip was to the Jaago Foundation (http://www.jaago.com.bd/), the first voluntary organization in Bangladesh. The organization runs a free English-medium, international standard school for street kids from the Dhaka slums. We had a tour of the facility; besides the school, Jaago has two workshops (to provide training and employment for adults from the community), a clinic that provides healthcare to the kids for free and to the community for a reduced price, and a “hole in the wall” project that gives street kids from the community the opportunity to access the internet and games. It’s a new organization, but it seems to do really good work. Afterward, we went to lunch at a Bengali Chinese restaurant in Dhanmondi. The food was slightly different from American Chinese food. From there, Audrey and I walked to Dhaka University. It was about a half hour walk at a leisurely pace. As we passed Newmarket, we stopped at lot of pottery stalls to look at the “clay stuff” as it’s called in Bangla. At Dhaka University, we met Sarmad, one of our teachers from last year. He had a Fulbright to teach Bangla in Austin during the last year. Sarmad took us to his house, where we met his family. He has a very large house in Old Dhaka, with a pond, crops, and a large roof veranda. His mom is a really good cook, too. We hung out with them all evening. On Sunday, we had a conversation class in which we just had a conversation with two English-medium students. It was wonderful. After class, I went to the tailor and spoke Bangla with him for a solid twenty minutes, expressing everything I wanted to say. Very good Bangla day. On Thursday, I leave for my extended trip out of Dhaka. We are going to Rajshahi, in the western part of Bangladesh on the Indian border. Expect a long blog post when I get back.