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  Dhaka, Bangladesh
Saturday, December 17, 2005

# 1 Where is home? - A Description of our Flat in Dhaka

Home is where you hang your hat. For now we hang our hats in a flat on Iqbal Road in Mohammadpur, Dhaka. You pass through a locked gate at the entrance, then up two flights of stairs to our third floor flat. Our landlord lives on the first floor. They have a few chickens that live near the front gate. Sometimes at night they pen the chickens in a big box which sits at the bottom of our stairwell. We sometimes hear the crowing of the rooster in the mornings.

Welcome to our apartment, first you need to walk through the patio. Please notice the beautiful flowers. There are about 15 pots with blooming plants. Lockman, our cook, takes great pride in keeping the plants well cared for. Our flat includes a combined dining/living room, small kitchen with electric frig and gas stove, two bedrooms and baths, and a small work room where the ironing gets done.

Just off the patio is a small bathroom for the cook and laundry staff use. That is also where our laundry gets done - in basins on the floor. There are lines for drying the clothes on the roof. The apartment is quite comfortable. I am grateful to have a hot water heater for the shower. We are also blessed to have someone to wash the dishes, shop at the open market, and cook our meals and someone to clean our house, wash and iron our clothes. Things I miss, there are a few, nothing critical: a microwave, an oven with a thermometer, cold cereals, and Jerry would probably add that he misses work that needs done around the house and his work shop.

Sounds around our home

On both sides of our house there are apartment buildings. They are just a few feet from our house so that in our dining/living room we can often hear the sizzling frying pan and enjoy the aroma from their Bengali kitchen. On the other side, by our kitchen, a large apartment building is being reconstructed. So we often hear hammering, banging, building type noises. At the rate at which building takes place here, the hammering will likely go on for months to come.

As you step out from our front gate you are immediately on Ibqal Road. Look both ways to avoid stepping into the path of a rickshaw. It is a busy street with many rickshaws and taxis passing by each day. Across the street there is an open field/playground. It is often used for soccer and cricket games. It can get quite noisy at times. Add to the noise the calls to prayer 5 times a day from the multiple mosques in the city. There are 3 mosques within a few blocks of our house. Their noisy calls can be rather annoying at 4:30 in the morning. Perhaps with time we will get used to the calls and will not even notice them.

Ethel December/03/05

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# 2: Consolations/Desolations in Bangladesh:

CONSOLATIONS:

Staying healthy

Early morning walks

A place to call "home" that is comfortable - our 3rd floor flat with a patio - space for plants

Patience of our co-workers as we continue on a big learning curve.

Getting home safely (going out is always a challenge)

A good MCC team to work with.

More time for reading than I ever had in the States

Recycling: we see so much that is reused here that would just be thrown away in the US.

Oodles of Rickshaws, they can take you almost anywhere for a few takas.

A phone system that works (sometimes) so we can connect with our children.

DESOLATIONS:

Seeing people dig through garbage piles

Seeing homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks as we walk in the mornings.

Working hard at learning Bangla and then not being able to recall the right simple word when needed.

E-mail systems that are so painfully slow that they can not open pictures of our granddaughters

Missing special family times like the funeral service of my brother, and birthday celebrations of our granddaughters.

The traffic!! rickshaws, CNGs, buses, taxis,

The noisy calls to prayer from the mosque early (4:30) in the mornings.

Missing old friends to share this unique (Bangladesh) experience with

10/2005 by Ethel