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Trip Start Oct 13, 2005 Previous
Entry Trip End Jul 28, 2006 Next
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  Dhaka, Bangladesh
Monday, December 5, 2005

A New Day

I guess I should bring you up to speed on what I have been doing for the past couple of weeks and the new changes that have occurred. Well I have been busy studying and having Bangla lessons. Some days have been extremely hard and hopeless- I feel like I am never gonna be able to understand and speak Bangla! It also doesn't help that teaching techniques are completely different here. "Carolyn you MUST speak faster!" I am trying! Really I am! But pressuring me into translating a sentence from English to Bangla faster is NOT helping. But that is the way it is here and I can't change that. My lessons are not all that bad, just sometimes.

Since I have been in Bangladesh, I have been living on a farm in a small village 5 hours north of Dhaka

Bamboo Bridge

. MCC wanted me to experience village life before I made my home in Dhaka. It has been really nice and "peaceful" out here, and I am glad I was able to see how people live out here. My Bangla lessons were supposed to end Nov. 30th and then I was to move to Dhaka and work at the YWCA as an English Teacher for women. However, I just found out that classes will not start until January! At first I was bummed out about this but the CR's (Country Reps) have found something for me to do in the meantime.

Now I am living in Dhaka with my Bangla teacher's family. Andrew Sarker is my teacher, his wife's name is Rosie and their 2 daughters are Retu (she's 18) and Rea (she's 13). The last SALTer also lived with the Sarker's so they are somewhat accustomed to the Western culture- or at least I hope so! They live right in the middle of Dhaka and are on the 5th floor of an apartment building. I have my own bedroom and my own bathroom which is attached to my bedroom! And my bathroom has a toilet! How awesome is that! Most places have squattie potties so this is extremely exciting for me. Unfortunately they don't have hot water, but I guess I can't have everything. I just boil hot water and put it in a bucket and take a bucket bath. I did this on the farm too.

I had a really exciting weekend

Cute Kid

. I was able to see 3 Handicraft projects for women that MCC supports. MCC has many projects that they are in partnership with. Most projects are in rural areas where poverty is particularly high and where women have no opportunities or possibilities of getting jobs. We went to a couple of paper making projects and saw how paper is made. They use a variety of things to make paper: jute, banana and palm leafs, coconut fibers, grass, water hyacinth, silk, cotton and recycled paper. Then they make wonderful things out of paper like cards, boxes, journals, photo albums etc. We also saw a project that is making a product for The Body Shop! It's a hand mitten for scrubbing soap on you in the shower. So ya, that was a great weekend. Now that I am in Dhaka I feel like things will start to roll. I will be meeting the MCC office staff (some I have already met) as well as the YWCA staff and the Prokrittee staff (I will be working with these people for the next month on the coolest thing ever- if it all works out that is).

love
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Golden Rice Fields	Kids Everywhere	Making Placemats	Old Man
Paper Project

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