An unimaginitive post

Hello, from a very sleepy expatriate.

My schedule has been so thrown off over the past week. I’ve been feeling constantly jet-lagged these days, going to bed after two a.m. (last night I couldn’t turn in until four!), waking up only slightly before the lunch time call to prayer. It’s crazy. I think my circadian rhythm is marching to a different drummer these days.

It’s getting brutally hot here (it hit about 90 degrees F here today), especially at night. It’s hard to think in the immense heat, especially when your flat is on the FIFTH floor. I’m going to Chittagong next week for a friend’s brother’s wedding. Below are some pics of John and my Chittagong trip this past February. It was a really beautiful and comfy train journey. Too bad we’re taking the death-defying bus route this time around.

Things have really been picking up at the Nari Jibon office, where I teach English classes. I’ve gotten a ton of new students and Dr. Ward is putting the curriculum in my hands these days. It’s such a great experience, and I get to meet so many terrific people. Sometimes its hard to hear people’s life stories—--some of the women I work and have made friends with come from truly shocking, violent, and traumatic backgrounds. It is good to have a touchstone to Bangladeshi reality though, especially in a country where its easy to separate and isolate yourself as a relatively wealthy foreigner.

I am also trying to start working on a project about rickshaws with a professional photographer I met here. She is really cool. We're thinking about bringing rickshaw pictures, art, and stories back to the US to do some kind of artistic/cultural exhibition. We’ll see how it goes.

I am trying to buy a burqa for myself. It’s for a social experiment I’ve been wanting to do for some time. I want to see what life as a Muslim woman in purdah is like. I’m having some trouble though. Where does one buy a burqa? Are there burqa sizes? Name brand burqas? I don't know.

That’s it for now. Must get some work done tonight. Laters.

TKP