Personalized Rickshaw A

For Zach's birthday, I had the famous rickshaw artist Ahmed paint a seat cover with us in a classic bollywood scene.  I am in the center dancing on a floating lotus flower, with a tiger on the left about to pounce and Zach to the right ready to attack with his 3 barreled gun. Overall, it came out perfectly, slightly absurd and over the top!

Fresh Air

Dhaka is a great city for exploring, and I still have lots more on my list to check out, but after being cooped up in Dhaka for a few months for language school, I have really been enjoying the flexibility of my new schedule, which allows me to travel around the beautiful country of Bangladesh. To make my recent travels even more enjoyable, I had my first visitor in Bangladesh, Zach! Zach and I left Dhaka for a 10 day trip down to Cox's Bazaar, Bandarban and Rangamati. 

We arrived at Cox's Bazaar with the rain and spent two days there dodging rain drops and exploring the world's longest natural unbroken beach. There are a few qualifiers in that last statement, but when you include them all, it is true; Bangladesh is home to a 120km long beach that is entirely natural (as opposed to man-made). Since it is the low season and there was a storm coming, Cox's Bazaar was nearly vacant, and Zach and I barely had to share the entire 120km stretch with anyone! Zach played in the waves as I watched from the shore (I did not want to brave the water in my Salwar Kameez since an actual bathing suit would be wildly inappropriate) and we explored all the little shops selling dried fish, sea shells and even tourist T-shirts! On our second day we went to town and explored a Buddhist monastary, where Zach managed to impress the locals with his cricket skills. Then, as the storm left Cox's Bazaar, we boarded the bus to visit the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Zach playing in the waves at Cox's Bazaar. 

Art in Motion

Rickshaws are one of the most common modes of transportation in Bangladesh. They are one speed bikes with a seat on the back holding 1 - 2 people comfortably, but are often tested to hold 4 or 5 people. Bangladeshis use rickshaws everyday to travel short distances (maybe 2 – 5 km) within cities and towns. The average rickshaw ride can be anywhere from 10 – 50 Taka, and the price usually depends on distance, number of people, traffic and most importantly, how well you bargain.

One of the most unique things about rickshaws though, is that they are moving pieces of artwork. Art and rickshaws seem to have always existed together, as one rickshaw art supplier told me “when the rickshaws came, the art came.” Every rickshaw is painted and decorated with a variety of brightly colored brush strokes, fabric, tassels and ornaments, transforming otherwise normal bikes into beautiful art that streaks by you on the roaring Dhaka streets.

Class Shesh (finished)

Thursday was my last day of Bangla classes. It's amazing to think that just three months ago I did not even know the Bangla alphabet and now I can read, write and speak enough Bangla to get around. I still have a long ways to go, but I feel like I now have a solid foundation to build on.

Letter to a friend that I wrote in Bangla.

Mehndi

Last week my friend Shamima and I spent the afternoon watching the India vs. Pakistan cricket match (one of the most anticipated matches of the world cup series in Bangladesh). As we watched, we snacked on jhal muri (puffed rice, peanuts, crunchy bits and spicy spices), sipped tea and Shamima delicately dribbled mehndi (henna) into beautiful patterns on the palms of my hand. Mehndi is often applied to women's hands for weddings or other celebrations, but sometimes women will just have it done for fun. The latter was the case for me. The mehndi comes as a thick, wet paste, and after applying it to your body you let it dry. Once dry, the mehndi will start to crack off, leaving behind beautiful art for you to look at all week long!

David Bornstein: "Grameen Bank and the Public Good"

David Bornstein's blog, Fixes, on the New York Times website looks at solutions to social problems and why they work. Recently, he wrote a few posts on the current issues revolving around Professor Yunus and more generally, microfinance. Here is a link to one post I found particularly thought provoking. It is a great starting point to get an idea of the current discussion and also provides a few links to other papers, books and blogs for further reading. Enjoy!

Food Part 1: Lunch

I am currently renting a room in an apartment owned by my language school and classes are held in the apartment above. In addition to living in a pretty posh apartment in Dhaka, I also have a wonderful cook named Golap (a fairly common male name, which means rose). Everyday I finish language class at 1pm and come downstairs to my apartment where an amazing Bangladeshi feast awaits me. No matter what, it’s not lunch without dal-bhat (lentils and rice). This seems to be the most common food country-wide however dal can vary quite a bit, but after two months, I have yet to find any dal that beats Golap’s. In addition to dal-bhat, we usually also have some kind of sobji (vegetable curry), ruti (flat bread), and alu (potatoes). Sometimes we will have pollau, which is rice cooked in spices and oil with vegatables and traditionally meat. However, my all time favorite lunch dish is dim buna (a boiled egg in a spicy curry sauce).

Clockwise: vegetables, potatoe, ruti, dal and rice.