It’s started raining more and more. Today was my first day at PARI (Participatory Action Rural Initiative) which means “I can” in Bengali. The streets this morning were covered in a good four inches of water, and Habina picked me up on her motorcycle and we ventured out through the water laden streets to the office. We weren’t going very fast, and the motorcycle ride felt pretty much the same as biking(minus pedaling I guess). Habina wears something similar to a lab coat over her clothes when she rides her motorcycle – if you’re going to ride a motorcycle, obviously you need a lab coat! I learned more about PARI today and met Matthew who I will be working on the annual report with. He gave me the stories he had and asked me to edit them, but first he explained why he picked each story. He said it was important because the stories needed to “show the heart.” I thought that was fantastic, and have been working on the stories. Sometimes it’s a little hard to get started, but I’ll go through each story a couple times and hopeful the result with “show the heart”!
Matthew is also taking me on the train back to Dhaka, and we were talking about fruit in Bangladesh and how so many chemicals are used to grow and preserve and ripen fruit now. We had pineapple this afternoon, so I asked if I was eating chemical pineapple. He took my question seriously, and said that he couldn’t guarantee that I wasn’t, but so much food is like that, what can we do? I was joking, but we really don’t know how many chemicals have been used on the “fresh” food that we eat. I’m a little bit of a food snob with processed food—I’d rather not eat the over-processed stuff, because it has lots of chemicals and isn’t very nutritious on top of tasting fake. But who knows if the chemicals in Twinkies are worse than the pesticides and chemicals used to grow and ripen apples? I think I’ll take my chances on apples, but it was an interesting point to think about.
This nine hour workday at the office is not so much fun. I’ve got to figure out a job that inspires and engages me, because nine hours is a looong time unless I’m doing something I’m passionate about it or enjoy. Time to start planning ahead! Or maybe just consider some options. I’ll be in school for quite a few more years. This is an especially busy time for PARI because they have to assemble many reports for the past year (their financial year finishes in June) and Heabni usually stays until 8 or 9 in July, but we left at 7:00 today.
Tea log: today: 5 and counting, plus a cup of coffee (all with milk & sugar). It’s the culture here. It’s the culture back home too actually, but I guess I feel okay rejecting my own culture as an expression of opinion while I feel the need to comply with the culture here out of politeness. The tea is good, but I hope the caffeine won’t fiddle with my headaches; it hasn’t so far but I think I’ll try to be more conscious about not drinking every cup from now on.
Field visit tomorrow and Tuesday, work in the office Wednesday and on the train back to Dhaka on Thursday morning. Four days in Dhaka getting my India visa, working on transformational stories for SUPOTH and maybe some work with SATHI and then out to the field until the 25th, back to Dhaka until August 1st when we head to India. Kolkata & Jharkhand for partner evaluation & then a little sight seeing before I hop on the plane home on August 15th. Still have a lot to go, but it looks like it’s going to fly by.
Oh monsoons! (I think that's what you're experiencing, right? It's summer in Bangladesh, yeah?) Anyway, it's been raining almost every day here in Sydney, too, but it's cold rain. And winter.
ReplyDeleteAnd you, a food snob? Who knew? :P
As for the headaches, I hope that the tea and coffee doesn't mess with them, BUT I do hope you'll join the culture when you get home :) Also, if you think coffee is strong at home, you should try it in Australia--it's straight from espresso. CRAZY! (PS: My friend Carolyn in my program also has constant headaches and has very similar stories to you... weird!)
Yes you are correct Caroline, lots of nice, wet, waterlogging monsoons! It's summer here... cold rain doesn't sound like too much fun. Maybe I'll join the tea/coffee culture so you and I have an excuse to talk and not do homework together. :)
ReplyDeleteAfter Australian coffee you'll be getting triple shot espressos when you come back to the US! Interesting about headaches; let me know if she's figured out how to manage them what her solution was! Much love!