Power outrage!!! (The extra r makes all the difference :)

It's a really common thing here. By common I mean everyday. By midday it heats up to a balmy 93 degrees Fahrenheit and every A.C. in Dhaka is switched on. This is when the load shedding begins. Load shedding or a rolling black-out is an intentional shutdown of certain grids of power in order maintain power in other areas. Normally this occurs 3-6 times or so a day depending on the temperature and the mood the fiend that controls the lot is in. This morning some storms somehow managed to knock out power for an apparent 2-3 days. I'm not sure how this worked because I didn't see any damage but the man shouting into a microphone in a patrolling rickshaw through the streets of my neighborhood assured us that this indeed was the occurrence. Of course we were informed of this 14 hours into a non-stop outage. The power came on for short 15-30 minute intervals for a bit but not long enough to save the food spoiling in many people's refrigerators. Our generators can run 3 lights and 3 fans per apartment unless there are special circumstances in a couple apartments in which a plug can operate.

My problem solving mode kicked in. I wanted to save the remaining food in freezers before it was too late. My thinking was if we waited until morning most of the food will be Shesh which of course is bangla for finished (and in in rare cases dead:) I spent 2 hours making calls and sending texts going through different scenarios but not much can be done until morning. It was suggested we connect a refrigerator to a working wall plug. In an amazing set of adapters and multi-plugs we achieved the feat of connecting one fridge to the working socket some 30ish ft away. Hopefully all will go well and we won't burn down the lane 5 apartments. (I live on lane 8:) With the fridge successfully connected I made my way home to an oddly silent half of DOHS (my neighborhood). We have power! I don't know for how long but in the meantime my AC is on full blast in hopes I will be able to sleep if it goes to on an hour off an hour generator power. It will overheat if it runs more than an hour. It gets hot real quick without a working fan. Oddly quiet too. I hope it stays on tonight but we shall see!

I'm stealing this from Allie who stole it from Cath who stole it from Dave who stole it from Fred who stole it from the Economist :D

On Tuesday the Economist announced that Dhaka is the second worst city in the world to live in, behind Harare. All the things they said were wrong with this city: power cuts, gas supply problems, a lack of green spaces, a malfunctioning public transport system, extreme vandalism, dirty roads, noxious sewers, polluted rivers, high unemployment and suffocating overpopulation.

Want to come visit me?


There are a lot of things to be frustrated about in Dhaka. As much as I love my job and the people I work with Dhaka certainly has its challenges. One of my largest pet peeves is motorcycles driving on the sidewalk. I hate having to move out of the way or almost getting flattened. Today after stubbing my toe on the uneven sidewalk I lashed out at a motorcycle coming my way by slapping the top of his helmet with a satisfying whack! I'm sure he was very confused about why a foreigner taking this course of action when everyone drives on the sidewalk. I had a similar instance about a week ago when I yelled at a police officer on the back of a motorcycle going down the sidewalk. I often evilly plan different scenarios of retaliation and later attempt repentance. I haven't been successful but the Lord works in mysterious ways. :D Seriously though even though my bangla is terrible I want to be able to say "Is your head ok? Drive on the Road!" I've only had time to execute my "road go!" statement.

I haven't blogged in awhile. Partly due to being busy and partly due to not wanting to go on a tangent for 9 years. However, I have truly been blessed over the past few months. Jenny is FINALLY here and that makes me very happy! I hope she can find a job here soon! Today we went to lunch. She ordered a grilled cheese and me a chicken sandwich. Both having similar ingredients in bangladesh she took mine by mistake. After eating 30% of my sandwich I took a bite into the grilled cheese. Realizing it was missing chicken we switched. There's a new coffee roasting place in Dhaka giving out free drinks during the testing week. We decided to come here after school. Jenny ordered a mint mocha and I ordered a raspberry white mocha. After drinking half of my drink she realized it had a raspberry taste to it. Me being oblivious and still angry at my motorcycle encounter I failed to notice why my raspberry white mocha had a chocolate layer on the bottom. Twice in one day! We're awesome! It's great to have someone to cause trouble with! This coffee place is great and I think I'm going to move in. They're going to sell coffee at competitive american prices. Amar Bhalolage! I like it! I think Jenny is going to live in this coffee place a lot over the next few weeks! I LOVE COFFEE!!!!!!!!!! This place has a great atmosphere to get things done(like job applications for Jenny she says). Next week is spring break and I'm going to have am much needed trip out of Dhaka. We're going to the Bandarbans. We even have a train this time so we don't have to deal with the bus. I am very happy! It's a place where there are hills and green places and quietness. I need quiet. If you took an average db level in Dhaka it'd be like 85db at least for sure. Perhaps I will blog more soon!

So I this think I had my first satisfying, successful, string of sentences with a rickshaw driver today...Ok in retrospect it was like one sentence. But still it feels great to be understood in a very assertive manner! It's translated to something like this...

Rickshaw Wallah: You! Foreigner I will go for 50 taka
Me: Why? I will not pay 50 because I am a foreigner I pay 20
Rickshaw Wallah: You're a foreigner! I will not go for 20!
Me: Ok... Go (gesturing him to move along)

I consider 20 a fair base price anyway and sometimes will give more, explaining my base price as best I can to the driver and why they are getting slightly more, usually for the speed/safety of the driver and occasionally friendliness. Although usually if they are talkative they want more money.

I have other useful bangla phrases in my vocabulary for such situations that I neglected to use. Like close your mouth (not so nice to say so I probably won't use it) or you're crazy (context is when asking for a high price) or my favorite, Is your head ok?! :D Honestly I know very very little bangla but it's fun to speak. I took a CNG (auto rickshaw... Think like a three wheeled motorcycle with seats on the back I may have a picture...) to a market.




So I stole this one off google...It's Huge( the picture not the CNG which is like a barred tin can)! Anyway so I went to this market which is about 45 minutes away (Sometimes it's about 3 years away seriously you never know in Dhaka traffic). I wanted to buy a coffee maker. I ended up buying a blender too so I can make coffee milkshakes! As I was walking around the market people would keep asking my simple things in English and I kept answering (very simply) in Bangla. They were like oooo you speak Bangla and I said yes and moved quickly on before they asked a more complicated question :D It was a lot of fun. On the way back a beggar, who was a young boy, asked my CNG driver what a bill he had was. It was 10 rupees. I preceded to barter with him for it for the entirety of the light. It was fun. I bought it for like 25 tk. It's worth about 15 :D. I just figured he'd never be able to trade it in so he might as well get something for it. He had a huge smile when we left. Overall it was a fun random adventure. I really should do a real update but today was the first day back at school and I have some prep for tomorrow yet. Overall it was a great break!

Craziness

So as I was walking home tonight, a rickshaw driver tried to offer me a cigarette and drove his rickshaw into the curb stopping it abruptly. We shared a brief multicultural laugh before I said "sorry, no need" in my very limited bangla before rounding the corner home.

A couple weeks ago I had the amazing opportunity of going to the Bondarbans. It is a place very unlike the rest of Bangladesh. So different in fact, you need your passport to get there. In reality they want to make sure they know who is going in and out but anyway it was simply wonderful. Several pics on facebook is you care to see them. While we were there we met a missionary and his adopted parents staying at the same "resort" (not your typical resort). They were there assessing the needs of nearby villages before heading off to Myanmar. At night we'd get together and worship and pray. It was a great time of fellowship and these folks were truly a blessing to us. During prayer, one of the missionaries called us missionaries. It's easy to think of a missionary as someone who goes out to villages, or to some island that no one has been to before, and learns a new language to reach those people. I'm simply a teacher in another country. Or am I? A friend said it best in saying that we as teachers in a Christian international school, that has students from many different faiths and countries, can have a huge impact on these students. Some of these students will grow up to be leaders in their country. We're also serving the mission families so that their children can have a quality education without the need to home school. I feel very blessed to be here! God is good!

Anyway I've decided to help Sangu the former rickshaw wallah a place to give him a loan and cosign for it. This will give him ownership of his vegetable stand, while giving me the opportunity to help him manage his money. There's still a lot of details that need to be worked out but hopefully we can get the ball rolling soon.

Anyway, it's sleepy time! I'm recovering from what I believe to be food sickness.

Oh I almost forgot! On the way back from the Bondarbans we got interviewed for desh tv at a checkpoint on the way out. The show aired tonight and we watched it. Myself and two others said things that got on the air It was cool!

I haven’t written in a long while! Much has happened here and most has been really awesome. I will write more about all that later but I have a few things I need to get off my chest. I just got back form an amazing vacation in the Bondarabans or the chittagong hill tracts. It was an amazing place and trip!It was great to get away and difficult to return. That’s not to say that I don’t like living in Dhaka because I do. There are just some things… well, many things you deal with here that you would anywhere else.,,

For instance the military seized some land from villagers to build some housing for retired officers. They allegedly offered about 33% of what the land is worth. In the US the government can seize the land for the common good but they need to give a fair price for the land. The papers make it sound like the deal wasn’t approved through official channels. Here statements are made in numbers. Read the “story” here: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=159753
On one end you see the police, RAB and military officials trying to defend themselves from angry villagers, some of them simply doing their job. On the other side you see the injustice of having your land taken away and given a terrible price for it. I’m not saying rioting is the way to go but it’s frustrating. Apparently the army brought in tanks and set up roadblocks to restore order or that is the rumor. Also several people are missing. The RAB supposedly shot put some bodies in the back of their trucks and drove away. You hear the story and it is just crazy this kind of thing happens.

Another struggle is, as a foreigner, people expect you to have a lot of money. By Bd standards I do and God has given me everything I need and more. Not a day goes by here where someone doesn’t ask me for money. It could be a beggar on the corner, a random rickshaw driver, or someone I know. One day I was walking out of my apartment and a random number called. I answered and a Bangladeshi man was on the phone. “Fiona?” he said. I kindly told him Fiona was back and England and I had her old SIM card. “Where are you now?” he said. I told him where I lived and suddenly there’s a dude on a rickshaw waving at me. He happened to be on the same road. Crazy. Anyway the person who lived in my apartment before (also from Grand Rapids… weird) had taught him English and used him as his rickshaw driver. He seems like a good guy for the most part. A few weeks ago he hurt his back and can’t drive a rickshaw anymore. After 18 years of driving one his body can no longer do it. He came to me before I had break and asked if I could fund him selling vegetables off of his head. We talked for a bit and discussed different ways he could do it, what kinds of vegetables, the possibility of using a flatbed rickshaw to sell off of, ect. I told him I’d think about it. Yesterday I decided I would help him with some capital to sell the vegetables off his head. However, he thinks it would be better to have a small stand in the market. He would rent the spot and sell vegetables there. If he had to close his business he would get a deposit back for the space. In talking about it I feel that he should take ownership of his own business and we discussed the possibility of paying some or all of the loan back, or some in vegetables and some in cash. It’s quite a bit of money he needs and it’s hard to say yes to because there are so many unknowns here. I’m going to take a Bengali friend and talk to people at the market to have an idea on the startup costs they face. I don’t want him to have to rely on foreigners to sustain him and his family. That’s not right. Should he start small and work his way up? Can he support his family in doing that? Every time I come back and my guard knows I’ve been with him he says no good in Bangla, saying the man is always asking for money. However he is a hardworking man and many people have vouched for him.
There is another rickshaw driver I know that doesn’t know how to ask for money. He said to me one day, “you give me 500 taka or you give me rickshaw” I said eh, no! He also isn’t very reliable/trustworthy in terms of being there when he says he will. For these reasons most teachers don’t use him anymore. It’s tough because I am trying my best to explain proper things to say and the importance of being honest, and he doesn’t quite get it. He told me today he’d pick me up at 4 after I’m done tutoring but he took someone else to DOHS (where I live) and couldn’t make it in time. I could tell on the phone he knew he messed up. I realize he’s just taking whatever people he can find to sustain himself. However, the choices he makes affects the amount of money he brings in because of these things. I wouldn’t want to drive a rickshaw for a living. It’s a really hard life. I want what is best for these people but who am I to decide it?

I went to first school after school today so I could walk to tutoring. I found this:



This was a tea cart that the police came and knocked down for being in the road illegally. But seriously why don’t they knock down the trees for growing in the road? They can come destroy people’s stuff but can’t take the trees out of the road that take up the same amount of space? There is a younger guy that runs a stand right near school. He looks like he’s 17. You could see the hurt in his eyes. I’ve never bought tea there but every time he sees me he says, “Hello Joshua,” with a great big smile and asks me how I am. Not many people smile a lot in Dhaka but he is one of them. He’s probably going to rebuild a stand somewhere else and I wasn’t sure if I would see him again so on the way back from tutoring I wrapped some money in a 10tk note and stuck it in his shirt pocket (a place many people keep their money), hoping he wouldn’t open it right away. I didn’t want anyone to know, just in case they try to take it or whatever.

Then today I got home and my housekeeper asked for a loan (which I approve of) for electricity in his house. He’ll have the loan paid off to Sam and I (if we agree) in 10 months. I come home every day and sit under a fan with my AC blasting to work on school, while his home in the village doesn’t have electricity. Is it a necessary need? Probably not… Does it improve his quality of life? Certainly. It’s different having a housekeeper. I mean it’d certainly be very difficult to do everything I do plus washing and hanging up my laundry, cooking, and cleaning everyday. I don’t sleep much as it is, but I feel weird having another man do these things for me. At the same time he has a decent paying job, which sustains him.

There are so many simple issues to deal with here. From, becoming terribly carsick and being knocked out for half a day, to the toxic air being produced from people repairing the road:


From missing home, to simply trying to communicate with people. But God is good and God is in control through all of these things. This is just another week living in Dhaka. It has been a particularly difficult week with a few other things that happened/going to happen. My intent is not to complain about these things but to ask for prayer for discernment in these situations. I love life here. I know that God is working in me and changing me for the better. I know that it’s better I care and want to change things rather then ignoring the issues and continuing my life like they don’t exist. I am so blessed and I know that this is where I’m supposed to be.

I found this funny

I was looking at a map and typed in something wrong. :D




Yah... I don't understand it either :D

First day of school!!!

Well hello all! I know I haven't written much but life has been moving at a million mph (or kph in Bangladesh)! I'm very excited to get this year going!In a couple short hours I'm hopping on a bus,headed off to school! An hour after that it's off to teaching! Amazing!It's been fun familiarizing myself with the English National Curriculum. I might be spending lots of time writing engaging lessons. I teach Science levels, 3,4,5,6,8,9 tutor 3 math students and I handle library!

I started writing this last Monday but we lost power so I didn't get to finish :D Life is good but busy. The first week of school was a blur. I'm getting used to the British way of doing things and I rather like it. Planning takes up a lot of time but I'm sure that will lesson a bit as the year progresses. I think it will take a bit till I get a handle on things. The students are amazing which is great. They fly through stuff and I love it! Lots to say apart from school though.. Hmm where to begin...

How about my Apartment (or flat:)
I share a 4 bedroom apartment with my fellow science teacher Sam. Together we make up the Science department of Grace. It's rather nice with 3 bathrooms and spacious living areas. I'll eventually give the video tour but at the moment we need to get things sorted (more British jargon:) We have a housekeeper named Benjamin who is also a great cook! We had pork chops the other day :D The AC works as long as we have power but the fans and lights and 4 power sockets in the flat work on generator power. We don't have a stove but our microwave is a convection oven that works! I will show you some pics of the apt...


Like my messy bedroom...(waiting for furniture and it's clean now)


Orrr my pink bathroom

This is our dining area...

More to come later.
So there were a couple of things I was confused about first of all, one day this was sitting on our counter...



So I think to myself... hmmm this is weird. Where did that come from. It turns out the people that lived here before were from Grand Rapids! Small world!

Lots more to say but I'm dead tired. I had a crazy day which I will explain perhaps tomorrow!