A Day In Dhaka

People have asked me about our life in Bangladesh. Things are just a little different here so I thought I'd describe a pretty typical day for your enlightenment and edification.

During nighttime hours the streets are peaceful in our neighborhood. The road is devoid of cars and rickshaws and all is quiet but for the random pedestrian or street dog, but as the sun comes up the day is heralded in by the sound of rickshaw bells, car horns, the call to prayers, and the loud "caw caw" of the huge jungle crows that live in the trees everywhere.

As I snuggle against Derek begging a few more seconds of sleep, Chumleigh gives a quiet but determined bark beside me to indicate his need for a walk. At his insistence, Derek and I stir. I struggle to push aside the cocoon of mosquito netting draped floor to ceiling around our bed. As my feet hit the floor, I trip on the netting. Always. Every single time. I never learn.

You should see Chumleigh struggling to get out to of the mosquito netting, his frenzied little face panicking as he becomes hopelessly entangled.




While Derek showers, Chumleigh and I get ready for our morning walk. I strap him into his harness and unlock the two dead bolts and two slide bolts that ensure our security, then head to the elevator. Chumleigh is an old pro at elevators now and exits eagerly on the ground floor, taking a moment to say his good mornings to the guards before heading out.




As we exit the building, we check for street dogs. There are a lot of strays on the streets of Dhaka and they can be aggressive. On more than one occasion I've had to pick Chumleigh up and carry him home to avoid him being eaten. We have, more than once, also been subjected to aerial attacks by the crows whom, I suspect, mistake him for a rat.

Walk completed, we head back upstairs to get ready for the day. The water is more or less an experiment in chemical warfare, so is therefore undrinkable at least by foreign stomachs not accustomed to it and those not wishing to develop a third eye or extra limbs.





This requires that we keep a pitcher of water in the bathroom to brush teeth with. Sunita graciously keeps the pitcher full for us. The process is to dip the tooth brush in a glass of water, brush teeth, rinse using the glass of water and then rinse the toothbrush in the remaining water.

When showering, just to complicate things a little bit more, whatever is lurking in the water also has a tendency to make hair fall out, so an extra rinse with distilled water and apple cider vinegar is required. To simplify this process, the state department has kindly provided a water still in the kitchen so that     we don't turn into bald mutants.

The water distiller

 Another of Sunita's water related duties is to empty the five dehumidifiers scattered throughout the house. Considering they have to be emptied 2-3 times a day during the dry season, I can't imagine what it will be like when the humidity hits.

    The Dehumidifiers

Water is not the only challenge we face here in Dhaka. Electricity can be a little tricky as well. There are two tricks to safely utilizing electricity here. The first is to ensure that all 110v appliances are plugged into the appropriate transformers. When not in use, it is best to turn off all appliances, the transformers themselves, and the electrical supply to the outlet (there are switches for each outlet). This all needs to happen because transformers are likely to catch fire otherwise.

The second is to pray. We do this because
electricity is incredibly unstable here and fluctuates wildly. Once again, that tendency to burst into flames rears it's ugly head.



Danger from water and electricity aside, breakfast goes smoothly although I still haven't gotten used to the boxed, shelf stable milk that is all we can get here, and Derek heads downstairs to meet the armored van that picks him up for work each morning. When we finally get our car, our driver will be taking him.

Once Derek is off and away I spend some time answering emails, reading and playing piano. These would be more enjoyable if I wasn't drowning in guilt the whole time because while I'm relaxing, Sunita has arrived to tackle the house.

She's a cleaning demon! On top of laundry and ironing and dishes and whatever other messes we make, she sweeps and mops all 2,800 sq ft of marble floors. Every day. I swear to you I have told her repeatedly that she doesn't have to do them every day. She just looks at me, scandalized, shakes her head and walks off.

I tell her yet again to call me Leni. She looks like I just shot her, says "no Madame" and walks off. I fear I will never be comfortable with being "Madame". I have become very involved with Thrive, the volunteer organization I wrote about previously that provides food to school children in the slums, so some of my afternoons are spent interacting with the children.

It is a different world in the slums. Nothing I've ever seen in America even comes close, but I think I'll leave that for a different post. For now I'll leave it at, I am happy when I'm feeding, photographing and talking to these beautiful children and for a little while I feel slightly less guilty about the privileged life style that we live here.

Even shopping is an adventure in Dhaka. Say I need some milk and eggs, first I have to find a rickshaw. They're everywhere so that part isn't difficult but finding a driver who speaks English and knows where he is going, now that can be challenging.

When we first arrived I made the mistake of not paying attention to where things are. Now I make sure I have an address and know the general direction I am heading, this is done to avoid ending up in India by accident.

Grocery shopping in Dhaka is complicated at best. Unimart has a lot of supplies that you might need, but has rather less produce. Interestingly enough though, they have a beautiful tropical fish section where one can even buy a wide variety of Arawana fish.

Lavender is better for produce, but once a week the German Butcher, which oddly enough is not run by Germans and has no German meats, has a lovely Japanese farmers market. Happily, I have discovered that most of the stores have loads of British products.

As you might gather, there isn't really a one stop shopping option here so it makes for a busy afternoon. In addition, most companies do not have online bill pay so we must go to their offices to pay for things like Internet and cell phone. Again, once we get our car the driver will take care of those errands for us.

Once I have returned from grocery shopping, it's up to Sunita to take care of any produce we buy. Thanks to their love of formalin and DDT here, all of our produce must be first soaked in soapy water for fifteen minutes, then soaked for another fifteen minutes in bleach water, then rinsed thoroughly in distilled water. If not, once again, we expose ourselves to opportunities for mutation and Death.

If I'm lucky and get everything done early enough, I might catch a rickshaw to the American club for a swim and then it's home to spend the evening with Derek.

At the moment our evenings are pretty tame because without a vehicle, we aren't allowed out after 6:00 pm, at which point we can only go out in a car with the windows rolled up. No public transportation, not even rickshaws.

Well that's it. it's really not Dengue Fever season yet, so no need to address that. This is our day. It's different, it's fun, it's rewarding and sometimes it's boring. Minus the Dengue Fever, it's pretty much like everyone else's life,:-) It might sound like I'm complaining, but the truth is, I really enjoy it here. I love the challenge and I wouldn't trade this time in Bangladesh for anything!

For now I'm off to edit pictures of gorgeous, big eyed children in the slums.