For those of our friends and family who have been worried about the political situation in Bangladesh over the past week, I just wanted to let you know what's been going on. Last Wednesday, students at Dhaka University got into a clash with Military personnel which then spread into country-wide clashes between students and police and military. The whole thing started over a very small incident--some students were blocking the view of a few military personnel at a football game, and the military personnel yelled at them and told them to get out of the way. And this led to a scuffle, and then erupted in violence. (The photo above is of a restaurant that students set on fire in Dhanmondi, Dhaka.) Basically, students at Dhaka University have been having to live with the military camping out on campus since the state of emergency was declared in January. So the military has taken over the students' gym, which means they have no place for sports activities. Plus, of course, they are not happy with the constant military presence on campus. So this situation was basically a time-bomb waiting to go off. And once students at other universities heard what was happening, they staged protests. So anyway, last Wednesday the government set in place an indefinite country-wide curfew. It was then lifted on Friday for the daytime, which was lucky for us, because Salma and I were visiting Rajshahi and needed to get back to Dhaka! Anyway, the night curfew continued for several more days and now it's been lifted. So the situation is better now. But the government made some rather alarming moves--for several days, they shut off all mobile phone networks and internet connections. Also, several teachers at Dhaka University and other schools were arrested, and are still being held in undisclosed locations. This is rather alarming as well. But our university was not a part of all of this--it just so happened that our summer vacation started on Monday, and the clashes broke out on Wednesday. Anyway, we're doing fine, and the situation seems to be better now. If you want to read more about what happened, check out the link to this article from The New Age, one of the Bangladesh newspapers: http://www.newagebd.com/2007/aug/23/front.html#1
To friends and family back home worried about the news of the flooding, don't worry. We are staying high and dry. But yes, there is severe flooding going in the country, especially in some of the northern districts. And parts of Dhaka near the rivers are getting inundated. Check out this photo taken yesterday--this was taken in South Badda yesterday, a part of Dhaka relatively close to our neighborhood (Banani). Luckily, we are on high ground, and so our area hasn't been flooded. We do live by a lake which has risen significantly, but it hasn't reached the "danger" zone yet. So many people have lost their homes and livelihood due to the flooding. The death toll is going up--from what I've heard, around 40 people died from the flooding last night, and so far around 120 people total have died. The stories of babies and children being whisked away from their mothers in the fast currents are the hardest for me to hear about. If anyone wishes to donate some funds for relief for the flood victims, talk to me and we'll figure out a plan. I know several groups who are working with flood victims and are in desperate need of more funds.
Ok, so yesterday Dhaka got 4 inches of rain in 6 hours. It was insane. I borrowed this photo from the Daily Star website. This is on Mirpur Road, which is on the way to Azfar's parents' house. This is the same spot we had to drive through on Thursday night when we were trying to get to their house--it was flooded then too. Yesterday, alot of the streets in Dhaka looked more like canals than streets. In front of our apartment, there was at least two feet of water in the road, and we watched cars trying to plow through and getting their engines flooded. I didn't feel brave enough to go through the flooded street to class, so I cancelled my classes yesterday. The thing is that when the street is flooded, you can't see where the potholes are! Many of the streets have huge uncovered potholes and it would really suck if your rickshaw hit one or if you fell into one. So I decided not to chance it. Anyway, there's a cyclone storm over the Bay of Bengal that caused the heavy rain. We're supposed to get more rain like this for the next few days. Today it rained pretty hard, but not like yesterday. The streets are clear again now. Let's see what tomorrow brings...
The other day we had some crazy monsoon rain in Dhaka. The streets were flooded. We happened to have quite a dramatic experience this time, because we were trying to get home while the streets were flooded. Our friend was giving us a ride home. There was at least 3 feet of water in the road. And the water started coming into the car--we had about 5 inches of water seeping into the car under our feet! It was quite a scary experience. I was amazed that the engine didn't flood and the car didn't die because at times it felt like we were literally floating down the street instead of driving. Many of the cars around us were dying and the poor drivers were trying to push them out of the street in the massive flood. And when busses went by, they created waves that would wash up against the car. It was like nothing I've ever seen before, although I know flooding like this happens on a regular basis in Bangladesh. Anyway, since my camera has broken, I borrowed a few images of the flooded streets from some other websites. By now the water has gone down and the streets are clear again, but we're supposed to have monsoon rains for the next 5 days, so they may get flooded again.
As part of their crack-down on "corruption," the interim government has been tearing down the slum housing of the poor, leaving them with no alternative housing plans. These are photos of the rubble left behind after the military came in the night to tear down the poor people's homes right down the street from our apartment. Now they are all homeless, wandering in the streets to find somewhere to sleep at night. I have no idea how this has helped reduce corruption. If anything else, it will increase violence in the streets as the poor get more desperate.
We took a trip to Nandan Water Park in Dhaka this weekend, with Urmi, Audry, Jasra, Dilara, and Azfar's cousin Shammi and his wife Nuresha. We had a blast! The water park has 3 water slides, children's slides and play areas, a "rain" dance floor, and a wave pool. Salma didn't want to leave. She kept saying "aro goshol!", which means "more bath!"
Here's Salma and I at a park in Gulshan by the American club. This park has a really beautiful lake, as you can see (as long as you don't look too closely and notice the garbage floating in it!).
Here's Salma with her grandpa by the lake at a park in Gulshan. Salma had fun, as usual, chasing other babies around the park and finding people to admire her.
Here's our little family, out having dinner. Ain't we cute? We took dad out to a burger shop that had a kid's play area, so this is about the only moment Salma was still the whole evening. The rest of the time she spent running around with the other kids and playing in the balls. Azfar broke the rules and got in the play area with her! (See the top photo.)
Here's some boats we saw on our river cruise. The Borigonga river was teeming with boats, ranging from tiny boats that could hold two people to huge steamers and sea-bound ships. I was amazed at the amount of cargo many of the boats were carrying. In the top photo the boat is carrying drums of some kind--I'm guessing to be used for water storage. The boats in the second and third photos are carrying some kind of crop. I'm not sure what crop--our tour guide wasn't much help in answering our questions. My guess is rice. The last picture is my favorite boat picture of the whole day. Check out that load of hay--that was the most cargo I saw on a small boat all day long. Quite a stack!
We went on an all-day river boat cruise today! The cruise started from Savar, which is a suburb of Dhaka to the west. Savar is heavily forested, and has the feel of being far from the city even though it's in the city limits. To get to the boat, we took a tiny dirt road that wound through a small village community. The boat was about 50 feet long, and had a bamboo woven roof over the top (see the picture above). The boat was definitely not up to any cruise boat safety code in the US--there was no railing or guard on the sides, so I was a bit worried about Salma all day, who was determined to go swimming in the river. The cruise was a great experience, although the company didn't quite live up to their promise. They said they would have an English-speaking tour guide, but our guide seemed to know only a handful of words in English. (And the other people on the tour with us were from France, and also knew little English.) The company also promised a "gourmet" meal for lunch. Lunch was basically an airplane meal. But those complaints aside, it was a really good experience. Our boat followed the Doleshwari river, which is a small river leading into the Borigonga river, which passed through Dhaka on the south end of town. We went down the river for about three hours, and then we circled back. We got to see lots of boats and people (including one guy taking a dump by the river!). On the first part of the trip, as we were going through Savar, it really felt like rural Bangladesh even though we were still technically within the Dhaka city limits. We saw men giving cows their morning bath, women doing the laundry washing in the river, and workers carrying bricks off the boats on baskets their heads. Once we got closer to old Dhaka, the river got a really stinky chemical smell. Our tour guide told us (with the help of Azfar's translation) that the smell was from all of the garment factories dumping byproduct into the river. It was also partly due to the brick factories which were letting off huge billows of black smoke. Riding on the boat through old Dhaka was a fun way to see it, as opposed to getting stuck in traffic jams trying to drive through the city. It was very peaceful on the river. And people on the boats passing us were constantly trying to get our attention and get us to wave--it was not a normal thing, I'm sure, to see that many foreigners floating down the river. But while it was generally peaceful, there was the occasional river "traffic jam," especially as we got near old Dhaka. And, like good Bengalis, all of the boat drivers were quite fond of laying on the horn. Our boat had a very creative horn: a trumpet! The man who was guiding the boat rudder would occasionally whip out his trumpet and give it a good blast to warn boats in front of us. Anyway, it was quite an enjoyable day of floating down the river and seeing a bit of the city that way. I took a bunch of photos. I'l add a couple of more posts with some pictures of the kinds of boats we saw and some scenes on the riverbank. Unfortunately, I didn't have the guts to take a photo of the guy taking a dump by the river, so sorry to disappoint you...
Here's Salma with her grandpa swingin' on the swing at the park! Salma's favorite park to go to is this one in Gulshan. They have a big lake and ducks, flowers to pull, and lots of kids to chase. What more could you ask for, right?
Here's some photos from our trip to the zoo. We saw two royal Bengal tigers, lions, a leopard, monkeys, deer, gorillas, snakes (including cobras and pythons), and birds of all kinds. We didn't get to all the exhibits--there were also hippos and crocodiles and other animals. The zoo is very big, but not at all the same experience as a zoo in the US. The zoo feels more like a big park. These photos are taken in the middle of the park. The animals are not very well taken care of, I think. I noticed some deer with very severe eye infections and sores. But it was fun for Salma and Audry to see the animals. Salma loved the big "mews" (tigers) the best.
Here's Mukhta (our bua) with her husband Hanip and her son Furqan, in their tiny shack-house in the slums in Banani.
Here is Furqan, Mukhta's (our bua) son, with his new soccer ball that my mom bought for him. He was pretty happy with his gift, as you can see!
Mom and I went over to Mukhta's house a couple of days ago. We had a really good time! Here's a shot of me and Salma with Mukhta in her house. As you can see, there's not much to it: a board with a sheet over it for a bed/table and a couple of shelves under a tin roof.
Ok, so it's plastic, but use your imagination...almost looks real! Here's Salma with grandma and grandpa at the Wonderland amusement park in Gulshan.
