Weekend Updates

I wanted to post a few updates (and photos!) from this weekend before I head to the village of Ehklaspur today. I'll be in the field with Atsu, Morshed, a Dhaka Univ. student/interpreter and 3 Japanese interns (although Morshed and I come back after 3 days, while everyone else will stay 5). They'll be gathering data for the trial version of the GCC's "One Village One Portal" project- recently renamed 'GramWeb'. It's a village network project to give villages/villagers a place to produce and share data about their village to others and ideally produce income (think web advertisements and selling information reports to international NGOs) and connect with the community (job sites, matrimony sections, village wish-list for policy makers to view, etc.)

It took a week but we've determined that I will be consulting on the visual communication of the GramWeb site, the Village Information Profile (VIP) document/tool (think the statistic report/manual to be used by the Village Information Entrepreneur (VIE) or local data collector/site owner). I need to wrap up some suggestions before I head into work and we head into the village- so I'll leave you with some brief updates.

Over the weekend visited more of Dhaka University, including some fantastical old structures and dorms with my coworker Luku and later my former CM-Q colleague Faheem and his wife Naumi.



I had lunch at Luku's house with his family and later him, his wife Asma, a coworker (Iqbal)and I visited the picturesque Jahangirnagar University about 15 km outside of Dhaka and then visited the nearby National Martyrs Memorial dedicated to the Freedom Fighters.




I met Faheem and Naumi at the New Market (it's 50 years old but eh- the name stuck) area. Sort of like Souq Waqif in Doha but authentic instead of reconstructed. Here's the view of the bridge on my way to meet Naumi and then a view looking down from the barber shop where Faheem was getting his head shaved! (It looks good though! And cooler!)





Faheem and Naumi took me to the memorial of the Mother Language Movement- dedicated to the fight of Bangladeshis against Pakistan imposing Urdu as the official language. The Bangladeshi struggle is the reason behind the UNESCO's International Mother Language Day every year on Feb. 21st. We later had coffee at a cafe and later dinner at Naumi's parents' house. Yummy stuff.



Updates on the village visit in 3 days!

Best Mexican...?

I started meeting some other foreigners (my name for myself has changed since coming to BD- in Qatar I was a 'Westerner' and in BD I'm a 'foreigner'- as there are also Japanese here!) in the hotel- essentially all interns with the Grameen family in some way. Many are with Grameen Bank, although I've met a few with Grameen Trust. Most are undergraduates, mainly American, but there are folks from Japan, France, Canada and Great Britain. There are some grad students- law, policy, social studies. I have no idea how many interns Grameen brings in or when (mainly summer? year-round? unknown) but they seem to be in the lobby each time I'm there. Funny- I've never actually seen another intern at the office building. And I haven't met any other interns other than Atsu at GC.

Last night eight (8=৮ or আট 'aat' in Bengali) of us headed up to the 'posh' Gulshan District of Dhaka to have Mexican food. Yep- Mexican food in Dhaka, at 'El Toro'- the only place in Dhaka and apparently the best in Indian subcontinent. It was a 200 taka ($2.90) no-AC 30-40 minute taxi ride. The distance is only about 5 km- that shows you how crazy traffic can be. The place was dark with mainly table candles for lighting, with Native Americans (Navajo and Lakota...?) pictures and sombreros on the walls. Drinks were 'mocktails' (like Qatar) but they let you spike your own drink if you'd like (good knowledge for next time!) My mocktail of lime, tonic and lemon was refreshing. Chips and salsa weren't free (and there were exactly 16 chips to a basket) but they were decent. My Dos Amigos Enchiladas (one chicken, one beef) came with what they called a 'cream-cheese' sauce and rice/beans were extra. The refried beans were close enough, the rice had a faint sweet taste to it (cinnamon?) and the enchiladas were somewhat dry and microwave tasting/looking.  And the Fried Ice Cream wasn't available. Total- 535 taka ($7.60)- an expensive meal in Dhaka. Add another 100 taka ($1.45) for the taxis and we're talking a little pricey- especially compared to the 20 taka ($.29) for lunch at Grameen Cafeteria. (But still cheap compared to the Westin Hotel- an alcoholic drink would be 800 taka ($11.59) but still cheap compared to Doha...)

Would I go back to El Toro? Sure- if others are going. Otherwise, I'll wait for my Mexican from the family favorite- Las Palmas- when I get back to the States.

Practically All-Inclusive Day

Dhaka University- Faculty of Fine Arts

A colleague from GCC (Morshed) invited me and a visiting intern from Japan (Atsu) to see parts of Dhaka on the first day of the weekend (being an Islamic country, weekends are Friday and Saturday, just like Qatar). I took a 'CNG' (nickname for 3-wheeled auto-rickshaw that by law runs only on compressed natural gas) for 20 minutes to the National Museum (100 taka or $1.45). The museum had changed its hours (even Lonely Planet had listed it opened), so in the meanwhile we (and 2 other Bangladeshi friends of my colleague) toured the campus of part of nearby Dhaka University, including the library, fine arts, and language. School was in its one-month summer vacation and the first day of the weekend but students still chilled about.

While briefly watching a cricket match, I received a nasty ant bite that basically for the rest of the day made the top of my foot feel as if someone had step on it with a stiletto. (I'll see how it is tomorrow). We then grabbed a CNG to a local 9 story-mall so one friend could buy a punjabi top for a wedding he would attend this afternoon. Afterwards we grabbed a snack- I had a mango lassi (yogurt & mango drink), Bangladeshi bread with turmeric veggies and we shared another Bangladeshi dish of some sort of crispy shell with chickpeas and veggies, covered in yogurt.


Tasty Bangladeshi Dish

Our hosts had to go pray the Friday Islamic prayer (Jumu'ah) and Atsu and I entertained ourselves for a while. We checked out the numerous music and movie shops selling cheap (70-100 taka or $1.00-$1.45) copies. Star Trek and other recent releases were amongst the titles. We then went to see a Bangladeshi movie in the top-floor cinema, a romantic drama about an impossible (perhaps Romeo and Juliet?) type relationship set in rural Bangladesh (BD). Of course it was all in Bangla but we got the big picture. Prior to the film there was a homemade (but well-done) video plea to donate taka to raise money for a med student who was recently diagnosed with lukemia and needed a 70 take charo(?) (10 million) bone marrow transplant in India to save her life. The ad, played twice, implored the audience to stop her tears, restore her dreams and not let a future doctor die. Numerous signs and folks with donation boxes with also outside the mall for the same cause. Few other interesting observations: video of flag and the BD national anthem played before the film and everyone stood (but no singing), phones whipped out to record the major songs of the film, the man next to us shared his popcorn with us and the 3 hour film had a 5-10 minute intermission.

We needed a policeman to translate our destination to the CNG driver afterward (tourism is not big here at all- so major destinations are not well known by their English names) and we met Murshed at the National Museum. It highlighted many cultural facts, habits, resources and history of BD, including birds, fruits, handicrafts, arts, Language Day and the Liberation War from Pakistan. Atsu and I were somewhat on display as well, as folks stared, followed and may have taken pictures.

It poured while we were in the museum and had to take off our shoes to wade across the driveway museum entrance to the street. We finally found a rickshaw driver to take us to Murshed's apartment (triple the price, as everyone waited for the rain to end and wanted to get home at the same time- 30 taka or 43 cents). Atsu and I met Morshed's wife, sister, cousin, baby and we had juice and mango. His sister then went with us to have 'a snack'- really a 9 pm biryani (rice, chicken and hard boiled egg) dinner for Atsu and I and nothing for Bangladeshis- they normally ate at 10:30/11pm with family. Atsu and I then shared the 150 taka ($2.17) 30 minute pollution filled CNG ride home. 

And of all this day- the only thing I paid for were 2 CNG rides- 200 taka or $2.90. That's it. Bangladeshi culture is that if you are invited to anything, your host pays for everything. I kept inviting them to visit me in Chicago or Michigan, so I can pay them the same outstanding courtesy and generosity they showed me today.


Atsu and I with Morshed's family

I'll take the local breakfast...

Photo above is 6 pm view outside the front of my hotel in Dhaka.

No updates on the project, as we haven't actually discussed my work. Today was figuring out the shower, discovering breakfast (local breakfast equals roti-like bread with turmeric potatoes and peas, fried egg, and milk/sugar chai), ATM, getting to Grameen Bank main office, meeting folks & the GCC team, experiencing power outages*, walking outside the office for lunch, crossing the street (no easy feat and they drive on the British side of the road), walking home, purchasing a shalwar kameez (3 piece Indian sub-continent suit), working out in the USSR-era workout room and discovering Bangladeshi censorship of YouTube (I can't even Google the word). We discuss my involvement in the GCC project tomorrow.

*I'm staying at the Grand Prince Hotel in Dhaka and while it's no Ritz, it's clean, cheap, safe and works for my needs. The only review I could find prior to arriving in Bangladesh was one disgruntled person who complained that each day, 3 times a day, the power would go off, then on and then the AC couldn't be used for an hour. He thought it was ludicrous and just the hotel trying to save money.

Well...actually- it's not that uncommon. And yes, people are more aware that electricity costs money here. Yesterday as my friend Naumi (well, her driver) drove me to dinner she told me that shops close at 8ish to save power. Today in my meeting with the Managing Director of GC the power went out but after a moment the lights flicked on. As she opened the windows, she explained that the building has a generator for lights and computers (but not for AC) and that the city redistributes the available power throughout the city throughout the day, resulting in periodic power loses. The city can only supply electricity about 70% of the time and in the rural villages electricity is about 30% of the time. I haven't confirmed if the computers stay on or lose data each time. About half an hour later the AC kicked back on and everyone closed their windows. I was in the changing room at the store connected to the hotel with a top over my head when the entire place went dark. We hung out in darkness for about 30 seconds before the generators started up and the lights flicked back on. True to form, my room-AC wasn't working when I got back to my room 30 minutes later and it started up another 20 minutes later. So to Mr./Ms. Reviewer- it's a developing country. Deal. And think about all this next time you flip a switch in the US or Europe or anywhere else power isn't a visible issue...

Welcome to Dhaka

My location and life have changed dramatically since I've last blogged. (I read recently in the >NYTimes of how blogs now fail at a higher rate than restaurants- and I had to agree- that's me). So here's my update of life since then.

I've been to Egypt, UAE and Turkey. I wrapped up teaching 2 courses and completed my time at Carnegie Mellon Qatar. I got into 2 business schools, waitlisted at 1, rejected at 2 and ultimately decided to go to University of Michigan for a Master of Science. A relationship ended and another...? And now I'm in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Why Bangladesh? Why come to apparently one of the least livable cities in the world?* I like the concept of Base of the Pyramid (BoP) business solutions to develop sustainable living and poverty alleviation solutions. And I'd like to get into the Ross School of Business at Michigan when I reapply this fall. Ross' C.K. Prahalad is known for his BoP teaching and I'm currently registered for a fall BoP course.

I started looking into some sort of sustainable development/BoP internship in India and even applied for one at d.light. But then I contacted a connection I made at the ICTD conference at Carnegie Mellon Qatar (where I was 1 metre from Bill Gates) with Global Communication Center (GCC), an NGO relative of Grameen Communications (GC) and Grameen Bank. Grameen is a microfinance bank that won its founder- Dr. Muhammad Yunus- a Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

One thing led to another and here I am in Dhaka for one month to consult with GCC. More on the project later after my first day is done.

*My Bangladeshi friend and former colleague Faheem worried about me citing this data-crunching survey from the 'global north' re: Dhaka right from the get-go, as it could color the impressions I give others. I'll have 33 days to make my own conclusion and hope to document those observations here.

James' Take on the Country

Yes, I've been doing a very poor job of updating my blog. But there was India, and then post-India ickiness, then work, then oops- I need to catch up and then my boyfriend James is in town...and yeah. The excuses pile up. I'll fill you in later- I promise.

In the the meanwhile, here's a bit of James' impressions of Qatar. I asked my brother to write a similar entry of his impressions but being a busy college student...it didn't so much happen.

"- It’s amazing how young the city is. The country was a poor herding/fishing region before they found oil. Now they have more money then they know what to do with. There’s a sense of urgency to build infrastructure and fast, in order to somehow make sure that the country does not become poor again. Because of how quickly the money came into the region, you definitely get the feeling that the area is still having an “identity crisis”, not quite knowing what it wants to truly be yet.

- If a building is old, it’s just torn down right there. I still have no idea where it goes, if anywhere. Like Rose’s brother Henry said, “This entire country looks like it’s under construction”.

- There’s dust everywhere. It’s a desert, for crying out loud. Don’t expect carpets, unless you have a team of Roomba’s working 24/7. And don’t expect to dust. The next morning, it’ll be like you didn’t do anything.

- You could easily live here for years and never learn Arabic. Everything in this country is in English and Arabic, and most everyone speaks some form of English. The school where Rose teaches is entirely in English, and the students here talk/gossip/behave exactly like college/high school students back in the States.

- The dress code is an odd mix of traditional Muslim thobes and Arizona retirement community. Expect a lot of golf shirts, capris, and khakis. And even if people are wearing traditional thobes, you can bet that they have on the latest from Gucci, DG, LV, or Gap/H&M (we can’t all live the high life) underneath.

- Driving done on the right hand side of the road, with the cars exactly like America. The roads are similar to Europe, however, with tons and tons of roundabouts. However, this is assuming there is even a road- some places in the area haven’t quite gotten there yet. SUVs are a good thing if you have one.

- Rose filled up her car with a half of a tank of Premium gas while we were on the way to a beach. Full Service, like in New Jersey. Total bill: 22 QR, or 5.72US. Just let that sink in for a moment.

- Prices are generally ridiculously cheap, unless you go to one of the many 4-star hotels- in which case they’re ridiculously expensive. However, due to the country’s low tolerance to drinking (read: none), those hotels are the only places you can get a cocktail.

- It’s hot here- generally 70-80F at night with a cool breeze, but 90-120F during the day. The country generally works from 9-12, then goes back home for 4 hours, and then works from 4-9. Most places are open until 10-11. Nighttime is a wonderful time to walk around and explore the city.

- In order to be more competitive with the Western world, the Emir in 2003 moved the work week from traditional Middle Eastern (Saturday-Wednesday) to Sunday-Thursday. Most “corporate” businesses also follow a 9-5 workday as well.

- The Education City where Rose works is one of the first places in the Middle East to use virtualization (VMware) for the infrastructure (IBM BladeCenters). I smell a Tech Consulting opportunity… :) (Yes, they also use Cisco switches, if you were interested)"

Updates 3: Spring Break

I'll be in India in 12 hours!
Woah.

Irmgard (CMU Math Post-doc) and I booked a tour online about 3 weeks ago- just a simple 8 day tour of the 'Golden Triangle'- Delhi, Agra, and Jaipur. Yes, we'll get to see the Taj Mahal.
But other than that- we weren't too picky about where to go in India. "Just get us there" we said. And since neither of us had the time, energy, or knowhow to plan a trip to India, we ponied up the funds and simply booked our tour. We'll see how it goes.

So I will be MIA for the next week, as I am leaving my computer at home & setting up my automatic 'vacation response' within the hour. I'll post lots of pictures and stories when I get back. Happy Early Easter to the folks back home and I'm sorry to hear about the freak snow storm. (It was 88F here in Doha today. :) In India, it's suppose to be between 96-100 the entire time we're there- unseasonably warm.)

My Brother's Visit to Qatar- the abridged version

Feb. 29- Lunch with Dan Boyarski at the City Center Mall. My brother Henry arrives that evening in Doha. We unsuccessfully try to find a BBQ at Qatar Foundation Housing and then pass out.

Mar. 1- Bill Brown Memorial Ride early AM. I bike 46 km in total from Doha Golf Club to Simaisma Bridge. My brother- on the small loaner bike, rides 26 km to Lusail. See some pics from the event. Henry passes out and then goes to see 'Vantage Point' at the City Center Mall. I help LiveGreen (CMU-Q's student environmental group) prepare for the next day. I stay up too late preparing for my own speech.

Mar. 2- I give a ~20 minute presentation ('The Opportunities of Sustainability") 2 times at Qatar University's " Go Green. Change Our Future" كن صديقاً للبيئة. غير مستقبلنا Conference (Women only). I'm in at least 2 English papers and apparently some Arabic papers the next day (See The Gulf Times & The Peninsula). My brother heads back to City Center Mall with a student of mine, only to accidentally have my car keys in his pocket. We sort it out, do some food shopping, cook a veggie dinner and call it another early night.

Mar. 3- I give my presentation twice again (Males Only), teach my communication design class, teach my first section of 'Examining Sustainability in the Gulf', add another section of it, discover CMU-Q accidentally sent my textbooks back and we've now ordered them to arrive with the Pittsburgh students this Saturday. Henry and I play volleyball with the students, faculty, & staff. We then head to the souqs, Henry purchases souvenirs, and we have Iraqi food.

Mar. 4- I go to Arabic class, do some work at school, & swap my sedan with Darbi/Greg's SUV so my brother and I can go find the 'Singing Dunes'. I tell Henry I'm on my way home (we communicated via email, 2 American cell phones, 1 Qatari cell phone with mixed results). I leave Education City and pull into traffic too soon, getting slammed in the back, smashing up a little blue car driven by two Egyptians that don't speak English. We wait ~3 hours for the police to come to file a report. One tank of gas, one traffic department, 2 reports, 12 riyals, and 1.5 hours later and I'm finally back home to my stranded (and ill-informed) brother. In the fading light we attempt to find the Singing Dunes but no luck. Henry and I go with Greg and his visiting girlfriend Sophie to pick up Turkey Central. We eat at Greg's and then they watch movies at Greg's place. I work.

Mar. 5- We plan to get my brother to the Qatar National Museum for the morning and have him join me in the afternoon (after my classes). We have conflicting reports of whether the museum is open, closed, partially-open and can't confirm any details. We find the place deserted and later learn it won't be open to the public until November. After some phone calls- we learn the Weapons Museum is now open to the public and will be open until noon. We call, confirm, and then unsuccessfully try to find the place. Back at campus, we're given exact directions of how to get there- we head back out again and Henry books a cab for the ride back. We arrive- it looks nice- clean- legit. I bid Henry farewell and then he runs back, saying it's closed. I throw my hands up. At this point Henry begins to truly realize what it means to live in Doha and that while a decent place to live, Doha is not primed for tourists yet. I teach 3 classes (my sustainability course now has 20 students in two sections)- Henry relaxes. I secure a GPS from Justin & Marjorie and in the fading light Henry and I set out for the Singing Dunes again. 45 km from the city, we find the dunes and by flashlight we hike towards them on foot (as I have my sedan again and it would have not been happy on the rocks). It was eerie to make the dunes hum and vibrate at our footsteps and even eerier that we only had a flash-light at this point. We did see some fantastic stars.

Mar. 6- I skip out on Arabic class and Henry and I do tourist shopping. We purchase a photo book for Grammy and Henry picks up some foodstuffs at the Carrefour (as well as some helpful new sandals). We head back to City Center and pick up some carmel and stuffed dates at Bateel. We find time running short and Henry cheerfully suggests trying the 'McArabian' chicken pita-sandwich at McDonald's. I agreed because yes- technically it's a cultural experience. Like many McDonald's products- while initially tasty, the meal leaves us feeling disgusting. I'm done with McDonald's in Qatar. We're signed up with 5 others for an 8-hour desert cruise with QIA. Two others not from CMU-Q would also join us. We set up the night before for them to pick the CMU-Q folks up a little later due to other's time conflicts. The driver calls us up 45 minutes early demanding to know where we were. After some semi-heated phone calls and calls to the company, we clear it up and the 2 other tourists don't appear mad at us. We drive off, ride camels (20QAR each), bash dunes, feel like we're about to tip the car (it was our driver's first time- greeeeeeeeeaaat), collect sea shells, attempt to sand board (sounds like a better idea than it actually is) , hear a helicopter air-lifting someone who flipped their quad-bike on the dunes, have a BBQ on the beach, and then drive back in the dark.

Mar. 7- We got Henry to the airport (almost the wrong airport- Qatar is building a new airport and they already have signs up for it. Thanks Qatar.) by 6:30 am. I see him checked in, bid him farewell, drive home, and sleep for another couple hours. I think I plan to use this weekend to recover from his vacation.

Lessons learned:
-Very few of the students have environmental exposure.
-Give your expat host more than a week to plan.
-The tourist experience here leaves something to be desired.
-GPS in the desert is good.
-Wear sunscreen.
-Avoid McDonald's (my stomach still isn't very happy).
-Call. Confirm. But don't be surprised if things change.
-Always check your pockets.
-If you have to teach a difficult/boring/unpopular subject, offer it as a 4th quarter mini course so that students who fail other courses, drop those classes and then desperately need units pack your course.

Al Zubarah Fort

So this was technically a trip from last weekend but I found myself waiting for my computer, camera, internet and free time to all be in the same place at the same time. Considering it's already the end of another weekend, I had better hop to it.

A group of 6 of us headed out a week ago to go visit 'the forts in the desert', supposedly ones you didn't need a SUV to visit. This was good as most of us have sedans and were too cheap to spring for the extra 500 US a month to rent a SUV instead. We piled into a sedan and a station wagon and headed out.

Our main destination was Al Zubarah fort in the NW corner of the country (we literally drove half-way across the country!) Supposedly it had been used as a fort until the 1980s and now contained a little museum inside. Other remains and forts were nearby as well. Our directions were a little lacking and encouraged us to either have GPS or a compass- thankfully one car did have GPS. The drive only took us an hour, past a lot of very flat and partially developed sand. Not much to see.

Turns out, overall, the forts weren't much to see either. Al Zubarah was nicely preserved (should be- as it was reconstructed in the 1930s!) but simple. It was four walls, 4 towers, surrounding a 2 story courtyard. The "museum" was a few faded photographs and some dusty glass cases of some rusty old coins found in the nearby Al Zubarah town. The towers had either bird dung or dead birds but one did allow you to crawl up the wood rung ladder and view the sea to the North. That was fun but the wind was so strong that day it threatened to blow you away.

As long as we were up North we wanted to see something else for our travels, so we headed to the remains of the Al Zubarah town. There wasn't much there- some town and building walls sticking out of the sand. However, the sand itself was the most fascinating part to me- it was thoroughly filled with tiny shells- some clam shape, some conch-esque. I had to walk very carefully so not to fill my sandals with the rough forms.

Not quite satisfied, our group decided to try another fort, hoping this one would really round out the afternoon. As we drove back West and closer to the water- we noticed this huge plum of black smoke in the distance, wind moving it away at a rapid pace. Turns out it was a dump burning garbage and my heart sank to just think of what might be in that rubbish and now in the air.

This second fort lay over an unpaved road of rocky and sand. We temporarily abandoned one sedan to pile into the 4x4 station wagon for the rest of the way to the fort. This one was supposedly older than Al Zubarah but for my money, looked even newer! I wonder if by newer they meant reconstructed in 1930 as opposed to 1935... It supposedly at one point guarded natural springs nearby and we did see farming. (Along with some interesting farm/barn architecture and solar panels!) This fort was the exact same shape as the other one and even more covered in bird dung. By this point I had had about enough of the forts and sand in my mouth, so I opted to head back early with Zaher, CS PhD candidate . The rest decided to find the third fort. Zaher and I had the last laugh when the other group phoned to say they went to the GPS coordinates for the third fort and found practically nothing there! (In seeing others photos of the third fort- it appears something is there-but nothing we had not seen already).

I'm glad I went out and saw more of the country but I don't think I'll need to head back up that way until they complete the Friendship Bridge between Qatar and Bahrain.

*Few of my photos from the trip
*Check out photos of the trip from fellow explorers:
Justin & Marjorie
Irmgard
Evan