After being home for almost 5 days now, and still exhausted, I think I finally mustered enough energy to finish this segment of the blog.
On Thursday we had a pretty lazy day around the neighborhood. We tied up some lose ends in our work before heading to a speech from a Bangladeshi member of the WHO on arsenicosis, a growing problem in Bangladesh. That evening we had our final class and spent the night devouring the prized meal of Pasta Alfredo that a few of us splurged on. After dinner we played a ton of cards, and it was a lot of fun.
Friday was a very busy day. 10 of us decided to take a van back to the part of Dhaka with the NGO stores we had been to before. We left at 9 in the morning, got to the first store 20 minutes before it opened, and we were all shopped out and home by 3 in the afternoon. I went back to the art store to try and get the paintings I had negotiated on a week prior, but it was closed. I got the cellphone number of the owner from the neighboring shop, but he wasn't opening until later in the afternoon, after we had to be back to the house. It was funny, he called me that afternoon asking me if I was going to come and buy the paintings. However, I told him I couldn't make it back out there and he missed his chance. Guess it wasn't meant to be for me to buy the paintings, oh well. I did treat myself to a nice watercolor of some rickshaws instead. I finished up on some last minute items at the NGOs and them relaxed for the rest of the journey.
The reason we had to be home so early that afternoon was because IUBAT was throwing a reception for us that evening and all of the girls would need time to put on and perfect their Sarees. I would be attending in a traditional Panjabi which takes all of 2 minutes to get on. The reception was so beautiful! Outside the university a massive bamboo tent was erected in the courtyard. The frame was draped with lovely white fabric, flowers, Christmas lights everywhere, and a ton of tables of chairs. At the front of the tent, behind the stage was a giant poster with a greater than life size photo of our group. Which was taken the afternoon I was admitted to the ICDDR,B. You can imagine how nice I looked in that photo. Not only was this photo used for this giant poster (it came home with us), but it was also plastered all around the school on fliers announcing the reception. The tent quickly filled with people and I estimated that there was probably around 500 people. After some wonderful speeches from Rycki, Tenylle, and some of the IUBAT faculty as well as a singing of our national anthems, ours by us and the Bangla anthem by a few IUBAT students, it was time for the culture.
Now, we had heard about this reception before hand and were aware that it was being followed by a "Cultural Event." However, we were not enlightened at all as to what this cultural event would contain. But, we were to provide something for the event to signify American culture. It started off with multiple Bangladeshi songs and dances from their students. All of them were so wonderfully entertaining and it made our planned event seem a little dull. Not knowing beforehand what to expect or what to do for our portion of the event, we decided to use the videos we had previously recorded of our home lives to create a quick movie to show where we came from. The video was fine and it held people's attentions, mostly due to the images of snow I'm sure, but we knew that something else needed to be done. So in the spur of the moment and with some luck in the fact that I randomly had my iPod with me, we invited as many people as possible to come on stage with us and dance/sing to an American classic: Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. It was a complete success, and made us feel a lot less boring.
Shortly after, the night came to a close and it was time to go to the Vice Chancellor's home for a wonderful dinner. He and his wife were some welcoming and had a beautiful home. The Canadian volunteer teachers came with us as well as a few of the IUBAT staff. The dinner was served on the rooftop terrace and was so serene that I almost forgot I was in Dhaka. It was such a terrific night filled with good food, great conversation, and even better company. Like all things though, it had to come to an end, and it was time to head home.
Saturday morning was filled with packing, running some last minute errands, visiting the orphanage one more time to drop off more gifts, and then having one last group lunch before our evening out. It was a sad day. I just wasn't ready to leave our life there that had just started. It was hard for me to go from Australia, where I lived there for nearly 5 months and had so much time, to Bangladesh where I was only visiting for just over two weeks and was barely able to scratch the surface. Everything I saw and did was so amazing and I had the move wonderful time. Everyone we met was so willing to bend over backwards for us and be so incredibly hospitable.
All of the citizens were so helpful and so interested, I felt so welcomed. While it was so hard to have to come home when I was just getting comfortable, I knew it must be done. While I know I will return at some point and put my time and efforts into bettering the country, or a country like it, it was still hard to leave without leaving a real mark. Everything about the trip was perfect. Our group was fun, meshed well, and made me laugh all of the time. Rycki gave us the perfect amount of guidance while also letting us branch out and explore. The IUBAT students were so generous in helping us learn the area and inviting us into their homes. While I was taking my last rickshaw ride back to our house to await the bus that would take us to the airport, I took a deep breath of that smoggy Dhaka air, looked around me, and smiled; knowing that I had a wonderful time on the trip and couldn't wait for my return.
Bangladesh will always hold a special place in my heart.
Thank you as always for reading, and until my next big adventure... stay well!
Love and miss you all!
