more dhaka

Tomorrow we leave for Chittagong and Cox's Bazar (which has the world's longest sea beach!) We will be back to Dhaka again on Sunday. We've spent the past few days taking it easy, venturing out into Dhaka a bit. It's an overwhelming place but I don't dislike it. I am not entirely sure that I like it yet - it takes some time to get to know. Two observations about Dhaka:

1. Air pollution - it's horrible. You can hardly breathe when you're outside. Micah and I read a newspaper article today about how the air has actually become toxic and unsafe for people to breathe, and recommends staying inside as much as possible. It's soooo bad. People are constantly spitting all over the place - I mean like, snorting back all the snot with a big "Unnnkkkkkshskhshshhkkk" sound, and then shooting a huge glob out the bus window, on the sidewalk, wherever - and that's why. Air pollution. Yuck.

2. Thai/Chinese restaurants. They are EVERYWHERE. Every single restaurant in Dhaka is Thai/Chinese food! (With the exception of the local hole-in-the-wall Bengali food places, which are kind of off limits to us foreigners if we don't want food poisoning.) Okay, I exaggerate a little bit, but about 95% of restaurants are Thai/Chinese. We spent ages last night trying to find ANYTHING else. We finally settled on a place that was Thai/Chinese/Indian so we could at least order from the Indian menu. We even went by one place that was called "Shwarma Palace", and even that was entirely Thai/Chinese food. Today I cracked and went to the grocery store and bought bread and peanut butter because I couldn't handle eating Thai/Chinese again, haha. Peanutbutter here tastes like plasticine. Maybe I'll go back to Thai/Chinese.

For the most part, this trip has been so hectic I've had no time to process anything. Today was the first day I felt particularly stressed out. Micah had a bad day last Friday when he was sick and everything hit him - it gets overwhelming here sometimes - and I had a bit of a bad day today. Everything kind of got to me at once - all the staring, the language barrier, the Thai/Chinese restaurant monopoly, the bare-footed 7 year old kids begging for money in the streets or digging in garbage, the over-friendly hotel staff, the insane amount of information thrown at us in the past week, worries about money, the film, everything... I just had to shut myself in my hotel room with a bag of potato chips and a chocolate bar and cry for 10 minutes. And then I felt better. I still don't feel overly culture-shocked... just really bombarded.

Tonight we went out with Zabir and saw some of the Dhaka University campus. Zabir and Micah like to have intense arguments/discussions about a variety of things, and since they're both so opinionated and stubborn and get really fired up, I can't get two words in anywhere. When they get going I suddenly feel like a little kid entertaining herself in the corner while the grown-ups are talking, haha. It's good though, it gives me some time to reflect and think because I can ignore them and focus on my own thoughts for awhile.

I thought I should post a few more pics, since my last picture post was looking too much like a World Vision advert. Here are some from Dhaka - city view from the Grameen office building, overlooking a field with kids playing cricket/flying kites, and a shot of some very light (seriously) traffic near the University campus.