A day in the life...

Okay, all you blog fans out there, this is a request. Since I’ve been here, I’ve received emails from my mom, one from my sister, a few from Kanta and one from Nawshin. Where the hell are the rest of you? This blog is interactive! Post comments! Click on the email link and send me a message!


I thought it might be interesting to give you a rundown of what I do during a day here in Bangladesh, so I’m keeping track today.

8:00 – alarm goes off. I take an antibiotic pill (for diarrhea – must be taken every 6 hours), turn down the AC a little and go back to sleep.

9:55 – emerge sleepy eyed from my room just as Maya is walking out the door to go to her office.

10:00 – Assist Isaac with his morning BM. As Martha would say, flushable wet wipes are a “good thing”.

10:30 – Make a toast and marmalade sandwich for Isaac, which he doesn’t eat because the bread is torn on the corner. Make a new sandwich and force him to eat it, even though he hates marmalade.

10:35 – Isaac has to poop again. Turns out it was just a fart.

10:45 – Eat a bowl of shugi (cream of wheat) and a cup of coffee with whole milk while reading the paper. Get bitten by an ant. Cut out a funny article about a guy named Nunu Miah. Actually the article wasn’t very funny but his name is hilarious for those who know what a nunu is.

11:30 – Sit Isaac in front of the TV to watch Scooby Doo 2 and go to my office to study.

11:35 – Isaac wants attention so I ask him if he wants to work on his letters.

11:40 – Isaac’s “hand hurts” so we stop working on his letters. He goes back to watch Scooby while I work on developing a survey for breastfeeding mothers.

12:00 – I have accomplished nothing, but it’s time to give Isaac a bath. Put a huge pot of water on the stove to boil and fill up the bucket in the bathroom with cold tap water.

12:30 – Forgot about the water on the stove, now it’s boiling hard and too hot to carry. Let it cool for a few minutes and read about the history of Bangladesh.

12:45 – Give Isaac a bucket bath and try not to get soap in his eyes. Dry him, sprinkle him with powder (prickly heat rash preventative), and dress him.

12:55 – Hand wash Isaac’s shorts, underwear and my pajamas in a bucket in the bathroom. I don’t feel like they're very clean because I’m really not sure how to hand wash stuff. Dumb white lady syndrome.

1:00 – Finish my shower, get bit by something on the leg and notice a long, red, swollen streak that itches like crazy about 5 minutes later.

1:15 – Sit down to study again and realize I’m hungry.

1:30 – Electricity goes out, so we warm up leftovers on the gas stove. Momota cooked green beans with garlic, papaya curry and dahl. First I feed Isaac, who I bribe to eat two pieces of leftover chicken with his dahl and rice. Now I have to go out and buy him a toy.

2:00 – Take another antibiotic pill and wash it down with M&M’s (the supply is dwindling).

2:30 – Sit down with Isaac and read the “Tabby Cat” series, Ferdinand the Bull, and I Love You Stinky Face, then try to convince him to take a nap. I drift off to sleep, only to wake 10 minutes later because he doesn’t want to sleep. There is still no electricity, so I can’t make him watch TV. We break out the memory game.

3:30 – After a few rousing games of memory, which I lost by the way, I sat out on the balcony and had a chat with Dada (Masud’s older brother).

4:30 – Had a quick nap while Isaac sat there and waited for me to get up.

5:00 – Read some of my Lonely Planet Guidebook and a few papers about the History of Bangladesh. That got really dull, so I read some of my new Alice Hoffman book.

6:00 – Time for NASTA (snack). Watched Momota make Beguni (fried eggplant). Ate Beguni, Piaju, and Shosha with Moori. Then my Bhabi sent up some Shemai so I ate that too. All of my Bengali friends know what these things are, and are probably jealous. Hey, guys! I get this EVERY DAY!

7:00 – Electricity came back, Isaac is watching Pokemon, and I came down to check my email.

I anticipate that I will be able to devote some time to GRE studying tonight, since Isaac has gotten his TV back.

That’s it, a day in my life. I go out once in a while, and that’s always an adventure. We’ll go to Dhaka once a month to replenish the Dorito supply and grab some Pizza Hut pizza. All in all, it’s a pretty darn good life! It will be hard to leave.