Saturday, September 25, 2004

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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Greeetings. Katie saddly enough reading what you went through. But you go girl, I am proud of you. Here from now on I am giong to visit your blog web to sheer you on a little bit. So how is project going for you. Are you making any progress at all. I see from the pictures you have posted you must be living in an area infested with malaria, bugs,is it not dengerous for your child and your self, you must be living in the rural of that country, how are going to get food supply. please i keep in touch and chow!

A.GILO