Thoughts on Bangladesh

Thoughts on Bangladesh

November 24- December 31, 2019

ULAB

World Academy for the Future of Women

Dhaka, Bangladesh

I am here for five weeks to teach global leadership skills to women at the University of Liberal Arts-Bangladesh. 

• There are 80 students in our program. 
•  The program if off to a rough start as students aren't showing up as they have previously committed to do.  
• Only 30 are showing up on a regular basis.
• There is a man in the  program and he is cooking for me.  Yesterday he made me chicken dumplings.  I hope he makes them for me every day.
• He wears tuxedo type suits every day.  I would love to go to his house and take a peak in his closet.
• Traffic is a mess and there is too much horn honking at all hours of the night.
• I have never seen such banged up public transportation buses.  They look as if they have been in junk car derby races.
• I am told not to take the public buses as women are raped in the crowded buses.
• Most of my students are Muslim.
• A parent of a former student from Philadelphia contacted me last month to see if we could get together while she is also here visiting.  She emailed me today to say she is too damn tired to get together.  The traffic is wearing her down.
• She also told me that Bangladesh will fill me with despair and disappointment.
• My apartment is adequate. It is the university guest house.
• A man picks me up every day and takes me to campus.
• I am missing Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years because of this trip.  I am avoiding the most stressful time of the year in the USA.  I feel lucky.
• The women are soft spoken. I can't hear them.
• Many people speak in both Bengali and English in the same sentence.
• I visited a college campus and students were throwing darts at a life size portrait of Trump.
• I know nothing about Bangladesh politics.
• They gained freedom from Pakistan in 1971 and I don't remember it at all. I just remember the George Harrison album that raised money for the famine at this time.
• In 1974, the entire Royal Family was murdered and this horrific incident doesn't ring a bell with me.  I would have been a sophomore in college.
• I loved my visit to Paman City, an ancient, deserted city from centuries ago.
• I have off for Christmas Day which is a surprise since the christian population is about 5%.
• There is loud, constant construction going on right outside my apartment.  They start at 7AM and finish at 9 PM. Some moments, it's maddening.  The entire apartment building vibrates.