Advent in Dhaka

So Christmas is coming and we're all trying to get into the Christmas spirit. Shanti and her grandson have been busy baking ...



... and we've had some of our young Bangladeshi friends over for treats and decorations ...





... while Bhago explores the outer limits of what it means to be "naughty."



We're off to Germany to see friends for the holidays, so we'll be back with an update as soon as we return.

Merry Christmas!

Och!

We decided we had one last ball in us for this season, so on the 24th of November we went to the Dhaka Caledonian Society's St. Andrew's Ball. We hadn't thought about it until the Chieftain of the DCS called Patrick at home about two weeks before the ball to ask him if he wanted tickets. It was good she'd called -- Patrick got six tickets for us and two other couples, and the Ball ended up being completely sold out. We went with Patrick's colleague Angela and our friend Jeremy, who's here working on a USAID project, and met Jennifer's colleague Wendy and her husband Ifthekar there.

We arrived just in time for the Selkirk Grace, the traditional Scottish prayer before meals. After a small appetizer, the haggis was brought in to great fanfare. We're not sure that the haggis is a standard part of every St. Andrew's Ball (it's more of a Burns Supper thing), but it was welcome, anyway. Burns's "To a Haggis" was recited superbly, and everyone who wanted some got a big plate full of the "great chieftan o' the puddin'-race." Then came the main course (for those who still had room!).

The British High Commissioner led us all in the Loyal Toast (short & sweet: "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Queen."), then gave a reasonably funny speech about the Scots. The Chieftain spoke next, and then it was time to dance! A band from Aberdeen had flown in just for the occasion, so we danced all sorts of set dances: the Eightsome Reel, Strip the Willow, the Cumberland Reel, and the Military Two-Step, just to name a few. A rousing chorus of "Auld Lang Syne" rounded out the evening.

It was a great muckle occasion and a worthy finish to the 2006 ball season in Bangladesh. Och!

Let's Have a Ball!

With the cooler weather (it gets down to about 70F at night these days), the ball season in Bangladesh has begun. There are lots of different parties to choose from, from the UN International Ball to the Dhaka Caledonian Society's St. Andrew's Ball (dress code: Scottish formal) to the Black & White Ball held by the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Control, Bangladesh (but everyone calls that one "the Diarrhea Ball").

The first ball of the season this year was the Marine Corps Ball, put on by the Marine Corps Detachment ("Det") of the U.S. Embassy to celebrate the 231st anniversary of the Marine Corps. This was a black tie affair, so we all had a chance to dress to the nines. Of course, being the Marine Ball, it was a night full of tradition. After cocktails, we sat down to watch the presentation of the colors, a video presentation by the Commandant of the Marine Corps and a brief speech by the U.S. Ambassador. The traditional cake-cutting ceremony -- done with a ceremonial saber -- followed; cake was served to the guest of honor (the Ambassador), then the oldest Marine present, then the youngest Marine present. The Det Commander, Gunnery Sergeant Bryant (our next-door neighbor), then introduced the members of the Det. However, the Marines couldn't be found. Gunny sent someone to find them. After several tense, silent minutes, the Gunny's dispatch returned: "Gunnery Sergeant, I found them!" "Where are they?" "Gunnery Sergeant, the Marines are in the bar!" Thus was another Marine Ball tradition fulfilled.


The next night, the Australian High Commission and the New Zealanders (who don't have formal diplomatic representation in Bangladesh) held their annual Glitter Party, which couldn't have been more different from the Marine Ball. The Glitter Party is a costume ball, and everyone is invited to perform a skit or other dramatic routine. Men in drag, women with facial hair, raunchy musical numbers, and the bizarre & unusual are not only expected, but encouraged. Our table didn't perform a formal skit, but we did have a dramatic entrance. We went as the national airline of Bangladesh, Biman Bangladesh. We had a drunk pilot, a blind mechanic (Jennifer), a couple of hapless flight attendants (one seven months pregnant), two clueless Western tourists, an abusive baggage handler, a corrupt Biman executive with money flying out of his pockets, and a giant cockroach (Patrick).



Many of the sketches were political in nature, as all of Bangladesh is on edge awaiting the parliamentary elections next month. However, the evening was dazzled by a (mostly) non-political procession of pigs in tutus, who performed "Swine Lake." A great local soul band (really!) performed, Saddam Hussein danced with "Make Love Not War" hippies, long-winded speeches were kept to a minimum, and a great time was had by all. Everyone needs to let their hair down every once in a while, and our friends in the Southern Hemisphere gave us a great chance to do just that.

Bangladesh By the Numbers

I know, I know -- there are lies, there are damned lies, and then there are statistics. Still, a few basic numbers can tell you a lot about a place. Here are some numbers about Bangladesh:

* Bangladesh is home to around 147 million people.

* Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world (behind only city-states like Singapore ). A population about half the size of the U.S. population lives in a country that’s a little smaller than Iowa.

* At current birth rates, Bangladesh’s population will exceed 220 million by 2050.

* With 700,000 people moving here every year, Dhaka is the fastest-growing megacity in the world and will be the second-largest city in the world (after Mexico City ) by 2015.

* Dhaka has close to 9,000 people per square kilometer. By comparison, Patrick’s childhood home of Prince George County, VA has 43 people per square kilometer.

* One-third of the population is 14 years old or younger. That’s 49 million children.

* Thirty-six percent of Bangladeshis live on less than $1 (67 taka) a day.

* A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of uncooked rice costs 20-40 taka, depending on quality.

* Rent for a 10-foot-by-10-foot concrete room in a communal slum neighborhood in north Dhaka costs 4,000-6,000 taka per month.

* Recently an increase in the monthly minimum wage for garment workers in Bangladesh was proposed: $25 (1675 taka).

* At the standard work schedule of 10-12 hours a day, six days a week in a garment factory, the new minimum wage equates to around 10 cents an hour.

* Ninety percent of Bangladeshi garment workers are women.

* Ninety percent of births in Bangladesh occur in the home.

* Almost ninety percent of births take place without a skilled attendant.

* About 12,000 Bangladeshi women die in childbirth every year.

* Eighty-eight of 1,000 Bangladeshi children die before the age of five, mostly from diarrhea or acute respiratory infections. Half of those deaths are newborns.

* Bangladesh has one of the highest tuberculosis rates in the world, with about 300,000 new cases reported every year.

* HIV prevalence is at less than 1% among most high-risk groups, except for intravenous drug users, where the prevalence is 9%.

* Bangladesh is 90% Muslim, with the rest being Hindu (and a scattering of Christians, Buddhists, and animists).

* Only 43% of all Bangladeshis can read and write.

* Bangladeshis working in other countries (mostly construction workers in the Middle East) send more than $1.5 billion dollars back to their families in Bangladesh every year.

* About 300,000 Bangladeshis use the Internet.

* More than three million Bangladeshis have mobile phones.

* There are 400,000 bicycle rickshaws in Dhaka.

Dengue Season Is Here

Dengue fever has hit India with a vengeance over the last month. So far, more than 4000 cases and 89 deaths have been reported. As dengue survivors, we're not looking forward to the next few months. Thanks to the post-monsoon puddles, the Aedes mosquito that carries dengue has lots of breeding opportunities. So you can be sure that we're using DEET, wearing socks (mosquitoes, like Victorian gentlemen, are attracted to ankles), and emptying any standing water we have around the house. (Too bad there's a giant lake less than half a block away....)



The Dengue
Patrick J. Wilson
(with apologies to Mr. E.A. Poe)

Once upon an Eid-ul-Fitr, while I dined with my friends so dear,
Tasting many a quaint and curious bit of Bangladeshi treat,
While I ate up foods exciting, suddenly there came, alighting,
A mosquito gently biting, biting on my naked feet.
“’Tis some mozzie,” I muttered, “biting on my naked feet –
Just because my blood’s so sweet.”

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bright November,
And each Mosquito Coast member cast its whining through the air.
Little did I know of dengue; – so often did the doc harangue me
To prevent bites that would pang me, pang me with despair,
Into rough and racking fevers that are, sadly, not so rare –
But, ignorant, I didn’t care.

Eight days later fever got me; I felt like someone had shot me,
Shot me full of poison to make me weep and moan;
But the fact was I’d been infected, and so gently was my foot injected,
And so faintly can it be detected, detected when the bite strikes home,
That I scarce was sure she bit me – Flavivirus was her loan –
A fever that they call “breakbone.”

Deep into that fever peering, long I lay there wondering, fearing,
Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortals ever dared to dream before;
But the fever was unbroken, and the first test gave no token,
And the only words there spoken was the whispered cry, “There’s more?”
This I whispered, and the doc confirmed the threat for me, “There’s more!
Muscle aches, and so much more.”

Back into my bedroom turning, my brain and all my body burning,
Soon again I felt a churning somewhat rougher than before.
“Surely,” said I, “surely that is something like a migrane,
For my head has never felt such great pain and such dizziness before;
Let my brain be still a moment – I’ll just lie here on the floor,
Lie and wish to die here upon the floor.”

For two whole weeks I lay dejected, with my wife (also infected),
In solitude unelected – ‘til the fever finally left.
With our symptoms in recession, dengue brought us one more lesson:
One whole month of mild depression; fatigue made us bereft –
Drained of all our energy, our muscles had no heft –
Christmas was that fever’s final theft.

Now the shrill and sad insectile trilling of each tiny wingtip
Thrills me – fills me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I’m always DEET-ing,
Lest some small mosquito fleeting give me dengue here once more –
Some tiny violent vampire bringing fever here once more; –
‘Cause I don’t want to have it anymore.

The Rat Race ... Literally

Creatures are aplenty in Bangladesh, even (or especially?) in the urban landscape of Dhaka. We’ve become very accustomed to the throngs of geckos everywhere. And we do mean everywhere. As Jennifer was brushing her hair in our bathroom the other day, one leapt from somewhere above – they like to hide in the lights in the bathroom for some reason, others have confirmed this is the case in their homes as well – right in front of her face to the bathroom doorway and then scooted into the bedroom. They also like to wake us up in the middle of the night with their chirping. Actually, we’ve gotten so used to hearing them that they usually don’t manage to wake us up unless they’re inside the mosquito net with us. So, we’ve got no problem with the geckos. They don’t gross us out (although others disagree) and they eat mosquitoes. The more the merrier, we say.

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated the birthday of one of Patrick’s colleagues with a garden brunch in her front yard. As we munched on crepes and slurped mango juice, the front gate bell rang. Our buddy Scott jumped up – “It’s the snake charmer!” He ushered in a lungi-and-turban-clad man with two large straw baskets. Two hundred taka changed hands, and the man situated himself on the grass. Out came a flute ... and out came the cobras. He had three of them, and each of them reluctantly “danced” for us, following the sway of the snake charmer’s knee as he squatted in front of them. (Apparently they were intrigued and distracted by the grass, so they didn’t stand up as tall as they normally do.) We’ve heard stories of people seeing cobras in their yards. Maybe it’s a good thing we don’t have a yard, ourselves.

Besides the cobras, there is one other creature we’d rather not get so used to. We’ve started jogging a couple of nights a week in a nearby park and discovered that life can be a rat race. Literally. One night, we dodged several Rodents of Unusual Size which happened to cross our path. Then, during our run just a few nights ago, Jennifer heard a loud squeak, followed by Patrick’s shuddering “Aaaauuuuh!” Yep. One poor creature did not make it across our path quickly enough and found itself under Patrick’s running shoe. “It was like stepping on one of Bhago’s inflatable toys!” Patrick said. We think it survived to run again another day.

The Ireland of Southeast Asia

In August we went back to Thailand for a long-awaited vacation. We spent the first couple of days in Bangkok, where the streets were full of Thais wearing the gold and blue colors of the King and Queen (respectively). It turns out that the Queen's birthday -- which is also celebrated as Mother's Day in Thailand -- was that weekend. We even managed to catch a big parade while we were out and about. It’s amazing how wonderful Bangkok seems to us after living in Dhaka -- it’s only a 90-minute flight away, but it seems like another planet.



We then flew an hour north to the city of Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand, but its population of 180,000 ranks far behind Bangkok's 10+ million. Chiang Mai sits at the foot of a range of beautiful tropical mountains -- it was the capital of the Lanna kingdom for many years. As such, a number of truly beautiful temples and stupas can be found throughout the city. One, Wat Chedi Luang, was ruined in an earthquake in the 16th century. However, even in its crumbled state it's still one of the tallest Buddhist stupas in all of Thailand.



We couldn't let the opportunity to hike in the mountains slip by, so we spent one afternoon hiking through some serious jungle. We saw a number of gorgeous waterfalls in full flood, given the fact that it was the middle of the rainy season. The trails, on the other hand, weren't in such good shape ... given the fact that it was the middle of the rainy season!


Chiang Mai also features some of the best shopping in Thailand. The Night Market is legendary, featuring everything from high-end antiques to knock-off sneakers. We spent a few hours walking around each night -- followed by a good foot massage, of course! We did splurge on a couple of things -- the hill tribes around Chiang Mai produce beautiful textiles from silk and cotton. We'd visited the Chiang Mai History Museum and the Hill Tribe Museum earlier, so we knew a little bit about where the fabrics came from and how they were made.

Upon our return to Bangkok for the last couple of days of vacation, we decided to experience one of the greatest hotels in the world, the legendary Oriental. We booked three nights in the same hotel where Robert Louis Stevenson, Joseph Conrad, Graham Greene, Noel Coward, and many other famous authors have stayed, written, relaxed and enjoyed a luxurious few days. Patrick went into the office (USAID Regional Development Mission / Asia) for a couple of days, while Jennifer stayed at the hotel and worked from there. Chatchai, our floor butler (yes, every floor in the hotel has its own butler!), made sure we were taken care of. All we had to do was press a button and he’d appear to bring fresh orange juice, shine shoes, or do anything else we needed. It was outrageously easy to get used to. (Good thing we didn’t stay longer!)

So why “the Ireland of Southeast Asia”? Well, that’s easy. It’s a small, green country with a booming economy, a young & optimistic population of very friendly people, deep religious traditions and a bright future. And like Ireland, Thailand’s a place we’d love to go back to.

Where's All the Water?

Floods are synonymous with Bangladesh. The country is essentially a huge river delta, as three of the world’s biggest rivers -- the Padma (known as the Ganges in India), the Meghna, and the Brahmaputra -- end their journey from the Himalayas in Bangladesh. Every year, the June-to-September monsoon season brings a relief from the heat as well as 75% of the annual rainfall to Bangladesh. All of that extra water means flooding, especially in Dhaka, where overcrowding and poor sanitation have made it impossible for the water to flow out quickly. The floods in 2004 temporarily displaced more than 20 million people.

However, the flooding also enables Bangladesh to feed its 145 million people. Farmers have relied on the annual floods for centuries for planting their crops of rice, the staple food of Bangladesh. With the floods comes nutrient-rich soil; in a normal year about 30% of the land floods, becoming ideal for replanting rice seedlings. Despite a regular “hungry season” in January, Bangladesh usually just manages to produce enough rice to keep people here alive, thanks to the annual floods.

Well, it looks like that might be changing. Last year’s monsoon was remarkably dry for June, July and August. It wasn’t until September that enough rain came to enable the farmers to replant the rice crops -- but yields were much lower than those in a normal year. This year’s situation is even worse. The three big rivers are at their lowest monsoon season level in 14 years. Imams across the country are instructing their congregations to pray for rain. Meanwhile, the weather forecasters here are not expecting any major rains during the rest of the monsoon season.

That means no flooding -- and for Bangladesh, that’s as bad as too much.

A Quick Trip to Nepal

Back in June I took a week's trip to Nepal with my boss, Joe. (That's not him in the picture with me.) He usually covers the work in Nepal, but he was going to be in the States on vacation for five weeks over the summer. So, I needed to get caught up on everything that he was working on.

Only one airline flies directly from Dhaka to Kathmandu -- Biman Bangladesh. The national airline of Bangladesh, Biman enjoys neither a stellar safety record nor a stalwart reputation for punctuality or customer service. After only a five-hour delay (for a one-hour flight), we made it safely to Kathmandu.

Thanks to Biman's erratic schedule, Joe and I had to fly a day early to Nepal -- meaning we had a day to see some sights before we started a week of long days (and nights) in the office. It was a quick day trip around the temples, but enough to get me excited for another trip soon....

- Patrick.

Can you get to Moscow from here?

So, Moscow was not exactly a city I thought I would visit while living in South Asia. But would you pass up an opportunity to see the Kremlin and Red Square, especially on the company’s tab? I think not. The IFC/World Bank is quite big on “learning opportunities” and takes training its people quite seriously. All new IFC staff are invited to attend the “IFC Induction” course, a week-long welcome-to-the-club covering A-Z of what’s what and who’s who. It is held about 4 times a year in different locations. This one, held in mid-July, was the first one ever to be held in Moscow. My fellow inductees and I found out why.

The hotel we were set up in was called the Ismailovo and turned out to be an old Soviet-style 3-star, *way* out of the city and not at all set up for international guests. If you didn’t speak Russian, you were at loss to make the hotel staff understand anything you might need. The facilities were quite basic – no air conditioning and a conveniently placed thermometer in your room to tell you it was 28 Celsius in the middle of the night. You had to put down a deposit in cash to make a phone call. And the food was awful. It was not the Moscow office staff to blame at all, however, so that must be said. They had a budget to work within and Moscow was recently named the most expensive city in the world. However, the situation was bad enough to warrant a budget-busting move to the beautiful old Metropolitan Hotel just minutes away from the Kremlin and Red Square by Day Two. Quite an exciting start to my first visit to Russia.

To get to Moscow from Dhaka, you fly through Dubai (United Arab Emirates) and have to stay overnight. Luckily, our friends “the other Wilsons” were also along as Craig, my colleague, was also attending the course. We had a chance to see some of Dubai on the layover afternoon and evening. Weird city. Built up out in the middle of the desert and populated by very few natives, it offers the wildest things to visitors and residents, many of whom are ultra-rich.
You can go to a huge shopping mall and ski – yes, ski – in the middle of the desert. I’m all about out of the ordinary experiences, but I just don’t need to ski inside a shopping mall in the desert. Anyway, there was good food and interesting street shopping – okay for killing a few hours, but I would not want to really vacation there, and certainly not live there. Too artificial.

The highlight of visiting Moscow (well, besides taking a quick jog through Red Square one morning, which is actually must smaller than I imagined) was seeing our friends from Washington, Sean and Laurie – and their daughter, Isabella, who was but a wee thing when they left DC. Managed to get a nice picture with Sean to prove I was there! They actually left Moscow to head back to DC the day after I saw them, awaiting the birth of number two.

-- Jennifer

Bhago's First Birthday

As most of you know, we adopted a Dhaka street do— er, rather, a "Bengali Pacer," back in October. He’s 40 pounds of black-and-white fury, terrorizing any jogger, gecko, plush chew toy or inert piece of furniture that crosses his path. Bhagoban (Bangla for "lucky") is one year old this month. So raise a cup of kibble for the wee beastie of Daffodil House!

Nerdy Diplomats Who Rock (Are Still Nerdy)

Twice a year the Embassy holds an Awards Ceremony to honor employees who have demonstrated extraordinary performance in their duties during the course of the previous six months. After the most recent ceremony in June, another extraordinary performance took place – namely, a concert by a band of Embassy employees. We did an organized set of seven songs, in both English and Bangla, then jammed for a while on a bunch of other tunes for another hour or so. And the name of this all-star group? Well, we struggled to come up with a good handle. The consensus favorite of the audience was “Flood, Sweat & Tears,” which, in the words of our lead guitarist, “pretty much sums up the whole Bangladesh experience.”

- Patrick.

Among the Headhunters with the Tiger-Slaying Priest

At the end of May, we had another opportunity for a unique experience in Bangladesh. How many people have met a gun-toting, motorcycle-riding, 78-year-old, Michigan-born Catholic Priest who has lived in the jungles of Bangladesh among tribal peoples (who were headhunters, literally, in the not-so-distant past) for 50 years? Yes, he exists and his name is Rev. Eugene E. Homrich, C.S.C. supported by the Holy Cross Mission Center in Notre Dame and running St. Paul’s mission in Pirgacha, Bangladesh. Our good friend, Paul, had heard tales of the legendary “tiger-slaying” priest and was eager to arrange a visit for a small group of us. We had a fabulous time hearing his stories, including the one about finding an abandoned baby in the forest many years ago. Father Homrich and his mission took her in and now she is a happy mother of her own. We also enjoyed exploring the quiet countryside of this beautiful area, where pineapples and jackfruit grow and monkeys play. Not much of that in Dhaka!

One of our long walks through the forest got us talking about the likelihood of us “development workers” finding abandoned babies in our path while we’re sitting at our computers, in our air-conditioned offices, typing e-mails to colleagues and bosses and writing reports about the state of development in Bangladesh. We sometimes struggle to reconcile this to ourselves. Yes, we live in (arguably) the poorest country on the planet and we think we’re here for good causes, but does what we do every day really impact the ultra-poor here? We shoo away dozens of beggars daily on our way to the office – where we work on projects that we hope will benefit millions ... but would we be better off taking those beggars home with us? Well, this is a question for much longer debate, but may it suffice to say that our time with Father Homrich left us reflective, inspired and downright awed by the man and his work.

Highlights from the First Half of 2006

Since we’ve been so slack in updating, we’ll step back a few months with a quick recap of the year so far. We were most definitely refreshed from our Christmas/Anniversary vacation to Hong Kong. Nothing like visiting one of the coolest cities in the world, hanging out with a dear friend (Albert!) and his family for Christmas festivities, and all the dumplings we could eat to get us over the Dhaka slump we had in the fall of 2005.



January-March was relatively uneventful – in a good way. We got to know more people in Dhaka, both Bangladeshis and other furriners like us, and we got to know some of our acquaintances better. We attended the Burns Supper of the Dhaka Caledonian Society, where Patrick was asked to escort the haggis into the hall, thanks to his kilt. We found ourselves both heading to the States for business trips at the end of March/beginning of April – how convenient! – and extended a bit to have a few days of family time together.



In April we took a group trip (on the train!) to Srimangal in northeast Bangladesh, where the tea plantations are. We stayed in guest houses built originally by the Department for International Development in the UK as a project to promote tourism in the region. USAID also funds a program to maintain the rainforest, which is very difficult to do due to illegal logging. One of the most interesting things to see were the villages in the forests. Some small tribes still make their homes there – anyone remember the Ewoks from Return of the Jedi? Another hit was the “five-layer tea” served in a small café beside one of the tea plantations.


In May we discovered Thailand. (Well, for ourselves, anyway.) Wow! In one of our best vacations ever (and we’ve had some great ones), we met weary travelers Larry & Scarlett in the Bangkok airport and flew to the paradise of Phuket. We spent a luxurious (or luga-jurious) week at the J.W. Marriott courtesy of Wilson Timeshare, Inc. and enjoyed every minute there. The resort is absolutely beautiful (voted the best Marriott in the world out of 4,000 hotels), the people are beautiful and amazingly friendly, and the food ... well, we can hardly describe it. The possibilities for fun were almost endless. Between cooking classes, Thai boxing lessons, spiritual tours and hour-long massages on the beach (I think Larry is still in pain), we were all thoroughly entertained between our lying about the pool times. Are you getting that this was a great vacation? We will meet anyone there anytime! Just before the trip, Jennifer had the good luck of attending a training session in Bangkok, so we explored a bit of Bangkok as well. But just enough to get us excited about going back sometime soon.

A New Beginning

OK. We have a confession to make. We didn't do so well on keeping up with our fancy, custom-built website (www.wilsonodyssey.net), so we're trying a simpler way to let you all know what we're up to. We're still keeping the original website -- not only because it's so well designed (thank you, Eric!), but also in the hope that we can eventually combine this blog with it one of these days. In the meantime, welcome to our new blog. We hope to do a much better job of keeping this up to date. Let us know what you think!