My first 5 days in Bangladesh

I am living with a family, a mom and a dad and 3 grown sisters. The mother, Nimla Musa, owns a clothing botique. There are 2 maids in the house and lots of other servants that I'm not quite sure what they do. On the roof, about 30 tailors work and live, making clothing for the boutique. I live downstairs, in a room without air conditioning. I turn on the fan at night and sleep with nothing over me, which I have never done before. It is so hot here, I just sweat all day long. It is fascinating for me that hundreds of millions of people all over the world live in heat like this. I think I would start hiking towards the himalayas if I lived here.
The food has been great- yesterday I think I ate 5 mangos. Every day we have rice, with Dahl- which is a soupy thing made from lentils, and usually chicken curry, some other vegetable curry, and my favorite so far is what I think is sauteed cucumbers with onions and eggs. We also eat jackfruit, which is supposedly the national fruit. It has a very unique taste, which I can't describe. I'd recommend trying it.
Yesterday I went to the children’s hospital, which was very interesting. There were many people waiting outside, and then we got inside, and there was a large room with about 30 beds in it- often the entire family sharing a bed. The hospital didn’t seem very clean or new at all, but for Bangladesh supposedly this hospital is really high tech and famous. I am just amazed that people from the rural areas can get here in the first place- apparently their communities help support them to come, but I am sure there are millions of people that still never get here at all. Then in the afternoon i hung out with the maids. It is amazing how much you can do with people that don’t speak the same language. One of them, Parvin, snuck out with me and we had a nice walk around the block. I don’t understand why they are not supposed to go out- Mrs. Musa says they are too clever. It seems a little like slavery, but I suppose they could quit if they wanted. But I have a feeling that this life is much better than the life they would have in the villages, as divorcees. Apparently their husbands divorced them because they were too poor. I can't figure out why they married in the first place. They taught me some phrases that they thought were hilarious, but which apparently meant “very painful” and “my life is horrible”.
The day before, I went to a market, and there were so many people! The market seemed to go on forever, and there seemed to be everything there, especially clothing and fabric. I bought another pair of Bangla clothing- called salwar and kamiz. This is a long shirt/dress, down to the knees, with baggy pants and a scarf. We also went to a park to play soccer, and the park was full of cows and sheep and puddles of their feces and urine, but we played anyways. Soon some Bengalis joined in, and then a huge crowd of probably 50 people gathered. I guess a bunch of white people playing in a park attracts a lot of attention in this country. The city is so interesting- many very strong smells everywhere, smells of curry, fruits, feces. There are also so many people in every direction, every hour of the day. The city just continues in all directions, and from the top of the 19th floor of the BRAC building you can't even see the end. The city seems to be very poorly planned, with no downtown. There are some train tracks near my house that people use as highways. People here are dressed so colorfully- versus the west, everyone can get away with bright oranges and greens.
I walked to work by myself this morning. There are some big roads I have to cross, and people drive so crazily. There are lanes, but nobody seems to pay attention to them, and people honk constantly. Anyways, crossing these roads is scary, so I just try and walk right next to other women. I walk by vegetable stalls, men with a bathroom scale wanting money to weigh people, people selling perfume, bamboo covered clothing stalls.
I am learning a few phrases in Bangla, very slowly. It seems like a difficult language. BRAC is such an amazing program, I encourage you all to look it up. They are helping about 100 million people right now, and have really improved so many lives. However, most of their work is in the small villages and it is strange to still see all the slums and the beggars here in Dhaka, with this huge NGO right next door. Although things here seem to be very disorganized, I think that is just the way that things work here. I am excited to get started with my health project. I am still trying to figure out what exactly I'll be doing. I'll let you know. This afternoon I think I may go to the slums. Feel free to write if you want.

It is Alyssa Panning- Intern
19th Floor
BRAC Center
75 Mohakhali, Dhaka 1212
Bangladesh.