Things my cousin says

Ladies and gentlemen, meet again my cousin brother Jarrar. Now two and a half years later, he is turning four years old in December.

Jarrar (middle) together with Taslima and Meem in Shahpur

I did not think that Jarrar could get any smarter, but he did. He corrects my Bangla every now and then, wants to eat an egg and cheese sandwich exactly when I am eating one and has his kind ways to blackmail me. Jarrar is at that stage now, where he questions authority, gives you “no” for an answer and sticks chewing gum in his hair. The fun parts are his sayings, when he cracks me up but I have to remain calm and act like I am taking his seriously. These are the highlights so far:

 

“Smell my hands! I washed them with soap!”

"Look! I can drink Sprite!"

"Why don't you let me watch Cartoons?" after his TV marathon of three hours

"I don't wanna wear pants!"

"Once, someone kicked me out of bed. Then ghosts came, bit me and ate all my hair. And then I went to the store and got new hair."

"Can I touch your chips?" meaning "Can I eat your chips?"

"Tewing Gum."

"I didn't throw water on the sofa. It was the ghost!"

"Pease, pease, peeease!"

Shahpur Bazaar

Shahpur is still “Amar Shahpur“. I was fortunate enough, to spend the Eid Holidays in the most relaxing and peaceful environment with my aunts, uncles and my cousin brother Jarrar.

What fascinated me is that people pretty much lead their daily life according to sunrise and sunset on the countryside. They get up very early and once it is dark outside, they gather in their homes, watch TV, have dinner and go to bed early as well.

Somehow, I adapted to that schedule immediately. I got up before 7 a.m. and before breakfast I was off to visit the local bazaar. It was a lot of fun, taking a walk in the mornings and then sitting down at one spot of Shahpur bazaar and watching the people come and go; bringing items to sell or going back home with fresh milk, vegetables and fish. So after basically spotting people and the vivid market life, I went off to take a look around myself. This intrigued me to buy fresh vegetables, sweets, toys and drinks during a couple of morning visits. My bazaar spotting contained lots of conversations with local people, such as the development of the milk prices the previous few days. And from time to time, people came up to me, had a quick chat, because they knew who I was: the grandson of Hiron Doctor.

Milk prices went down to 70 Taka

I bought him candy. Trust me, he can smile!

Paan Wallah

Little fish

Tea/chai - very important in Bangladesh

Back on my feet

Hey young world! Here I am, back on my feet, back on my blog.

So basically as said, I had Dengue Fever. I was really sick for a week and medication hardly did it any better. That's when I decided on a doctor's visit and was advised to go to the hospital. And at the hospital I was advised to go to the emergency room. After a brief check-up and questioning I gave blood and urine and was asked to stay for two hours.

Here I was, at a hospital in Dhaka, lying in bed at the e.r. in a to me total new environment.
Somehow the blood report was a relief, as I precisely knew what I had - also if it was Dengue Fever.

Dengue is transmitted by daytime mosquitoes, that have black and white tiger stripes. And there isn't any vaccination nor medication for it. Wikipedia might tell you precisely the risks that come with it.

After resting for a long time, a lot of blood reports, ultra sonogram and doctor's visit later, I am now almost cured. Eid holidays were really relaxing and helped me recover. But I will post on this separately.

I will have my blood tested again, just to make sure that everything is back to normal as some indicators were higher than they should be. And my strength is increasing day by day. So prepare for a bunch of stories and photos to come!

Jungle Fever

So I have been gone for a minute, suffering from Dengue fever for over a week now. I should be alright, but recovery will take a few more days. So that and the upcoming Eid holidays will keep me from posting the next days. I'll be back soon, with pictures and posts!

Hole is Hole

I am working for a German company in consumer goods. And I have this lovely colleague from Thailand, who is an inspector in Quality Control.

So as I have not seen many factories from the inside, yet, I asked her a bunch of questions about productions processes, inspections, techniques and stuff. Since I know Bangladesh a little better after my last stay, I was curious, whether factory owners tried to bribe her or not. She said that this has never happened, but of course they always try to downplay minor mistakes on garments to pass the inspection.

So she told me this fun story about an incident she once had. She was checking garments during an inspection and found holes on the inside of an item. As they were not seen when wearing it and it didn’t have any effect on the overall product, they still were mistakes for quality standards but the factory manager tried to argue his way out of it. Instead of arguing, my colleague just pointed at the hole and asked him to spell what he saw. So he did. As tough and funny as she is, she kindly replied “exactly, hole is hole” and the matter was off the table.

“Abbu, current chole giyeche?”

So here I am – five days in Dhaka already and it seems like I have never left! Things are the same and things have changed totally. It seems like traffic has become worse and then on the other hand, it wasn’t that good two years ago. So, bad traffic remains bad traffic.

The flight to Dhaka via Istanbul was quite exciting. My fist time in business class and my first time enjoying the lounge at Istanbul airport. Sarah, my colleague from Germany, and I thought we were late getting our connecting flight to Dhaka. After an enjoyable lounge time, we figured that we had to hurry to the gate. A quick walk turned into a quick run, until we finally reached the gate. Apparently we weren’t that late, since there was a crowd of people waiting for a bus to take us to the airplane. So when it was our turn, it was the third and last bus and we were last to board.
We had an overnight flight but I could hardly sleep. And I couldn’t keep track about the remaining flight duration and the distance to Dhaka, as the main screens were all shut off. So I spent my time, watching outside the window and inside the plane and outside the window and… until I saw something amazing. Lightning in the clouds in the pitch black night illuminating the sky for a second. Beauty!

As we finally reached Dhaka at 5am, Sarah, who is staying 1,5 months in Dhaka, had no trouble whatsoever getting through immigration. When it was my turn to get my immigration stamp, things weren’t so smoothly anymore. I am staying in a shared apartment this time, with a guy from Germany and a guy from America. So the address of my apartment all of a sudden didn’t exist, according to the immigration officer. After some back and forth, we found a compromise and I was able to join Sarah, who in the mean time picked up all of our luggage (which was mostly mine by the way).

I live in this huge 220 sqm apartment. And to keep it organized, we have a maid. Us three, we are chilled people – so I think is the maid. A little too chilled for my taste :).

On my first day I didn’t want to sleep during the day after arriving. So I decided to visit my grandmother in the area where I stayed the last time. My old barber shop was also there. I took advantage of it and got a haircut and shave. Sitting in the air-conditioned room with cable TV, the power all of a sudden went out. This little kid, that was waiting to get her hair cut (but only in the front, not in the back) asked her father “Abbu, current chole giyeche?” She basically asked her father, if the power went out. And it did, and it will do a whole lot more.

My fist days of work were great. We had such a nice welcome. And commuting from home to work is really easy. All dressed up on my way to work, I was inside the elevator with our maid. So to make conversation from the 15th floor to ground floor I looked in the mirror inside the elevator and asked her how I looked like. She said “hamsum”. And I just thought “welcome to Bangladesh…”.

Rickshaw fare from Banani to Gulshan-2: 30 Taka, 25 Taka if you are down to bargain.

At Istanbul Airport business class lounge

Getting a propper shave...

Where the work is at.

Apartment view 1

Apartment view 2

I'm going going, back back, to Dhaka Dhaka

I'm back on my blog! Almost exactly two years after my return to Hamburg, I am about to begin another journey to beautiful Bangladesh at the end of September 2013. Instead of 199 days, my stay this time will be only a little shorter. For a total of 166 days (or five and a half months) I will mainly stay in Dhaka to make use of an incredible opportunity, that has been given to me. So make sure to stop by on this blog from time to time, because there will be lots of stories for you to read and lots of pictures uploaded!

I'm going going, back back, to Dhaka Dhaka...

Bye, bye Hamburg! See you in spring!