Oh Dhaka, you’re breaking my heart..

Today has been a bit tough. It started with a heart breaking interview this morning with someone who has been through hell for many years. It is very hard for me sometimes to accept how it seem that for some in this culture, divorce is often considered a bigger shame than beating someone half to death.

 Feeling very emotional after the interview, it was very hard getting out of the office and into the streets and facing the beggars. Because of Eid Celebrations (national holiday and religious celebration) next weekend the streets are filled with more beggars than usual.

 To start with, a little boy, maybe three years old grabbed my sleeve, said he was hungry, asked for money and wouldn’t let go. When he eventually did let go, his mother (18 yrs the most) followed me to the CNG with a baby in her arms and kept asking for money. It feels so utterly cruel to keep walking, but I know that if I would have given them some, there would have been a swarm of people around me shortly. Minor inconvenience in comparison thou I guess. 

Tears were not far away.

 My flight tickets for Cox’s Bazaar got cancelled for an unknown reason so I was making my way through the city trying to first get a refund and then book new tickets at a different agency. Complaining about this matter would be ridiculus. Especially after walking down the streets watching disabled people placed on cardboard on the side walk with a beggar bowl in front of them, little babies not more than a few months old sitting all alone in a corner, blind people making their way through traffic and knocking on car windows, little kids pulling your sleeves asking begging you to give them a few taka. 

All this was just too much for me today. My heart is aching. It is breaking.

I was so happy to meet up with my roomies Fina & Sara Jane for dinner at ”Spagetti Jazz” for some delicious food and a really nice time.

Facing the streets again after dinner thou, with a belly full of food, made me feel even worse. And here I am in my air conditioned room and my comfy bed, just a few hundered meters away from some child sleeping in the gutter. 

Heart breaking.