Thursday- Pheew, what a day!

Thursday was a bit of a challenge.

It started wednesday night with me not being able to get the AC in my room to work and had to try to and sleep in about 30 degrees celsius. On top of that, when trying to go to sleep, the roof fan kind of sounds like a helicopter trying to land in my ear. Needless to say, I didn't get very many hours of sleep that night. When I woke up and went to the kitchen for breakfast I was in a bit of a haze and forgot for a few seconds that the doors here lock from the inside when you close them and so did the door to my room. I panicked for a little while before I got a hold of my roomie who told me where to find the spare key.

 Running a bit late for work I caught the first CNG I could find. The traffic was pretty bad as usual and on top of that the driver managed to slightly bump into a motorcyclist right in front of a police officer who angrily demanded that he was to pull over so that he could write him a fine. Since we were in the middle of the highway I could not catch another CNG so I had to patiently wait while the police, the driver and the motorcyclist were yelling at each other in Bangla.

Once I got to work all was good thou. My colleges are such nice people and do an amazing job every day with their clients. After another traffic jam back from work I went to Gulshan 1 to find a mobile since the old one I brought broke. It was a bit of a hassle to find the right shop, but a little cute boy ended up guiding and following me there.

As I got home I was exhausted and ready to just lie in bed and just watch a movie. I just had about 5 minutes left on downloading a movie program to my computer and just as it was done the power went out (happens at least once a day here). My first massive pangs of missing my boyfriend hit me. I just wanted to teleport myself back to his house for a few hours.

You really need your sleep to function in this city. Fortunately the AC worked last night and I also got myself some earplugs and so when I woke up this morning after a good nights sleep I felt a lot better. In Bangladesh the weekend is on friday and saturday, and today Im going sightseeing with Hasan-the-Bangla-Angel!:) Very excited!!!

Amar ghar / My room

Another intense day! But just as fun!

I slept like a rock for ten hours straight and almost over slept, but after a quick brekkie I got on the road in a CNG (kind of like a rickshaw-motorbike but with a cage over it) and fought my way through traffic to get to my organization in Lalmatia. I was greeted in the elevator by two of the team members of the unit where I will be working and they took me to their office where the whole team was waiting.
They asked me to tell them about myself, my family and my study and when I was done they took turns in introducing themselves. They made it clear that I was considered a part of the team now and gave me my schedule for the next few weeks. I'll be way more busy than I thought I would, but I'm stoked about it. I had lunch at the organization cantina and tried my best to master the hand eating skills- to the entertainment of my colleges :) They said I did ok thou.

After five hours at the office I went to a shop and got myself another Salwar before I hailed a CNG and made my way back to the guest house through CRRRRRAAAAAAZZZZYYYY traffic!! I picked up my bags and caught another CNG to MY NEW HOME! :)

My oasis!

A colorful bundle of shawls (and a fjällräven)! 

After getting settled in I had a chat to my roomie Nobuko and around 7pm Hasan-the-Bangla-Angel (thats your nickname from now on Hasan ;) ) came to pick me up and we went for a really nice dinner at Nando's in Gulshan. 

Tomorrow will be another big day and it's time for me to charge my batteries, so Good Night to ya'll! 

Exhaust exhausted in Dhaka!

I'm here!

After a two hour delayed flight from Istanbul I finally made it to Dhaka 6am this morning.

And after waiting for my bag for about an hour I walked through the exit gates and was immediately greeted by Hasan who drove me to my guest house. I was so jet lagged I forgot to give him the swedish candy I brought him as a thank you. He'll get it next time ;)

After a little nap I decided to go for a stroll around Banani and try to see if I could find a SIM-card shop somewhere since my swedish phone doesn't work here.  My first little expedition was successful

since I not only found and bought a SIM-card, but also managed to find my way back home by rick-shaw... Fun!:)

After another little nap I caught a rick-shaw to Gulshan 1 to meet up with Nobuko who is renting out one of her rooms in an apartment. I got there about an hour early so that I could just sit and watch the commotion for a while. I love it! Its utter chaos with people jumping on and off buses and climbing up on the bus roof,  rickshaws struggling to make their way through traffic, women in colorful salwars and sarees, families having a picnic in the middle of the round about, huge billboards, half-built buildings, electrical cables, vendors trying to sell their merchandise. So awesome.

The apartment in Niketan was like a little oasis and Nobuko seems very nice. I took it on the spot and am moving in tomorrow!

My head is spinning from the jet lag/ exhaust/ dehydration/ overwhelming city of Dhaka and I'll probably go to bed really early. But it'll be with a smile on my face.

xx

Ready for take off!

Im sitting in the kitchen at my parents house in Tisselskog. My bags are packed and my dad and I will head to the airport in about an hour. I'm not so much looking forward to the flight but can't wait to get to my destination in Dhaka and let the adventure begin! 

(Although when I hugged my boy good bye yesterday I was almost considering canceling the whole trip.. )

When I was in Härnösand I was lucky enough to bump into the very nice Chiran from India in the kitchen at SIDA. He is studying in Sundsvall and was in Härnösand to talk to the MFS-students there about India. We had a chat and he ended up giving me the contact info to his friend Hasan that lives in Dhaka. Turns out this was a stroke of luck! 

When I woke up this morning I had an email from my guest house saying that their driver was on leave and was not able to pick me up, but they suggested I would call another driver and gave me his number. When I went to my room to get my phone I had a missed call, which turned out to be from Hasan. He asked me if I had arranged to get picked up and when I said no, he offered to do it! Even when I told him it is 5am in the morning! What an angel!!

Catch you on the flip side! (=Dhaka)

Why Bangladesh?

I just realized that I haven't mentioned why I'm going to Dhaka and what I will be doing there! :)

As a part of the psychologist program degree in Sweden the students spend (almost all of) the last semester writing a graduation thesis. This can be within a very large area of subjects. After a lot of thinking I decided to try and apply for one of the "SIDA Minor Field Study Scholarships" that the Department of Psychology offers every year. After being in contact with at least 30 different NGO's around the world, I got in contact with a Legal Aid Organisation in Dhaka that were interested in cooperating. Together we decided to focus my study on Help-seeking processes in Bangladeshi women subjected to Intimate Partner Violence (IPV).  After finally getting my application accepted in June I was lucky to get a superb supervisor in Ph.D Mina Sedem who has been, and will be, an enormous support in my study.

Because of it's sensitive subject I will not be writing about the study it self in this blog, but rather my experiences of living in Dhaka and traveling through Bangladesh.

If you understand swedish you can find more details about my study at
http://www.psychology.su.se/om-oss/nyheter/ida-martinsson-far-institutionens-mfs-stipendium-1.97809

Salwar kameez!

I got a nice little parcel in the mail today: My very first Salwar Kameez! 

Its filled with embroidered pearls and even has tiny little bells at the end of the scarf. So beautiful. And comfortable! 

SIDA's 3-day introductory course!

I'm spending three days in beautiful Härnösand for the SIDA 3-day introductory course.
 (SIDA: Swedish Board of International Developement Cooperation)

                                           (The beautiful Härnösand SIDA-building)
                             
I arrived last night and didn't have a clue about how to get from the train station to SIDA, but was lucky enough to ask a very sweet couple for directions as they ended up driving me there. Considering the 5 degrees Celsius outside you can imagine my gratitude. I ensured them that a truck load of good karma would be coming their way.

Today has been intense but fun and very useful. I was stoked to find one of my classmates in the breakfast room this morning! He is going on a MFS to Malawi but I didn't know he was going to be here. It is always nice to see a familiar face.

The lectures started at 8 am this morning and finished at 9 pm. Tomorrow will be just as intense and the day will end with a scheduled Skype-call with a person from Bangladesh that I get to ask about anything I want to know! Yay! I've got about one hundred questions already. Poor hen (:him/her).

ONE WEEK LEFT!!

Two weeks left!

Little travel bugs are slowly sneaking up on me! Only two weeks left. This very writing minute two weeks from now (12.45pm) my plane for Dhaka will be closing its doors. Excitement, anticipation, butterflies, nervousness and a little bit of worry. I still havn't managed to find accommodation.