Week Two (Part Two): A series of Unfortunate and Fortunate Events (Language partners, Munawars, sick days, Ginger Tea, promises & brishti)

Sunday June 13th :) Friday June 18th

Okay, so, week two… this following week had some ups and downs, but I’m fine and I worked through it!

… And then it was Sunday, and then there were classes, and then we had our FIRST TEST! I wish I could say it was easy, but… nah. It was pretty hard! Now that I have a feel for the “typical” test I have a better idea of what I need to do to study efficiently and hopefully I can get the grades up to where I will be happy with them. After our test we jumped straight into three more hours of class and then hit the streets with our prof Atif to test out our bartering skills with the venders in Narnia. I bought two mangos (Am)! Yum! I believe that I am getting slightly better at this whole “bartering” thing, although I cannot tell if people are truly impressed by my bangla skills or simply stunned that I am clearly Badeshi (a foreigner) and know some bangla, haha. Well, whatever the “true” case may be, I love any opportunity to interact with the locals!

This was also my first week where I got to spend time with my language partner, Konica! The basic idea behind the “language partner” is that IUB (Independent University of Bangladesh) has, in addition to my class-intensive Bangla instruction, paired each student up with a local university student so that we can practice our bangla on a more conversational level and see another side of Dhaka that we might not have otherwise seen. We are required to spend at least fifteen hours a week with our conversation partners.

Konica is very sweet, personable, and down to earth. Although we were both a bit shy at first, by the end of our first day we had both opened up and broke the ice as we started to get to know each other. I think that we will be great friends and I am excited to learn Bangla and further explore Dhaka with her.

Another highlight of my week was getting to spend a substantial amount of time with fellow CLS-er Katie Hasnain. Katie and I have really clicked and I love our time together. Katie is half Chinese and half Bangladeshi. After learning Chinese and spending some time in China last year, Katie now wishes to learn Bangla and connect with the other side of her heritage and family. Katie definitely has a talent for learning languages and she motivates me (even more) to learn Bangla!

I also got to visit my host family from last year (The Munawars)! I definitely miss Diana a lot since she is in the States, but nonetheless it was wonderful to see her family (and Faruk)!!! :)

…And in a moment everything changes… BAM!

Our cute little bunch of fifteen Americans was all nice and fine until we hit the one week mark… tick, tick, tick, tick…… EXPLOSION! Every single person in our group fell ill this week. Apparently it is normal for all participants to fall ill at one point or another, but it was extremely unusual for EVERYONE to get sick at the same time. Granted, the illnesses were slightly staggered for the most part, but this meant that there were always at least two people who were sick at any given point this week, and several trips were made to the nearby (thank goodness) Apollo Hospital.

Stephen and I were the last two to fall ill with “infections.” The doctor did not give me many more details than this.. I apparently had some kind of bacterial infection? All I know is that I slept for 40 hours.. only waking to throw up. I even threw up on my “How to learn Bangla” Book. Of course the running joke that materialized was that this “occurrence” was somehow foreshadowing of my summer and that my body was even “rejecting” the Bangla material. Needless to say, not my finest hour.

It is at this point (if you are still reading) that I shaIl spare you some of my ELABORATE details; however, I will elaborate on my thoughts before, during, and after said unfortunate events. After all, I am a big believer in the act of self- reflection.

As you can probably tell from my post from week one, I was feeling pretty high, happy, excited and on top of things. This unexpected bout of illness brought me low and pretty miserable. At my worst, I even found myself questioning my choice to come to Bangladesh this summer. All I knew was that I was completely miserable and I wanted to be home (Yes, with my mommy). I felt kind of alone. When I woke up the next day somewhat hydrated, and fully medicated I was able to see things more clearly and I realized how foolish I had been to think such things!

I am ANYTHING but alone here. What about the teachers on call who made sure that the program manager knew what was going on? What about the people who escorted to me to and from the doctor with warm smiles and as much time as I needed? What about the cook, Milan, who made me tea, and gave me bananas and his phone number in case I had any problems? And what about MY FRIENDS??? One of my flat mates, Nate had some kind of relapse the night that same night so when I finally emerged from my room feeling somewhat better we talked for a while with Stefanie who came down from her apartment upstairs equip with two bottles of sprite and the fixings for Ginger Tea! Not to mention that all of this happened after two of the teachers and Katie had already stopped by to see what was up…. In fact, looking back, it is amazing how much of a family we are considering that it has only been two weeks…Adversity makes you stronger? :)

SO yes. I am feeling stronger, and my thoughts are much clearer.

To conclude this week’s reflection I shall leave you with some words from a conversation I had with my language partner, Konica:

Just yesterday Konica asked me, “Why Bangla?” I thought that, considering the places where I found my mind wandering this week, you all might be interested to know the gist of what I said…


Why Bangla? ….because I am going to come back. Because I came here on a whim and I fell in love with the mystery and the essence of a world, culture, and plethora of people that I never knew existed. Things might be hard, but it gives me hope for my life and work in the States. I need more of a global perspective on issues like poverty if I truly want to do something substantial, tangible, and sustainable to help Native Americans in the United States. But no, it is not all about me and MY work, it is also about them. I think that as a country, Bangladesh is somewhat underappreciated and underestimated in this world. I decided after I came here last year that I wanted to make an investment to learn more about this culture and people. I want to come home to the States and tell people about my experiences here, and yes, I want to continue to come back. Who knows? Maybe I will inspire others to take my same trek to the other side of the world to experience something new. Maybe they too will come to Bangladesh?

Someone once said to me that Dhaka is all about the people. If you do not remember the people, then you do not remember anything.

It is true. I do not see the dirt or the pain, I see the people. My daily adventures are the people. I love the people. I am learning from the people. I want to maintain my existing relationships here and I want to continue to build new ones. I have a family here as the Munawars have graciously accepted me into their home and their hearts. A second, beautiful family.

I am a Munawar, and I am Margaret- Maggie- Margo- Mishti- Dowling (Munawar) Dunne.


And so the week finally has come to a close! It was anything but easy, but I made it through once again.

Ta ta for now!

A Golapi (Pink) Day with Katie Hasnain!

A quick pic with Konica! :)