Well it's the end of my 3rd working week in Dhaka, it's Thursday nightthe start of the weekend and the beginning of the Eid holidays (Eid is the celebration held at the end of Ramadan, where Muslims traditionally get together with their family to celebrate). Which means that Sunday is a holiday, making this weekend a 3 day long weekend, and then Wednesday and Thursday next week are also holidays (although this can change depending on the cycle of the moon), making next weekend a 4 day long weekend. A lot of my staff have taken the whole week off, so it will be very quiet at work, as will Dhaka, as a lot of the population leave the city to go to their villages to be with their family. This means there are literally millions of people crowding every bus, train, truck and boat, all trying to get home for the week, so I am looking forward to Dhaka being relatively quiet. The last couple of afternoons it has taken almost an hour to drive the short (5km) distance from work to home. In fact, when I asked my senior manager Mizan if he was going home to his village he said yes, and when I asked him how long it would take he said about 7 hours, so I asked how far his village was, and I cringed when he said about 120km.
Howver, I have a number of things planned for the weekend, including joining the BAGHA Club (British Aid Guest House Association), which in addition to allowing me to use the BAGHA facilities (Bar, Restuarant, Pool and Tennis Courts), I can also visit the many other expat clubs around the city. I had originally intended joining the Australian Club, but I when I went there to join, I was told the person who looks after membership had gone for the day, so I bought a beer and took a seat near the bar, and even though there were about 8 other people at the bar, not one introduced themself or attempted to try to make someone who was obviously a newcomer, feel welcome, so this put me off a little bit. Then a couple of days later when I telephoned the club to find out when I should come in to arrange membership, I was told rather curtly that they were not tking any new members in the forseeable future. Apparently, according top some of the other internationaals at work, the Australian club, which is attached to the Australian High commission has become reaally snooty and if you are not aa part of the diplomatic corp, they don't want you. I was quite dismayed about this because developing a socail network with other expats is vital when living in a city like Dhaka , but luckily when I told this to a couple of the people that I work with, both of who are Poms, they both said that they were members of the BAGHA club and that they would see if they would talk to the committee to see if a poor lonely Aussie could aalso join, and yes, they have invited me to be an honourary guest. Stuff the High Commission, bloody bunch up tossers. You can always tell who the diplomatic staff are, as they all drive around in ridiculously big and expensive cars, eat in all the expensive restuarants, and walk around as if they really are something special. Anyway, it will be good to be able to go to the club and have a beer and chat of an afternoon, rather than just siit at home, so I am looking forward to going there tomorrow.
Tomorrow night I am also going to eat at a Thai restuarant that is just up the road, and comes highly recommended by the Guest House Manager, Wadud. Then on Monday night I am going out to dinner at the British High Commission Club with some people from work (Jill who is our student coordinator, Jens who is our General Counsel, and Mark who is the Hospitaal Director and his wife Teresa who is also a doctor at the centre), so I am looking forward to that. I am also going to take a trip up to a shop called True Value, which is owned by an Aussie and mostly just sells Aussie foods, so I will do a bit of stocking up.
Other than that, I am just going to do more exploring and relaxing, and hopefully shake the flu that I have had since arriving here.
Howver, I have a number of things planned for the weekend, including joining the BAGHA Club (British Aid Guest House Association), which in addition to allowing me to use the BAGHA facilities (Bar, Restuarant, Pool and Tennis Courts), I can also visit the many other expat clubs around the city. I had originally intended joining the Australian Club, but I when I went there to join, I was told the person who looks after membership had gone for the day, so I bought a beer and took a seat near the bar, and even though there were about 8 other people at the bar, not one introduced themself or attempted to try to make someone who was obviously a newcomer, feel welcome, so this put me off a little bit. Then a couple of days later when I telephoned the club to find out when I should come in to arrange membership, I was told rather curtly that they were not tking any new members in the forseeable future. Apparently, according top some of the other internationaals at work, the Australian club, which is attached to the Australian High commission has become reaally snooty and if you are not aa part of the diplomatic corp, they don't want you. I was quite dismayed about this because developing a socail network with other expats is vital when living in a city like Dhaka , but luckily when I told this to a couple of the people that I work with, both of who are Poms, they both said that they were members of the BAGHA club and that they would see if they would talk to the committee to see if a poor lonely Aussie could aalso join, and yes, they have invited me to be an honourary guest. Stuff the High Commission, bloody bunch up tossers. You can always tell who the diplomatic staff are, as they all drive around in ridiculously big and expensive cars, eat in all the expensive restuarants, and walk around as if they really are something special. Anyway, it will be good to be able to go to the club and have a beer and chat of an afternoon, rather than just siit at home, so I am looking forward to going there tomorrow.
Tomorrow night I am also going to eat at a Thai restuarant that is just up the road, and comes highly recommended by the Guest House Manager, Wadud. Then on Monday night I am going out to dinner at the British High Commission Club with some people from work (Jill who is our student coordinator, Jens who is our General Counsel, and Mark who is the Hospitaal Director and his wife Teresa who is also a doctor at the centre), so I am looking forward to that. I am also going to take a trip up to a shop called True Value, which is owned by an Aussie and mostly just sells Aussie foods, so I will do a bit of stocking up.
Other than that, I am just going to do more exploring and relaxing, and hopefully shake the flu that I have had since arriving here.
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