Back in Dhaka

January 7, 2008

After traveling to the other side of the globe and suffering through a few sleepless nights due to jet lag, I am now settled into the fieldwork routine. I wake up at 6 a.m., eat breakfast at 6:30 a.m., and drive to the field site at 7 a.m. (assuming the driver arrives on time, which can be a horribly wrong assumption sometimes). I then toil away the day at the site and try to leave before it gets dark. My field site is located about 20km south of Dhaka and the drive takes anywhere from 45 minutes to 2+ hours, depending on traffic. The drive in the morning is fairly pleasant because there is never traffic. But the drive home in the evening is dependably bad because the streets of Dhaka are always very congested. I’ve never seen traffic this bad in any other country that I have visited. I think Bangladesh must top the world’s worst places to drive.

This is my sixth trip to Bangladesh, so I have developed some nice relationships with the villagers at the site. I am especially close to the men that I hire to help me. One of the men I usually hire, Shojib, has left to work in Dubai. He left for Dubai over the summer and plans to be there for three years. I can’t imagine leaving my family for that long. Sha’Alam is the other man that I usually hire. Unfortunately, his house was blown down by the recent cyclone that hit Bangladesh. From what I can see, his house seems to be the only one that sustained any permanent damage from the storm. He and his family are currently working to rebuild. Fortunately for me, most of my field equipment survived the storm.

(To read a summary of my research visit the CEE Department web site)