First impressions

Well, here I am in Dhaka....jet lagged but hanging in there! I have to say, my first impressions are positive. I had heard so much about crowds and getting so much attention, but I am now thinking perhaps those people had not been in Africa! Granted, there are 140,000,000 people in a country the size of Wisconson, and they are prone to staring at the strange white people, but just the fact that they only stare rather than hoot, whistle, grab, or holler "white person" at you, or try to entice you to buy their wares or ride their vehicle just makes it amazingly unbothersome. Now their driving here....absolutely INSANE. Red lights/green lights...MEANINGLESS. I'll expand on that more at a future time.

Today our orientation agenda was for the gals to go shopping and buy fabric and clothes. Cicely and I both tended towards the bright orange, so we'll be two beaming pumpkin looking people perhaps....subtle! The fabrics are FANTASTIC though, and cost so little. We then had lunch at the home of a woman who is in charge of the income generating programs. We ate until we would burst, and then her husband asked if we didn't like it since we weren't eating more....groan! I'm still full several hours later. The food was really good...rice with dhal, beef, chicken, pumpkin and another vegetable fried in batter, and then dessert of a sweet rice dish, sweet (very sweet) yogurt, and two fried patty things, one made of palm and the other of soy. Quite tasty. It is warm but we have showers and ceiling fans which just make life good.

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