The Bangladeshi work-week is
from Sunday to Thursday. Unfortunately, I found out while in the Doha airport on
Sunday that there was a nationwide hartal (strike) going on the day I was set
to arrive.
Before I even made it to immigration a man called out to me
"Natalie?" and showed me through immigration as well as getting a SIM
card for my phone from Grameenphone (the best mobile carrier option). I felt very lucky
to have his help with this since I am used to having to figure all those things
out on my own, or with other foreigners.
We
arrived at the student accommodation and I met my roommate, a doctor from Peru who is affiliated with John Hopkins for her
post-doctorate and is working at icddr,b training local public
health workers on how to perform spirometry tests, as
well as help with a follow-up study on lung function and asthma. She is going
to be in Dhaka for another month doing final measurements and starting on the
analysis process, for which I am very thankful as she seems to be good company.
She walked me over to a local supermarket to grab some groceries so I was not
completely starving. She's also a runner and interested in hiking so that
is pretty awesome to me. Hopefully we will go running together most
days. Unfortunately, the smog in Dhaka is worse than I expected so my
lungs may come out worse for the wear.
My room and bathroom at the icddr,b guest housing.
