Dearest Dhaka...

I closed my eyes in the airplane and was naturally recreating the memories and replaying the pictures of the City in my head...I was trying to keep it together and to imbibe whatever sorrow I felt in that second...And I can confirm that it's only later on that you realise what you have really left behind...a piece of my heart stayed in Dhaka this morning...it was a gullible and guilty little piece that dug a hole in the ground of Bangladesh to stay there forever...and as the slideshow was going a song on the radio said "You don't have to love me, I understand, believe me..." and that was it, if Dhaka could have told me something I think it would've been that sentence...and tears crawled down my face, more tears...and...more tears and I was sad but at ease with myself because I knew something had happened there, something had grown in me and that country called Bangladesh had helped me reconnect with my own country and with my own God...And so Dhaka, I am telling you this one thing that's on my mind right now: It's too late because I already do, I already love you, believe me...And I would also like to thank You...

Truly yours,

The shy little piece of my heart and I

With M.Yunus

The one and only professor Muhammad Yunus...what a presence...he dedicated 50 minutes for us, around 40 interns taking pictures with him and asking him some questions...

I couldn't leave before meeting him, now I'm relaxed and starting to feel ready to go back :)

Last day at work

July 24th, last day of work... handed my report and got my certificate from Grameen Bank...gonna miss the people at the Head Office in Mirpur 2 !!

With M.Morshed, my coordinator at the Bank

With Chrise Nesselrode (K) love youuuuuuuu

Lovely receptionists at the Grand Prince Hotel, always asking about us ! :)

And yeah , Bangladesh all the way!

Farewell party

And this whole trip comes down to this one night......From all over the world: France, The States, Bangladesh, Spain, Ecuador, Lebanon, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Morocco, Germany, Austria, UK, Canada, Australia, Uganda...All together...we danced and cheered for Dhaka, for Friendship, for Music and Happiness...We are all different but yet so similar...we have our flaws and our prides but we are all here for one single reason: To learn how to change the World
And I believe we should be grateful enough, the World can still be changed, there is still a lot to do and we are the seeds that our parents once planted, we grew in different lands and learnt different ideologies, and our shade and branches should and will reach out to life and to peace. And I don't know how to put this in the greatest way but I am going to miss you all and you are all welcome to come to Lebanon and Paris...

Home made dinner

I was invited two nights ago to one of my father's friend and collegue's home in Dhaka...Great great people who welcomed me like a family member...dinner was delicious and I was so glad to be surrounded by these two heartwarming families...felt like home! :)

With M. Mustaba Ali , M. Jamal Ali and their wives

With M. Jamal Ali's family

At the lobby...

This is a proof to the parents that we are hard workers, and we can't even get through reading some pages quietly in the lobby without falling asleep hehe...

Riot in Old Dhaka

Chaos in Old Dhaka, people running everywhere, rikshaws going away to clear the roads, policemen start to appear and next thing you hear "excuse me, students are going to crash, it's possible for you to leave this place" says a bengali student to Kellen and I ... leave? now? hell no...but we couldn't get anyone to explain to us why the students were protesting...we saw one student getting beat up by 5 or 6 policemen who then asked shop owners to temporarily close their stores! Anyway... our presence seemed to clearly bother them as we were hearing the word "foreigner" over and over again as the policemen spoke to each other and gave us the [your-camera-better-stay-in-your-bag] look and all I could think of was my camera is my best friend and I won't turn my back on it, not now, no...

Gaz filling

We waited for half and hour to fill up the CNG on our way to Old Dhaka...under the heat and it was too long and tiring...when you go to a gaz station in Bangladesh you are asked to get out of the vehicule because it could explode in the process :S hehe I'm not so sure how true this is but it can be dangerous..so we did and look at all the CNGs waiting in line!

Rikshaw

Rikshaws on display at the Sonargaon Hotel ... we were having fun for the pictures but they are not so practical to ride :S

Kids kids and some more kids!!

This obsession of being in pictures is hilarious, kids gather around us and start pointing at the camera and smiling, we don't even need to say anything, they give us their best and coolest poses, it's always fun to take pictures here...

On the head...

It's very common here to carry your sellings and even your belongings sometimes on your head...I find this impressive, demanding a certain skill, balance and strength...take a look, some even carry bricks !

Superstition

Some women draw a black dot on the right side of their babie's foreheads...they believe it protects them from evil...its made of paint and goes away with water...

Fruits

More than 60 varietes of fruits are grown in Bangladesh..Major fruits include mango, banana, papaya, jackfruit, pineapple, guava, litchi, pummelo, lemon etc. The country has favourable soil and climate for fruit cultivation yet total production remains far less than enough. One of the reasons for low production is the absence of commercial cultivation of fruits.

Old Dhaka

Old Dhaka is not really the elegant and fancy part of Bangladesh...you don't have those "coups de coeur" you might feel for an old European city, but there's still something about it...it's both dynamic because of its crowd and calm with its narrow old streets and you must get a taste of it if you are ever in Dhaka...Only rikshaws and CNGs circule around
I went there with a friend this morning, took us around an hour to arrive(add on another half an hour for gaz filling)...Once there...we were near by the river...talked to some people and saw some interesting things...

Lebanon or Home

When you say Lebanon...all I hear now is "Home"... and it took quiet a while for me to hear and feel this sound...for a long time, I had felt like I didn't belong

But now I am going to be possessive and proud, if you may excuse me

My past weeks in Bangladesh have injected a mean and huge amount of power into my veins, and I feel invincible. I discovered the verb "can" and I will abuse of it, there is nothing we can't do, and yes I will abuse of it ... I can change, I can fix my mess, I can be me, I can feel home, I can give, I can live, I can cry, I can cheer, dance, smell, eat, drink, and I can transmit "can" and I will give you "can"

You can change, you can fix your mess, your mess is not bigger than mine trust me, you can feel home, you can give, you can live, you can and will cry and cheer and dance with your loved ones and alone and you can transmit it.

we are "can" vectors...And we should abuse of it.

I will go home, that four-letter word is a small land...a green and rich small land...where the sun sets on the beach and rises behind the hills...that place that has loved me for years and that I couldn't feel, but now I do...I am yours and I have changed and I love you..

That country that smells like gardania, that's shaped like a torch, that the Lord has blessed with his own two hands...I love it

My dear country, would you please forgive my past and my foolish games for I am your lost child and I have come home...

Nobel Peace Prize

"Some reflections on the Nobel Peace Prize"...Lecture delivered at a meeting of young people of Bangladesh on the occasion of the inauguration of the Nobel Peace Prize Exhibiton at the Grameen Branches.

During the conference we had the chance to listen to the speech of Professor Yunus and that of the Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the Professor Ole D.Mjos. We shaked their hands at the end...

Things to bring to Bangladesh

While I'm at it, I thought about displaying some of the things I found indispensable to have here in Bangladesh if you are willing to stay in an average hotel for a relatively long period and/or move in the country and stay in villages:

You will probably need:

-flashlight / candles (specially outside of Dhaka)

-mosquito net

-insect repellers for skin

-sleeping bag (beds in the villages have very thin matresses which can be painful to sleep on after a while)

-medicine: stomach, head, injuries, eye drops (too much pollution)

-mouth wash

-cleaning wipes

-Hand Sanitizers (gel)

-facial cleanser with/without water

-Lip Balm

-cereal bars

-crackers (very effective if your stomach is feeling funny)

-water purifiers aren't indispensable, I haven't used my pills since bottled water is available eveywhere, even in the villages

Sickness

As you can see, I haven't posted anything for 2 days, the reason being my stomach and my head ache that seem to be progressively weakening me...I don't think I ever felt this bad since summer 2006, in Syria where I had caught a severe virus, combined with nausea and diarhea...The climate and the food can be transmitters of such viruses right now in Dhaka and I am considering seeing a doctor real soon...

Deja Vu Café

Yesterday night we headed to a Lounge Café, the Deja Vu located in Gulshan...The event was organized by a bengali/american intern with us in Grameen Trust...we were around 13 people, had dinner, and danced on some good bengali / western music :)