Day 13: Going home....

Thursday: Today is my last day in Bangladesh. Thus far, it has been a day of meetings to summarize what has been learned on the trip and planning next steps. The whole trip has been a wonderful experience, but I can't wait to get on the plane later tonight and head home!

Day 12: Another day in Dhaka

Wednesday: Today was my first day "on my own" here in Bangladesh. I had thought it would be a day of reflection and reading, but this was not to be. Professor Haque found out that I had no "program" for the day, so he sent his car to pick me up. He kindly took me on a tour of Dhaka University (well, the fine arts college), that included participating in a first year orientation ritual. There is no way to describe the experience. Essentially, two students played rums while about 50 first year students danced around and, one point, started feeding each other cake (which seems to be a normal thing here). After that, he arranged for me to tour the (unairconditioned) National Musuem of Art. The guide didn't really want me to take the time to actually look at the pieces, so I can't say that I saw much. On the top floor, there was a gallery where they displayed the "gifts of anitiquities" that have been donated to the Bangladesh by other countries. After an extremely impressive display of handicrafts, painting, and vases donated by the Swiss and the Chinese, we came to the "American" display. Apparently, the best gift that our nation could give Bangladesh were two mangled looking barbie dolls that they had lovingly enclosed in glass cases. The day ended with being sent off to a "mixer" at the Swiss Embassy. The cheese was good. The chocolate was not.