Back in a rich western country...

So how does it feel to be back? Good. Safe. Healthier every day. As I gradually recover from post Bangladesh fevers and dysentary, and step back into the life I left 6 weeks ago. But it's not the same. Not for me. Now I look for poisonous snakes along the pathway that I used to jog every day. I also had to work on my trust for other drivers, that they would follow the rules and not try to push me out of the way by honking and intimidation. I think all those things will fade though.

For a while I couldn't really think too much about my time in Bangladesh. There was too much work to do sorting through and presenting the data we collected and continue to collect over there. But I was also reluctant to dwell on what I had seen and felt there. Much was good but much was bad as well. I started listening to Bangladeshi CD's I had picked up over there. I enjoy the music very much now, something about that music resonates within me. I often find that experiences too intense are best experienced afterwards. It's only after that I feel calm enough to process what I have been a part of.

I think being back among friends and family has restored me the most. I don't want to sound overly dramatic but there is a re-entry phase which seems both physical (sickness) and mental and social. Being back in your own culture and language is always empowering compared to being dependent on the good nature of others to tolerate your ignorance of what even a child knows. Our work there is complex, and I don't mean the science. I mean the relationships between the locals and ourselves, and excellent reputation western researchers have in Araihazar where we worked. Although excellent I also feel it is delicate. Like the peace that comes and goes at the campus of the University of Dhaka, where party groups like to deomonstrate violently sometimes. Now there's a military "Care Taker" government, which should soon be replaced by a democratically elected one.

The villages where we worked were totally different than the smoggy, overcrowded, politically charged city. The further you go away from cities, highways and markets, you notice that tempers cool, as coconut trees grow. I like the villages the most.