Well, it's quite something to have a muezzin as an alarm clock every day...I still haven't been able to go back to sleep after the 4:30am call to prayer, but I guess I'll get used to it. I'm adjusting pretty well to everything else, and I'm meeting amazing people. Yesterday I had a really full day...since I couldn't sleep, I unpacked everything, and then went to talk to the Director of the Access Academy, Kathy Schneider. We met for two hours! She is really nice, and is giving me free rein to get involved with whatever I want. I've met a bunch of the other teachers also, and I'm very excited about the projects with which they are enlisting my help. I'm not sure exactly what I'll be doing for each yet, but as of right now I have a couple different things in the air--Ms. Schneider wants me to help the three Afghani students with their summer service proposal; they have gotten a grant for a 15 day course for women in their native country. Despite a great deal of enthusiasm, they still need to work out a few kinks in their proposal, and can definitely use guidance in how to implement it. Working with them will dovetail nicely with the stuff I am working on with Tamanna...I'll get to teach in her capacity-building class, which is the seminar on how to start a school. The seminar is based on the BRAC model (you can see what BRAC does by visiting their website, bracusa.org), and the praxis component of the course is teaching the children of the cleaning staff here. I am looking forward to visiting their school on Saturday, and doing further reading on BRAC's approach. I anticipate doing a teaching stint on writing grant proposals and funding in general, such as what NGO's and non-profits would be optimal resources (the government here isn't exactly responsive or affluent enough to fund such initiatives). I'm also going to be helping one of the other teachers with a fair trade course, and I was already asked to help chaperone a trip to Dhaka to see the process of production for some crafts and exportable products. I'll explain better when I have a deeper understanding of the details.
Today, I have some fun things planned--I am going shopping for fabrics this afternoon, and one of the students is a seamstress...she will be making me a shalwar kareef from whatever textiles we pick out together today. Then tonight, we have ladies night! All the Access Academy teachers go out for kebabs together, and then we are watching a movie about gypsies and going to some other cool shops and bazaars and whatnot.
So overall, I'm settling in, and I'm even getting more adept at killing cockroaches!
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