Looking out from the stairwell, originally uploaded by Nathan.Charles.

This is a view as I walk out from the flat in the afternoon. Life in Dhaka is is full of dusty concrete and tile and roads gone wanting.

The month of October has come and gone so very quickly and now here I am, jet lagged in Dhaka.  After leaving IBM and North Carolina at the beginning of this month, I ran around trying to visit as many people as I could in the little time I had before leaving.  The highlights of this were camping in Lancaster, visiting EMU for homecoming, a quick jaunt up to NYC and taking in Messiah’s homecoming soccer game all before orientation started on the 21st. Orientation lasted 10 days and was held at MCC’s Welcoming Place in Akron.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Welcoming Place it is MCC’s answer to a retreat center–consisting of several small dorms, each named and decorated after a continent arrayed around a dinning hall and assembly hall.  After finishing orientation I took a British Airways flight to England to spend 3 days on a very quick trip to Cheltenam and wandering around London.  From there BA 145 took me to Dhaka this morning, arriving late enough ( or early depending on perspective) that just as I was falling asleep I was startled by the 5am morning call to prayers.  I did get a few hours of sleep before a morning cup of tea and starting Language Study.  Which leads me to our Bengali lesson.  Apni kemon achen? – How are you?  Ami Klanto Achi – I am tired.

P.S. I’m sending out an email with periodic updates, the idea being that it will be mostly the same content as posted here.  I sent out the first one yesterday.  If you did not receive it and would like to, email me at ncharles [at] gmail [dot] com.