Sylvia's Journal

My last day in Dhaka was low key. It started with a last breakfast with my Nepali friends who left for Kathmandu in the morning. Ellen, who is from Holland and who I found again on Facebook after having lost her for awhile after she exchanged Tanzania for Park Slope now lives in Dhaka where her husband is the UNFPA rep. We had coffee and caught up with each other and talked about how to raise Dutch girls who have never lived in Holland. She has two little ones. I brought her drop and a chocolate letter (E of course) to remind her of home.

Next stop was the School of Public Health, housed in BRAC University where Bangladesh is preparing some of its future social scientists, computer engineers, businessmen and English teachers. I finally was introduced to the faculty I had heard so much about a few weeks ago in Kabul when Jon was telling me all about this place. I met a few Americans, one an intern from GWU who said her goodbyes after 4 months of fieldwork and another American MPH student about to graduate in a couple of weeks. Everyone was very enthusiastic about their experiences in this place of learning. After a very British fish-and-chips lunch at the Newsroom cafe with Sabina and Lauren I returned home to sort through my stack of business cards and start preparing for my return home.

Sayeed picked me up for dinner and took me to a Korean restaurant which instantly flooded me with memories of my many trips here with Ann over 10 years ago. I remembered Sayeed taking us out to a Korean restaurant then as well. We agreed that Ann was hovering around us even though she is far away in Newton. We had much catching up to do since we had not seen much of each other except some fleeting moments in Cambridge and Kabul; and, as he always does, Sayeed gave me his own familiar and contrary views on BRAC, development, and NGOs, before showing me pictures on his iPhone of his new daughter-in-law and his grown up daughters who are living in the US and UK. The wedding is in three weeks and I was invited to witness this multi-day traditional event. It would have been fun but it is time to go home.