Thursday, October 22: Dhaka

This was our last day in Bangladesh. We spent this day learning more about what MCC does in Bangladesh and buying gifts to take back home. In the morning we went to MCC's office and met many of the people there. Everyone was very friendly. Like the office in Bogra, most of the workers were Bengalis. Before we went on the trip, I had never really considered that MCC hires so many local people including people of other faiths.


After stopping at the office we went to meet Austin Miller. Austin is from Ohio but has lived in Bangladesh for about 13 years. He works on coming up with ideas for new handmade products that Bengalis can make and also marketing them to stores in the U.S. and other countries. Some of the people who make these handcrafts are former sex workers who are trained to make them to support themselves.


We visited two stores in Dhaka. The first was The Source. It had a lot handmade paper products and handwoven clothes. We decided not to buy much because we knew we were going to another store later, and we planned on stopping at The Source again later. The other store we went to was Aarong. It was more like a department store you would find in the U.S. It had four floors and had some nicer clothes along with some handmade products. It was also the only place where we found postcards in Bangladesh which was a request of my mom's. Unfortunately, both the designs were really bad and did not represent Bangladesh well at all. This only confirmed what we knew before...no one comes to Bangladesh for tourism. We did happen to see one of only three white people (not including those with MCC) we saw the entire time we were in Bangladesh. She was a large blond woman who was trying on clothes.

After our shopping we met Austin and his wife, Marita and their three sons. We got a couple of rickshaws to go to a restaurant for lunch. Unfortunately what is normally a 15 minute ride turned into a 30 minute ride because a divider was recently put in a road that we had to cross and we chose to go at the same time that a local school was releasing. The picture below is of the traffic jam we were in. The restaurant we went to was Nandos. It is a Portuguese/South African restaurant chain that the boys really enjoy because it has a play area.


After lunch, we went back to The Source and finished our shopping. We all bought quite a bit to bring back. I'm sure they love when foreigners visit. On the way back, dad and I climbed to the top of a walkway over a busy road while Phillip went to buy a shirt from a guy on the street. The picture below is when Phillip realized that I was taking his picture.

We ended our day by having supper at Austin and Marita's apartment. We were supposed to eat there two days before, but of course our airplane from Nepal had other plans. Marita made a wonderful meal of Mexican food, and we had a good time visiting with them.

Austin, Marita, and their sons