Arrival in Dhaka

Road No. 5, Baridhara, Dhaka, Bangladesh


Park, small lake in Baridhara

Modern apartment building in Baridhara
(note the multiple overhead cables, wires)

Present-day construction methods in Dhaka

I have now been in Dhaka for one week and it’s time to reflect. It has been a good week. I have met many people, begun to get acquainted with the Bangladeshi culture, settled into temporary housing and found some fun things to do.

There are just over 80 Americans at the Embassy and several hundred locally employed staff. I have now met many of them and am learning names and faces as quickly as I can. I feel very welcome. People are very friendly, helpful and appreciative of the health unit’s contribution to the community. The first days are filled with briefings of many departments of the State Department, along with getting to know other neighbors in the Embassy building, including a small contingent of Marines and a moderately large office of USAID (United States Agency for International Development). Getting everything in order with Human Resources, Housing and Transportation also filled several days.

In addition to learning the ropes of the Embassy, it was time to get rolling in the health unit. I have an excellent staff that includes two part-time American nurses, a local nurse, receptionist and lab technician. We began seeing some patients in between other meetings right away the first day. That feels good, after being out of the exam room since April at Family Practice Medical Center in Willmar. I appreciate the training I received while in Washington as preparation for the relatively independent practice I will operate here. I will be meeting local doctors and touring several hospitals in the coming weeks to size up the local resources and the time I spent in Singapore lends perspective about what illnesses can be treated here, there, or in the States. There is a basic electronic records system that is available to all of us docs in the State Department, but it hasn’t been in use yet here. I have now started with that and it is working well. I am sure there will be other opportunities to grow and improve the health unit in our service to our local patients.

I am living in a first floor duplex about seven blocks from the Embassy in a residential neighborhood called Baridhara. It is one of three nearby neighborhoods that make up the diplomatic enclave. It is an 8-10 minute walk to the Embassy, and many diplomats from a wide number of countries live here in proximity to their embassies. In several weeks I will move to a spacious 4-bedroom apartment just two blocks from the Embassy, across the street from the Chinese, Japanese, and British Embassies. All of the homes and apartments here are built very closely together, with small yards and patios, but often with roof-top garden terraces. Construction is all reinforced, poured concrete with a variety of facings. Many houses in the neighborhood are being replaced with 4-7 story apartment buildings (to gather higher rent per square meter of land) and all of the properties are surrounded by high cement walls, with wrought iron or steel gates to the driveways. Fortunately there are several nice parks nearby. Each property employs local guards that open and close the gates and watch the outside of the property throughout the day and night. Some of the guards double as gardeners for the people employing them. Most people here also employ a private driver, and a bearer/cook. More about the driver in the next post. The bearer is a person, usually male, who cleans house, does laundry, ironing, household maintenance and runs errands. In smaller households, cooking is also done, and in larger households a separate cook is hired. In most households, at least one of the house helpers lives on-site in a 12X12 foot room with small bathroom and gas cooking flame adjacent. This is accessible from the backyard.

Hard to imagine having so much help around, isn’t it? Since I arrived I have had over a dozen people patiently waiting outside my gate for several hours in the hopes of presenting me with his or her papers when I get home from work. They hope I will hire them. A cook/bearer live-in has a salary of $125-150 per month, a driver $100, and a full-time gardener $75-80. This is one of the best paying jobs people without much formal education can get. The top quality workers have been passed from one diplomatic family to another over many years as diplomats move from post to post every 2-3 years. I have interviewed three bearer/cook candidates and checked out references. I will likely hire someone in another week. One of the advantages of having this helper is his ability to do shopping on the local market, knowing the right local stands to buy produce and meat at and getting a far better price than a foreigner could bargain for. I shall see how things work out.

Overall, the first week has been a success. I feel comfortable with the job and the people I work with. I am intrigued with the culture and will learn to appreciate it more and more over time. I have begun to learn some basic Bangla phrases. I have been able to talk to my family readily on the phone, but found Skype to work even better once I had internet at home. If you haven’t signed up for free Skype service at home, it’s easy and allows for free communication around the world over the internet. My Skype name is “mike.mo54”. Send me an invite and then we can visit. Remember that Dhaka is 11 hours ahead of Minnesota.

Next post, I will write about traffic, local culture, and local recreation opportunities.

Mike
Dhaka