Today has been a day with one too many adventures. Melinda wasn't feeling well this morning so we got off to a late start. It took forever to find a taxi and we were finally on our way to school by by 7:40 as opposed to 7:15. The taxi got maybe 100 ft down the road stopped. It clearly have technical difficulties. ... (As you can see, though I'm nowhere near fluent in Bangla, I'm already forgetting English. Awesome.) Anyway, the driver got out and opened a hatch in the back, removed the accelerator wire and proceeded to string it through the taxi and tie it off up front. All the way across town, he had one hand on the steering wheel and one hand pulling the wire. Yup, we were literally pulled to school today. I'm super impressed the taxi made it up the overpass. It was very exciting and I learned that baby taxis are apparently indestructible, so that's encouraging.
After class, Melinda had a doctor's appointment at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research. It has at least two clinics in the city, one of which ironically enough is housed at the American International School. AIS is by far the biggest, fanciest school I've ever set foot in. It was impressive and so very western I went through a minor bout of reverse culture shock in the middle of South Asia. All I know is, for the amount of money that must be spent on the building alone, those children better emerge with full scholarships to Stanford. After the appointment, we went to the tailor to pick up some pants we had made. I love tailors. I'm entirely too short for pre-made clothes and having them made only costs a couple extra dollars. I will definitely miss this when I come home. By then it was 12:15 and we decided to take a bicycle rickshaw for a short ride to lunch... or so we thought.
When you ride in a bicycle rickshaw you end up high up on cushion with a man on a bike pulling you slowly through town. Kind of like you're on a chariot or really old parade float. It makes you very conspicuous and I'm kind of tempted to do the pageant queen wave as I go by. This is why you only take them short distances. Today, Melinda and I passed another rickshaw with several guys in it. They asked if they could ride with us, even though clearly, there was no room on either seat. I thought "so... you want us to what? Sit on your laps? No thanks." Anyway, we were on our way from an area of town called Gulshan 1 to an area called Bonani. It should have taken maybe 10 minutes. Instead, our rickshaw puller decided to take us on the scenic tour of Gulshan. I'm pretty sure we covered every square inch of that district. Some parts twice. Finally, Melinda just started chanting the name Bonani and when we got somewhere we vaguely recognized we got off. It was an adventure! Remember how we set out at 12:15? We finally sat down to eat at 2.
I almost forgot to tell you the most exciting part of my day! Before that epic ride, we took a rickshaw from the doctor to the tailor. We had agreed to pay 50 taka, but it took longer then expected so the guy wanted 10 taka more. Not really a big deal, but sadly I failed to understand what he wanted. Melinda had already walked off toward the tailor. So, I gave the man 50 taka. He said something which I missed. The he handed me forty taka. That was really confusing because I was pretty sure he had not changed his mind and decided to accept a much lower price. He kept yelling the word "bangti" at me, which means "change". And all I could think was "I know you gave me change but what for?" Finally, Melinda realized I was not behind her, so she returned and asked "What's going on? What's going on?" I yelled, "I don't know! I wish I could explain what's happening, but I have no idea!" In the end, the rickshaw puller reached in my wallet and grabbed another 50 taka. Then it dawned on me, he wanted to make change with us. I probably should have figured this out before, but oh well, life goes on.
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