HOO needs a driver when you've got us?!?!

Savanna and our sweet ride!

DRIVING IN DHAKA: SUCCESS!!! We decided it is always best to jump in head first, so on our first free day (Friday/Saturday is the weekend here) we jumped in our bamf van. (yes. We have a giant van!! We asked why we got a van instead of a 4-door sedan like everyone else, and they said it was because there were 3 of us... we are like- but we're not HUGE?! But when it comes time for a big group road trip, everyone is going to stop making fun of our van and wanting in with the cool roadtrippers and our party bus.)

First step: get the car out. Since our van is a little large for Dhaka-style, we are squeeeeezed into a spot right next to a medium sized car and a column. Our guard came over to help us navigate. Sav started off behind the wheel! She did great getting us out into the street! We decided we were going to test out our skillz at driving on the left side just in our neighborhood, Baridhara. In Baridhara there are not that many rickshaws. In order to get in, you have to go through a gated area and they only allow certain rickshaws through, so that adds to the lack of traffic.

Man walking on a Friday on some reclaimed land

In addition, we chose Friday morning as our driving practice time because Friday is a day of prayer here for Muslims, so the traffic is extremely light. You will see a majority of men wearing more traditional clothing and it is usually white, and they spend most of their day in the mosques praying.

Anyway, we drove around for a bit in Baridhara and checked out our friends’ apartments and waved to their guards and even refreshed our memory on where Avera (the salon) is! After making the loop, we returned to Dokhina (that is the name of our house) and switched drivers.

Me with the van! 

MY TURN TO DRIVE! eek!! It was great having Sav as my navigator because she was a vocal reminder of everything I needed to keep in mind: stay on the left! brake for the speed bumps! stay on the left! stay on the left! And all in a very calm and reassuring voice! It is a strange feeling to have the blinkers on the right hand side of the wheel and to have to hug the curb when you turn left instead of right! I made the mistake yesterday of looking the wrong way when we went to cross the traffic circle got a very long loud honk from a car who was not in the mood to brake for me! (We walked from our apartment to the Canadian Club yesterday after school for a Happy Hour social! It was pretty scary because we had to brave the main road with the traffic circle and navigate through speeding cars, rickshaws, baby taxis and other pedestrians! The social event was with the teachers and administration- yummy appetizers that we interns gobbled down because that was our dinner for the night!- learning to live on our small salaries!) 

 Line of rickshaws awaiting customers

It is going to take some practice getting used to being aggressive and dominating all the rickshaws and baby taxis that are hogging the road and going slow, but today I was happy to cruise slowly behind some of them while I got my bearings! So after a loop around Baridhara, I decided to head out onto United Nations Road, head out the gate with a nervous wave from the guards, and INTO THE TRAFFIC CIRCLE!

BFC, better than KFC! (So we hear...)

It was no worries though because here you can just skirt around it any which way that is fastest for you! So even though it was the wrong way, I zoomed out to the right across a few lanes of traffic and to the left side of the median! WEIRD! We had a few seconds of celebratory squeals as we looked for our landmark that let us know we were making the right turn onto Road 92- BFC (Best Fried Chicken- it is apparently very popular but makes me queasy just thinking about eating there). Sav sat on my left navigating with our “Digging Dhaka” map and lead us to the American Club! All the way to Road 69- and we had to drive on Gulshan Ave (another big road) to get there! We got out- wished we could go into the club to sunbathe and have a few margaritas- and switched places. (Our ARA Membership passes haven’t gone through yet, so we are a bit out of the social circle for the time being).

Driving on United Nations Road- see pretty the lake and
park on the right!

Sav successfully navigated us home and our guard was very happy to see us (and our van) in one piece (I think we need to name the van- post any suggestions!). But then, we had to park the beast. I think that was harder than driving around! Our guard shouted quick Bangla at us as we tried to interpret his hand motions and loud thumping on the car to navigate us safely into a spot my civic would have had a hard time fitting into. Might need to get in touch with our neighbors and see if they can try to get closer to their column instead of our yellow line! BUT WE DID IT! And our guard joined in our round of applause! I have been giving thumbs up when something is good, but apparently if you shake your thumbs up it is extremely rude and derogatory, so a thumbs up when my hands were so shaky from being nervous was not a good idea! For the rest of the afternoon, we are going to sit up on the roof to get some sun, then work out at the school gym, then go on a walk in the Baridhara park, and get our eyebrows threaded at Avera! Great day of adventures!