Notes from February 18, 2012

Our apartment building at 13 Park Road, Baridhara

It’s been a busy two weeks here at sea level in Dhaka…this past week saw the IB kids perform their senior exhibition plays, Abby had some news, and Millie and I have put in another hard two weeks of school…and it has been celebrity week at the American International School in Dhaka. 

The IB seniors produced three plays Wednesday evening for the largest crowd anyone could remember for such a production and this time, for the first time in years, there was very little in the way of profanity.  These performances are written, directed and produced by Gail’s seniors as part of their International Baccalaureate diploma.  They also have to produce a journal or reflection essay that is scored by an external authority in these matters…one of the student pieces was about various princesses, mostly from Disney, who managed to off their “prince charming” after finding out that life was not quite so ‘happily ever after’.

The second was a curious piece where two sisters die of the effects of extreme poverty, and then.... Greek gods walk onto stage.  It was written and directed by a really nice Korean boy who only began speaking English a couple years ago.  He played an English bishop in See How They Run, Gail’s fall production.  His family is very proud of him and they bring lots of Korean friends to the audience, although he is sure his mother understands very little. 

The third was a melodrama/tragedy with lots of teenage angst and 13 scene changes.  Lots of bad things happen to the main character (played by the author), but, since there was no dog or pick-up truck, Gail says it doesn’t quite count as a country western song. 

The really good thing all this is that Gail’s production year is over, and she has a couple trips left to go—Hong Kong in April and Bhutan next week.  I’m staying in Dhaka: boy, am I jealous or what?  The Bhutan trip is the AISD “Discovery Week” tour of various monasteries and cultural sites, not to be confused with the more rigorous trekking trip in Bhutan other students are taking.  Millie is going on this one, too, with her friend, Katie.  Katie’s mom has a birthday the day after mine (Abby’s Gotcha Day), so we’re having the party this Thursday before they leave.  Did I mention our weekend is Friday-Saturday?  

Speaking of Abby, in the last two weeks we have had some interesting emails from our Truman State University student/smarty-pants 3.85 GPA French Horn major.  Apparently, the #1 ranked state university in the Midwest is not quite good enough—she is thinking maybe she should trade up to Northwestern in a year or so…. 

And her French horn professor at TSU thinks she needs to move up to a really good horn.  What's more, you don’t trade these things in; you start a colony.  To really pursue the horn major, she’s signed up for an international horn festival in that bastion of snooty horn-playing, Denton Texas, in May, and we just bought her a ticket to Phoenix for spring break, so she can see her grandmother and maybe get a lesson with John Ericson at Arizona State University. 

Go ahead and Google him….Mr. Ericson’ horn playing has been nominated for Grammy’s and he works at a summer camp at Interlochen for aspiring French horn players. 

All in all, it looks like we’ll be working forever. 

But enough about us…we had celebrities here in Dhaka this week, and I am not just talking about the U. S. Assistant Secretary of State, who I did not get to meet.  Our school hosted Jack Gantos, a children’s book author who just won a Newberry Award; he was famous before, but now he is really famous.  He was here for a week and gave workshops to kids, teachers and parents.  It all worked with our elementary school writing initiative and verified what our kids are doing everyday—all good.

And the grandmother of a family of AISD kids—Martha Alter Chen—was in town at the same time.  Dr. Chen is a Woodstock School (where we were last year) Distinguished Alumna for her groundbreaking research and social work in India and Bangladesh.  Google her, too; she is a Harvard professor as well as a true heroine of the Sub-Continent.  Her ancestors were among the original missionary families who founded Woodstock.  Her son works at the World Bank office here, and her grandchildren are practically perfect in every way. 

And Jerry Bob says I need to add more pictures, so these from our street in our neighborhood in the diplomatic enclave, Baridhara.

Ladies walking on Park Road, Baridhara

Using one's head to carry concrete

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