Posted on by jartrob

Bangladesh

Neighbor’s garden from the ninth floor rooftop of my current digs.

I changed the title of this blog to “Yes, and… Islamabad (and Beyond)” because, well, I’m beyond at the moment. For the next month I’ll be teaching general psychology at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong, Bangladesh. My goal (ha!) is to make the course largely interactive, using what is now called “Applied Improvisation” (as opposed to Theoretical Improvisation?). Wherever possible I’m going to link the course material to improv exercises in hopes that the students’ rushes of adrenaline will seal the information into their long-term memory. Evidence suggests that emotional reactions provide visual and somatic cues to information acquired at the event. Unless, of course, our fight-or-flight response erases everything.

Classes begin in two days.

For now, however, I’m in my faculty housing, wondering why the key is so reluctant to open the front door and if I should keep wearing the compression socks that saw me through 36 hours of air travel. It’s glorious to be out in the world again. It’s also bewildering: the past two years of the pandemic upended everything–or many things–and the desire to retreat is strong. Maybe this is just age talking (I remembered my omeprazole but forgot my umbrella); when I was younger I’d rush around on the first day, trying to see as much as possible. Now I’m sitting on my bed tinkering with this blog.

I exaggerate.

In trying to remember how to post photos in this format I accidentally uploaded this quote from Howard Zinn, anti-fascist pacifist whose history texts threatened many a “patriotic” legislator. It’s been sitting on my desktop for much of the pandemic, largely ignored as I nurtured despair about the rise of cultish authoritarianism in the US. Zinn emphasizes the power of finding hope in the moment, that history (and life)(and improv!) is a series of moments, a series of opportunities. With resolve and practice, perhaps, we can direct our attention toward the generative and inclusive and redemptive and responsible. I decided to keep Howard Zinn’s words and imploring gaze here.

“An Infinite Succession of Presents” might make a good name for a Wednesday night improv team.

But what of Bangladesh? I’ll post more when my mind catches up to my jet-lagged body (and also when I have some actual experiences here). For now, here are some photographic moments from the trip, taken by this monoglot who, in seventh grade, told Mrs. Leonessa that Spanish was hard because “We don’t conjugate verbs in English,” which is to say that the Bangladeshis’ creative use of English puts my Spanish to shame:

Just before an unexpected landing in Amman, Jordan. Only one of the toilets on the 14-hour flight from Dallas to Doha decided to keep functioning somewhere over Italy. We all missed connections, but the alternative was unappealing.
US-Bangla Airlines’ inadvertent slogan. Untrue, to boot.
Suggestion from the headrest on the flight from Dhaka to Chittagong. I’ll try.
An apartment building near the faculty housing. Better than the whole deluge, perhaps.
Wedding season in the rain, across the street from the AUW faculty housing.

Finally, this:

Dennis with his uncle Jim Curley, last month in Ship Bottom, New Jersey. I wish he were still here to read this blog and give me good-natured grief for going on and on and on…. Jim was a proud son of immigrants, a lover of all things Irish, a poet and an improviser, and someone who found a place in my heart. His favorite line from the Paul Grady song “Another Pot o’ Tea” was this one: “It’s harder when it takes so long to leave/the table where we all learned to laugh and learned to grieve.” RIP Jim.

7 Replies to “Bangladesh”

  1. The blog is back!!! Hurray!!
    I never before got emails from BANGLADESH!!

  2. Thank you for your final note, Jim. I, too, wish he were still here in the physical to connect with us. And thank you for that beautiful note you sent. It brought tears to my eyes.

    Howard Zinn has it right. Let’s live as we are at the core, beautiful, sympathetic, and true to who we

  3. Well done Jim! So glad you made it. Also I think it’s funny that you had to land somewhere else because of a toilet. That’s so Jim.. says:

    Well done Jim! So glad you made it. Also I think it’s funny that you had to land somewhere else because of a toilet. That’s so Jim.

    1. KimSKim: I’ll tell you more about my food poisoning when I see you in person.

  4. You’re wonderful. Thank you for continuing your blog. I love hearing about your experiences and perspective!

    1. Julie Grover! I miss you. Many is the time I think, “Julie would laugh.” A meal when I return.

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