Way late in the week post

Well there is a first time for everything and for me it's posting well into the week instead of my normal Monday deadline. Caulk it up to full time documentary/photography school schedule.

I am right in the throws of completing a multi-media project so can't write tons. Seems to be a theme as a I transition from Dhaka to the US.

Plans are in the works to nail down my three documentary projects and look for work post-school this spring. But for now I must get back to photoshop then most importantly dinner!

-For now

My old familiar home

Two weeks and entering my third since I left Bangladesh to begin my switch from volunteer to photojournalist. It's snowing outside and I realize that winter didn't seem real to me until now. My brain is spilt between the snowy scene out my window and that of the one I woke up to every day in Dhaka.

The program I chose to participate in has already proven well worth my time. I plan on talking about it more in future posts but for now I'm still caught between the world I left, the world I am in, and the one I want to enter in to.

Dhaka, so many miles away, still feels like it could be just around the corner.

Moving forward, moving on

Right. Given the title of this entry one can guess, assume, or draw several conclusions all of them near, far, or right on the dot as to what has unfolded over the past few weeks.

The short version is that I left Bangladesh to attend an intensive course in photography/journalism back in my home country. The decision to do so was not easy nor one I took lightly. It was also one that was needed so that I may return to Bangladesh, and other places like it, to better document and report on global issues pertinent to both myself and the world at large.

Prior to leaving Dhaka I had the opportunity to have an Oped piece be published by the Christian Science Monitor. The link to that article is here. It was a great opportunity to say good-bye (for now) to a place I plan on returning to for many years.

The blog will continue on so check-in every Monday as while the location of my writing has changed the subject matter and emphasis of the blog has not.

-From my newest location to yours be well.

A (thought) Development- Part Four: All said and done

IV. The countries population continues to grow by roughly 2% each year. Under current population projections Bangladesh will see its boarders fill to an estimated 190 million people by 2025 and a larger population of 231 million people by 2050. Trying to fathom the first 150 million people already existing in this tiny country is like trying to count a sack of pennies while in the front row of Metallica concert of as 747 lands over your head. It’s just not going to happen. Dhaka is a vibrant pulsating city. The streets are filled with Rickshaws as colorful from the first days of Technicolor movies- saturated and overdone. At night, the only chance to dart around from shop to shop without gaining the attention of dozens of onlookers seeing a foreigner walk down the street, the city changes tone dramatically. Calls for the evenings last prayers from the mosques reverberate off of the buildings. Neon bulbs from the markets become beacons for last minute shopping. One is all of the sudden left with the overwhelming sensation of trying to deal with a day of never ending noises, people insistently asking you “where are you from”, “what is your name”, and dodging traffic.

A (thought) Development - Part Three

III. Dhaka is a vibrant pulsating city. The streets are filled with Rickshaws as colorful from the first days of Technicolor movies- saturated and overdone. At night, the only chance to dart around from shop to shop without gaining the attention of dozens of onlookers seeing a foreigner walk down the street, the city changes tone dramatically. Calls for the evenings last prayers from the mosques reverberate off of the buildings. Neon bulbs from the markets become beacons for last minute shopping. One is all of the sudden left with the overwhelming sensation of trying to deal with a day of never ending noises, people insistently asking you “where are you from”, “what is your name”, and dodging traffic.