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Still no survey

It's looking like my research will be combined with a larger study conducted by BU-IED. This may mean things take longer to get going as it's a big project. Still, hoping at least to get out of the office for some preliminary informal interviews and to talk to other researchers a bit, and to start thinking about study sites. The BU-IED survey will cover around 2000 households in 4 slums. One of them will be the huge Karail slum mentioned below.

In the meantime, more photos of unsafe construction sites and everyday life...

We found this tarantula on the kitchen wall and decided to leave it there, in the hope that it will catch some of the mosquitos. To be honest though it seems better equipped for small mammals. It doesn't bother with a web, preferring to wait for something worth jumping on.

There are also a couple of camera-shy geckos which we hope won't get eaten by the spider.

Me outside the flat, trying to hear the mobile over the traffic noise.

Kids playing in the (somewhat unclean) lake near Karail.

Not kidnapped just lazy

Thanks to everyone who has complained about me not posting anything here. Hope you haven't been put off and stopped checking. The first month was allocated to settling in, learning some basic Bengali, finding a place to stay and being ill. All four of these tasks now completed, I can start looking towards starting my research. In the mean time here are some pictures from the my daily journey from the training centre where I've been staying to my Bengali language school.




The training centre (and also the Institute for Educational Development) are in Niketan, which according to my 2004 Lonely Planet map is part of a big lake, but is now a huge construction site full of unsafe-looking bamboo scaffolding.


Large gates punctuate the journey - these seem to function partly as a zoning system for the city's rickshaws.

The next part of the journey is a series of market lanes.
Taking this photo caused a retinue of small children to gather around and follow me for the next half hour.
Emerging from the market area onto the congested main road at Mohakali





Further on I cross the land-filled bridge through Bonani Lake, surrounded by slum housing and with a few skyscrapers visible through the heavy smog. The city's largest slum, Karail, with over 100,000 residents, is near here, although this slum is apparently being cleared.

New flat

Moved in on Friday to this new, wastefully huge and slightly under-furnished flat in Bonani. The photos don't do justice to the echo-y expanses of empty space. Had to find somewhere quickly and this place was available for short let and reasonably priced, but yes, there are some contradictions involved in doing slum research whilst living in a flat that has a laundry room bigger than most people's entire dwellings.

Visa

Got my visa, after 3 trips to London. Since it was really hard to find information about visas in advance, the following might be useful for others getting visas for Bangladesh in the UK...

There are at least four types of visa: tourist, business, research, and student. Tourist visas seem the easiest to get, are for up to 2 months, and I don't think anything is required - although according to the High Commission website you need something like a letter confirming your reservation with a hotel. For a business visa (up to 6 months) you need a letter confirming you work for a UK company, and possibly a letter from a company/organisation in Bangladesh as well. For a student visa I think you just need a letter of invitation from the university in Bangladesh. For a research visa you need a letter from the Bangladesh Ministry of Education. I asked for a research visa but was gently persuaded to apply for a student visa instead... I complied not wanting to quibble about whether my primary purpose is really 'research' or 'study'. Student visa options were single-entry 3 months (around £40), double-entry 6 months (around £50), or multiple entry 1 year (around £70 I think). Be prepared for multiple trips to the Commission.

A somewhat stressful last day in UK, packing and hauling my stuff in to the loft took most of the day, still have a few things to do and might try to get a few hours sleep before my 4.40am taxi.

Introduction

I'm going to Dhaka, Bangladesh in just under two weeks to do research for my DPhil which is on how households in slum areas make decisions about their children's schooling. I'm going to use this blog as a research and general journal and place to upload photos.

My DPhil is with the Centre for International Education, Sussex University, UK, and in Bangladesh I will be working with the Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University.

My draft research proposal (pdf) / summary (pdf).

This is near where I'll be staying: