THOUGHS ON MY WAY TO BANGLADESH

(These are some thought before my arrival to Bangladesh)

There’re a lot of things that had happened in the last month. Things that have made me think in other things. Everything started when I decided to do my traineeship in Bangladesh. I haven’t even arrived yet, but here are some of those things that are going to be written just because I need to take them out of my system.

1. International mobility is not easy, especially if you were born in the southern hemisphere.

My first task after being matched with a TN in Bangladesh was to get a visa. It was, sadly with not too much surprise, that I discovered that there’s no Bangladesh embassy - not only in Colombia, but - in any country of Latin- America.

The closest one to my city is in Washington, which is how I decided to spend a couple of days in the US. Issuing a multiple visa to Bangladesh takes longer than one day (opposite to what it says in the Embassy’s webpage), and those couple of days visiting my aunt in Virginia became a week.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I had an amazing week in the US. But it doesn’t keep me away from thinking: ¿What if I didn’t have an America visa? ¿How much would I have to pay to a travel agency for doing my paper work? And most importantly ¿Shouldn’t it be easier to travel from country to country? ¿Shouldn’t it be easier for those who want to understand the world from a different perspective?

It’s sad that we have so much technology to connect the world virtually and get to know things in real time from all the corners. But when you want to see them on your own, sometimes it is just NOT POSSIBLE.

2. Immigration officers should not hit on foreign visitors!

I’ve always felt intimidated by US immigration officers. Not only because of the “karma” that we, Colombians, carry because of drug dealers-image, but also because US officers are big, powerful and sometimes menacing.

Well… this time I run into a big, powerful and flirty one. The guy had pretty gray eyes, tanned skin and even a sexy smile, but when he tried to speak Spanish to ask me if “I’d like to date police officers” I just panicked! Come on, Really? How could be someone who represents law asking me that? I immediately thought it was so wrong and wanted to give him an evil look (like Cueto’s style), but I couldn’t put in risk my legal entry to US. Which is why I just gave him a big fake and flirty smile, pretending like his Spanish was really bad and I hadn’t understand a word. Final result? I got a permit for 130 days (I just needed 5 days).

A friend of mine went through a similar situation the same day in another country across the world with another immigration officer, which made me think that lonely traveler women have to put up some much sh*t. No wonder why my parents get so worried when I travel by myself, we get exposed even with those who are supposed to protect us.

3. I love airports… and New York’s JFK is my favorite so far.

I’ve always like airports, even when I was just a baby. They’re full of people running from one place to another with their busy lives. I can easily spend hours imagining hundreds of stories from the travelers I run by. And add to that the technology show performance, not only in the duty free shops but in the logistics management of the airlines and the airports themselves, trying to make traveler’s life easier (and increase their profits off course). I like airports so much, that I’d be the happiest working-for-free flight attendant (If I was one).

I’ve been in many international airports and always find interesting how you can feel the culture of a city reflected in that single space even when is full with people from different countries. You can always recognize the sophistication in European airports, the technology and sense of perfection of the Asian Pacific ones and the sense of controlled-chaos in Latino lands.

Today I had to make a stop for a few hours in New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, and for the first time in my life I felt like I could be anywhere. Seriously, if I had got in a plane without knowing my destination and ended up in JFK, I’d still be lost. I saw faces of people and listened to languages from every corner of the world in the 20 minutes I spent in the security line. The environment is not too fancy-western, not too techno-asian and neither too chaos- latino (in my opinion). It’s like it has been made to make every culture feel comfortable. This must be the reason of why NYC is the so accurate called “world’s capital”. Some friends told me once that if they had to pick me up a city to live it would be NYC… it seems like they were right!

4. Dubai’s international airport is like an E.T.'s port:

If in JFK you can see faces from every corner in the world in Dubai you can see like they’re coming from another planet. In this 8 hours stop, I felt like an extra in a scene of Bruce Willie’s “The Fifth Element” when he goes to the space-ship’s airport… everyone looks so different from each other.

I got to see fundamentalist women in their black only-see-my-eyes “burkha”, next to a super sexy Korean girls dressed in high-heel boots and miniskirts. I saw business Indian men in their Armani suits sitting next to a Japanese young family in their vacation outfits. In the airport you could find shops from the most famous designer’s brands and more departure gates than they actually used. I definitely didn’t know what luxury was until I came here.

I wondered if this is how the future is supposed to look like… I hope it isn’t. It was a little weird experience, and made me think how huge and diverse Asia is, so different from Latin-America. So exotic, that it made me glad I got the opportunity to have this experience. And so different, that it made me miss my country at the same time.

5. Final arrival to Bangladesh… how did I get here?

On the waiting room of my final flight to Dhaka I have to admit I got a little bit scared. Not because of the fact that I’m all alone in the other side of the world, but because there were only men in the gate. I never thought too much before on how my experience could be influenced by the fact that I’m a woman, raised in a totally different culture and different religious believes. I thought I could learn all these things through my exchange and here, right in the plane, it was my first lesson: “Martha… how do you feel surrounded only by men?” (Yeah… fucking scared!).

I had the fortune to be sited next to a foreigner, and what a surprise when we found out we both were from Colombia AND from Cali! What are the chances that something like that happen? One in a BILLION? This was definitely a present from a higher power because it made me more comfortable to talk with someone in Spanish before arriving.

The arrival to Dhaka airport was not scary a lot, was just the feeling of starting a new chapter in your life… like going to a new school in a different town: don’t know what to expect. Let’s see how it goes… would I like Bangladesh? Or would I be praying to go back home ASAP?