Dhaka overwhelms every sense. Bright colors, overwhelming scents, humanity crowding everywhere around you, constant noise. One second you’re breathing in smells of cumin, anise, and masala in the market, and the next you’re trying not to inhale the stench of waste, rotting fruit, or unwashed bodies. As one of the most densely populated cities in the world, every street is packed with cars and pedestrians, with bright yellow rickshaws weaving through the traffic. Because of my work I’m focused on corruption, human trafficking, and violence against women, but as my friend aptly reminds me, if anything is going to happen to us here it’s going to be getting hit in the street. All the cars constantly honk their horns to let everyone know where they are and where they’re going, and before they go around corners (kind of replacing a 4 way stop) and the rickshaws have bells on their bikes. The duet of horns and bells is constant, although sometimes huge thunderstorms will try to drown it out.

 Last weekend we took one of the green auto-rickshaws (kind of like a tuk tuk that runs on natural gas) down to Old Dhaka, where the streets are even narrower and more crowded. We went to an old Mughal fort, a mosque, and a random Armenian church (which of course we had to go to since I’ve visited Armenia and love it). But there is very little infrastructure around tourism. These places were difficult to access and rickshaw drivers or even the people nearby didn’t know where those things were. It was an exhausting experience!

As far as office life, I have fallen in love with my work. I am working on the Bangladesh Counter-Trafficking in Persons project under the prosecution focus. Although trafficking Is huge in Bangladesh, arrests of traffickers is low, and convictions are even lower (0 this year so far). So our job is to figure out the gaps in the legal system where these cases are falling through, and how to address those.

I also get to do some research on enforcement of child marriage laws here. Last fall Bangladesh passed an “updated” child marriage law, which forbids marriages under 18 (females) and 21 (males) and imposes stricter penalties, BUT there is a huge “special exception” clause that opens the door for legal child marriages.

I could ramble forever about all the things I’m learning, but suffice it to say I’m really excited about the projects I get to work on and the research that Winrock is allowing and encouraging me to do personally as well.