Jeni as a Bangladeshi

Last night I had set my alarm to 6am. But it’s now 4:30 in the morning in local Dhaka time, and I’m sitting here wide awake. You might guess that it’s the jetlag - not really. the night before my flight I was way too anxious to fall asleep, and during the next 24 hours of my total commute time (3 flights, 2 stopovers), I was, well, again too anxious to fall asleep. So by the time I checked into the guest house and overcame normal arrival jitters, I promptly fell asleep around 11pm local(9am est), while thinking about how upon initial impression, things here were pretty similar to back home - The airport exit process was the same; a car picked me up at the terminal; almost everyone at the guest house spoke English; my room was large, well decorated, equipped with AC, and to my delight - connected to the internet.

At around 4 in the morning, I was awakened by the sound of birds, barking dogs, and an extremely loud quacking duck. As I thought about the peculiarity of this (normally animals begin waking up closer to sunrise, right?), I suddenly heard singing. It was loud, clear, and right outside my window. Admittedly I was a bit startled.  It was in a language I couldn’t understand, and the only thing I could make out was the name "Allah." Then it occurred to me - according to Lonely Planet, Bangladesh is 83% Muslim. This must be the wake-up call to begin the first of their five daily Salahs (Islamic prayers). It lasted a few minutes; afterwards, I pictured families climbing out of bed, washing their hands and faces, beginning their routine prayers.

The animals must have been in prayer too - following the singing there was a brief period of silence.
Then the darn duck started quacking again, and the silence was broken.

I am finally here