Hamida Goes to Cooking School
January 19, 2009

We decided to send Hamida to an Italian cooking school to increase her food repertoire. We told her that we would pay for the classes and if she learned well and did a good job of preparing food for us for three months we would increase her salary by 1,500 Tk/ month (which is a significant increase in salary for her!) She was extremely excited by this. I think that cooking is her favorite part of her job and she likes learning how to cook new things. She was also very happy about the prospect of increasing her salary, so she told us that she would work really hard and learn the new menu.

Today was her first class. I was quite surprised to learn that the class was entirely in English because we were told that there would be someone there to translate into Bangla for her. The foreign language didn't seem to phase Hamida though. She was very excited by the class and told us that she was trying very hard to learn. She proudly showed me her new Italian cookbook (which thankfully is in both Bangla and English) and pointed out which items she learned to cook today.

Normally Hamida works from 8am-1pm and then goes home. Since we really depend on her now, it would be very troublesome for her to go without working for two weeks, so she will now go to school in the morning and then come to our house in the afternoon to do her regular chores. Tomorrow she will cook her first Italian meal for us. I am so excited!