Stood there invisible in the panicking crowds
Sometimes I think I have nothing to write about...everything that has happened in the last month is run-of-the mill stuff that I've been doing for a year and a half now, so I must have told you already. But then someone from North America mentions that most things I write about are new and novel and strange, and it is just I who have become over-accustomed to life here. So I will continue - But if any of ya'll have special requests on specific topics write and ask, and then I'll have better ideas, maybe...
It is great fun to have new people in town. In this last month we had some visitors associated with our child survival program come for a visit. It gives a wonderful perspective on things that are new, or at least novel, about life here. One of my favorite things to do with visitors it take them into "Old Dhaka," an area that dates back to the pre-mogul period (aka, REALLY OLD.) Its part tourist attraction, but completely and absolutely lived in, with very few tourists, so maybe tourist attraction is the wrong term
Old Dhaka is pre-motorized vehicle, so the streets are narrow. However, this does not stop construction. Whenever a little more space is needed bricks are carried in on the back of a flat rickshaw-like vehicle and a new story is built onto an existing building. Then the electricity is added from whichever wire is most (least?) convenient. Reports say this is the most densely populated part of Bangladesh, a country that is already the most densely populated country in the world.
Old Dhaka has a colorful history with relics left over from many of the different eras Dhaka has experienced. There is an old Armenian church from the days when Armenian traders came to trade and settle. This church no longer has regular services, but hosts special services at Easter and Christmas. There are several spectacular mosques that are still used regularly and thus kept up well. Nowdays it's populated largely by Hindus.
This shop is full of Hindu essentials. Above my head are paper wedding hats. The groom wears them in every Hindu wedding. Behind me are packets of teeps, the red fuzzy dot people wear between their eyebrows. In the cabinet you can see stacks of red and white bracelets worn by every married Hindu woman. The white bracelets are made of Conch shells and when her husband dies a woman will break them so they are no longer usable. It is understandably bad luck to accidentally break one's conch bracelets.
The governor's house during the Raj era, known widely as "the Pink Palace". Overlooking the river, this grand bari has been sort of restored to it's former grandeur, giving grand hints at the splendor in which those favored by the British lived. It is an essential stop in the Old Dhaka tour, and the only museum I have been to in Bangladesh.
Old Dhaka is built right on the river. After pushing through crowded streets and the accompanying noise of conversation, rickshaw bells, and horns it is unexpectedly peaceful to hire a small boat and paddle around in the busy harbor. The breeze is refreshing, but the sights no less interesting. We are in a similar boat to the one transporting this trader. The green bundles are paan leaf, which is eaten raw with some betel nut and some lime paste as a local narcotic that even the poorest can afford.
Here's is a "top ten"list of observations some people have made, comparing "home" (developed countries) with Bangladesh, in no particular order:
1) Back home there are no little lizards that live on house walls and chirp all night
2) Back home people tend to drive between the lines of the road, not aim for them
3) Back home taxi drivers don't refuse to take you where you tell them to go once you got in.
4) Nor can you hire street beggars to flag down the cabs. (the kids are more aggressive then we are usually)
5) Back home when it gets to 70 degrees F people dress down to shorts and sun dresses, here if the AC is set below 80 people start shivering, and 70 is cold so as to demand a sweater.
6) Back home you don't have a house guard, a cook/cleaner and a driver.
7) Back home, when it rains hard for two days the streets don't flood to waist high in 2/3 the city
8) Nor do clothes and hats grow mold from the humidity if left in an ordinary cupboard for a week.
9) Back home people don't stare intensely and continuously at every foreigner (do we?)
10) Back home the left blinker means “going left,” the right blinker means “going right”, but “going straight” is not normally signaled by turning on BOTH blinkers.
It is great fun to have new people in town. In this last month we had some visitors associated with our child survival program come for a visit. It gives a wonderful perspective on things that are new, or at least novel, about life here. One of my favorite things to do with visitors it take them into "Old Dhaka," an area that dates back to the pre-mogul period (aka, REALLY OLD.) Its part tourist attraction, but completely and absolutely lived in, with very few tourists, so maybe tourist attraction is the wrong term
Old Dhaka is pre-motorized vehicle, so the streets are narrow. However, this does not stop construction. Whenever a little more space is needed bricks are carried in on the back of a flat rickshaw-like vehicle and a new story is built onto an existing building. Then the electricity is added from whichever wire is most (least?) convenient. Reports say this is the most densely populated part of Bangladesh, a country that is already the most densely populated country in the world.
Old Dhaka has a colorful history with relics left over from many of the different eras Dhaka has experienced. There is an old Armenian church from the days when Armenian traders came to trade and settle. This church no longer has regular services, but hosts special services at Easter and Christmas. There are several spectacular mosques that are still used regularly and thus kept up well. Nowdays it's populated largely by Hindus.
This shop is full of Hindu essentials. Above my head are paper wedding hats. The groom wears them in every Hindu wedding. Behind me are packets of teeps, the red fuzzy dot people wear between their eyebrows. In the cabinet you can see stacks of red and white bracelets worn by every married Hindu woman. The white bracelets are made of Conch shells and when her husband dies a woman will break them so they are no longer usable. It is understandably bad luck to accidentally break one's conch bracelets.
The governor's house during the Raj era, known widely as "the Pink Palace". Overlooking the river, this grand bari has been sort of restored to it's former grandeur, giving grand hints at the splendor in which those favored by the British lived. It is an essential stop in the Old Dhaka tour, and the only museum I have been to in Bangladesh.
Old Dhaka is built right on the river. After pushing through crowded streets and the accompanying noise of conversation, rickshaw bells, and horns it is unexpectedly peaceful to hire a small boat and paddle around in the busy harbor. The breeze is refreshing, but the sights no less interesting. We are in a similar boat to the one transporting this trader. The green bundles are paan leaf, which is eaten raw with some betel nut and some lime paste as a local narcotic that even the poorest can afford.
Here's is a "top ten"list of observations some people have made, comparing "home" (developed countries) with Bangladesh, in no particular order:
1) Back home there are no little lizards that live on house walls and chirp all night
2) Back home people tend to drive between the lines of the road, not aim for them
3) Back home taxi drivers don't refuse to take you where you tell them to go once you got in.
4) Nor can you hire street beggars to flag down the cabs. (the kids are more aggressive then we are usually)
5) Back home when it gets to 70 degrees F people dress down to shorts and sun dresses, here if the AC is set below 80 people start shivering, and 70 is cold so as to demand a sweater.
6) Back home you don't have a house guard, a cook/cleaner and a driver.
7) Back home, when it rains hard for two days the streets don't flood to waist high in 2/3 the city
8) Nor do clothes and hats grow mold from the humidity if left in an ordinary cupboard for a week.
9) Back home people don't stare intensely and continuously at every foreigner (do we?)
10) Back home the left blinker means “going left,” the right blinker means “going right”, but “going straight” is not normally signaled by turning on BOTH blinkers.
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