A Bangladeshi Barn Dance

>> 18 Dec 2008

You might think that being in a Muslim country where it's warm and they've never even heard of cranberry sauce, we'd miss all the excitement leading up to Christmas. Well you'd be wrong. I'm very pleased to say that the temperature has now dropped, the sky is grey and misty, there's fairy lights all over the place and we've got our Christmas decorations up - yay! So now feeling fully festive.

When I say the temperatures dropped, what I mean is it's gone down to a very pleasant 17 C but of course for the locals that means scarves, hats, jumpers - the full works! It actually does feel pretty chilly cause we're not getting that much sun and there's a lot of mist around but I suppose compared to the cold spell you've been experiencing it's nothing drastic.

Anyway, irrespective I think this weather's great - much easier to get into the festive spirit when it's grey and misty outside.

We went to the British club last night and managed to have a roast turkey dinner with home made mince pies to finish, accompanied by festive Christmas tunes playing in the background and lovely tacky Christmas decorations.

Tonight I've been making paper chains to add to our Christmas decorations, so our apartment is all dressed and ready for the occasion. I'm also told you can buy Christmas trees from the other side of town and even tacky flashing light things and tinsel and stuff - home away from home. I'm not sure we'll go that far but it's nice to know we can find a little corner of Christmas even here in Dhaka.

Anyway, enough of my Christmas ramblings... on to the subject of the Blog.

On Tuesday it was Victory Day here, which is where the locals were celebrating the anniversary of their victory over Pakistani rule following a 9 mth war, which ended on 16th December 1971. So for us that meant a day off work and for the locals it meant a day of flag waving, song singing and general merriment.

In the evening one of the international schools had their staff end of year party and so Andy was asked to lead a barn dance - clearly his Barn Dance calling reputation has preceeded him! So, being accompanied by a colleague on the violin and a Barn dance CD we all engaged in a bit of dosie-doeing and the occasional right-hand star. Needless to say it was lots of fun - definately not something we expected to be doing in Bangladesh.

Since then it's been a gradual wind down at the office as more and more people leave for their Christmas vacations.

We're off ourselves on the 23rd up to Sylhet, which is on the East side of the country and is said to be the coldest part of the country - yay! I never thought I'd say this but I was actually starting to miss the cold (...well slightly). The region we're going to is also the tea garden region, so is supposed to be very picturesque. We're going with the local church that we have been attending, so we're expecting a very Bangladeshi experience - we're not holding out much hope for turkey and stuffing but there might be the chance of the odd carol here and there.

There's also quite a lot of activity in relation to the forthcoming election, which is due to take place on 29th December. This election is quite a big deal over here because there's been a caretaker government in place for the past 2 years and for the majority of that time the country has been under emergency rule, so this will be the first time in 2yrs that there's an elected government in place. As a result there's a lot of demonstrations, loudspeakers chanting some election manifesto and tonnes of flyers and posters everywhere with the faces of the political leaders in place. There's nothing dangerous about the activities (in case you were wondering) but it's certainly something you can't avoid witnessing.

Anyway, hope all the Christmas plans are going well and you're all in good festive spirits.

We'll try and put up another posting before we go away.

Love Nic (and Andy) x

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T-I-G-G-E-R (Grrrrr)

>> 14 Dec 2008

So, as mentioned on our previous blog we have just returned from a lovely 5 day cruise in the Sundarbans, which is an area in the South of the country where lots of rivers connect and feed into to the Bay of Bengal.

Our trip started on Monday 8th December with a short internal flight to Jessore (only 35 mins) in the evening and then a minibus transfer to Kulna town, where we boarded our boat.

The boat slept 12 people but there were only 7 of us on board, which worked out well for us. The boat was a lovely steel ship with an engine room and crew area downstairs, the passenger sleeping area on the next level of the boat and then a dining area, outdoor bit and steering cabin on the next level.

Once we had found our cabin we had an evening meal on board and got to know our fellow passengers a bit whilst cruising a short distance to a quiter spot where we anchored for the night.

The following day we started cruising at about 8. At about 11 we stopped at a village where we had to pick up some passes from the Forestry Commission in order to enter the forest areas of the Sundarbans. This gave us the opportunity to have a wander around the village and see the final part of the Eid sacrificing, which was interesting.

The rest of the day was spent cruising, reading and sunbathing - it's a hard life!

The following day we got up early (5.30am!) for a cruise into one of the creeks adjoinging the main river on a wooden river boat - very similar to the gondolas you see in Venice. We were hoping to see the Royal Bengal Tiger but I think he must have been very shy because even after the 3rd morning of these early morning cruises the closest we got was a roar on the first morning! However, we were privileged to see all sorts of amazing wildlife - crocodiles, dolphins, snakes, lizards, beautiful kingfishers, eagles, egrets, herons, monkeys, kites, woodpeckers.

After our morning cruise we had breakfast and then we went over to an island for a stroll around the beach, a mud bath and a swim in the water (see the video for some footage of Andy really embracing the whole mud bath thing in style)!

In the afternoon after some lunch and a bit more cruising we went for a walk around the Mangrove forests. Mangroves are trees that are able to grow in salty conditions and the roots stick up out of the ground, pointing towards the sky, to allow oxygen intake. This was also really fascinating because we were able to see the devastating affects of the cyclone that struck at the start of the year, which swept everything from trees to houses up in it's path.

During our walk we were also on Tiger watch and managed to see some footprints and poo but no sightings of the actual tiger (some of the more sceptical amongst us were convinced that the tour guide were going ahead of us imprinting the paw marks into the ground to keep us tourists happy!)

We also saw the areas where the Brits manufactured salt by extracting it from the sea water and then sold it to the Indians, so not only did we have wildlife but we had history as well!

The following day after another early morning cruise we went for a walk through the lush green areas of the Sundarbans to a beautiful unspoilt beach. The walk was lovely, very pictoresque and we saw some beautiful butterflies dancing in the air, a gorgeous baby otter and some not-so-beautiful wild boar (although beautiful in their own special way I suppose).

On the beach we went for a swim, played footie and strolled around on the lovely cool sand - ummm, total bliss!

In the afternoon we headed back for Kulna, via a few pretty creeks and such things.

On our final morning we went for another tiger spotting creek trip and this time we saw a lot of local fisherman out catching shrimp and crabs. This was really interesting as well because they live on the tiny river boats for about a month at a time, sometimes with their young apprentice sons, during the good fishing season and then return back to their village. A very different way of life!

So, in the afternoon we arrived back at Kulna where we took a car ride to the airport and then had a short flight back to Dhaka.

All in all a great trip with wonderful food, good company and amazing scenery; so great to see the different ways in which God's hand is at work and how creative he was in forming His creation.

We now feel very well rested and have even got a bit of a sun tan - not bad for a 5 day trip.

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To moo or not to moo, that is the question...

Well, for the more observant amongst you, you will have noticed that it's been over a week since our last posting - apologies for this but we have been off on our hols, taking advantage of the Eid break.

Since our last posting the second Eid (Eid-ul-Fitr) has occurred and it took place on Tuesday 9th December.

This Eid is a much more sombre affair than the last Eid and basically involves the sacrifice of either a cow or goat (depending on your wealth) by each family. So, during the lead up to Eid, Dhaka became one big cattle market with massive temporary markets being set up around the city for people to buy and sell their choice sacrifice. Many trucks were entering the city stocked with cattle and it was a common site to see people walking their newly-purchased animal down the road to take back home.

The animals were all dressed very nicely with garlands of flowers round their necks blissfully ignorant of their fate.

Once purchased the animals were stored in the car port of apartment buildings, or attached to fences by the side of the road in front of buildings, or in peoples' apartments (if it's a goat that is - bit tricky to get a whole cow in the lift!)

Our building was no exception - we had a couple of cows and goats in the car port waiting to greet us one morning and some token pieces of hay for them to sleep in. During the lead up to Eid the guards would take the cattle for a little wander in the field opposite our building, so I'm pretty sure they enjoyed their last few days.

Along our road there were loads and loads of goats tied to railings and gates etc - our area is not as wealthy as other areas, hence the goats rather than cows - which was an interesting site to behold.

On Eid day the animals would be sacrificed either in the car ports, in peoples' apartments, or in one of the 12 designated sacrifice areas distributed across the city. There has been a recent ban on sacrificing on the road, due to the amount of mess is creates and hygiene implications and there are strict rules on cleaning up after the sacrifice. In the villages most people would sacrifice inside, or just outside their homes.

Once the sacrifice has occurred the meat is then divided into 3 - 1 portion is for the family, 1 portion is for the poor and 1 portion is for friends and other relatives. As you can imagine beef is on the menu for quite a while after that.

As we were on holiday at the time of Eid we missed the actual sacrificing but we understand it was quite eventful.

The Eid break was 3 days from the 8th - 10th Dec. The 8th is used to prepare for Eid. All the shopping should have been done the day before and then the 8th is simply used for preparation and then the day after Eid is for spending time with the family. Many people leave the city and return to their home village to spend time with their families, so Dhaka was pretty empty (well relatively).

On our last day in the office before Eid we had a pretty eventful day. One of our colleagues managed to drop the large fish bowl on his wrist (ouch). He severed an artery and a few tendons but thankfully he got to hospital in time to ensure that the damage wasn't too serious.

The whole hospital system is wierd here in that you kind of choose your hospital and go to that - it's not really a case of going to the nearest one and each hospital has it's own ambulance service.

We managed to get our colleague into a really nice private hospital and having been to visit him the following day I can confidently say that it puts our English hospitals to shame - the wards were very clean and quiet, plenty of staff on hand and the beds were nicely spread apart from adjacent beds. I suppose that's what you get when you pay privately.

Our colleague is now making a good recovery and should get full movement back in his fingers within the next few weeks.

Oh, in case you were wondering, Mr Bean and Mr Bond (the 2 fish) survived the initial breakage but sadly we arrived at the office this morning to find that Mr Bean had snuffed it - must have been a case of delayed shock!

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