weekend

our weekends here are on Friday and Saturday, so church is on Friday, and Thursday afternoon is the big rush to travel, shop.... Last Thursday, I joined these masses to go to Mymensingh where there are 2 other newbies studying Bangla, and an old timer, Reba, who has been here a year and serves as our resident expert and guide! I have to say that maneuvering around a place that not only does not speak English but that has even different numbers is a challenge. Since this was my debut, I had someone take me to the bus station and get me on the bus. Hopefully my Bangla will include necessary vocabulary for this next time, but at the moment it's difficult. I have been paying exhorbatant prices for travel and such because I don't really know the numbers they say, can't bargain, and throw money at them until they seem satisfied. Since drivers are more clever than me, they don't get that face until I've paid double the going rate. So, this weekend I'm devoting myself to numbers. BUT, I was still telling you about last weekend!

I eventually arrived around 7 pm...in plenty of time for Cic's birthday party. Her host family was downstairs cooking a special, rice free meal for her, and she had made a cake as a special treat. Dinner here is typically served between 9:30 and 10:30 pm....Yes, you heard me right....dinnertime is what I consider BEDTIME. By the time food comes, I am typically starving, grumpy, and find graciousness to my host difficult. But, with all the special food, mishti (sweets) and fruit with custard, plus the chocolate cake, on the menu, I was able to be a bit pleasant.

The next afternoon (Friday) we took a rickshaw, bus and bike cart to another MCC house. This is a family that has been here 3 years. They have a one year old (well, we celebrate her birthday NEXT week) who can show you "how big"she is in Bangla and English with equal bravado. Their house is a bit remote, in an indiginous area which is really pleasant and beautiful. Of course, this is after much deforestation and banana tree planting so it must have been stunning before. Here Mondi people live. The women traditionally wear skirts instead of the shalwar kamiz (pants and tunic) and they are matriarchal people....which is refreshing coming from typical Bangla communities where women don't have many rights, and in fact, are often hidden away. They do some beautiful weaving there and I got a great bag, wrap skirt fabric (which may more likely serve as a table cloth), and some towels.

Everyone was excited to go swimming, but I said I hadn't been in Bangladesh quite long enough to get in that water. Brown, green, murky.... But as the heat intensified, it did start to look tempting. We had dinner with the priests and sisters at the mission, and spent the evening at the MCC couples house chatting since the power was out making games or such difficult. They mentioned snakes en route so I tried to get a good nights sleep in spite of an overactive imagination. At one point in the night some dogs were snarling at each other. My first thought was that it must be the dogs like the creatures in Lady in the Lake or whatever that movie was that was out this summer. I hadn't given a thought to that movie and wasn't sure why I'd expect supernatural animals over real ones. Cic said perhaps because my whole life is a bit surreal right now, that I've come to expect that.

Saturday we rode "bikes" to a deer reserve and outlook tower. The bikes are Chinese, heavy, and not real great steering capabilities, so manuevering through the mud was a bit interesting. The view from the tower was beautiful. It's too bad I didn't have my computer to show you.

I had planned to leave that afternoon but had to stay due to political activities in the area. they went swimming again while I worked on my Bangla homework. We had dinner with one of the local families, which meant that it came very late, and I was certainly ready to sleep when we finished eating. Mondi people eat pork and although we had our own food - fish cooked over coals in a small pit and mashed potatos ("bideshi"/foreigner food!) they gave us a taste. Very tasty sauce but the "pork"I had was really just fat which I couldn't quite manage. The fish and potatos were sure good!

To get to my class the next morning, Phillip drove me by motorcycle to a nearby town and I rode the bus to Dhaka. I had just enough time for a quick snack and face wash, and was partically coherent for class after a short night and long (4 hour) journey.

For those of you who send me glimpses of your days/weekends, I sure love it!