Eid Mubarak

Don’t worry…I’m still alive.

Seriously, life in Bangladesh is back in motion again after a temporary freeze for the Eid-ul-Futir holiday. I was out of town for most of it with no access to a computer, so I haven’t been posting as regularly. One of my buddies who frequently checks my blog (and shall remain anonymous) was worried that I might have been kidnapped or gone off and eloped with a Bangladeshi boy—an even worse fate according to some members of my family.

The holiday was a nice break for me. Most people fled from Dhaka back to their gram bari, or village home, so the streets were nice and (relatively) empty. Last Thursday I headed out with my Aussie pal Nickie and did some of the fun “touristy” stuff. We visited the famous Pink Palace, took a little wooden boat around the Buriganga River, and strolled down the vibrant Shankaria Bazaar, semi-affectionately called “Hindu street” (word to my peeps). It was really fun, and I was glad to be out of the “foreigner bubble” I felt like I’d been living in for a while.

The rest of the time was spent in Narayanganj, a small city/urban village one hour south of Dhaka. My maternal grandfather was born and raised there, actually. My great grandfather was a judge in the Narayanganj high court. I was hanging out with Katie’s family, a fellow American and Fulbrighter who is married to a Bangladeshi man and has their small son with her. Her husband is roughin’ it alone in Minnesota while Katie is living with her in-laws in the eastern part of Bangladesh.

Katie is HARDCORE. She is a full-time Mom, a researcher, and does her own laundry (which in Bangladesh, is a task akin to making bread from scratch in the US). On top of all this, she has learned to speak Bangla completely on her own, and puts my baby Bengali talk to shame. I had fun with Katie and her family. I must admit though, we had a few rough night’s sleep, given the prevalence of loud and out-of-tune mosque singers in their neighbourhood, and a bed that was (in her son’s words) like “a hard, hard toast.”

I shall continue this long post in another installment. Stay tuned, and Salaam Alekum.