Sinister: First impressions of Bangladesh

[Amy Skelton]

Dear Sinister,

These were my thoughts after just over a month in Bangladesh. It started off 
with hree weeks of VSO induction training (I'm on their Youth for 
Development scheme - see the archives) and two weeks in my placement I'm 
pretty settled and definitely still glad to be here. So much has happened 
and although this letter is long I haven’t gone into even half of my 
experiences during October – it just gives you an idea.

ATMOSPHERE

After taking a few steps out of the airport, Dhaka city certainly leaves a 
lasting impression. If you thought London was a hustle and bustle kind of 
city then I can assure you Dhaka is at least ten times as busy. The combined 
noise of rickshaw bells, car horns (drivers here certainly aren’t afraid to 
use them), street vendors and call to prayer from the nearest mosque is a 
little bit crazy at first but it doesn’t take very long to get used to it. 
The first call to prayer of the day starts at 4.50 am and in Ramadan it’s 
about an hour earlier. Bright and early then and in the couple of abodes I 
have had since I got here the mosque (speakers and all) has always been very 
close. It used to wake me up before I was ready but I'm gradually attuning 
to it.
I am now used to the noises of Dhaka so much so that it was very peculiar 
when I went away to Koitta (an hour or so outside the city) last weekend 
with all of its relative silence (although it was blissful) and lack of 
pollution.
As for the heat and humidity I've been acclimatising by walking for at least 
an hour each day. Now that I feel okay with this I'm joining the local mixed 
hash club (the nearest equivalent to a hiking club in Dhaka). I'm going to 
start off by walking and build up on my running so I can eventually run full 
hashes (hopefully).

RELIGION
Now that we’re in the holy month of Ramadan, I've been invited to a few Ifta 
(breaking the fast) parties over the coming weeks by work colleagues. The 
singing coming from the mosque loudspeakers is extra stunning at the moment 
and the special decorations all around the city look marvellous. So, I am 
getting to participate in a fair few Muslim traditions at the moment. I was 
a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get to Old Dhaka for Durga Purja (Hindu 
festival) to see the statues and ceremonies. As the flight here got put back 
it ended up being just after I arrived when my Bangla was so poor I wouldn’t 
have been able to manage properly. I've even gone back to my roots and 
attended a presentation evening in a local Catholic school. I went along to 
watch the traditional dancing etc. when much to my surprise I ended up on 
Bangladeshi television as part of the audience. As for other religions such 
as Buddhism – they are not as prominent in Dhaka city but when you get out 
to the Chittagong Hill Tracts there’s more variation. I'm very keen to learn 
more about the indigenous people of Bangladesh that live in that area. 
Although I don’t want to get into the topic just yet (I’ll probably wait 
until I've been to that part of the country myself)

LANGUAGE
My Bangla is improving fairly quickly. Formal classes at language school 
were just during induction so I'm doing some self-learning at the moment 
with books/tapes etc. I intend to take some evening classes when I think 
I've exhausted the DIY effort. I've got a bit of a deal with a few members 
of staff at work for mutual language learning which works pretty well. If 
all else fails I resort to body language. This came in very handy when the 
cook at work and I tried to have a conversation with each other. Technical 
meetings at work are generally all in Bangla but I can understand about 
10-30% of it and every now and again someone will get me up to speed with 
what is going on. It’s good practice for my listening skills – meetings here 
are a bit mental with people talking in raised voices over each other (very 
quickly). I can follow the meetings well enough to interject with my 
opinion/suggestions and that’s good enough for me.

ABSORBING BANGLADESHI CULTURE

Food and Clothing
As one of my supervisors at work put it “I'm well on my way to becoming an 
honorary Bangladeshi”. I'm getting well practiced at eating using my right 
hand. Although I do still make a fair bit of a mess! I'm really enjoying the 
food here there are a lot of different types of fruit and veg here that you 
can’t get back in the UK. These along with meat (yes including pork - I've 
discovered where the special market for pig products is) fish, rice and dhal 
(contains lots of lentils and spices) is keeping me well sustained. Come to 
think of it my stomach now feels that something is missing if I don’t have 
at least one big portion of rice in a day. I'm also becoming quite partial 
to Sunggara, recipes vary but includes veg, nuts with lovely spices wrapped 
in deliciously fatty batter – I must get the recipe. However, for a girl who 
has a sweet tooth I've discovered something that is just too sweet for me. 
Misti is pretty much just pure sugar and I can’t say that I'm too fond of 
it.
As I expected, I'm really getting into wearing Shalwar Kameez here. It 
consists of along tunic over baggy trousers with orna (scarf) to cover the 
chest. Having said that there are a few occasions when a desire for western 
clothes sets in.

Exhibitions

During the last couple of weeks I've started my quest to go to museums and 
art galleries for exhibitions to learn more about my new found home. The 
Liberation War Museum really brings home the tragedies that came about in 
the formation of the new independent republic of Bangladesh. It’s such a new 
country in the governance respect (30 years) that I have a lot of belief 
that major changes will happen to reduce the amount of corruption here. How 
long it will take to educate enough people to make it so is anyone’s guess.

On a completely different note I attended a superb textile traditions of 
Bangladesh exhibition. It had everything from antique (several hundred year 
old) Samdani (rated as the most desirable material over the years) saris 
through to contemporary designs using various traditional methods along with 
mixtures of jute, cotton and silk. There are a lot of other things going on 
that I hope to get to.


TOURISTY STUFF
I'm not planning on taking much holiday for the next couple of months until 
I feel like I've really got to grips with my placement work. An opportunity 
too good to miss comes around next month – I'm going with work to Chittagong 
city so I plan to take a break afterwards to explore the hill tracts, 
Bandarban etc.! My Bangladesh tourist hit list includes many other places 
but particularly Sundarban (beautiful mangrove area in the south-west with 
rare monkeys and plants) Cox’s Bazaar region (south-east) and Sylhet area 
(north-west). I plan to go to India a few times as well. As for other parts 
of South Asia – it depends on money and time – I’ll see what I can manage.


EVERYTHING IN THE GARDEN ISN’T ALWAYS ROSY – BUT BAD SPELLS DON’T LAST LONG
Things that I hope I don’t get used to during the year include (as I feel I 
would lose some of my engineering/personal integrity if I did) are the 
problems with human rights here, pollution, along with the lack of health 
and safety practice. My mind has been fairly calm with regards to staring. 
As it’s not considered rude in Bangladeshi culture then you just have to 
tolerate it, after all it’s not threatening but just pure curiosity.
As you would expect over the month there have been a few minor ‘mishaps’ 
learning things the hard way. Hey, no-one said living in a developing world 
city was always going to be easy and I'm still in one piece!

A few accommodation issues are now being sorted. I wasn’t v. happy in the 
guesthouse that my boss put me in after induction finished – access to 
kitchen and in/out building proved extremely problematic. I'm now going back 
to the joys of a shared flat in the not too distant future – hurrah! Where 
it will be yet again easy to welcome visitors….

The negative things all float into the background compared to all the 
positive things that have already happened and what I think is just round 
the corner. Expect another missive in a few weeks. In the meantime please 
let me know what you’re up to.

As for WORK I'm enjoying it so far. I’ll let you know more about it next 
time!

CONTACT DETAILS

As an alternative to my email address(es) should you desire to send post 
then please use the following postal box address: -

Amy Skelton
c/o VSO Bangladesh
GPO Box 406
Dhaka 1000
BANGLADESH

Note that letters usually take about a week to get here and they generally 
get through okay.
Parcels are subject to customs checking and hence in this country things can 
go into a (not so) mysterious void. However, the best way to get round this 
seems to be to get the post office to not only staple the package but to WAX 
SEAL it so that any tampering would be very obvious. Things are a lot less 
likely (if at all) to go missing with wax seals. Parcels can take anything 
from (the norm of) a week to a few months (unusual) to get through. Don’t be 
put off by this too much though as the majority of things do get through. 
I'm just telling you how it is – make your own mind up.

As for a telephone I'm considering getting a new mobile here with the help 
of a Bangladeshi friend to make things easier/safer for me with the time 
difference etc. plus convenient for keeping in touch with my newly found 
friends in Bangladesh!

PHOTOS
The first of these will be online soon – I will let you know as soon as I 
get round to doing this!

Take care,

Amy

_________________________________________________________________
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