The ramblings of a stuffed man...

I have had to learn how to eat all over again. In this culture it is sometimes necessary to eat with your fingers. This is an art all on it's own. Managing to get a substancial amount of food in your mouth while also managing to not make a mess takes some practice. If that weren't enough pressure, you also have the custom here where people gauge their guests by how much they eat. Bengali women will literally stand there while you eat and put more on your plate if you get less than half a plate left. If you refuse food, it is an insult to them. This makes eating as a guest at someones house a tricky prospect. We have learned a few strategies so far. One is to get a fair amount of rice and spread it all around your plate, this makes it seem like you have/ have had more than what the reality is. It also helps to continually compliment the cook on the deliciousness of the meal. Accept some more, you almost certainly cannot get away from this. Take a small amount the first time so that the second plate doesn't seem impossible. Finally, when you are sure you are done, put your hands over your plate palms down. Being that you are a foreigner they usually surprised that you know to do it and laugh. They honestly get the point that you are done and I haven't had anyone get upset with me yet, so I think that's ok.

That said we were the guests for both lunch and supper today. For lunch we went to our friend Russel's house. He is a friend through a friend in at the office here. We at that meal at 1:30. There was beef in every single dish but the raw vegtable medley (the Bengali version of a salad). That usually involves mostly cucumbers and tomatoes. This made for a heavy meal. Then we had another meal at 6:30 at the house of one of the heads of Prokritee. Prokritee is the company that was started by MCC that supplies Ten Thousand Villages with handcrafted goods. This was at 6:30. I was still completely stuffed from lunch. I forced myself to down one big plate slowly and bowed out quietly. Now I am incredibly tired. I'm not sure I'll even be hungry by lunch tomorrow.

Also, it should be noted that meal times are different here too. We usually eat lunch at 1pm and supper at around 8pm. A regular Bengali tends to prefer their lunch at 3pm and supper at 9 or 10 pm. It hasn't been too much of an issue for us.

Oh, I guess I should also mention the reason for the invites to meals. The past two days have been holidays here. The reason was because of Eid, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Adha) read that article if you want to know more. That is also why we had so much beef at Russell's house. It's a pretty big deal here. Everyone goes back to their home village for the celebration. That has meant that Dhaka was really quiet for the past couple of days. I've heard it estimated that as much as 10 million people leave Dhaka for Eid. I don't think it was that much but it was a lot. So yeah, read the wiki article.

I'm really sleepy now. Goodnight and enjoy the cold back home (if that's where you are).

Phil