In and out with a Bang...

This past week had two big events that book-ended the week.

The first was a big disagreement with my roommate. I'm not going to go into details but we both talked about it later and agreed that being in Bangladesh for 8 months without taking a vacation probably hasn't helped. It is also worth noting that doing a communal living situation while also adjusting to a new culture isn't easy. I think it's safe to say that things are going much better now. A mistake doesn't become a problem unless you refuse to correct it, right?

After that I got to join a couple co-workers for the first mediation seminar that our program did. It was a great thing to see. They essentially brought together the local people who would deal with small conflicts and had a discussion about peace with them. They were all very excited about it which was very encouraging to see. Unfortunately, who knows whether the rubber will hit the road on that one when it comes to these guys actually acting on their new knowledge. This is Bangladesh, where corruption is king and breaking loose of that world is extremely difficult.

Later in the week I got to work on a meal plan for a 4 day workshop. I never thought it would be as much of a headache as it was. Putting together meals with people from 4 different countries and very different cultures is difficult in a country that seems to think that rice and oil are the only major food groups that should be at every meal. We did our best and then handed it over to a co-worker who understands creating healthy meals better than us. I am extremely grateful to him for taking the revision on. I fear it could be difficult.

Some other stuff happened at work.

Then I decided to make a road trip. A couple of months ago I visited Piergacha. While I was there I said I would return sometime during pineapple season. Well, it is pineapple season and I needed to go. I didn't really feel like spending the time or the money being there for an entire weekend. So I decided to make it a one day trip. Friday morning I got up at 5 because I know there is a bus that leaves for that direction at 6. It turns out that it goes at 7 now because of the time change. It seems that everyone has pretty much ignored the government changing the time which completely defeats the purpose of them changing it in the first place. I finally got my bus after an hour of waiting. I got some sleep on the bus and it was highly refreshing. Unfortunately, the bus conductor forgot me when it came to my stop and the rains had changed it enough that I didn't recognize it. We were about 5km past my stop when he realized it. He ended up dropping me off with some federal police at their stand watching the road. They put me on the next bus heading back to where I was going. In the process of this I saw them taking a bribe. They stopped the bus and immediately the bus conductor came out and shook the policeman's hand. I just happened to notice that as he shook the policeman's hand he also slipped him some money. (This was before he knew why the policeman was stopping him.) I finally did get to the road I needed dropped off at. I got a rickshaw to take me the rest of the way. Unfortunately, the road was fairly muddy and I got dirty on this next section of the journey. I did see a point in the road where a military transport truck and a regular pickup truck were both stuck in the mud because a small bridge was out and they tried going around it. I finally got to their house at about 12. I hung out for several hours and ate way too much pineapple. Then at about 4:30 I started my return journey completely loaded down with two huge bags of pineapples as a gift for the office staff in Bogra. My guess is that they weighed at least 30 lbs each, maybe as much at 40. This wasn't a problem, but the fact that there aren't a lot of buses that head to Bogra in the evening was a problem. I ended up not getting one until around 7:30. It was a local bus. I had to stoop because I was tall enough to touch the ceiling with my head by at least an inch. Fortunately, the seats were far enough apart that I could sit comfortably. Unfortunately, everyone on the bus thought I was the coolest thing ever and proceeded to want to be my best friend. After about 1/2 an hour of this I decided it would be a good time to listen to some music. I put my headphones on during a lull in the conversation. They proceeded to continue trying to talk to me. When they realized I couldn't hear them they poked me to get my attention and then managed to get another 5 minutes of conversation in. They even asked if they could listen to my music with me. I said no and eventually got my headphones back on. This time I did what I've learned is the best trick for buses with annoying people. I pretended to sleep. Eventually, I actually fell asleep and spent the next several hours pretending or actually sleeping. I eventually made it back to Bogra at about 11:20 and was dehydrated. I know that feeling well now. Stomach pains and a headache mean dehydration. Unfortunately, eating way to much pineapple has the same effect as eating too many oranges. My mother used to warn us against eating too many oranges but never said anything about pineapple. If you don't know what I'm talking about by now, I'm not going to tell you. I slept very fitfully that night and ended up fighting dehydration all night long. Thankfully, the worst of it was behind me by morning. Which was very good because it was the 4th of July and we decided to celebrate.

The celebration was the other big bang in the Big Bang. We decided we would do hamburgers and have friends over. So we invited the Korean's over. The meal was good but fairly plain because we forgot to get toppings for the burgers. The after dinner entertainment was excellent though thanks to Dave. He managed to find some fireworks and we went outside to set them off. You ever seen those strips of fireworks that do nothing but blow up very violently and make a loud noise? I know that they are illegal in most US states because they can blow up your hand. He got some of those. I mentioned beforehand that they were very dangerous. I was right and we had two close calls with the two bundles we had. Other than that the fireworks worked like a charm and the neighbors all came to their windows to enjoy the show. After the fireworks some people stayed up and watched the movie Independence Day. I watched a bit of it but I headed to bed before it finished because it was past my bed time. I would consider it a very nice 4th of July party considering the circumstances.

This week looks to be a mildy intersting one. I have a business trip to Dhaka in the middle of the week and upon my return we are going to finish up that meal plan. Who knows what else may happen.