More fun observations about the Desh

1. one-day weekend! Friday is the official day off so we work 6 days a week although i heard that a few weeks ago they passed a by-law to change that to a two-day (friday and saturday) weekend... some staff members bargained a little for it at our last meeting so who knows!
2. most of the kleenex is perfumed... you can get men or women’s scented... it really doesn’t help to curb a runny nose
3. some men wear mehndi on their hands on special occasions
4. some Muslim women are traditionally required to wear nose rings once married
5. we only get beef on special occasions cause it’s quite pricey!
6. everyone gives us opposite information, it’s so inconsistent!
7. the spiders here are HUGE but presumably not dangerous
8. if there’s ever any sort of argument on the street like 20 ppl will gather around and get involved; in the end a consensus will be reached by the crowd (i’ve actually seen it happen!)
9. people absolutely adore having their picture taken, at conferences they are camera-crazy, flashes are going off every ten minutes
10. it takes REALLY long to get things done/started here, then again, the subcontinent is where brown standard time started right?
11. if we ask if something is appropriate ppl usually answer ‘ok ok no problem’ with a slight head tilt... it’s really unclear though if it’s really ok or if they’re making concessions cause we’re foreigners!
12. the men here often hold hands as a simple sign of friendship (but you’ll never see a man and a woman holding hands in public)
13. there is a very sharp contrast between wealth and poverty living literally side by side.. i guess that’s the story of all developing countries. For example, we were at the Bangladesh Institute of Management at a training session and we looked outside during our break and there was a small slum right below in the back, where we saw a young girl looking through her mum’s hair for lice... it’s really tragic and just reading about it at school wasn’t enough to understand it
14. everyone has something to sell, whether it’s books displayed by someone for cars stopped at a roundabout or small stalls with bananas on the side of the road or medium sized grocery stores with everything from chips to lightbulbs or fancy air conditioned saree stores... always with male shopkeepers!
15. whenever the muezzim begins the azaan (call to prayer) throughout the day no matter where we are (in a conference or in the street or anywhere) Muslim women immediately cover their heads.
16. there are often strikes and protests here – bangladesh is super politically active – almost everyday you ride past a group where someone is ranting on a loudspeaker
17. everyone loves to sing! They’re always singing, men and women, it’s too cute
18. the funniest thing happened twice to us.. we were at a store and two of us bought something so we said we’d use the same bag and it confused them so much! One of the shopkeepers actually took the second empty bag and put it in the first bag and we had to take it out and give it back, explaining that we didn’t want to waste two bags for so few items and they laughed! In a country where the people lack so much, they want to make use of what they have and splurge when they can...
19. there are always sooooo many stores in a row that carry the exact same thing.. like five or six stores in a row that sell random biscuits, bottled water and chips, a dozen in the same mall that carry salwar kameez, sarees and material, another dozen that carry DVDs... i wonder how they all stay afloat and whether the demand actually meets the level of supply available?? (yes i did an econ minor)
20. one thing we’ve noticed frequently is that people always always always keep their cellphones on and even during meetings they will pick up their phones and talk quietly (which is actually a little loud cause they’re really not capable of whispering)... it’s like completely normal, no one is disturbed by it!