Friday, October 07, 2005

I now fully understand every aspect of Bangladeshi culture

Hey, thanks to people for posting. It really does pick my day up to check the ol' blog and see that people have said stuff. I feel like it's a good idea to adapt to this culture without completely letting go of American culture, so as to . . you know, not . . be . . screwy. Cut down on the reverse culture shock maybe.

So. Here's something. Pre-service training is kind of a drag, as any PCV will tell you. It's a lot of dumb seminars that could have been summed up in 10 minutes instead of 3 hours with multiple flip-chart diagrams and small group discussion. SO, for the talent show a few friends and I reworked some scenes from Office Space and fit them to our needs. Brought the house down. That felt good. And it was the right decision to play Ron Livingston instead of trying to do all the super-funny characters. I'm a consummate straight man. I see that now. It took all of this personal growth (gag) for me to reach this (temporary) epiphany.

There was a soccer game between some PCV's who are better at soccer than I and some Bangladeshis -- some of whom play professionally. It was organized complete with advertising (people with a loudspeaker driving around in a rickshaw talking it up -- hilarious) and uniforms. End score was 2-1 to the short guys (B'deshis) but the fun part was the people in attendance: there were riot police. Not that there was a riot, but there were riot police. With big guns. It's weird; in some ways you're way safer here than, say, Chicago, yet somewhere deep inside there's a little dude going "WTF . . get me out of here . . " I pat him on the imaginary head and give him a graham cracker.

During Ramjan (Ramadan - Muslim holy month of fasting), which is now, the Bangladeshis don't eat during the day, and then generally eat pretty good at night. The idea Mohammed had was for people to remember what it's like to be poor. Correspondingly, people give more to the poor during this time. They usually get up at 3 to eat again so they don't go nuts. Some people sleep more during the day. The intent is not to do that and not to eat at 3, but then again who's never slacked off on going to Mass or titheing properly? Way too many people just think Islam is messed up beyond all recognition. The framework of the religion actually does make sense, of course. Even the burkas (the black circus tents some women have to wear that show only their eyes) can make sense. The trick, I think is to decide where to "understand" and where to leave room to criticize. I think we all know that organized Christianity can at times leave something to be desired, like any organization at all, and without room to criticize human dogma, we'd have fascist religion. So naturally, in my humble O, organized Islam's gotta have flaws too. So what to accept and what not to accept . . .

Hey, does anyone want to know anything specific? I guess some people have already asked some questions and I've answered, so that's cool. But I don't wanna just prattle on for my own benefit. I guess it would be nice if other people would post and tell about their lives, but that seems to be asking a bit much for a blog, sort of like asking the world to come to me. So what's a good blog supposed to be like? Should I do shorter posts? Any suggestions?

Shiddi = staircase.

7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

1:53 AM  
Blogger Adam said...

To this day I still have no earthly idea when this guy is telling the truth. Sorry about the Nazi girlfriend, Mike. Next time shop at Wrigley Field. Then the worst of your problems will be that she can drink more beer than you.

If anyone's curious, the replies that have been deleted are just blog spam junk -- nothing big.

12:23 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

1:35 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

ADAM

I've been trying to call you...spent many hours trying to create communication between us, but alas, I am tired of hearing the operator say "Invalid number. Goodbye"

Help me.
Lo

10:11 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

From your previous post, I thought you were upset by your sitemate's period, with her being a girl. Maria explained it for me though. So we're good.
We just moved into our house last week, and it's still a mess but it looks more like a house than not. And today, we got INTERNET! We get to listen to our music again...
Oh, and read this . . . . . . yep.

12:13 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hey Adam, you don't know me, but I ran across your blog today. It's interesting to hear about your experience so far in Bangladesh. I spent 3 months in Dhaka a few years ago tutoring Universtiy students in English. It was probably one of the greatest experiences of my life. I am always interested to hear other people's perspectives on the people and country, so I'm looking forward to reading more.

8:26 PM  
Blogger Adam said...

LO! Argh! Curses aplenty for the infrastructure of telecommunications in and around Bangladesh! It might have something to do with the calling card you're using. I'll try to give you a call, though it may cost me 4 months stipend. And I'll e-mail. Sorry it's all gone awry.

Dave: I'll have to field that one elsewhere than on the blog. I don't know exactly what you'd call me these days . . . and I'm at a loss on the Who Said It. Maybe Paul G. in American Splendor? Bill M. in What About Bob? Woody Allen?

Anonymous: Hi. Nice to sort of meet you. Good ol' Dhaka.

Yeah, the random spam comment-posts are getting annoying. Although I can't complain about the rush of power I feel when I see "this post has been removed by the blog ADMINISTRATOR." Administrator. Woot.

4:16 AM  

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