Thursday, October 13, 2005

Saint Anthony

So this past year I hear we (B'desh) tied with Haiti for the world's most corrupt government. Pop the Kriss, man! That's a step up from holding the honor solely for the past several years. Funnily, there's an organization called the anti-corruption agency -- you guessed it: it's the most corrupt agency in the entire government. Let's just say the palm greasing goes on in more ways than one. But then again, last time there was a cyclone here and they had to stuff 7000 people into facilities built for 1000, there wasn't any looting and rioting, like in New Orleans. Yesterday, in a conversation with a friend, we decided that were it not for the constant stares and overabundance of attention we receive here, we'd choose to live in Bangladesh over one of those monotonous USA suburbs.

Smacked a cow with a deftly hit ball during cricket the other day. Ground rule four runs. Unless the cow is killed. Then you die.

The ludicrousness of the requirements imposed on the Peace Corps' training regimen reached a new high yesterday: We had a seminar about a seminar. Yes, we were instructed what the supervisor's conference on Saturday will entail, using bullet points and small-group discussion. It's quite funny, actually. As a friend put it, it's like sitting outside the Library of Congress while someone tries to explain assorted classic novels using a power-point presentation. Apparently it's like this everywhere on Peace Corps.

Went to some students' home for lunch yesterday. As always, mountains of food come from lord knows where, and literally the ONLY way to keep them from putting way too much on your plate is to physically cover it like you're saving your buddy from a grenade. And it's not impolite. I quite enjoy it actually. They take the spoon, dig for about a half pound of rice or curry or whatever, and bring it towards your plate. You duck and cover and go "Na! Na! Aro Na! Amar pet bhore gechhe!" which means "rubber chicken purple monkey! I am forty-seven cheese!" (or something like that) and you hold it there while they try to penetrate your fortress of arm and shoulder with spoon of food. If you don't cover the whole plate, they may sneak it in through one of the holes. Really good food, though. People are really, REALLY nice when they wanna be.

Tabil = Table
ChEr = Chair