of bus rides and Handicrafts

Yesterday Elliot and I crossed the final frontier in Bangladesh. Well, in terms of transportation that is... I was in the middle of teaching a story about Dick, Jane, Sally, and Spot when Banni busted in the classroom door announcing that we were leaving for Panchbibi right then. The Waid's had to go there to settle some matters with the villagers and said we should meet them there. Because there was no room though, we had to take a bus.

Oh my, the buses in Bangladesh. Ugh, to say the least lol. Brittni, Elliot, Banni, Pollimul (I can't remember his name exactly but he works at Bangladesh on maintaintance), and I travelled to Hili on a rickshaw van to meet the next bus to Panchbibi. These buses are so incredibly beat up, travel at breakneck speeds, and would make Rosa Parks roll over in her grave. Well, we don't fight race and colour so much in this country--it's gender that is so discriminated against. The women have to ride in the very front of the bus and only in the two rows on the right behind the bus driver (they drive on the other side of the road here) no matter how many men are on. In their defense though, a lot more men ride the bus than women so technically they need more room. But I didn't like riding so close to the windshield, knowing that if an accident happens Jehanna goes bye-bye.

On the way to Panchbibi I was squished between Banni and a fairly large Bengali women whose teeth had been rotted out by beetlenut. I don't know if the bus driver was just an exceptional driver or he wanted to drive better because of the three white girls on board, but he actually slowed down when there were villagers and rickshaws on the side of the road. Most buses just blow past these people with no regard for their safety. We arrived to Panchbibi safely in just over 35min for the bargain price of 10tk (about 7cents).

The Waid's weren't done yet with their meeting so the five of us walked around the market, shopping for Christmas presents and souvenirs in general. We found some really good deals and beautiful fabrics for our moms and sisters (yes that includes you Mom and Eden lol). After we were shopped out, we got a hold of Mrs.Waid and she said that the villagers had arrived 2hours late so they were just starting the meeting. So we headed back to the orphanage. Yes, back on the bus again. The second one wasn't as "nice" as the first one, mostly because there was a big hole in the floor next to the driver that was blowing in hot air from the engine right at me. Ick.

As we were driving back to Hili, we passed a bus pulled off to the side of the road. We still don't know exactly what happened but we heard wailing and people were running towards the bus frantically. Banni said a child got hit by the bus probably... So sad how quickly things can change for you here in Bangladesh...

We've been busy this week (apologies to people trying to get a hold of me) helping Mrs. Waid organize things in the Handicrafts room. Bangla Hope employs women to make cross-stitched cards and bookmarks, and embroider tea-towels, pillow cases, and table cloths. The women actually do a fantastic job, but Mrs. Waid has a hard time selling them in the States because this kind of thing isn't so popular anymore. Hence, there is a quite a back-up here in Bangladesh. There are about 70different bookmarks and over 160 cards sitting in that room, scattered between shelves, drawers, and cupboards. It was a mess. As if to make it worse, they were having troubles with the numbers on all the products... So we've had to take EVERYTHING out, one product line at a time, sort them out, decide which ones to keep and which ones to retire, then renumber them and put them away. It's a crazy job. Elliot's been the real trooper, down there all day, every day since Sunday, but I've been helping out a lot too and we were just starting bookmarks this afternoon. I know it will be a big help to Mrs. Waid when it's all done but right now I really want to just walk away and never look back lol.

Tomorrow is American Thanksgiving so I thought I'd say a couple things that I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for Daphne (my wonderful little netbook), my parents and close family, my boyfriend, Shati's cooking, nightly kisses from 16 young boys, Joshua Radin and Ingrid Michaelson, and the contact I'm able to make with people back home, however brief, that shows I haven't been completely forgotten. I hope you find things to be thankful for, some kind of "paper-bag happiness", and get some good food in along the way :)

The Hindu's have their own special holiday starting on Friday. I would call it Black Friday but they call it Eid. For the most part, they slaughter a ton of cows and then poor people walk around from house to house with bags, collecting pieces of meat. It's like Halloween, except there is blood flowing down the streets. I hear in Dhaka all the streets are painted red and a stench until anything you or I have ever had the opportunity to smell arises as the inedible parts of the cow are thrown onto the sidewalk with the rest of the garbage. Apparently here it's not so bad but I still don't like the idea of walking down a street covered in blood... We were invited by a man from town to come to his house Sabbath afternoon to share in his Eid feast. I think we are going but I'm not sure what we will all eat considering the Waid's are vegetarian and I have sworn off meat for the time being. We'll see though... I definitely signed up for an experience by coming to Bangladesh.!

anyways, I'm going to sign off for now, Handicrafts has worn me out...
Happy [American] Thanksgiving!
ami tomake bhalobashi