No one at Bangla Hope had a valid Indian passport so I had to go across by myself and would meet up with a relative of Nelson's on the other side. (Nelson works in the office here and his wife Rosemary is the nurse here--both are really nice people.) I had no idea how difficult it would be to get across. There are a bunch of houses on either side of the border and I just assumed they were shops. I was wrong! I had to go to the customs office, then cross the road to the immigration office, then to the border crossing hut. Then the relative met me and took me to the other Indian immigration and customs offices after stopping at the Indian border crossing hut. I had to go to seven different places, including the bank, just to get across!
Now Nelson and Rosemary both speak fairly good English but no one took the time to teach their relative (how he was related I don't know..) any English. Luckily, Nelson gave me their Indian SIM card to put in my phone and gave me his number for any time I was in trouble, physical or conversational. His relative seemed nice enough, saying "seloar kamees? shari?" and taking me to the market. He didn't speak much more than that so I had to point to my own seloar kamees to tell him I was looking for green outfits. We went from shop to shop but no one had anything but really ugly lime green or dull split pea soup green. I couldn't believe it. That's when the slogan for the day became "No Green in India" between the two of us as we would share a laugh.
The real downfall of the day was when we were walking between shops and happened upon the fish market. Ugh. Right there on a tarp in the hot sun, fish were being butchered and sold as birds played tug-of-war with fish entrails. And the smell... I like eating fish back home but here I am definitely staying vegetarian! The meat market we passed wasn't much better as animals were being slaughtered and skinned on tarps as blood flowed down to make a muddy red mess. It was pretty gross...
I ended up finding a pretty green shari that I got for 350rupees. Rupees, not taka. I had to exchange money with someone who has no idea what I'm saying and no one to translate. He showed me on his calculator what I was getting and it seemed reasonable so hopefully I didn't get ripped off too badly! But nonetheless, my green shari is quite beautiful and I'm happy I got it.
After we were done, I asked to buy some "tanda pani" (cold water) so he took me to a shop and I bought my cold water. I didn't know how long I needed to stay in India to make it count but I assumed it was for a couple hours. I thought the relative would take me back to his house to hang out for a bit but when we were finished shopping he took me to the border. I hadn't called anyone to pick me up yet so we had to wait. As we were waiting near the border, I saw a picture of one of the Hindu gods and asked the man to take a picture of me. After he did, he led me back towards the market, stopping at what looked like a Hindu temple.
After we took off our sandals he showed me around and let me take pictures of the different gods, which I hear is uncommon. It was pretty cool though to see something I hadn't seen in Bangladesh yet. The rest of what I saw in that particular part of India was pretty similar: garbage all over the streets, rickshaws, stray animals all over the place, and many many fabric shops. Anyways, I got pictures of three of the gods before we got the call that Nelson was back at the border.
When we got back, we had to do the same procedure only in reverse. Customs, immigration, Indian border hut, Bengali border hut, immigration customs. Good times. I also had to give the relative 100rupees for showing me around and 100tk to a man who helped me and Nelson around the Bengali border offices. All in all, I'm so thankful I'm safe--not that there was any serious threat... I just know I would have had more fun and felt more safe if someone that I knew and spoke English would have come along. Nonetheless, that's how I now have 8 new stamps in my passport!
The unfortunate news though is this: I misread my Bengladesh visa... As did Simson.. I thought my visa worked like a swipe card--I have four months in Bangladesh and can use them as I wish. I found out today that is not the case.. My Bangladesh visa expires January 3, 2010, aka I have to either leave or get a new visa/extension. Shows me for trying not to procrastinate for once! I applied for my visa in July even though I got into Bangladesh in October and now it runs out in January... So I really don't know what I'm going to do at this stage in the game. I was going to have to extend my visa anyways, but that was only going to be for a month or two--now it has to be for three months. Mr. Waid is going to take my passport into Dhaka again this Sunday to see if there is ANYTHING that can be done... Crummy eh? I guess we'll just have to see how the cards fall this time, see what God has planned for me either here or maybe back home :(
keep me and my stupid visa troubles in your prayers,
ami tomake bhalobashi
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