Sunday, March 14, 2010

A dead bird and elephant soccer

Well I guess I found something interesting to write about.

The circus has come to town! Yesterday evening I went with some other MCC folks as well as the Allens, an American family that is here with the Baptist mission. I was surprised at how big the fair grounds were. I expected a bunch of tents and shops all packed together with a ton of people. This has been my experience of Bangladesh so far. However, the fair grounds were large and expansive with a few tents and shops and not too many people. At the far side we could hear the main event getting ready to start. There was a large tent with music playing outside. We bought our tickets and went in. The show was pretty fun complete with acrobats, contortionists, clowns beating up midgets and, of course, elephants playing soccer.

For the past few months, there have been some birds living in the office. They often fly by my desk on their way to their nest above a doorway. Well yesterday I was minding my own business when I heard a clunk, thud and felt something smack my shoulder. I looked down on the floor and saw a dead bird. It took me a few seconds before I realized it had been cleaned out by the ceiling fan that was whirring above my desk. I had always thought it would be an inevitable event as the birds have to dodge two fans on their commute from the window to the nest. It hasn't been a problem for them for the past few months because the fans have been off. Now that it is steadily getting warmer, I wonder how many more birds will find a similar fate?

Friday, March 12, 2010

Blog post

I don't really have anything interesting to say. Life is flowing on. I'm sure I'll have a more interesting post when I return from Cambodia. I added some pictures to my Bangladesh Facebook album as well as uploaded my India pictures from December.

Bangladesh pictures are here.

India pictures are here.

Have a good one,

Ben

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Holi, it's March!

Apparently its March. I don't know where the time's going. February seems like a blur. I am kind of sad I missed most of the Olympic spirit. I got a few updates online, and it seems like I missed a good one. I wonder when they'll come back to Canada?

Last week was Holi, a yearly Hindu festival. It was a pretty fun week. In the evenings I would go with my host family to the place where the main events were happening. There were vendors selling balloons, food, candy, jewelry etc. There was even a small ferris wheel made from bamboo poles and powered by two guys pushing it. I didn't have the opportunity to try it out. The main tent had a shrine with statues of the gods Ram and Krishna. There were people dancing, singing, praying and offering little white candies and incense to the gods. Once the people had said their prayers, they would toss the extra candies to the crowd. They taste like pure sugar and I think I had a pretty good sugar rush going every night. Afterwards we would eat fuchka and jilapi, two of my favourite foods here. We had some visitors from the village stay at our house, so I shared my bed with one of my host brothers. I have a single bed, so it was a little tight!

On the 19th I'm heading to Cambodia for a couple weeks. MCC is having a retreat there and I'm taking a week afterwards of vacation. I'm very excited for that! I'll definitely buy a camera before I go so I can share some pictures with you when I return.