Ben's Excellent Adventure or Thanksgiving and Eid part 2

Well, yesterday was American Thanksgiving. Because the rest of the MCC team here are Americans, we had a little get together in Dhaka including real turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes etc. It really hit the spot, especially after my Excellent Adventure...

I got a pretty good start out of Bogra Thursday morning at 10:30. The 250 km trip is usually about 4.5 to 5 hours by bus. I wanted to come to Dhaka a bit early because I had some work to do at the office in the afternoon. I also wanted to give myself some extra time in case traffic was bad because Eid al-Adha is on Saturday. I assumed that most of the traffic would be coming out of Dhaka because everyone will be going to their home villages in the country. The going was good for the first 3 hours or so until we hit traffic about 50 km outside of Dhaka. Basically, it was stop and go for that final stretch. So I didn't make it before the office closed at 5:30, nor did I make it to the 7:00 meal. I finally arrived at 9:30 after 11 hours on the bus. There was still food for me and it was delicious especially because I had only eaten a packet of potato crackers and a soggy shingara (samosa) since breakfast at 8:00 am. I don't think I have been more thankful for a Thanksgiving meal.

I was blessed to have a good seat mate, Rashed, to talk to on my journey. He spoke good English so we could hold a meaningful conversation. He was a "pious" (his word) Muslim, wearing a prayer cap, beard and panjabi. He told me about Islam, Eid al-Adha, his job, ambitions and goals. The conversation was a bit one sided which was fine for me because I'm a better listener than talker. I think he might have been subtly trying to convert me, but I was just happy to learn about his religion. I can share with you about this Eid too, now from a primary source instead of good ol' wikipedia.

Eid al-Adha is the Festival of Sacrifice. This year it falls on Saturday. The festival commemorates the day God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son and Abraham's willingness to do so. So on Saturday cows and goats will be sacrificed to represent the ram God gave to Abraham to sacrifice instead. The practice is for Muslim families (that can afford an animal) to give one third of the meat to the poor, one third to neighbours and to keep one third for themselves. No poor person is to go without food for the 3 day celebration.

There you have it. My Thanksgiving story. I made a friend and had a good meal. Overall, I think it was a good day.