A South Asian Christmas

Christmas in this part of the world is different than any Christmas I have experienced before. In Bangladesh, about 0.7% of the population is Christian, so the "Christmas Spirit" is markedly absent here. I really hardly thought about Christmas because I was counting down the days until my family came on the 22nd.

A lot has happened since my last post. My family came to visit on the 22nd, and we toured around Bangladesh a bit before heading to India for a family vacation. It was nice showing my family around Bangladesh. My Bangla is good enough now to get around with ease. I can explain to a rickshawalla to follow mine and my mom's rickshaw closely because my dad and brother don't speak Bangla, nor do they have any money. This is important. We spent the 23rd in Dhaka seeing the sights while trying not to get hit by traffic. The 24th we went to Mymensingh to visit some of MCC's projects there (see this post). That afternoon we headed over to Bogra. Christmas day was spent in Bogra. We had a brunch with the other MCCers and saw the AKB where I do some of my work. That evening we visited my house and had supper there. My host family prepared some great food and they were very happy to meet my family. I don't think my family was prepared for the amount of food they were expected to eat, but it was a good time nonetheless.

On the 27th we headed to India. Our first stop was in Jaipur, followed by Agra then Delhi. We saw some amazing old Mughal forts and palaces made of white marble and sandstone. I'll let my pictures do the talking. I would've liked to spend a month in India, but, alas, that was not possible. India in some ways is similar to Bangladesh and in other ways very different. The first thing I noticed was the lack of rickshaws. In Bangladesh rickshaws are anywhere with a significant human population (basically the entire country). And the rickshaws in India were really lame. They aren't jazzed up or anything, though they are a little bigger. We took a rickshaw ride in Old Delhi and our rickshawalla spoke English! What?! I guess that probably has something to do with tourism. Sometimes I wonder how different Bangladesh would be if tourists actually came here. It would probably be less fun. Anyway, here's some pictures of the Reesor family Christmas.

Rickshawing Bangladeshi style

Mom

The Pink Palace in Dhaka. An old Mughal fort.

Snake charmers in Jaipur

Elephants at the Amber Fort in Jaipur. Tourists can ride them.

Guy burning fibres off the back of a carpet.

You call that a rickshaw? Not nearly enough paint, chrome, streamers, sequins and old CDs.

Ganesha giving us luck on our journey.

There were a lot of people milling about here so we checked it out. Apparently it's kinda famous.

There are lots more pictures. Maybe I'll make a facebook album. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Ben