Dewali!

A strange and weird thing about living here in Bangladesh, is that I am somehow perceived as more important than I actually am. People call me "Madam", I get waved through security check points and I get invited to the Indian High Commissioners Diwali party! Now this, I can get used to! 

Dewali is the Hindu festival of light, a sort of light overcoming evil celebration. The High Commissioners residence (the party venue!) was filled with thousands of sparkling fairy lights, they let off some pretty average locally made fireworks, and also let off these awesome and HUGE lanterns! They were so big, they were almost like hot air balloons! It was pretty magical watching them float up into the night sky.

 Fabulous outdoor decorations!

The party was the most party like party I've been to here, there were non-dry drinks available(!!) and also a band, with Bollywood music AND DANCING! Like, lots of full body hands and hip jiggling dancing, and that was just the men! It was this part of the evening that reminded me the most the differences between the Bangladeshi and Indian culture. India is a huge country and has such a mix of cultures and religion, whereas Bangladeshi culture seems to be more heavily dominated by their conservative religion. I miss public displays of dancing.

Glenna and the High Commissioner launching the lantern

Thanks to the fun party, I'm also and have been invited for chai at the Indian High Commissioners house! Oh, and did I mention that I also met the French Ambassador? Happy Dewali!

Glamorous!

In preparation for Lindsey's visit I compiled a list of the ultimate Bangladeshi experiences. During the 12 days she was here we proceeded to tick them off the list.We rode on top of a local bus, drank cha at a local stand, took rickshaws, visited the markets, spat paan juice onto the dusty streets and ate with our hands. But we saved the very best for last. For a woman, pretty much the ultimate Bangladeshi experience is going to the parlour.  Nowhere else outside of 1964 can you experience the hair teased, set and sprayed routine that a Bangladeshi parlor can offer! And you too can proudly walk out made up with eyes that Cleopatra herself would be proud of! 

We decided that the Bangladeshi make-over parlor experience needed a motivation, (this was Lindsey's last night in the 'desh after all!) we needed a reason to be looking so extra special. So we teamed up the outlandish hair and make up, with bright coloured saris and headed to the photo studio for ....GLAMOUR SHOTS! 

Bangladesh know how to do Biryani and they sure know how to do posed non smiling photo-shopped fake background glamour shots! Most middle/upper class Bangladeshi's have wallets full of  pictures of family members glammed-up in front of fields of tulips or snow capped mountains. It's so popular that the photos can be taken at any of the 563 photo shops in Chittagong! 

So on a regular Sunday night in Chittagong, Lindsey, my housemate Glenna and I embraced the ultimate of ultimate of Bangladeshi experiences; hair, makeup and sari wrapped at the parlour, followed by glamour shots in the back room of a little photo dorcan!

I think Lonely Planet need me to help them write their next Bangladesh book update, because they seemed to have missed this ultimate experience off their list!

Enjoy the evidence of this hilariously glamorous evening! 

Global Hand Washing Day!

Oh dear, I know, I've been terrible! It's been weeks since I last posted! But I'm back into home life now post holidays in Nepal and Bangladesh adventuring with Lindsey, so I now have a bazillion photos to ensure future blog posts can't possible dry up until 2047. 

Before I left for my Eid break to Nepal, I celebrated Global Handwashing Day at a local High School! We organised an afternoon session at a Chittagong High School to demonstrate effective handwashing practice in a fun and interactive way!

It would sound like a strange thing, going to an Australian high school to teach children to wash their hands with soap and water, don't parents teach that kind of thing? In most developing countries, where good infrastructure is a given, that's usually true. But here in Bangladesh, poor water and sewerage infrastructure and access to and knowledge of soap means that training children (and adults!) on hygiene can be life saving!

Handwashing with soap and water is the most effective and inexpensive way of preventing diarrheal and acute respiratory infections, which take the lives of one third of child deaths in Bangladesh each year! Isn't that figure astounding!

Below are some pics showing the fun handwashing demonstrations and set up at South Patenga High School in Chittagong.