I had a great weekend and I'm sad to see it go. I ran around Dhaka with my new Aussie friend, Rosie (she's working with me on the Economic Development Unit at CARE BD). She helped me get a cell phone and do some shopping (my mother thanks you, Rosie!). We bargained our way through Dhaka, quite successfully I think!
Friday night, we had dinner at Stav's with two of her friends - one is in Dhaka with a UN food security program and the other as a consultant for CARE BD. Stav is the Assistant Country Director at CARE BD and another Aussie.. she's kind of like our boss's boss (or maybe boss's boss's boss?), which just shows how nice and welcoming everyone is here! That evening we went to a biodiversity photography contest award ceremony at the Australian High Commissioner's House - fancy place, lots more Aussies. The photos were really amazing - gorgeous photography of both the environmental beauty and degradation you can find in Bangladesh.
We spent the night at Stav's and woke up to yoga on a neighbor's rooftop (well, technically I woke up to the 4:15 am morning prayer! Managed to fall back asleep though ;), followed it up with a meditation session and then returned to a fun lunch that Stav was hosting for about 20 girls who are in a sort of boarding school for girls whose parents do not have steady housing (or maybe any housing?). Yoga was amazing, meditation was a struggle but worth it, and the girls were phenomenal!
Several things blew me away: (1) how sweet and charming the girls were - as soon as they met us, they grabbed our hands to lead us up to Stav's apartment. Each of us had our own gravitational field, an orbit of girls circling our waists in constant motion, buzzing with so much chatter and excitement they practically carried us up the four flights of stairs to Stav's apartment!
The next thing that amazed me was, (2) how intelligent they were - thank god they're smarter than I am b/c they had to do all the heavy-lifting in terms of communication. They spoke considerably more English than I did Bangla. As it turns out, a common language isn't all that necessary when interacting with kids. All you need is four tools of communication: teasing, laughing, tickling, and dancing.
And, (3) how talented they were.. and how much energy they had! They danced, then we danced with them, we ate lunch and they STILL had energy to start an impromptu game of cricket in Stav's apartment! They used a rolled up yoga mat as a bat and produced a tennis ball out of thin air. Rosie and I were wiped out by lunch.
If I could ask for anything, I'd ask for their love of life. They'd probably ask for my iPhone. My camera was dead so I took all the photos with my phone (sorry they're so fuzzy!) - they figured it out in about... oh, 1 minute.
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