Assalam Walaikum/ Nomos Kar
Apnara Kemon Achen, ami bhalo achi. Amader desher obostha kemon? Bhalo othoba kharap. Protidin ami shuru kharap kobor dekhi, jokhon ei kobor dekhi tokhon amar mon kharap. Kintu ami ki jani? Kichu na, ami ek jon matro, ami kichu korte pari na.

It has been quite a while since I have posted anything, I am sure some people are tired of checking and have given up. Well, nothing has happened that is very significant here. I have been doing a lot of "community integration." The term is really lame but the idea is very important to a successful stint in a country like this. In order to make it here you need two things: good community integration and decent language skills. Without those two things it is possible to make it through the two years, but it is definitely much easier with them. There are various ways in which one can integrate into his community, such as...... singing in front of large crowds (check), making a fool out of ones self in public (check), eating the local food off of the streets (check), living with a local family (check) and most of all being able to wipe ones "ass" with their own hand (check). The second they see you trying to buy toilet paper they will laugh and make fun of you (check). I wasn't sure to how and go about proving that I do indeed use my hand and not toilet paper. I tried everything short of walking in public with a "&^%# stained" hand. But what finally did it was using some one else's toilet (my neighbors...to ensure the rumor spread quickly), because they sure as heck didn't have any "rear wiping" materials. So in the end I have successfully proven to my community that I too partake in the primitive act of...... I don't think that I need to explain anymore. Some of the things that end up making the community happy are really strange, but hey, that is half the fun being silly in a very strange environment.

So, recently I was invited back out to the Hindu village to see their everyday life. It was a bit of a strange invitation but I accepted it none the less. The Hindus have gotten the raw end of the deal in Bangladesh, for subsistence they are forced to live in a small cluster and eek out a living. Although they are extremely poor they are very “sincere and gentle people.” They were really nice to me and they showed me the different ways that they perform their trade (pottery). It is really neat to watch them work because they are sooo good at what they do, they told me that they have been doing this longer than anyone can remember in the village (living history). They took me to the oldest man in the village, how old he was no one was sure but everyone knew that he had been alive much longer than anyone else. I wasn’t sure what to think when I first met him. He basically lives on his haunches, meaning that he is in a perpetual squatting position. As you can see from the picture e just sits like that all day, he waddles around the village in that same position. So as you can imagine, for a person who is 6’4 it would be a little awkward to talk to a man who is squatting on the ground. So I too lowered myself into the “eastern toilet stance” which made it much easier to not understand him. He spoke in some language that I had never heard before, it didn’t even sound like Bangla. So as I sat there and tried to listen to this man babble about god knows what, I noticed that some of the people were laughing discretely. Then one of the women came up to me and said “don’t worry, we don’t understand him either.”

Among other pictures on here, the one with the crowd of men is at my hotel (restaurant). These are the guys that I have tea and lunch with in the afternoon, as well as debate cricket and who would win in a Bush v. Clinton bout (I think you know my answer, an Arkie can always whoop a Texan, ha-ha, just joking for all you Texans out there).

Also I have included some pictures of my class. This is on a Hartal (strike) day so there are fewer students, but this is my hardcore group. They are the ones that come everyday and participate, they are definitely the ones that are improving the most. I really love working with them, they are so eager to learn about everything. There are some days where it just turns into an English medium class, they just come in and we discuss any issues that arise. It doesn’t bother me that much to ditch a lesson plan and just let them steer the class if they are into the topic. As long as they are speaking in English I don’t care what topic we discuss, although some times they can touch on some pretty sensitive issues (domestic and international).

Everyone in the country is really excited right now because the two top leaders for the JMB (locally grown militants) have been captured. It has been the topic of the class for the past few days. Many of the people are saying that the militancy is over, well, I sure hope that they are right. Many of the people here are interested to see the two men publicly executed in order to deter more of their kind. I really don't care what they do with them as long as they don't cause anymore problems.

So anyways I thought it would be nice to post some pictures on the blog today because I have access to some reasonably fast internet.....ha there is no such thing in this place. I hope you like them, and I will try to post more later.

Enshallah aro lichbo, dhorjo dhoron ei "story" shesh hoy na.
Bhalo thaken ebong Allah Hafez

dushto chele signing off