This week I learnt how to say "I'm sick" in Bengali. A useful phrase for the week unfortunately, but it amazed our cook at my language abilities! While I was rummaging through the cupboards looking for a magazine to read while I was recovering, I found an English/Bengali lesson book which had the very useful phrase "I am not a human being"! Not sure when that will come in handy.
Marc went for a haircut last night with the assurance that it would cost about 150 taka (1.50 GBP). Two hours later he returned home after a haircut, head massage, oil treatment on his hair, steam treatment from one of those big head covering things you see ladies reading their magazines under in 1950s movies and a foot massage and pedicure. He was a little freaked out by all the attention and was charged 1300 taka (although maybe this is good for the undivided attention of 5 hairdressers...). I wonder if the language book has the phrase "I only want a haircut, stop now"?
There was an amazing electric storm the other night, with continuous thunder and lightning for over an hour.
Lots of the junctions in this part of Dhaka are 'controlled' by a policeman. They stand in the middle of the road directing traffic. If there are traffic lights, they just ignore them and direct the lanes however they like. This creates quite a lot of confusion for us, but everyone else seems to take it in their stride. But then they drive down the streets the wrong way if it's quicker than going the correct way anyway. We've been told that the policemen pay for the best spots and then charge 'CNGs' (the tuktuks) whatever they like, whenever they want to let them through the junction. I saw a policeman watching as a car and a CNG driver yelling at each other, and he didn't seem too concerned. The police make me nervous as they carry big guns and sit around on the side of the road fiddling with them. I don't like walking past them in case they accidentally go off. Dhaka is not the place to need an ambulance as they can't get through the traffic jams...
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that *does* sound useful indeed - keep that book handy for when the bengali aliens invade earth and you want to reassure them that you're not one of us....
ReplyDeleteYou guys sound like kings and queens - people massaging your heads and feet, driving you, making all your food!! It must be an odd feeling - is it because there is colonial heritage, or just because you're white?
Helen, are you wearing headscarfs and skirts, or do you find that it doesn't matter too much?
Hi Michelle,
ReplyDeleteBangladesh is really hierarchical, so if you are upper/middle class it's normal to have servants (whether you are Bangladeshi or white). Most of the white people here don't have the number of servants we have - maybe just a cleaner, but we are living in the house of a man who has been here for 20 years and still has the servants that he had when his family was growing up here.
I think you have to be born to it though. It's mainly making us feel uncomfortable and I'm pretty sure I'm not doing a very good job at being 'lady of the house' because I have this strange assumption that if they are a cleaner, then they will clean, and not have to be told every little thing to do!
I don't have to wear a head scarf, but I do wear trousers, and a long loose top with an orna (scarf) that is drapped over my front (to hide the fact that I'm a woman!). But at home and at the British club I wear singlets :)