Birthday Party Australian Style

I am going to go ahead and retract some of my last blog post with regards to Bangladesh being one of the most boring places in the world for expats. After the most uneventful day imaginable (stuck home because of the horrible thunder storm watching terrible television with no money left on my phone (so no real way to communicate with the outside world) I actually ended up having the most fun I've had since coming here (and not just fun in comparison to the rest of my time here, but actual, real fun).

Around 6 or so Eshanthi texted me letting me know there was an Australian birthday party (with the theme of dress as your favorite rickshaw driver) going on that night, and that we were more than welcome to crash. The best part was that they had rented a car to be available to take people home throughout the night (as it is too dangerous to take anything but a private car after 10).

Before heading to meet up with Eshanthi we went to find dinner at the Gulshan 2 circle. This of course involved being followed at first by another kid (who was not as insistent as the one from the day before) and a woman with a baby. We ended up finding a place called American Burger which Alizeh, a Bangladeshi friend of a friend, had recommended, and it actually turned out to be quite good (and didn't make me sick, which I think is the true test). It was a fairly tiny hole in the wall kind of place (slightly reminiscent of Ann Arbor's Blimpy Burger but much smaller), about 3 small tables, without AC, but with a very strong fan (that kept knocking everything off the table).

The only other people in the restaurant were a Bangladeshi man and 2 Africans. We started up a conversation with the African men who we found out were from Zimbabwe. They were here doing missionary work with some Pentecostal group. Charlie mentioned that he had spent time in Tanzania and Uganda but had never been to Southern Africa. This seemed to stir some regional pride within them as they commented how much better and more developed Southern Africa was than Eastern Africa. One of them bragged that Zimbabwe was now using the U.S. Dollar (but not mentioning the reason for this was the hyperinflation that led to the Zimbabwean currency becoming effectively worthless). Add meeting a Zimbabwean boasting about his country's economy to my list of unexpected life experiences.

After dinner (and an expensive drink at the Westin, I'm talking New York expensive) we went to meet up with Eshanthi who was getting ready at her Aussie friend Rosie's apartment. Rosie is here for a year doing the Australian version of the Peace Corps (along with most of the Australians that I met that night). Rosie lives with quite a few other Aussies in a nice apartment about halfway between Gulshan 1 and 2. We unfortunately walked past it the first time so ended up down in Gulshan 1 before we realized we had missed it. This would be fine except walking a mile in hot and muggy  weather isn't exactly the best way to go about arriving at a party, where you don't know anyone, looking good. After being introduced to all of her flatmates we all headed towards the party. While passing a contingent of rickshaws, one of the drivers called out to Andrew, one of flatmates, recognizing him from before. They struck up a conversation and Andrew ended up paying the driver enough money to let him (Andrew) try and drive the rickshaw. Seeing a pasty white guy attempting to drive a rickshaw was a memorable sight. As we walked down the street, shrieks of laughter were heard. Other rickshaw drivers thought it was hilarious and followed us, along with many very curious and amused locals. After a few minutes this had created quite the spectacle. Other drivers we passed would yell out things like "best rickshaw driver!" as he pedaled by. At one point Eshanthi took a seat, very much enjoying the idea of a brown person being driven around by a white person for once. The rickshaw driver even hopped in for a bit. He was laughing the entire time, and I think got the biggest kick out of it of anyone. When we got to the apartment the rickshaw driver whispered to Andrew that he should play a joke on Eshanthi and try to charge her for the ride. They mimicked the stereotypical haggling inevitable with a ride on a rickshaw ("20" "no too much, 10" "very far, 20" etc) much to the delight of all the rickshaw drivers, who laughed at this as if it was the funniest thing they had ever heard. It was a genuinely great time, and I think everyone sincerely enjoyed it.

The party itself was awesome. The only bad part was that that there was no AC, so imagine a room full of 30 people in a medium sized apartment dancing and sweating in 90+ degree heat and high humidity. Eventually I just got used to it, and stopped caring about how much I was sweating, and how gross my hair must be looking. Every person was incredibly nice and welcoming and didn't care that we were not Australians, and were only there through a friend of a friend.

In my previous post I mentioned how pretty much every foreigner is here working (usually for an NGO) and not tourists or trust fund travelers (which, and for a million other reasons, makes it clear that living as an expat in Dhaka is nothing like living as an expat in Prague). One huge upshot of this is that everyone I've met is doing something really interesting. 

One couple I met have been here a year. She is working for Save The Children and he is working as an environmental engineer for Chevron. We chatted about the spill in the Gulf for a bit. He was of the opinion that BP will not exist in 18 months, given the amount of money they will have to pay out. He also confirmed that this was beyond this was the worst nightmare of any oil company, and gave me an interesting insight into  their perspective. He personally does not work with oil, as there is no oil in Bangladesh, and the country runs nearly entirely on gas. As it stands now Bangladesh has only enough gas to last for about 2 more years. They actually do have a huge untapped  supply on the western coast, but going about reaching it is very complicated not because of any environmental concerns (on the part of the government), but because Bangladesh is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, although it is improving, as it was the most corrupt for quite awhile.

I talked with many of the girls about how frustrating it is to be a woman here, and how there is a constant feeling of being trapped. One of the girls I spoke to had lived in many other Asian cities, and nothing compares to Dhaka. Women are just not a part of many aspects of society here, even though so many of them work in garment factories and in the agricultural sector. Even in Gulshan, the "foreigner" area, about 10% of the people outside are women, and actually if you take beggars out of the equation that has to drop to below 5%.  I haven't been outside this part of the city so I don't know if that holds true for the rest of the city (but from everything I've heard and read I have a strong feeling it does). A really bizarre aspect to all of this is that the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, is actually a woman and so is the leader of the opposition (and former Prime Minister) Khaleda Zia. The reason for this is not due to any liberal or progressive views on gender but because dynasticism clearly trumps sexism. Sheikh Hasina is one of 2 surviving daughters of the first president and "founding father" Sheikh Rahman (nearly all of Sheikh Hasina's family have been assassinated by the opposition) and Khaleda Zia is the widow of another former President Ziaur Rahman (who was also assassinated). (As you can tell the politics here are fascinating in an almost morbid way.) Sheikh Hasina actually does seem to be in charge, and is the one who speaks out when there is a problem. I'm not sure how much of a figurehead she is, but even so it is such a crazy contradiction to think that in a society where women are practically invisible in the public sphere, the most powerful and public person in the country is a woman.

Sorry for the digression, but it is nearly impossible to understand my experience here without a little context and unfortunately a little context is all I can provide, I am no expert on any of this stuff (thank God for Wikipedia).

Eshanthi and I also got into a conversation with Nathan, who is here for 5 days from Hanoi (originally Australia of course) with his girlfriend visiting friends, and because he works in finance (which he says is the most boring job in the world) decided it is much more amusing, for him, to make up odd professions to tell people at parties. He first told us he goes to villages in Bangladesh as a recruiter for sweatshops (specializing in children, the requirement being only that they have good motor skills and nimble fingers), and then that he was a consultant with the Vietnamese Space Program. He later admitted that he had told his girlfriend's coworkers that he was a toilet engineer, and had them going for about 2 weeks.

We stayed at the party until about 2, and waited for the hired driver to return from dropping off other people. Because it's Bangladesh even this of course turned out to be slightly sketchy as another guy in a car tried to convince us he was the driver, but following our instinct and double checking with the people throwing the party we confirmed he wasn't. (I cannot overestimate how important it is for me to trust my gut instinct here.) Don't worry, everyone got home safe and sound. 

All in all, a great night and exactly what I needed to get me out of my developing funk. Everyone I talked to said it's a hard adjustment but that they all really liked it (even the women) and most actually try to extend their stay here. This was all very welcome news.