Friday night and I find myself Watching Soccer with a group of College Kids

America was playing Slovenia in the World Cup on Friday night, so Charlie had arranged for us to meet up with some of the people he has met through church to watch the game. (As one can imagine there aren't a whole lot of church services here, he is attending an Assembly of God service at the Westin of all places.)

We met them at The Bench, a kind of sports bar type place sans any alcohol of course, but with 2 large flat-screen televisions. Jack, the kid who had invited Charlie, is a very husky, (I would guess 6'5" about 300lbs)  former football player, life of the party type. He told us how wherever he goes Bangladeshis have a habit of laughing and pointing at him. (Bangladeshis are small.) On occasion a complete stranger has come up to him and said, "You are very fat. Why?" He was taken aback and responded, "I guess because I stopped playing football, but didn't stop eating like I did." Another time a completely different person came up to him and said "You are very fat. You must be very healthy." In some sense being larger is a status symbol. Prostitutes even take the same kind of steroids that farmers use to fatten up their cattle, because Bangladeshi men like bigger women.  From what I have gathered this doesn't hold true for the Bangladeshi elite, as many of them have lived in Europe or the U.S. and thus subscribe to the skinnier the better viewpoint.

Jack is from Kansas, but the rest of his group are from the University of Colorado. They are here with some sort of Christian group that is does a cultural exchange every summer. Hanging out with a group of 18-21 year-olds made me feel old. Like really old. One of the guys I talked to named Ryan told me how when he and his friends were here last summer the CNGs (AKA auto-rickshaws AKA baby taxis) did not have little gated doors like they do now. Ryan and his friends developed a game where they would get points while riding in the CNG for everything they touched outside. I was horrified, and was like "but that is sooooo dangerous!" Not only would I never dare to stick my hand outside of the CNG, I almost completely refuse to take them (following the advice of the U.S. State Department I might add). I guess if I want to make myself feel better I can recognize that I have always been extremely risk-averse and cautious, and it has nothing to do with age. I have just always been boring!

A second group of students from Oklahoma, who were also with the same Christian exchange,  joined as about half an hour after we got there. They had just arrived in Bangladesh yesterday, and had that dazed, slightly panicked expression, very familiar from my first few days here. I chatted with one of the girls, and tried to explain that although things here will never seem exactly normal they won't seem to be completely insane after a few days.

The "bar" was about half-full. We were the only Americans, and the rest were upper-class Bangladeshis in their early 20s, who eyed us bemusedly as we enthusiastically cheered on the U.S. The boys all wore typical Western clothes, and the girls were in their fancy, designer, silk salwar-kameez. Mosquitoes filled the air, and so the waiters, after awhile, thought it would be a good idea to spray the entire restaurant with insect repellent (all the doors and windows were closed). I for one was fully in support of this decision, mosquito bites are irritating now, the cancer that may develop from the inhalation of chemicals is at least a few years away.

I couldn't help but be amused at the situation I found myself in. Back home, I can't even imagine in what realm of possibility a scenario that would result with me hanging out with a group of Christian college kids watching soccer (not that I have anything against Christian college kids). Here, it was definitely an above average way to spend a Friday night.