Thursday night I went to Ciara's birthday party (Ciara is the Irish girl working on her dissertation on Bangladesh's transgendered community). I knew it was going to be a potluck type thing, but had no idea that it would actually turn into a real party. I asked Ayub to make us some dishes to bring, and he of course did a great job – yummy fried shrimp and fried rice. (Both were huge hits.)
We arrived, unsure if we were at the right apartment. A British girl named Zoe opened the door and confirmed that yes, it was Misha and Ciara's place. Ciara and Misha were still getting ready so we waited in the living room with Zoe, and 2 Bangladehis that Ciara knew through her research. They were both hijras, one was dressed as a woman,. The other was dressed more like what we think of as more typical urban gay man style (tight jeans, and a stylish tight, light-pink fitted vneck tshirt – would definitely have fit in on Seattle's Capitol Hill). Zoe told us that she had just gotten to Bangladesh today and was working for the same organization that Ciara was using to do her research. Zoe was originally from Oxford but had lived in London for the past few years.
After about 15 minutes Misha and Ciara joined us and more guests started to arrive. These included Naium, who is the first Bangladeshi Kenyan I've ever met. His parents are from here but his Dad works for the UN so he grew up in Nairobi, then went to the University of Syracuse, and is now working for the UN on climate change stuff. I liked him right away because after he told me what his job was, I said that it sounded really interesting, and he said it sounds much more interesting than it is, and that he spends most of his time in meetings that don't really go anywhere. It was a nice change of pace to hear someone honestly describe their job instead of trying to make it sound fancier or more important (which I think is very common especially with 20-somethings working in the NGO field). Tom who is a songwriter from NY here with his girlfriend, Lindy, who is on a Fulbright scholarship. Emma, an English lawyer working on human trafficking issues, Tibo (not sure of the spelling) a French naval engineer not sure exactly what he is doing here, but when his stint here is over wants to sail back to France by himself. Amy, an American spending her second summer here, not sure exactly what she is doing but she really likes Bangladesh, and really hates America. There were quite a few more people but I didn't get to meet everyone.
Here are some of the better parts of the night:
- The French guy being a little snotty about Americans, so in return me being a little snotty about the French football team.
- Watching one of the hijras (I never learned her name) do a really cool dance for all of us, first to Kylie, then with a little Shakira waka waka thrown in.
- Being at a party that was so good that it got broken up by the landlord, who lives in London(!)
- Staying out late and being able to give people a ride back, (we paid our driver overtime to stay out late).
- Hearing about the "Tesco Girls" who are from what I gathered, designers of some sort for Tesco and who have made a name for themselves by walking around Dhaka always wearing very short skirts.
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