Eid Break

Who doesn't love a vacation after working for 4 and half weeks? Eid is a Muslim holiday celebrating the story of Ibrahim who was willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael in order to demonstrate his obedience to Allah. Because Allah provided an animal for Ibrahim to sacrifice instead of his son, Muslims celebrate this holiday by sacrificing animals in the street. All leading up to Eid there are cows and goats tied up along the street, lining the sidewalks, stuck in car garages underneath apartment buildings, some with decorations around their neck or on their horns. It is quite common for the sacrificed meat to be given to the poor, how this is done exactly, I'm not sure.

Most foreigners choose to leave during this holiday as they get a bit squeamish with cow guts and blood lining the streets after the sacrificing. Apparently, it's quite a mess. So we decided to get out of town too. First we spent 4 days on a boat gliding down a river to the Sundarbans, the home of the Bengal tiger that is becoming so endangered that they are incredibly difficult to spot. So we didn't see any. :( But we did see beautiful green spaces, blue, unpolluted skies, butterflies, deer, and river dolphins! It was so quiet and peaceful on the boat, we all felt very relaxed coming from hectic, noisy, and crowded Dhaka.

The first time we dropped anchor we thought the ship had run aground, it was so loud! We took a walk through a rural village one day, right on the water. It was really neat to see, but made me realize how vulnerable these people are to the tides, any kind of serious storm coming up through the Bay of Bengal and their entire village would be wiped out.

 

 

 We did a couple little hikes through the mangroves but stayed very close to the beach. I guess it's not the smartest idea to go hiking through the thick brush where tigers are hiding but I did so much want to see one, from a safe distance. What we did find, were several flip flops scattered along the walking paths. One here, one there, I think we counted about a dozen, some with teeth marks in them...which lead Ganraj and I to believe that logically, travelers were eaten by tigers who refused to eat one shoe per person that they devoured. Makes sense right? But I did get to see the Bay of Bengal and some super cool trees!

 

The Feeling of Privelege...mixed with guilt

Growing up in Canada, I was taught in University about the term "white privilege" and I thought I understood. I understood that it was unfair, that it demonstrated an imbalance of power, that it contributed to the disempowerment of many minority groups, that is was wrong. In Canada, if someone says or does something deemed "racist," there are consequences. You get kicked out of class, arrested, sued, slapped, etc. because most Canadians recognize that racism and privilege based on skin color is ridiculous and wrong.

Let me tell you how it works in Southeast Asia.
Here is a pictures of my travel partners:

Here we are at the airport, all excited to get on a plane to Singapore and leave Dhaka for a few days. (We're also super excited about the Thanksgiving treats that my mom had packed in my suitcase). In Dhaka airport, you go through security right before you enter your boarding gate. So I walk up to the security and instead of putting my bags through the little luggage car wash, I get waved through. I walk over to the security staff to show them my passport and they smile and motion for me to keep walking without looking at it. So I stand on the other side waiting for my friends to come through. One of my friends had a similar experience, the other got completely searched and thoroughly questioned on her citizenship and reason for being in the country. Can you guess which one? I was getting so angry, watching my room mate do her best to be polite and answer all their ridiculous questions such as, "Are you sure you're Canadian?" Look at her bloody passport!! They even went through her wallet and told her that she was not allowed to take Bangladeshi currency out of the country. They were going to make her leave the boarding gate to go find a place to convert when Samantha stepped in and said, "We're all teachers here travelling together, we're coming back in 4 days." Oh, well, if you are travelling with these two white girls then it's ok, go ahead, miss. Is pretty much how they reacted. Are you kidding me?

We started to board and Samantha says, check it out, everyone seating in rows 10-30 is Bengali. Everyone sitting in rows 1-10: foreigners or rich Bengalis who paid for their seat to be up at the front. Did Rosa Parks not teach this part of the world anything?

On our way back from Singapore, I figured, Singapore is a multicultural society, surely this airport experience will be a lot better. Again, my room mate gets pulled out of the line to get her baggage weighed. But that seems fair because it does look rather large for a carry on item. Before she puts it on the scale, the security guard asks who she is travelling with, and when she points to me and Samantha, she is told, "Ok, never mind," and waved through. We laugh. We laugh because it is so absurd. We laugh because we cannot think of any appropriate reaction to such completely inappropriate ways of thinking. It was a funny story the first time, but if this continues to be her experience while travelling-I have no idea what that does to a person. I will never know what that feels like, to be discriminated against and treated like a lesser person. And I feel incredibly guilty because I did nothing to earn this special privilege that I experience every day. And my friend did nothing to earn the discrimination that she has to face.

It would be different if this were a strange occurrence, an abnormal event. But the reality is that it happens every day. And now I finally understand the term, "white privilege" and I hate it all the more.

Soft kitty, warm kitty

Being sick in a foreign country is never fun. After battling with Dengue ish fever symptoms for the first two weeks, I went to the doctor and discovered I had tonsillitis which made last week seem almost unbearable. It felt like I was swallowing knives even when I was simply drinking water, I didn't eat anything for four days, and my fever was so bad that I hardly moved out of bed from Sunday to Wednesday. But I still managed to experience unbelievable kindness and compassion from friends old and new, here in Dhaka and all the way on the other side of the world in Brandon.

Here in Dhaka, my friend whose family lives here, came to the hospital with me to get checked out as she speaks Bengali, but luckily the doctor spoke perfect English so that was helpful for me. (Side note; there are no such things as clinics, apparently you go straight to the hospital if you want to see a doctor). Anyways, she had her driver pick us up from the hospital and take me to her house so that her maids could take care of me while she went back to work at school. She gave them directions to bring me soup and tea and I had a little bell to ring in case I needed anything.

Next day I was back at my apartment and not being able to eat I was craving something to settle my stomach and soothe my throat. I told my friends of my craving for Ginger Ale, well, not so much told as pathetically whimpered that it was all I wanted in the world and then stumbled off to bed. Twenty minutes later I heard my fridge being opened and cans placed inside, next thing I knew my friend was quietly placing a can of Ginger Ale on my bedside table. I looked up and said, "You're the best!" to which he just smiled and said, "Feel better!"

I was ordered to three days of bed rest by the doctor but when the fourth day came I found a note on my door from my room mate telling me to stay in bed as I was in no shape to be at work and she had already informed the principal. We don't have substitutes, so when I'm not there, my colleagues have to use their prep time to cover my classes. All of them were more than willing to cover for me to make sure that I had time to recover fully. So after working extra hard on the fourth day, my room mate came home and still cooked me supper before taking a nap because she wanted to make sure that I ate, especially since I had told her that it was the first time I felt hungry that week.

On top of that I received numerous emails, text messages, songs, phone calls, and a FaceTime conversation which included a special little puppy who I imagine would have loved to cuddle up with me to make me feel better too. So I finally do feel better, and very well cared for, and with fall break coming up in two days, let the fun begin!