Look, it is Muhammad Yunus at the Social Business Day

The Nobel Peace Prize winner (2006) Muhammad Yunus held the 2nd annual Social Business Day, focusing on achieving the the Millennium Development Goals through Social Business.

Smells like fish

Have I talked about travelling hawkers yet? Well, in Bangladesh you come across lots of them. And they sell everything from vegetables & fruits, fish, live chicken, household items, snacks, or buy old newspapers and empty plastic bottles for recycling or stop by when you need a new key to be made. Walking through the neighbourhood with big reed baskets and huge bowls on their head, they have their distinct call to attract attention. When you need something, you just call for them and they stop.

Well, the other day an old man selling fish stopped by. The kilo was at about 1,20 Euro. Fresh fish, what can you ask more for, if you like fish? I don't.

I rather prefer the small decorative fish hanging on the mobile from our ceiling:

Hochwasser

If you ever need something to be sewed, the tailors at markets like Taltala, Gulshan or Elephant are the ones to go to. For easy work, like simple stitching, these tailors with their old-school machines can fix anything for a small price (app. 30 Taka). The foot-operated sewing machines even work during power blackouts and a tear is quickly fixed. So why not shorten your pants even if you don't have to? Hochwasser.

People are of chocolate color and dolls dance to Hindi music

I never really thought about how kids perceive the simplest things in different countries too much. My little cousin Fayeza (4) drew my attention to it while doing her homework. She is a pre-schooler so her homework basically consists of coloring pictures with the most absurd combinations. Flowers can end up black, blue and red for instance.

One day when she was coloring I was sitting with her at the dinner table. The picture showed people at the lake feeding ducks. Before picking a crayon she told me which part she was coloring with which specific crayon. When it was time to color the humans at the lake, she picked brown, because “people are of chocolate color”. Boom! What I took for granted in Germany of course is different with kids here. People are brown and kids draw them in "chocolate color". Truth be told!

Fayeza (4) writing the Bangladeshi alphabet

My cousin Farzad faking as if he is doing any homework

A few days later my cousins were playing with a doll, that dances and moves to music. The doll nor the dancing were the factors that surprised me. It was the music! The white doll in a white dress was dancing to Hindi music! Boom again! South Asian dolls don't necessarily have to dance to Ace of Base or Beethoven. Somehow the Bollywood music I at times dislike so much, had a sweet sound to it.

While being in Comilla last weekend I saw my baby niece Zahra playing with her phone, a "Vodaphone" branded pink Blackberry. And if you push the buttons, a weird voice talks to you in Hindi...

I'm on a boat!

I was in Comilla, hanging out with my cousins for an extended weekend. The extended weekend turned out to be an extended extended weekend, due to "hartal". Since a two day national strike was called, I wasn't able to get a bus back to Dhaka even the day before the strike started.

In Comilla we are always 6-8 cousins of the same age hanging out and doing fun stuff, like riding on a boat on Comilla lake. Well, it was fun stuff for only two of us, my cousin Mitou and I, since the others were scared of drowning. All in all I had a good time, doing lots of more fun stuff. If I have the time, I will post more photos from my Comilla trip.

Bus fare from Dhaka to Comilla: 130 Taka. Boat fare for two, for about 25 minutes: 100 Taka.

Trust me, the water was not green

Peace

Companions

Look up in the sky...