Its Thanksgiving... wahhhhhh

So Today is Thanksgiving. I am lonely. Though, I must say that I am glad not to be eating mass quantities of food. I do miss spending time with friends and family. Gee it sucks being away from home on the holidays. I was planning on going into Dhaka to spend time with other volunteers for the holiday but the opposition party called a hartal. So Peace Corps office has us on travel "lock down" for 48 hours. No celebraton for us. Its good in one way that I will be saving some taka. So here I am at the internet cafe blogging it. Yay.

I've been having a few crappy days. First of all I have a stalker. Well that is what it seemed to be turning into. This kid (18 to 20 yrs old) came up to me one day as I was walking to my college. That is not too strange in that lots of people randomly come up to me. Mostly they are just curious. I am more guarded when young men come up to me for obvious reasons. Anyway, he started waiting for me to get out of class each day. Not cool. He would always ask me to come to his house (also not cool) and wanted to help me in some way like carry my books or walk me home. Then one day he was waiting for me with his brother. So now I had two guys waiting for me that I did not know. This made me very uncomfortable. So the next day in the teachers lounge I told my counter part Malik about it. He got a bit ruffled and then the other teachers wanted to know what was happening. So he explained it in Bangla. Then all of my male teacher collegues got ruffled and all worked up. The math teacher said." We will call the police. We will find this person and have him beaten!!!" I was like.." Jesus Christ people nothing happened yet I have just been disturbed." I mean it is quite possible that he is just a curious kid. Of course then again he might not be. So Malik called my host family. When I got home they were all ruffled as well and totally upset. My host brothers Bulbul (26) and Shumun (23) started drilling me...."What did he look like!"?! (Ummm a Bangladeshi...) "Was his skin dark?" (yeah darker than mine.) "How tall was he?" (Gee I really don't know how to convert into meters or add for that matter I teach English.....) So then my family unbeknownst to me had Shumun tail me as I walked to and from class each day. He also did some recon in the neighborhood too because I haven't seen the kid in 3 days.......

Then last night some dip ass got my number and called me 12 flippen times and text messaged me 3 times. Messages of our "New" and "Exciting" friendship to come. I had to mute my phone so I could get some sleep. What to do.... what to do??? I had to think of something so this morning I texted him back (since my Bangla is still the equivalent of a 6 year olds).
My Text:
This is your 1st warning. DO NOT call this number again. This is an official mobile phone. Your name and number have been recorded. The authorities are being contacted.

Yup people in 3rd world countried really do have to worry about their governments coming in the middle of the night and shooting them in the heads. I have not had another call. Score one point for the American! Yes!

So the new host fam..... I am still settling in but here is some info on the new people I live with. First of all the house is huge and I have my own bedroom, bathroom and kitchen. Which is great because I have so much more privacy than before. Also the house is down a little rural road and across the street is a bamboo forest and it is absolutely beautiful. Its quiet except for children and chickens. But I get my revenge on the chickens because I eat them and am happy to do so. Grandma B you should be proud. I know now how to slaughter a chicken only here you have to say "Allah Auackbar!!!" See there is some farmer in me yet.

The Fam:
Abba Mannan: my host father. I don't know too much about him really but he is definately wealthy. He is like a male silver back gorilla really. Stern, quiet and living with a harem. He likes milk tea and loves WWF( yeah American wrestling. All Bangladeshis love it. His favorite team are the "Mexicools". I do not watch it of my own free will.)

Amma Mannan: Host mother. She is old, both she and Abba are probably in their 60's. She is pretty sweet and nothing like host mom #1. Though like all Bangladeshi women she is obsessbed with what I eat and how much.

Bulbul: My older host brother. He is pretty cool. He is married to Shefalee and is the father to Jaieem. He drives a motorcycle and thinks I am funny. He sleeps late and I am not sure what he does either.

Shumun: My younger host brother. Again I don't know what he does. He is not home a lot. He is desperately trying to get into college in the UK.

Shebee: The wife to the older brother who lives in England with his English wife. Umm yeah its cool to be Muslim if you are a guy. Shebee defenately runs the house and is the only one who speaks any English. She loves to tease me and teaches me many things, like how to cook curry. I have informed her that it is her mission to make me lose the weight that I gained with my first host family.

Shefalee: Wife to Bulbul (also his first cousen) and mom to Jaieem. She is really sweet and I help her with Jaieem sometimes.

Lily: Sister of Bulbul and Shumun. Mom to Samia and Nazia. She lives with us instead of her husbands family because they live way out in the sticks and the girls wont get a good education. She is cool too and we laugh a lot.

Samia: Lily's older daughter (12). Though to look at her you would not think that she was 12. She looks much younger. She is also at that pre-pubesent age and is a major pain in the ass. She is a total drama queen (sound familiar mom?) and has A LOT of anger issues which she acts out on the foreigner living in her house. Being a girl in this society is not an easy thing to deal with.

Nazia: Lily's younger daughter (9). She is really sweet and a goofy joker. I like her a lot and she helps me with my Bangla. We play together and I help her with her English home work (I try to play with Samia but it dosent always work).

Jaieem: The baby. He is one year old. Umm he cries, eats and pees a lot. Really he is not too interesting.

Siema: Our older maid servant. She has been with the family for 6 years but her marraige has just been arranged so she will not be with us for much longer. She is around 18 years old. I help her in the kitchen sometimes and she is a real sweety too.

Dolee: Our new maid servant. She is 8 years old. I have a hard time with this because she is so young. She cannot play like Nazia can and she is definately a second class citizen. I try to be nice and friendly with her when I can because the family is not always. Actually Dolee has it good here. Her parents are beggars and her dad has no arms or legs and her mom pushes him around on a wooden plank. Dolee lives with us and if she did not have this job her parents would probably sell her into prostitution or manual labor. Its really sad.

So that is it for now.... More on the new fam to come. I live with a ton of people but its ok for the most part. Everyone is really nice.

Oh yeah Dad and Grandma I did get your package. It made it and nothing was damaged or stolen. Thanks for the granola bars I am saving them for rainy days. Also thanks for the pens and film!!!

Funny moment of the week: I was in a rickshaw going to a dinner invite and this man was sitting out side a tea stand reading his news paper. This random cow came up (cause farm animals wander around the streets here) and the guy did not see him because he had his newspaper up. The cow then proceded to grab the paper with his mouth and eat it. The guy was so shocked and then furious. He stood there screaming at the cow who just chewed up his newspaper. I was laughing my ass off and so was the rickshaw wallah.

Stay tuned for the next "Desh" blog.......

M