Title: From Banglatown to Bangladesh (
Bangladesh)
Status: Active
URL:
http://www.megangaventa.blogspot.com/
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New Zealand? - 13/Nov/2010 04:12 - 5136 days ago
Sheep, Anchor butter, Lord of the Rings, stunning landscapes, low population density, high quality-of-life. These are things I ...
On Leaving - 24/Oct/2010 14:56 - 5156 days ago
I stopped at the tea-stall today, on my way home from work. I don’t do this often;visits to tea stallsare communal things in ...
Day Thirty: Fresh Guavas in the Morning (12 July) - 18/Sep/2010 08:54 - 5192 days ago
Picked from the tree in front of my house, where the branches have been heavy with fruit for days. Enough to occupy a shelf of ...
Day Twenty-Nine: Banana Cake (11 July) - 18/Sep/2010 08:30 - 5192 days ago
My‘famous’ banana cake, or so it was called by a colleague this afternoon, after I distributed it in the office. Easy to ma...
Day Twenty-Eight: The Weekend (10 July) - 18/Sep/2010 08:26 - 5192 days ago
After a very busy week, working late and much of the weekend, the simple fact of having a day off is today’s positive. My wee...
Day Twenty-Seven: 'Shesh' (9 July) - 18/Sep/2010 08:25 - 5192 days ago
'Shesh' (finished). With the project proposal, following the standard last-minute rushes, and mental pleads with the Power Board...
Day Twenty-Six: That Thursday Feeling (8 July) - 18/Sep/2010 08:23 - 5192 days ago
Thursdays are the new Fridays. Or they have been for the last 21-ish months anyway, and will continue to be so for the next fiv...
Day Twenty-Five: The Market (7 July) - 18/Sep/2010 07:51 - 5192 days ago
My favourite market in Khagrachari is the one right by my house. I wade through the fallen leaves and emerging weeds that make ...
Day Twenty-Four: Davina (6 July) - 19/Aug/2010 10:39 - 5222 days ago
As in McCall. Seriously. Her exercise DVDs, with their jumps and kicks and punches, are an ideal way of relieving Bangladesh-i...
Day Twenty-Three: The Project Proposal (5 July) - 19/Aug/2010 10:10 - 5222 days ago
Really, it feels strange to identify writing a project proposal as a positive. Too often, these seem like unavoidable nose-dive...
Day Twenty-Two: The Umbrella Repairman (4 July) - 19/Aug/2010 10:07 - 5222 days ago
The repairman sits on a raised wooden platform, covered by a tin and bamboo roof, and surrounded by torches, threads, and other ...
Days Twenty and Twenty-One: The Visitor (2 and 3 July) - 19/Aug/2010 10:05 - 5222 days ago
Good company, good food, good times. Enough said....
Day Nineteen: Another Meeting (1 July) - 17/Aug/2010 11:16 - 5224 days ago
One with an agenda, identified and discussed at the meeting’s start. One with minutes being taken. One with debates and disc...
Day Eighteen: The Training (30 June) - 12/Aug/2010 09:20 - 5229 days ago
The training, and the accompanying full-on indulgence in VSO-related geekery: thinking about learning and sharing and facilitati...
Day Seventeen: Busyness (29 June) - 12/Aug/2010 09:17 - 5229 days ago
Time seems to go from one extreme to the other here. Days of waiting, for meetings, for discussions, for work, for electricity,...
Day Sixteen: A Visit to My Neighbour's (28 June) - 12/Aug/2010 08:40 - 5229 days ago
One of the many strange things about being a foreigner here is my visibility as a bideshi. Like it or not, I stand out. People...
A Return to the Positives - 12/Aug/2010 08:37 - 5229 days ago
I realise that the gaps and delays in my posts mean I am not exactly following blogging etiquette. Yet again. But to be honest...
Day Fifteen: World Cup Fever Part Two (27 June) - 14/Jul/2010 03:36 - 5258 days ago
England versus Germany. The big match, dominating the British newspapers I read online, and Facebook status updates from friend...
Day Fourteen: Holiday Dresses (26 June) - 14/Jul/2010 03:34 - 5258 days ago
I have a holiday coming, only weeks away. Which means I am now officially allowed to get excited. And, as I will be going to a...
Day Thirteen: World Cup Fever (25 June) - 14/Jul/2010 03:29 - 5258 days ago
The flags started appearing weeks before the tournament. A Brazil here, an Argentina there, flying high above houses, dominatin...
Day Twelve: A Marma 'Mae' (24 June) - 14/Jul/2010 03:23 - 5258 days ago
The Chittagong Hill Tracts, with its diversity of peoples, languages and religions, is the type of place that anthropologists an...
Day Eleven: The Tea-Stall (23 June) - 05/Jul/2010 15:10 - 5267 days ago
I have written many times about the consistent inconsistencies of the Desh. There is, however, at least one constant amongst thi...
'Made in Bangladesh' - 01/Jul/2010 11:20 - 5271 days ago
A break from the positives today.The StrikesAfter weeks of violence, The Guardian has picked up onstrikes by garment workers in ...
Day Ten: A Recipe That Works (22 June) - 22/Jun/2010 14:44 - 5280 days ago
It’s no secret that I’m into my food. I’ve writtenprevious posts, almost exactly a year ago, about the central role it pl...
Day Nine: Sunshine (21 June) - 21/Jun/2010 13:19 - 5281 days ago
Not the metaphorical kind. Real, bright, warm sunshine, the kind that heats the water tank on my roof, and makes me squint as I...
Day Eight: The Booking (20 June) - 21/Jun/2010 13:07 - 5281 days ago
I’m sure I’ve seen, somewhere, a quote about the beauty of anticipation. Something about the excitement of an upcoming even...
Day Seven: The (Non) Photo (19 June) - 19/Jun/2010 13:43 - 5283 days ago
Today’s positive is a bit of a bittersweet one.As some of you know, I get stared at here, a lot. And even though it’s less ...
Day Six: The Marma Tailors (18 June) - 19/Jun/2010 12:20 - 5283 days ago
There is a long street in Khagrachari, one of those between my house and the market, which is lined– like so many of the other...
Day Five: The Conversation (17 June) - 19/Jun/2010 11:23 - 5283 days ago
With a colleague, at the end of the day. One of those conversations which are so common here. Where you start one place, end u...
Day Four: TV Trash (16 June) - 19/Jun/2010 11:09 - 5283 days ago
I have been told, on occasion, that it is an admirable thing, what I am doing here. And while I appreciate the sentiment, this ...
Day Three: 'Bang' (15 June) - 15/Jun/2010 16:05 - 5287 days ago
It’s finally stopped raining here. After about 36 hours of non-stop downpour, flooding the streets and the buckets strategica...
Day Two: The Mattresses (14 June) - 15/Jun/2010 15:56 - 5287 days ago
Thick, soft, and– crucially – bed-bug free. These are my positive of today. And, possibly, of the week. New mattresses, f...
Day One: The Meeting - 14/Jun/2010 06:09 - 5288 days ago
My month of positivity actually starts yesterday. On 13 June, there was a meeting. I had spent weeks trying to speak to said c...
A Month of Positivity - 14/Jun/2010 06:05 - 5288 days ago
Regular readers will know the importance I place on positive thinking in this Desh. For me, it is more than an attitude or an a...
A Picture Speaks... - 19/May/2010 15:25 - 5314 days ago
It's no secret that I'm terrible with cameras. In my head, it is words that are the building blocks. They are the things that ca...
On That Age-Old Question - 06/May/2010 05:06 - 5327 days ago
A few years ago, on that digital conveyance of personality that is Facebook's 'About Me' section, I described myself as a 'cynic...
Emerging from the Hole - 06/May/2010 04:31 - 5327 days ago
Whether a regular reader or not, anyone even glancing at this blog would very quickly notice the rather expansive time period si...
The Seasons Are Changing (The First Rain) - 17/Feb/2010 12:34 - 5405 days ago
Sitting in my favourite lunch-spot today, once oh-so-familiar sounds suddenly began: first, the heavy, metallic bangs of raindro...
Happy Valentine's Day - 14/Feb/2010 15:31 - 5408 days ago
One of the many strange and wonderful things about Bangladesh is its celebration of Valentine's Day. In the UK, Valentine's Day...
Back to England... and Back to the Desh - 12/Feb/2010 07:54 - 5410 days ago
I remember very clearly the morning I first arrived in Bangladesh. Flying over Dhaka, peering through the small, clouded window...
'The Vegetables Here Tasted Different' - 02/Dec/2009 14:46 - 5482 days ago
Today, again during my daily scan of The Guardian online, I foundthis video, stories of families from rural southern Bangladesh ...
The VSO Experience - 07/Nov/2009 11:19 - 5507 days ago
I recently foundthis excellent resource, a website giving details of the numerous blogs by various VSO volunteers across the wor...
In Sickness and In Health - 07/Nov/2009 08:39 - 5507 days ago
Typhoid, dengue fever, tuberculosis, giardia, urinary tract infections, appendicitis: just a few of the plethora of illnesses ex...
Bangladesh in Numbers? - 26/Oct/2009 13:15 - 5519 days ago
I foundthis articlein a recent morning trawl of The Guardian online, describing the reactions of Jamie Hewlett, the guy that des...
Bangladesh in Numbers? - 16/Oct/2009 05:44 - 5529 days ago
I foundthis articlein my morning trawl of Guardian Online today, describing the reactions of Jamie Hewlett, the guy that designe...
On 'Becoming Bangladeshi': Part One (Language) - 13/Oct/2009 16:11 - 5532 days ago
It was a year ago today that I arrived in Bangladesh, wide-eyed despite the jet lag, and full of enthusiasm, optimism, curiosity...
Where Has All The Time Gone? - 26/Sep/2009 15:28 - 5549 days ago
The more committed readers amongst you will have noticed that there have been significant gaps in blogging of late. While my u...
My Life Revolves Around Food (Part Two: A Sad Tale) - 20/Jun/2009 13:07 - 5647 days ago
There is one final tale in today’s outpouring of food-related routines and obsessions, separated for its sadness, as much as i...
My Life Revolves Around Food (Part One: A Realisation) - 20/Jun/2009 13:00 - 5647 days ago
My life revolves around food.This statement is a realisation. Despite its apparently confessional nature, it does not intend to...
Getting Angry In Bangla / The Taxi Driver Who Gave Me Popcorn - 25/Apr/2009 15:40 - 5703 days ago
For many years, I believed that one's ability to 'negotiate' with taxi drivers in a foreign language was a sign of emerging ling...
The Three Month Hurdle - 24/Mar/2009 13:27 - 5735 days ago
Two weeks ago, I celebrated my five month anniversary in Bangladesh. I say 'celebrated', but really all I mean is that I woke u...
Sharing Moves, Changing Lives: Shaking Up - and Being Shaken By - the Desh’s Dancefloor - 20/Mar/2009 18:18 - 5739 days ago
Despite having its own Facebook group dedicated to the cause (aptly named DHAKA NIGHTLIFE, capital letters theirs), Dhaka– wit...
A Very Special Bangla Birthday - 10/Feb/2009 17:33 - 5777 days ago
It’s a family tradition on birthdays to remember those of the past: where we were, what we did, what we ate, and occasionally ...
Three Bideshis Went To Market - 10/Feb/2009 15:53 - 5777 days ago
One of the first things you notice as a bideshi, or foreigner, in Bangladesh is the difference in dress. Bangladeshi men, depen...
On the Right Side of the Tracts - 10/Jan/2009 17:57 - 5808 days ago
It is now about eight weeks since I made my first journey from Dhaka to Khagrachari, the site of my placement. Since then, I ha...
The Wisdom of Zen Dog - 30/Nov/2008 14:56 - 5849 days ago
Today I want to introduce you to a greeting card that sits on top of a set of drawers in my new home. It may seem strange to ch...
Jumping on the Stars and Stripes Bandwagon - 06/Nov/2008 07:29 - 5873 days ago
This blog is supposed to be about Bangladesh. I promise that stories of saris, samosas, floods, rice paddies, and all the other...
Setting the Scene... - 19/Oct/2008 12:30 - 5891 days ago
It is now the end of my first week in Dhaka, and time to attempt a description of the organised chaos surrounding me. Dhaka, my...
Banglatown, Bangladesh and Hodgepodge Multiculturalism - 29/Sep/2008 21:11 - 5911 days ago
'Banglatown': the nickname commonly given to the area around Brick Lane, in east London. Just past the City and on the edge of ...
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