Where I hung my hat this week

I just spent the last few days living at our host home in a village near the city of Rangpur.  It wasn't easy and it wasn't meant to be.  I am quite certain we were there to learn just a little bit about life for the family in a small holder world and at the same time this was a family that was doing well compared to others in the village.

I can honestly say I was apprehensive.  I did not know what I was getting into in terms of location or what the house would be like - just that we would be staying with a family that was farming in a small holder capacity and that they were excited to have us stay there.

So with that, we arrived just before dark on Sunday and spent three nights having breakfast and dinner at the family home (but not with the family as they tend to eat much later at night - usually around 10 pm which is when we would already be asleep).

My housemate Matteo from Italy was perhaps just as nervous as I was - he and I both have similar eating styles so we were going to band together to avoid spicey or potentially dangerous (bacteria wise) situations - I would like to say we were successful, but you live you learn.

Even with the constant variety of sounds there was a peaceful side to this home that really stood out for me.  We usually got back late afternoon and only had an hour of daylight so I would get up early to maximize daylight hours and sit on the bench and just relax (because without internet or TV or anything like that, it makes for good self reflection time). And then at some point people would come around and it would be language/sign language practice time!

My room itself was actually the 11 year old girls room but she moved out so that I could stay.  Matteo had, I think, the grandparents bedroom.  These rooms were built of cement and were solid in construction.  The roof was sheet metal and was open to the outside, so when the 1 light was on at night it would attract mosquitoes.  I had a giant spider on my wall for most of the three days....I figured as long as I saw him on the wall it meant he wasn't on the bed.

The ceiling fan was great for moving the bugs around while I set up my mosquito net everynight.  They also had one of those raquet bug zappers which was a lot of fun to do a sweep of the room for any mosquites (or other small bugs) before bed.  It didn't work for the cockroaches but that was more Matteo's room.  Roaming power outages are common in Bangladesh, so they had supplied a flashlight and a rechargeable fan which was useful because we found it hot but to the locals this is their winter.

Cooking is an amazing feat and kudo's to 'Aunty', as I was told to call her, for the variety of food she could make from her wood fire.  Her daughter Mormas (sp?) would help her for every meal and after meal time would go and study.  Mormas knew a few words of english but for the most part this was trial and error in discussion other than the small amount of Bangla words I know, many of which were food related so that did help.

There was lots of variety over this stove and I had baht (rice), din (egg), shobja (vegetables - whatever ones they cooked that day) and alu (potato).  I was offered meat each time but steered clear based on input from our local team.  The part that was most challenging was having the family watch me eat and ask me how it was after every bite.  Then some cousins would come by and watch me eat as well.  But after a while you just get used to people always being around.  Just like I am now accustomed to being asked many questions by strangers, I am sure I will grow used to this eating at the host home.

Running water was is not a current possibility in this house.  There in one room that serves the purpose of water use - the hand pump for getting water from a shallow water table, an area for using a bucket to wash youself or the dishes and the squat toilet stall (with a door recently installed for guests) This house kept the toilet wastewater seperate in a cistern of sorts - the other water from cleaning exiting directly into the dirt ditch alongside the road.  Many other houses looked to have all wastewater types going out to the ditch.  This is the dry season but in the wet season, these are not deep ditches, and fecal matter would be overflowing.  Again, this comes back to the need to help increase their income through better production and marketing of their crops so they can make changes to their current situation.  

My 'Uncle' at this home is a farmer and farms 0.3 acres of land and planted cabbage while I was there (with his brother), has gourds already growing and was going to plant potatoes.  He also does labour for others in the area.  I didn't see him much because he was working till after dark each day.

So this was a few days of life experience, that I certainly have never had before and am thankful for the opportunity.  Grandpa from the house also enjoyed his quiet reflection time.