Sunday, December 18, 2011

Dec 18th: Just a few things I saw today

1. A man with no hands eating popcorn
2. A dead puppy lying on the side of the road - on its back.
3. Dozens and dozens of dust covered combat boots also on the side of the road.
4. My CNG driver get out and attack a younger man who was trying to sell me a copy of Bill Clintons autobiography
5. An exposed wound about the size of a medium cheese pizza on a women's abdomen - exposed to me as a way to wheedle taka out of me (note: the wounds appearance and texture also resembled a medium cheese pizza).
6. A labourer balancing on bamboo, with no safety harness of course, about 7 stories high. I think he was painting?
7. A man get hit by a motorcycle and then getting up and brushing himself off (OK, that was actually three days ago).

Monday, December 5, 2011

Voyage to the Unknown Village


[waiting for the midnight train to... some village Jame nor I ever caught the name of. We're pretty sure we ended up about 3 hours north east of Dhaka by train - about 25 clicks from the Indian border. Dee left, Arman center left, Noran center right, Jame right. Jame is not from Bangladesh despite his appearances]

[man love on the train. looking back on the 18 hours together,
the man pictured on the right here (Ronan?), did not speak a word
of English the entire duration of the trip ]

[sleeping on the train - at least we had seats]

[film by Jame; untitled]

[breakfast. delicious spread of different home made pastries that Noran's mom*(?) put together. we arrived in the village closer to 6am, and woke a few short hours later to some great food. actually this was the recipe for the rest of day: eat sleep eat sleep eat sleep.
*I should point out that though we stopped in a few homes that day for tea and meals, not once did we meet the daughters or moms that prepared the fine food]

[well well well. morning rinse at the well]

[stroll through the rice fields - some of Noran's family's land]


[this guy worked on Noran's cucumber patch (I'm guessing he worked on the other plots of land but I like to remember him as the cucumber guy). 'this guy' could very well be Noran's grandfather or father - thanks to the huge communication barrier with my guests, I'll never know]

[one of a few lunches - the works]

[the shadowy main strip of the village]

[shadowy people]

[we sat above on a balcony sipping tea and listening to rap music while across from us two young men doctored some passport photos on an old dusty PC]

[this is where rice is made. every day I learn something new]


[this is where the rice comes from]

[this is where baby chickens are made]

[tucck tuk tuckk tuckk]

[it was hard getting a shot without Arman in the mix... but this one I
rather like of his dark shadow below the black smeltering smoke]

[some kids play with lego, others play with knives]

[one hundred year old tree with clay brick stilts ...

... it's hard to say who was there first, but they seem to be
enjoying each others company]

[playing farmer]

[playing tire. trying my hand at the ol' tire and stick game...


...these kids weren't bad]


[this face reminds of some drawing or painting, but I can't quite place it...
like Justin Gabbard maybe ? can anyone help me out here?]

[remember that cucumber guy from before? yeah,
well now I'm eating that cucumber]

[sunset - hard to capture the beauty]

[Arman, an affable admin assistant at IUBAT; also with analogous accountability
and aid acted with astounding alacrity along our 18hr adventure. Amen]

[stopping at a petrol station at dusk -
on the way back home 22hrs after leaving Dhaka]

[trying to sleep standing on the over packed train back home. end of trip. bye for now]