In the week before we were due to leave Bangladesh we had a number of "events" lined up. The first of which was the Bengali New Year (1417). The New Year is not commonly celebrated at midnight, rather the tradition is to get up before sunrise and see the new day in. We didn't quite manage to get up that early, but we did rise in time to be served with the local breakfast delicacies.
The breafast feast includes water rice (as delicious as it sounds!) which has an aroma that Sarah felt was somewhat like a wet dog! Along with the bland rice we had some very tasty fish and some excessively hot mushy things...
As usual on this sort of occasion we coaxed each other into wearing our sunday best.
A crowd of foreign volunteers and a few of the local kids posed for photographs.
A few days later we prepared our leaving gesture, a pile of sweet and sticky goodies for morning tea. These seemed to go down well with someone even suggesting that they hoped we got stuck in the 'Desh due to the volcanic ash so that we could make them again!
We also introduced some local friends to the wonders of pancakes... they were well received but it was suggested that perhaps they are not sufficient for a Bangladeshi lunch (usually a couple of kilos of rice and curry :-) The sugar and lemon topping combo was the clear favourite, with bananas and syrup getting the booby prize. Later Reshma reported back that she had made them for her family and they were very well received there too!
After a series of leaving "parties" however, we found out that our flight was in fact cancelled due to the volcanic ash. So we dug out Sarah's salwar kameezes and returned to work! (After a very pleasant night in the Radisson, celebrating our wedding anniversary).
The breafast feast includes water rice (as delicious as it sounds!) which has an aroma that Sarah felt was somewhat like a wet dog! Along with the bland rice we had some very tasty fish and some excessively hot mushy things...
As usual on this sort of occasion we coaxed each other into wearing our sunday best.
A crowd of foreign volunteers and a few of the local kids posed for photographs.
A few days later we prepared our leaving gesture, a pile of sweet and sticky goodies for morning tea. These seemed to go down well with someone even suggesting that they hoped we got stuck in the 'Desh due to the volcanic ash so that we could make them again!
We also introduced some local friends to the wonders of pancakes... they were well received but it was suggested that perhaps they are not sufficient for a Bangladeshi lunch (usually a couple of kilos of rice and curry :-) The sugar and lemon topping combo was the clear favourite, with bananas and syrup getting the booby prize. Later Reshma reported back that she had made them for her family and they were very well received there too!
After a series of leaving "parties" however, we found out that our flight was in fact cancelled due to the volcanic ash. So we dug out Sarah's salwar kameezes and returned to work! (After a very pleasant night in the Radisson, celebrating our wedding anniversary).
