It's nearly Christmas, and VSO had its Christmas party this week. You'll be relieved to hear that certain British traditions are upheld and respected even in the darker corners of the former empire. I am of course refering to the great British tradition of young adults joined by a professional organisation getting together before Christmas to drink way too much alcohol and dance to some very dodgy songs. I shan't be dwelling further on what exactly went on, but suffice it to say that there were strange animal impressions, drinks spiked (with water, and it was mine...), not enough beer or mixers, and the obligatory cancan to Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York" (see photo). On the Bangladeshi side, there was a woman who stuffed some mince pies into her handbag before leaving, and an old guy who stayed until the end even though he apparently had no friends and no intention of mingling with the rest of us!

Changing the subject, one thing that virtually all the guide books warn the prospective traveller about for Bangladesh is the staring. When you first read about it you sort of dismiss it as being exagerated or not something worthy of mention. Then you experience it first hand and say to yourself "ah so that's why the books mentioned it then". Wherever you go, whatever you do, people will stare at you. Sometimes they'll stare from afar, sometimes they'll come to within a meter or so for a good old gawp. I'll say straight out that how you feel about this is entirely personal, and often gender-influenced as the girls get different looks shall we say, but it is odd. I mean, unless you're Bruce Willis or an interesting member of the Royal family, you're just not used to having crowds of people staring at you in the street or through a window taking in every detail of what you're wearing and what you're up to.

For 98% of the time I manage to ignore it. It's more the kids than the adults that really stare, and if you're in someone's shop they'll shoo them away for you. That leaves 1% of the time when I resent having all these blank faces turned in my direction but manage to shift back to ignoring it, and another 1% when I don't manage to shift back at all. On those occasions I'll fight through the crowd to get into a getaway rickshaw or seek refuge in a shop. That's because it's mostly men that do the staring, as it's mostly men that are out and about in Bangladesh while the women are at home doing domestic chores and minding the children. However, this weekend I experienced 2 all together different staring moments.

Just to set the scene for the 1st I should point out that my NGO has quite a large training centre that other organisations rent out for their own purposes. The advantage the centre has is that it's in the middle of nowhere so you really don't have any distractions at all at all while you're here. Think of somewhere lost in Scottish highlands and you'll get the idea. As a result, organisations quite like sending staff here, even if it means organising national events and paying for the extra travel. Anyway, getting back to staring, this week's course was for pre-school teachers from all over the country. The entire class of 20-odd participants was female. Yep, just 20-something year old chicks. Obviously they're all a tad surprised to see Peter and I in Bangladesh, especialy somewhere so remote, so they stare. Let me tell you that having 20 young ladies stare at you, even stop dead in the corridor when you walk past them, is not the most unpleasant of experiences I've known since I arrived in Bangladesh nigh on 3 months ago. It did get a bit out of hand though when the single ones asked to have their photo taken with us...

The 2nd staring moment was more classic but surreal in its way. Sunday morning a whole bunch of us went to an association's annual general meeting as BRIF supports the projects it runs. Basically it's a group of local people who have been taught how to graft tree stems etc. hence improving the quality of the plants they produce while reducing production time. All in all it works a charm and they generate great profits from it. Habib said we needed to leave before 9 to be there before 10am. In the end we left at 9.30, found virtually no one there when we arrived, and at 11am a 5km procession got underway to the district commissioner's office and back. Once we were back to the main tent where the event was to take place the meeting actually got underway and Peter and I settled into seats in the middle. Habib had only asked if we fancied coming along on the off chance, so imagine our surprise when not only were we invited to sit up on stage with the distinguished guests, but I was asked to give a speech! I explained to my staring audience in Bangla that I couldn't speak Bangla and that I needed a translator, and some bugger duly obliged... In the end I explained to them what VSO was and why I was here, finishing off with plenty of complimentary but true comments about Bangladesh and the association's success. It went down well apparently, but I've told Habib I want more warning next time, though at least he filmed it all!

If you're wondering why people stare here I do have an answer that a Bangladeshi VSO programme officer gave me once. Her view was that, being white or western-looking, we are seen, not unreasonably I feel, as being wealthy and fortunate. The people here have to scrape together a living every day without much hope of really making any significant progress. When they see us they hence see the dream they aspire to i.e. wealth, health and luxury. Imagine that, seeing walking down your street or through your village the physical embodiment of your life dream. You'd stare a bit wouldn't you?

So what do I stare at in Bangladesh? Sometimes I'll stare back at people and break into a smile, and they soon smile back and feel embarrassed enough to look away. In actual fact the only thing I really stare at on a regular basis is the night sky. I've never lived in the country before, and being so far from artificial light means that I can see sooooo many stars of an evening. Just when I think I've seen all there is I realise that there's another layer of fainter stars up there as well. The other night I saw 4 shooting stars. Four!! One of them was so big that it went right across the sky with a tail so long and wide that I initially thought it was a rocket taking off. Then I realised that rocket test centres are a tad thin on the ground in this part of the world...