During a Bangla lesson we asked what the verb to get dressed was, and our teacher said that they don't say that but do say get changed. After a few questions we then realised that Bangladeshis generally go to bed wearing the same clothes from the day, and the next morning will shower with them on and then change their now wet clothes for dry ones item by item. Simply put, muslims avoid nakedness wherever possible, and could theoretically go from the cradle to the grave without ever being naked, including during sex! I should mention here though that their idea of nakeness strictly means no clothing as opposed to revealing ones most intimate of bodily areas. This is why you can see street babies naked save a rope around the waist, who are hence technically speaking not naked and so respectful of islamic tradition. I found the whole thing doubly interesting as it revealed another ingrained and hence unknown assumption I had about going to bed and showering i.e. you change for bed and bathe naked. Just when you think you've no assumptions about how people live you stumble across a new one.

Sunday morning we were driven to Sonargaen which is the ancient capital about 1 hour SE of Dhaka. I'd read what the Lonely Planet had to say about the place beforehand, and despite that I struggled to reconcile what I saw with the idea that it was once a thriving and wealthy city. All that remains, from what we saw, is a road of delapidated houses once owned by wealthy hindu businessmen and a 500 year old Moghal hump back bridge! I really enjoyed the trip and was facinated by what we saw but the contrast between that hamlet and Dhaka was phenomenal. We could see the wealth that must have once been, but we were also forced to understand that the decline and change in fortunes of the area was equally impressive.

I've started to research my placement a bit more seriously this week. So far I've just obtained some background documents, and I met my future boss briefly one lunchtime - seems like a nice bloke though a little quiet (or maybe I'm just a little bit too overbearing sometimes. Hmmm...). Right now I'm sort of caught between the excitement I feel about it profesionally, as I believe it will be extremely varied and satisfying work, and my apprehension at living in a remote rural community with only my Bangla to get me through! Looking on the bright side I will almost certainly learn the language a lot quicker than some other volunteers, and that was an objective I'd set myself. On the other hand, I will need to gibber in English once in a while just to express another deeper part of who I am. I find that, even if it's great to fit in culturally somewhere very new and different, it's also essential to not lose sight of who I truly am and that means basic things like speaking English and talking about pointless things with other like minded fools.

An interesting part of our induction this week was a trip to the DFID office here in Dhaka (UK government Department for International Department). They've just moved into swanky new offices and, given that they're supposed to be working to help the poorest of the poor, I found their surroundings "inappropriate" to put it diplomatically. One of us commented to an expat we were introduced to on our way round that it all still smelt very new. He replied that we'd come on a good day... Again, no comment.

I've finally done some sport, and would you believe it was touch rugby! Yep, they play Friday afternoons (our weekend remember) at the French school, it's a pretty good standard and half the lads are Bangladeshis funnily enough. In the first half I played against the humidity... It was a good opportunity to meet new people, and an Australian guy there told me he used to be the Hungarian national team coach and was wearing the T-shirt to prove it. You meet some funny people abroad don't you?

Finally, we went up to the BAGHA club Saturday afternoon to watch the England rugby game and have some food. After the (rather disappointing) game had finished Arsenal-Chelsea came on so we watched that as well. At one point a bunch of lads came into the bar, and I commented to Dave how the clientele changed between rugby and football. Seconds later however I recognised Nassar Hussain and realised that it was in fact the England cricket team who had come in for a relaxing evening away from their hotel! DOH!

And yes that child is wearing my Wales rugby cap.