Discussion group

The venue was James Karmoker's church in Dhaka. Knew James from time he spent with Cornerstone in Australia. He took me out to one of the three or four KFC's in Dhaka for an authentic Bangladeshi experience. The place was packed. He was just back from a conference in South Korea- Paul Yongi Cho's church with 800 000 members. There's not a huge amount more Christians in all of Bangladesh (Probably a bit over a million).

Dhaka seminar

Some of the students from the Dhaka seminar. They did well- we went on a bit of talk marathon, four talks with smallish breaks for morning tea and discussion in between. Our theme verse on the impressive banner was..For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light- from Luke 16. We had 37 students there from the Dhaka Leadership Training Program. Henry works part time for this NGO iniative. He's involved in a number of seminars each year and travels down once a month to lead cell groups.

Giving the Groom a pasting

All the people arrive- the women in red and orange Sari's. The hired band let their presence be powerfully known periodically. There were drums, trumpets and other whiny tootly things. Everything was played frenetically at bagpipe volume. The brides family comes with the clothes that the Groom has to wear. Rafi was able to enter the fray shortly after, accompanied by the band going off and an entourage of male friends and family. I got whisked into this on account of my special headwear. Rafi then sat on a decorated stage on a little raised board Henry had painted the day before- and everyone there from the most important family down to friends, proceeds to paste freshly ground tumeric all over his face. Many also feed him a bit of fruit after pasting him. Each is called out before they come out and their relation to the groom acknowledged. I was not forgotten though I had first met Rafi two or three days before.

Bring on the Gai Halud

Very slimming the Bangladeshi long shirt

Getting into my Gai Halud gear

Gai Halud is a celebration (Hindu in origin) a few days before the wedding. There is one each for the bride and groom. We stayed at Henry's cousins' place in Savar. Henry was the best man for his cousin Rafi's wedding. The day before we painted a lot of pots for Gai Halud decorations.

Banged up bus

The country is full of them- to see a bus without a significant scrape is a rarity, and most have scrapes, scratches and dings all over them. Cracked windscreens are very common as well.

cow carnage

A lot of cows go to meet their maker at Eid. Walked over a lot of blood in the streets. Henry was saying a few days after it really reeks. Some areas had piles of skins over a metre high.