Cold Weather, Bangla Style

I must admit, i’de been feeling a little left out of the whole cold weather thing. The collective hysteria that seemed to be sweeping my homeland, as more and more snow fell. In particular I’d been missing that “its just like the blitz” atmosphere, you know, when neighbors come together to push each others cars and whole streets full of people who had never spoken before find themselves involved in an impromptu snow-ball fight, reminiscent of that great football game played on Christmas Day in 1911 (or whenever it was).

I was secretly glad, then, when arriving back in Dhaka from a sweltering Bangkok, to discover that it was bloody freezing. Actual shivering in your flip-flops freezing. And, best off all, mass hysteria has hit Bangladesh…

It’s oddly comforting to arrive at work and spend the first 20 minutes discussing the weather with your colleagues. I feel rather at home!

Particularly exciting is the fact that the cold weather has made it totally acceptable for me to wear my jeans to work (yes, still with an Orna and Kameez but still, jeans in the office!).

Perhaps more problematic is the fact that I don’t have any shoes, so have committed, I’m ashamed to admit, the cardinal sin. Yes, I am now officially a Brit Abroad. I have worn black socks and red flip-flops. Together. Please don’t tell anyone…

Ok, I know it’s not as cold as the U.K., not nearly as cold. But the problem is, see, that I live in a concrete house with concrete floors. Great for hot weather, not so great for the cold. Of course, of course, there is no central heating, or in fact any heating to speak of. More problematically, I do not have hot water. Yes, I can just about bare to rapidly wash my bits of a morning, but hair washing is a total no no. Tonight I’m going to have to do the whole boiling water on the stove thing because if I don’t sort out this barnet ASAP, I’m going to commit an even bigger sin. A wanky development worker who moved to Bangladesh and came back with dreadlocks.

Its all worth it though, for the outfits. The winter is so short here people don’t have a winter wardrobe, as such, and so are particularly ingenious about keeping themselves warm. In a country so obsessed by gender, and gender clothing, i’ve been astounded to see what the cold weather has done. Suddenly men are wondering around with big flowery scarf’s tied around their heads. The lungi (male sarong) is still on show, but this time accompanied by the most feminine of cardigans (think sequins, pink flowers, hearts, lilac stripes, to name just a few of the wonderful ensembles I’ve seen this week).

I think the towel is my particular favorite. I was recently presented with a towel as a gift, which I though was lovely but rather odd, until I realized that I was meant to wear the towel as a shawl. Yes, I wondered around all day in a green silk Sari and a pink and white towel.

Its not the same as going up ally-pally tobogganing, or finding yourself actually TALKING to people on the W3, but its been kind of fun doing cold weather, Bangladesh style.  

 P.S. (the cold weather lasted for about 5 days, it seems to be warming up again, which is a bit of a shame. I’m not quite ready to give up my towel yet; I’ve grown rather attached to it).

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