An evening at the cha-walah's house

I've been a little slow to blog about this, but wanted to share about an evening we had at our cha-walah friend's house about a week ago.

Every morning on the way to language school we pass by a cha-walah (a guy with a tea stand) on the corner near our building. We often stop there for a 5 taka (8 cent) cup of cha, and soon sparked a friendship with him. Then a couple of weeks ago he invited us around to his place for dinner.

So one evening three of us met him at the spot he sells his cha, and got rickshaws most of the way there. After paying the rickshaw-wallahs he led us on a nice walk past a lake and through some poor commnunities before we arrived at his home. It was great to be finally at least walking through some poor communities, and seeing not just brokenness but life! It's a real contrast to the part of town we're staying in for language school. Children happily playing simple games on the pavements, running up with enthusiastic greetings and following along beside.

When we finally got to the cha-walah's place they pulled out all the stops for us.
After kicking off with some fried snacks and cha, we then went up to the roof for some stumbling (and at times hilarious) Bangla conversation, to escape the heat since we'd lost power, and to get a better look of the neighbourhood. It was a bit surreal to be up there, amidst a poor community, looking out over the area, with calls to prayer ringing out through the city, and some much welcome rain starting to fall and cool the air. Definitely made us look forward even more to settling down in a poor community in K-town.

We then went back downstairs and watched our friend's wedding video. Midway through, one of the cha-walah's friends who had dropped by blurted out, "Oh, where are my manners, will you come to my wedding?" A wedding invitation from someone you've just met - you won't get that in the west!

Soon we were served an amazing (and pretty spicy!) Bengali meal...fish, chicken, beef and vegetable dishes, heaps of rice, and mishti (sweets) to finish. (It was a little embarrassing when my nose started watering). They then showed us some of the family's special garments, and also invited us for a trip to their village sometime. When it was time to leave our friend found us rickshaws to get home and called later to make sure we arrived safely.

There's no doubt that when it comes to many facets of community and hospitality, we have much to enjoy and learn from our asian friends. Luckily we will have the chance to practice when they come over for a meal with us on Friday!