Today marks 30 countries in! Bangladesh is the second country we put with Hinduism, mostly because the other countries with a large Hindu population were taken for other things. (We need to use India for Sikhism). I think something like 8% of the population is Hindu, but Bangladesh is the 8th most populous country, so that's still a lot of people!
Bangladesh is home to the largest mangrove swamps in the world, and conversely, the most overcrowded city in the world. They have Bengal tigers, jam packed trains, and rickshaw traffic jams. The rickshaws are bicycle taxis (The capital, Dhaka has more then 300,000 of them) that cause plenty of traffic jams.
The national sport of Bangladesh is kabaddi in which 'raiders' from one team tag tackle and invade the playing area of the opposing team. One of the main rules of kabaddi is that a player who raids the other side must repeat the phrase 'Kabaddi, Kabaddi, Kabaddi," without running out of breath. If they do, they're out!
A traditional dress for men in Bagladesh is a Lungi, which is a patterned piece of fabric worn like a skit. They make some popular gifts.
Bangaldesh is not without it's issues. The US Department of State warns against the continued risks of travel to Bangladesh due to a threat of terrorism.
And monsoon season can be rough. From June to September every year much of the country is prone to flooding. For three months, Bengali's have to deal with intense periods of wind and rain. In 1998, the monsoon flooded 68% of the total area of the country, over 1,000 people died and 30 million people became homeless as a result. It's said to be one of the worst flooding in human history.
I posted all about our Hindu lesson in the Nepal blog, so that's three religions down, three still to go!
Our activity for Hinduism and Bangladesh (although more popular in India and Nepal) was to celebrate Holi, the festival of colors.
I ordered some Holi colored powder on Amazon.
Most people said you could mix it with flour, and while you'd dilute the colors, you'd get a ton more out of the package. So I mixed away.
We put the bowls out in the yard and went to town! I didn't take pictures during the event, as I took part, so you just get to see the after pictures.
The colors were a little more vibrant than they photographed.
Hayden ended up with some in his ear, Calib said he didn't have any shirts he didn't care about (just in case it stained- but it really didn't), so he went shirtless, and Peyton was the only one who decided to wear shoes.
All in all, it was pretty fun. And nobody got mad! And Peyton didn't even care about getting messy! (Well, I mean, he cared, but he did it anyway!)
And then Asa threatened to hose everyone off. We decided on showers instead.
Seven percent of the agricultural land in Balgladesh is used for rice. They produce over 35 millions tons of it a year, so it's a valuable source of the economy. But when I told the boys that, they groaned. (If you've been reading, you know they are already over the rice dishes!)
So, even with it being ingrained in Bangladesh (ha! A little rice humor for you!), I tried to find something OTHER than a rice dish.
Instead we had Besan Chicken, Cauliflower with Bengali five spice, Bengali potatoes, and Bananas (Something like 40% of all the produce grown in Bangladesh is bananas).
This dinner earns four spoons up.
Calib only gave it a spoons down because as he says 'I'd eat it again, but I wouldn't be that excited about it'. The rest of us really liked it. The cauliflower got as good of reviews as cauliflower can get, but we all liked the chicken and the potatoes.
The boys all shared their postcards at dinner, which will complete our set of 10 to vote on the best collection of four tomorrow.
Peyton colored in Bangladesh. Fun fact: The boys can name all the countries and capitals, and where they are on the table.
30 down, 163 to go!
Next Up: Thailand & Buddhism
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