Bideshi Blunder

a.k.a. Stupid Americans!

So a few days before we arrived the holy month of Ramadan began here. For those that are unfamiliar, Ramadan is a month of fasting that precedes Eid-ul-Fitr. Eid is basically the big gift holiday that falls closest to the equivalent of Christmas in the US. During Ramadan, Muslims are forbidden to eat or drink from sun up to sun down. There is a big meal early in the morning and then every night there is Iftar, the meal that breaks the fast. Iftar is a big feast and just about every restaurant has a giant iftar table out front with take out iftar boxes, and some have big meals available inside.

In Dhaka, one very popular restaurant for iftar is Pizza Hut. They have all you can eat pizza iftar for 450 taka and it is THE PLACE to go for iftar if you are a young cosmopolitan Muslim in Dhaka. So, about two days into our trip, we decided Atticus kind of needed a familiar environment so we thought we would go and have a good ol’ western meal at Pizza Hut. Sam had already heard tales of the great Pizza Hut iftar, but we thought it was about 3:00 (turns out as we know now that it was in fact closer to 4 and we were just an hour behind…) so we woud be before any of the iftar stuff would be happening.

We arrived and there were a ton of workers at the door, and they were asking if we wanted iftar or regular. ‘No, just regular’ we said, thinking how bizarre that they would ask so early in the day. They discuss it together for a while and then bring us over to a table near the back. On the way, we pass tables and tables full of people awaiting iftar. The place was already packed!

‘Oh no,’ we are thinking. ‘Should we leave?’ but it isn’t like you can bring a 6 year old to Pizza Hut and leave without eating. So we decided to stay. We ordered, they brought out or drinks, which we drank while crowds of people who have been fasting since morning sat just right by us. Then we ate our pizza, while crowds of people who have been fasting since morning had to smell it and sit by us and they still had about an hour to wait before they could eat. We felt pretty jerky, but nobody really gave us any bad vibes. I think they expect foreigners to be non-Muslims, and I think many, if not most, foreigners here in Bangladesh are pretty clueless. So we fulfilled their expectations and can count it as first major bideshi blunder.

See, Pizza Hut iftar is a big deal, but it is a first come seating situation, so if you don’t get there super early then you can’t get in. Plus, even though we thought it was 3:00, it was actually 4:00 and iftar is 6:30 or so. It was still pretty early to get there for a seat, but not quite as bad as we thought it was.

Since then we went to Pizza Hut again (I mean come on, it is Jon and Atticus – we eat Pizza once a week in any country!) and we went at an earlier, less awkward hour. It is still slightly weird because there about 10 employees per customer and they are extremely attentive, but at least it was dead and everyone else in the place was actually eating too!