A Quick Breath of Fresh Air

Aka Srimangal post part one

Well, we mentioned last week that Atticus had a break from school for a week, so we took a quick trip up to another part of Bangladesh. It was high time for a break from the hustle and bustle and stress of Dhaka and so we headed to Srimangal, a smallish town in Sylhet, the northeastern state of Bangladesh.

Srimangal is known for the many tea plantations in the area and the whole state of Sylhet seems to be just ridiculously beautiful. There are some hills to break up the usual flat delta views of most of the area, and the slightly higher elevation creates cooler temperatures and amazing misty mornings. The trip was over 5 days and we took an obscene amount of pictures (but no obscene pictures!) and so we’ll break it into a few different posts until we got caught up to now.

We took the train from the station that is pretty close to our neighborhood (the airport station) and avoided the long schlep down into central Dhaka and the hassle of the main train terminal. Of course, with every hassle avoided, new issues arrive – the main issue with the smaller stations is that while they are less crowded (and because they are less crowded) the trains only stop for about three minutes. Seriously. Boarding is a mad rush of luggage, people, yelling, and general mayhem. Of course, in the true Bangladesh style we know and love, even amidst the general havoc of boarding, everyone went out of their way to move everyone aside, help us get on, make sure we found our compartment and seats, made sure we were ok- one man even helped us before he helped his own family!
Once we got our seats, we were delighted. For less than $12 US (combined!) we had an entire compartment to ourselves with AC, a long cushy bench seat, a window, and beverage service of (overpriced) hot delicious tea with sweet milk. Train travel here is definitely the way to go! The only complaint is that there are no announcements, so you have to know when your stop is arriving. Of course, being bideshis, half the train was mobilized to help when the time arrived. Along the way we saw beautiful little towns pass by, field after field of rice, and Jon and Atticus got their first real look at the non-urban beauty of Bangladesh.

PHOTOS: Here we are happy to be waiting for the train and very happy to be on the train!

Once we arrived in Srimangal and hurried off the train, Sam’s old friends M. and R. (a Bangla teacher from years past and his wife) hosted us for our first two days. They are the world’s best hosts. (We aren’t posting names here in case they don’t want themselves identified!) M. is here doing his dissertation research as well, and lives most of the week in a village where he does ethnography. On the weekends they have a sweet apartment in Srimangal, which we were graciously welcomed into. R. is easily the best cook in Bangladesh, and it was a real treat to indulge with her wonderful meals. We only feel bad that it was a lot of work and, of course, she wouldn’t let us help her. Atticus seemed immediately at ease with M. and R., which was nice and a little surprising. It may be that Sam has talked about them enough in advance that they didn’t seem like strangers, but Atticus was definitely over whatever shyness he has ever exhibited in the past and made himself right at home.

We had arrived in the evening so other than an amazing home cooked dinner, we didn’t do much on arrival. We woke up the next morning and after a leisurely breakfast headed out with R.’s brother (who we’ll call S.) and M. for an exploration of the tea gardens and a place called Lal Pahur (Red Hill).
We took two rickshaws and ambled down quiet roads lined with beautiful tea plants as far as the eye could see. We ended at the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute and we allowed to go in and walk around the gardens. The beauty of the area is really difficult to describe and/or capture in photos. It is just amazing.
Atticus and S. hit it off like nothing else. The two were having a great time palling around and looking for various insects and plants. S. taught Atticus how to make the lojjapoti (or "plant that has shame" as Atticus called it) close when you touch the leaves and generally within about one hour Atticus much preferred the company of S. to either of his parents!

PHOTO: Rickshaw through plantations

PHOTO: Atticus looking for grasshoppers and Atticus and S. playing with some sort of thing they've caught!

Part of the reason Atticus didn’t want to hang out with mom and dad may have been because Jon and Sam were naturally discussing the politics of the workers in tea gardens – and for good reason. The tea laborers are a remnant of the British introduction of the tea plantations. At the time, the British intentionally imported workers from nearby areas so they would be isolated from the local population and easier to control. Today, people generally view them as a completely unique ethnic identity – so basically their identity is just “worker.” Most are miserably poor, completely unrepresented, and exploited. The workers live in quarters on the grounds, never really leaving and getting povery wages. The word “plantation” seems appropriate in all the connotations it brings to mind. They are also marginalized in that they are part of the minority religion (hindus) and all of the tea pickers are women. (Men seem to have some other types of jobs, but only women pick the tea leaves.) We got a close up glimpse of the system in action when we were walking through: we saw women loading bags of tea onto a scale to be recorded by a foreman of some sort with a ledger book. The scale was facing away from the women, so they couldn’t see the amount it weighed, nor could they see what he wrote down. They are, of course, paid by the amount they pick though. It isn’t surprising, but it still makes you angry to see such overt exploitation of workers.

So, after our labor outrage subsided, we arrived at Lalpahur, and had a great time playing the river. Atticus and S. had a lot of fun with the various colors of clay earth that Atticus could be decorated with, Sam and M. continued academic discussion but in cool, calf-deep water, and everyone played and had a great time. S. showed Atticus how to make a paper boat, everyone got a little sunburned, and everyone had a really fabulous afternoon. See some of the pics below and get ready for the second installment in which you get hear about the amazing thatched hut eco-cottage we stayed in, more delicious food, snakes, rainforests, monkeys, and ten layer tea!

We'll also get more scenic photos up ASAP, but with the slow connection, photos are long to load-especially those taken with our good camera, the digital SLR. We try to use the little cheaper camera for snappyshots, and those load faster due to the smaller file size. We promise we'll let you see the good stuff soon though- just be patient!