Challenge No.1: Being a B Grade Celebrity

My first and by far the biggest challenge is to get comfortable about being uncomfortable. Its true - I am the biggest weirdo to walk this planet, and the Bangladeshis have the biggest apetite for walking freakshows I've come across on my journeys so far. There's absolutely nothing I can do about the way I look, and no matter how much I modify my dress, body language, or the way I talk, I am just bloody different here. Not that its a huge change to my status in life, I've spent my life being out of place, and I am really quite used to being the odd one out.

In Bangladesh its another story though. There is no tourism industry here, and of the few foreign aid workers here, not that many roam the streets all day. Culturally it is also not unacceptable for them to do the following: stop and stare, point at, talk about, and follow someone who is not your average Bagladesh Jane. Templeton being the very brightly sparkly caucasion boy that he is and me with my 'almond eyes' and pink dread walking down a busy market is a bit of a travelling circuit all on its own.

Other than sheer curiocity, there is probably an element of accepted nosiness as well, because the perception of personal space and what is actually considered personal is completely different here. Your business is everyone else's business, and you are hiding something if you don't want other people to see it. Which is a completely different concept to what we value as basic space and privacy. And by far, this is probably the biggest culture shock element I've experienced in my life, basically because a) No Bangladeshis so far is able to explain to me why they do this and b) Being Taiwanese where ppl gossip but don't get involved and Kiwi where personal space can be as wide as a ten acre farm, this sort of enchroachment just makes me uncomfortable

Here are some examples of what I feel uncomfortable with

• Asking me how much I earn, or sometimes straight to how much my husband (where ever he is...) earns
• This lady came up to me in the supermarket and literally fingered through my shopping, picking up different products (fine, they're like Aussie food but...) and examining it
• Templeton's young female neighbours greeted us at the front gate of the apartment, sniffled as soon as they saw me, then proceeded to follow us four storeys up to T's apartment door, while offering to shine their mobile phones into the house while we get in the door, then covering their mouths with their ornas while they giggle and peer
• Stopping at a traffic light and everyone crossing or touting pokes their head inside the CNG(auto rickshaw) first to look, then to tout
• A swarm of waiters all just hanging around us in restaurants and laugh when I get a bit clumsy about using my fingers to scoop curry... sniff! ITS NOT MY FAULT THAT I'M DUMB!#$%

Oh well, just gonna have to get used to it huh?