Who needs personal space?

I just want to give you guys a glimpse into my Bangladesh life. Lately we do ministry in a town outside Dhaka. This means a bus ride that can last from half an hour to 3 hours depending on a variety of factors.

The daily bus rides are sometimes a welcome chance for me to relax and just think without having to be very responsible. Other days they are quite hellish and sometimes like today, you simply have to laugh.

In the mornings, the bus is late or crowded and often both. Today was no exception. My team crammed into every last inch of space on the bus. This is quite awkward with narrow aisles and cultural taboos about male/female contact. There two employees on the bus are the driver and a guy I like to call "the banger." The banger literally hangs halfway outside the bus and taps on the side of the bus to alert the driver when he is about to hit another bus, a random beggar or meandering water buffalo. (Those are all true sights here, even the water buffalo.) Today our banger failed and our bus sideswiped another bus. This resulted in our banger punching the driver of the other bus in the face. The crazy thing is that these buses are so battered that I would be shocked if anyone could see any new scrapes or scratches.

Back to the overcrowding- The bus today was hot, as usual and standing cheek to cheek (not talking about our faces) with a random petite Bangladeshi guy doesn't help the awkward factor. No one usually gets off until about ten minutes into the ride. Then all the fun begins! The aisle is about 3 feet wide so getting out of a departing passenger's way usually involves being in another passenger's lap for a few minutes. It is not as cool as it sounds. Then if you are lucky, within the first half hour, a seat will open up. Then, you get to be the one with someone on your lap. Today it was an unusually large Bangladeshi lady for me. I was reading a book but had to stop when her girth enveloped my entire lap. That was a fun five minutes as my students laughed at my predicament. At the same time the little Bangladeshi guy next to me kept doing the falling asleep head bob almost on my shoulder. This also provided a good show for the students seated behind me.

Instead of being annoyed and frustrated today, I chose to laugh. This made it so much better. Laughing is the correct response anyway when you have a large foreign lady all up in your personal space. These are the things I will miss when I am back in America.