Sometimes it’s fun knowing a few words in the local language. You get to hear conversations that sound like this:
“blah, blah, we have blah blah green blah in the house.”
And you feel so proud of yourself for recognizing those words. You can guess what they might have in the house… is it veggies? roaches? sofas?
However, sometimes it is not nice knowing a few words in the local language. Like yesterday afternoon. I was walking home from the school and got catcalled twice and scoffed at once.
Hey, Shada. (“Hey, Whitey.”)
*Snorting and looking over at me* “hm, bideshi.” (“hm, foreigner.”
“Oooh, mishti baby” (“ooh, sweet baby.”)
When it’s a toddler commenting on my strangeness, that’s one thing. But the neighbors and local adults?
Perhaps I am not aware of it when I am busy talking to other people, but I notice that this kind of commenting just doesn’t happen when I am with another person. I need a protective friend bubble to walk with me wherever I go, I guess.
Neko and Panda's 
Hi,
You commented on our blog (Bowman in Bangladesh – http://www.tlccarlson.blogspot.com) that you live in Baridhara and are interested in some game nights or the like. How fun! We’d love to. I’m not sure what your situation is, but we have an 11-month old, so sometimes schedules can be hard to balance, but if we can work something out, we’d really like that. We live in the DOHS part of Baridhara. Send me an email and let’s try to work something out!
Trisha