Football on the World's Longest Beach

Today I got to experience a bit of Bangladeshi culture - a picnic, hosted by my organization's local staff. But there were no blankets, or picnic baskets, or a grassy little nook to spread out on while we sipped wine, ate cheese, and chatted. It turns out a Bangladeshi picnic is a big DIY event (party games included).

I arrived a bit late as I had to work this morning (yup, the life of a humanitarian, working on the weekends), but when I showed up there were plastic chairs spread out amongst the pine trees that separated the beach from the highway, and a man on a homemade ladder creating a bamboo and rope structure. "Odd" I thought - "I wonder why the group chose a place near a construction site." So I wandered down to the beach and found a huge football match going on between our nutrition team and all the other staff, or "Brasil vs the rest"

- Tonight Brazil is playing against Belgium in the World Cup, and this country is crazy for Brazil (in addition to Argentina). There are flags lining the streets, even in the most obscure and seemingly odd, forgotten about locations, and so in showing their support, and in preparation for tonight's game, they had of course donned their yellow jerseys. And football is no joke in this country - not only had they marked the field, created a spectator viewing area, and assigned a referee (whistle and all), they had also constructed the goal posts (on the spot) out of bamboo and rope. It was pretty impressive.

Even the women, who had started their own little game just behind the men's game, had marked out their field, assigned a referee (yup, with a whistle), and created goal posts (but with much smaller bamboo sticks and no rope). And yes, you better believe I joined in on that game! There was no way i was giving up an opportunity to play football on the longest sea beach in the world, running calf-deep in to the ocean chasing after missed passes... and I even scored the only goal!!

Once "regulation time" was declared over, we ventured back over to our pine forest and the mysterious construction site. And as it turned out, the bamboo structure that was being built was actually our picnic tent, or "games arena" that one of the guys made. Next thing I know there is game after game being organized for us: musical chairs, potato-sac races, chicken fights, and something where you had to hold a spoon in your mouth and balance a marble on it as you raced from one end of the tent to the other. There was even a generator powering two large dance speakers and a crowd gathered around them dancing to pop music. The games only stopped once hunger hit and everyone lazed around waiting for lunch to be served - which was being cooked across the highway in an outdoor kitchen of someone's house... such a bizarre thing to see huge cauldrons full of rice and meats and veggies being carried across a road.

It was such a fun day, and an amazing experience to be a part of. I'm so lucky to work for an organization with such a great sense of community and excitement for each other, and the work we do. And to be living in such a beautiful country... it makes me smile every day :)