Go Obama, go! 5/11/08

It has been too long since I last updated my blog, so prepare for something of an epic…

What a day! We woke up here in Dhaka on the 5th as the results were just coming in. Like excited kids, Megan and I went to the office an hour earlier than usual to check the headlines every two minutes. We were in the middle of a session on ‘VSOB Policies and Practices’ when Keith got a message from his friend in the US, saying that it looked like Obama had won.

It was strange to be so excited about something that was happening so far away, which probably won’t have a directly significant effect on my life, but I wasn’t the only one. Everyone in the office seemed jubilant. Several of us were a little tearful.

And the strange thing was, all over the city people knew about Obama’s victory, and were pleased about it! Megan’s CNG driver could even quote the Electoral College figures.

In celebration of this monumental day, I had my first encounter with Bangladesh’s dodgy illicit-alcohol scene. The Galaxy Bar is probably the shadiest establishment I’ve ever set foot in. To gain entry, you have to get past tens of ‘security guards’, who are pretty shifty looking characters. I think only by virtue of being bideshis did we escape a full body search… Inside, the bar is completely dark, save for the flickering light of a couple of TV screens. Men sit drinking in ones and twos on low leather chairs. They watch silently, unmoving, as we stumble past (needless to say, Loz and I were the only ladies present). After ascertaining that imported vodka and whiskey are three times the price of Bangladesh’s own, we opt for the latter, and are presented with two bottles of (apparently) 75% proof vodka, carefully and politely wrapped in brown paper bags.

And so we celebrated this day in style, with vodka and 7up. Chin chin to Barack.