ANNA - 2004/ 2005
Sinterklaas
did not forget Dhaka in 2004, even though Mum told him, we have a family of
non-believers. My brothers and sister are too old to believe, and I am too
young to know what to believe in. Even the presents make no impression on
me. The party was in the residence of the Dutch Ambassador. Sinterklaas had
big trouble crossing the Bay of Bengal and the crowded streets crammed with
rickshaws. If you are only used to the civilized Dutch cyclists, it is a
totally different matter.
I was on my knees all the time to gather "pepernoten". But
when I had to come to Sinterklaas to shake his hand and they thanks, I cried
and screamed my head off. The Black Piets were fine, but Sinterklaas I found
very scary. Sinterklaas brought me a turtle on a rope with three little
turtles inside.
After
that, it was time for the
rickshaw caroling. A long line of
rickshaws waited
in front of the American Club, to be decorated by expats. After that the
same expats would go through Dhaka to eat Holiday Food, drink mulled wine
and sing Christmas Carols. The more brave ones even sang their songs in the
street. The expats had as much fun as the local population; they only see
such a strange performance once a year.
For me, they can do it once a week; I waved enthusiastically to every one of
the hundreds of people that watched the show from the side of the road.
Every time we stopped for singing, I performed my little dance act. And on
top of that, I was the most popular girl among the rickshaw-wallahs.
Now we were in full swing for Christmas and New Years Eve. Silly enough, I
had to go to bed at 20.30 all the time and missed all the fun this year.
Next year I will raise my voice and be able to tell you more about these
events.
After
New Year, we went on a holiday, to
Chittagong,
Cox's
Bazar and
St
Martin's Island. I had a lot of fun. There was almost nobody; if
you look at the long picture on top of this page, you can see the most empty
beach you have ever seen in your life. You have to look really hard to see
me, but I am there!The thing I enjoyed most, was being together with the family all the time. No ayah's, no drivers, no cooks, just Mum and Dad and my brothers and sister. And they had only attention for me! So I did whatever I wanted, like having my food sitting on the table instead of sitting on the chair. And when we went for a walk, I sat comfortably in the special baby seat on my father's back. And the see was fabulous. I was not afraid at all of the waves. I challenged the population by swimming totally naked and sometimes I managed to gather a large public. Even though it is also possible that they came to have a curious look at my mother's shorts. Sometimes a group of people followed us a whole day and it needed some tough shouting to keep them at bay. But there were also times that you would have 10 kilometers of beach just for yourself.
In
the mean time I have become 1 year and 10 months old. Other parents are
asking my mother constantly if it is not about time I should go to
pre-school, but she does not want me to go. She says I am still so young,
and I am her last baby, so she wants to keep me close as long as possible.
And anyway, she says, why should the poor kid already start learning about
composers and spelling when she can be in school for many years still. I
personally think she does not want to spend the money, but what can I say.
Even though, I can say a lot already! I say "Thank you" and "Gimme
gimme!!" and if I don't like the food I shake my head and say "No
hungry". I say "Bye bye" if my parents leave the house and
wave and follow them since I think if they leave they should take me. If my
parents are nasty I call "Misty" or "Karmela" and if the
ayahs are nasty I call "Mama" or Teppie". And I can count to
ten. Unfortunately, my Dutch vocabulary is very limited, but who cares,
there are only 15 million Dutch anyway in this world, and 99% of them speaks
English. But I can sing "In the maneschijn" and especially the
part about "Dikke dikke dikke tante Kee!" (Fat aunty Kay) where
you slap your thigh, I really adore.
I am also rather naughty. Loving chocolate, jam and butter, and not necessarily only on top of a slice of bread, as soon as my parents have left the room, I will climb the table and dip my finger into whatever is available. I have to be quick though, since from time to time I let our dog laska enter, and she will snatch the food from the table before I get access, if she gets the chance.
