Christmas and the New Year - Hi all, Happy Christmas from Bangladesh! Hope you're all having a great time wherever you are and that you're enjoying the Christmas Break. In Bangladesh, it's not very christmassy as its mainly a muslim area, so there aren't any shops with christmas stuff displayed like there would be in the UK. However, at home with our hosts, we have put up our christmas tree which was great fun and we have advent calendars and cards up that you guys have sent us. At church yesterday we also sang our first few christmas carols so we're beginning to feel the christmas spirit a little bit more now. From now up until the new year we are on holiday really, as the school is closed for Christmas. We have a few Christmas parties to go to and some dinners so we're looking forward to some nice roast turkey and potatoes. Although it's christmas for the christians here, next week it will be Eid-Ul-Azha so people will be leaving Dhaka to go back to their home villages to celebrate and spend time with their families. 
Eid-Ul-Azha is second in the series of Eid festivals that Muslims celebrate across the world. It is also referred to as the "Big Feast." On this day Muslims sacrifice animals which have been deemed Halaal, or fit for sacrifice. They not only kill and eat the meat themselves but they distribute it amongst their neighbours, relatives and the poor and hungry. In Bangladesh, the animals used most often for sacrifices are; the goat for the poorer families, cow for the middle class and camels for the rich Bangladeshi's. On the special day of Eid, we as a team and our hosts have been invited to witness the killing of our neighbours cow and to then go back for lunch and eat it! So, instead of christmas shopping this is how we will be spending our time. It's sounds a little bit disgusting but it's all part of learning about a new culture though, so I think we're all going to go. After Eid and Christmas we are then going to take our team holiday.
We are planning to go on a boat trip from the 28th December-1st January so we will be celebrating new year on a boat. The boat we're going on is for 20+ people so we are going with our hosts and some other people from the church. We're really looking forward to it. Originally, we were intending on going through the Sundarbans on our journey, however because it was badly hit by the Cyclone Sidr and parts of it destroyed the plan has slightly changed, and we will now be going slightly near there, but not to the directly affected area. So... all thats left for me to say is Merry Christmas and a Happy new year.
