World Cup fever!

Well, the World Cup has just started, and preparations have been underway in Bangladesh for the last month. Flags are flying on rooftops, from apartment windows, from flagpoles in the middle of villages, and men are sporting jerseys all over the place. The two favourite teams here are Argentina and Brazil, and pretty much every Bangladesh male has chosen one or the other to support. They are not half-hearted in their support…apparently, fights between the two groups of supporters are not uncommon. I was surprised that even when we left Dhaka, the World Cup fever was just as strong…it was great to see even small towns/villages flying the flags of Argentina and Brazil.

I had a pretty funny interaction with one boy as I was walking in the rural areas near the town of Srimongol. Most Bangladeshis know very little English, but most people know “hello, how are you?” and “good afternoon”, and boys and men will often ask us “where you from?” or “what country?” So this kid who was about 13 or 14 walked by Corina and I on this rural road, and he asks, “Where you from?” So we tell him – “Canada” and “the Netherlands”. Then I said to him, “World Cup – Brazil or Argentina?” At that point, his face broke out into a huge smile, and said, “Argentina! Argentina!” with his arms above his head in a cheer for his team. It was pretty cute! World Cup fever surpasses all language barriers, apparently…

Here are some pictures of Argentina supporters in Srimongol town…the flag they were carrying was pretty impressive!!

 The flag was long!!!  And it definitely attracted attention!

They paraded through the down-town area too!  Go Argentina!!

And, just for fun...here's a couple of guys taking cell phone pictures of Corina and I when we are out walking...they asked if they could take our picture, so I agreed with the condition that I could take theirs too!  People take our pictures on their camera phones all the time...and usually they don't ask...it's a little weird, but oh well!  Foreigners are really uncommon here, so we tend to attract a lot of attention.