Reflections on a Third World culture: views from a Bangladeshi rickshaw and beyond

All nations, including Bangladesh, can boast of spectacular tourist sites (Bangladesh, 1993). This paper, however, focuses on what some may consider the mundane by chronicling an eclectic selection of daily encounters during my four-month visit to Bangladesh from January through April, 1993. It will not be difficult to convince many readers who have already experienced an immersion into a culturally diverse community that the day-to-day, face-to-face encounters with a country's indigenous people performing "ordinary" activities are what veritably generate the most lasting of memories for and have the greatest impact on the foreign visitor. This paper is intended to contribute to the network of cross-cultural communicators with the hope of furthering global awareness and promoting cultural diversity.