This weekend is a charity masquerade ball to benefit acid burn survivors. Most of the victims are women who turned down a marriage proposal, fought off being raped, or stood to inherit something that another family member wanted. Terrible practice. There is a hospital in Dhaka that takes in these women, provides medical services and reconstructive surgery (in part thanks to Doctors without Borders), and helps them to rebuild their lives despite being outcasts.
The Aussies throw a ball every fall to raise money for this hospital. The expats get all gussied up and wear masks. You can buy a mask at the door or make your own mask. This year I decided to make masks. I’m going to make them out of gears. Why?
The philosophical reason: Masks symbolize a loss of identity that happens when your face is eaten off by acid. Gears (or really any machine parts) symbolize a loss of humanity as a result of being outcast. I’ll decorate the gears with sequins and ribbons…rebuilding life, regaining humanity.
The aesthetic reason: I like the way gears look.
The practical reason: I hate papier-mâché.
So, once again I planned a shopping trip to the car parts market. I was happy when Isaac agreed to go with me. For one thing he speaks Bangla, which is very helpful in that part of town. It’s also nice to go to markets that are only men with a man. People get curious when they see foreigners, especially single female foreigners. They like to crowd in very closely to see what is going on. It can get a bit claustrophobic.
Armed with Isaac’s Bangla and my terrible drawing of a gear, we set off in the car parts market. We spent a very, very, long time, traipsing from shack to shack looking at recognizable and not so recognizable car parts, yet found nothing. Finally we saw a man taking apart various car innards (actually we almost tripped over him since he was working in the middle of the sidewalk). We noticed that mixed into his pile were a few gears. We felt a bit more optimistic after finding a few gears and gear-looking objects. My favorite is this metal ring with a series of tiny springs attached. I have no idea what it’s for, but I love the way it looks—very “Terminator” looking…actually, maybe more “Wall-E” than “Terminator.”
That little rush didn’t last long, as we continued to head in circles, following the directions that people pointed. As we wandered we saw the occasional goat, nibbling on greasy garbage. I really wished I had brought my camera.
Then suddenly an extremely kind man decided to lead us on our quest. He took us first to a gear making shop. It took us a little while before we realized they were asking us measurements so they could make gears to our specs—crazy! We explained that we wanted “ready made” gears…so our gear guide led us onward. We quickly found exactly what we were looking for, but the kid (and I mean kid…maybe 9 years old) that ran the shop wanted way too much money and wasn’t very willing to bargain. Unfortunately, he seemed to have the monopoly on mask-sized gears.
Finally we decided we were starving and it was time to go (I was very grumpy at this point). So we stopped back at the first shop we went in to buy ball bearing rings. All I know is we have enough to make masks. It’s all good.
Now we just have to figure out how to put them together.
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