Ramadan Blues

Today marks the 14th day of Ramadan. Most people are fasting, but I'm taking a week-long break (every woman gets a "break" from fasting when her time-o-the-month rolls around). I didn't fast last week, either, because of the whole food poisoning incident, so I'm actually not suffering too much this year. Well, besides the watery diarrhea anyways.

Things have really slowed down for me project-wise. It's hard to drop in and visit people during Ramadan because they are either napping, preparing "iftari", eating, or napping again. My interview numbers have dropped off, so I'm basically working on a few other projects. Tonight I'm going to start writing an article with one of my spoken English students regarding daily life in America. That should be fun. And one of these days I'm going to go to BARD (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) to see what kinds of things they have going.

Isaac is getting stir-crazy. I am too, to tell you the truth. I'm quite ready for another trip to Dhaka (minus the accident). Isaac's been cooped up for a few days now and we're all feelin' it. Us Americans (we Americans?) are not good at sitting around at home all day. We need to get out, spend money and eat junk food on a regular basis or else we begin to shrivel up into ourselves.

Indian Idol premiered last night. Yes, my friends, I was a closet American Idol fan (not that I like the MUSIC, mind you, it's the pop culture that I'm interested in. The music sucks.) and now I'm really enjoying the different spin they have on the Indian version. Last night they were showcasing this banana vendor who was trying out. They outlined his life and explained how getting a chance to sing would mean so much to him, and that he sang all the time at work, etc. Then they showed him auditioning and it was absolutely HORRIBLE. They have the Indian equivalents of the US judges, complete with a "Simon" who has some great one-liners. And for those of you who are wondering, they do sing Indian songs when they try out.

I am looking forward to the next show, tonight at 10:00. At least it's something to look forward to!