Another Saddam picture. The rickshaw wallah was proud of this one. 

Momo, Isaac and I went for a walk today. We checked out the pond. 

Here I tried to take a picture of the pretty girl on the back of the rickshaw in front of us, but our driver got in the way. Pretty girls with piercing stares is the motif of choice for most rickshaws. 

All Purpose Pond

Here are some kids having their morning bath in a pond. Masud and his siblings used to bathe here!!

Some kids I met today. They loved that I took their picture. 

Rear view... 

Much to the chagrin of my Muslim family, I bought Isaac a traditional Hindu "dhoti". It's just so damn cute! You can tell he's feelin' it! 

I snagged another rickshaw picture today. This one features Saddam and his buddy Osama. 

This is Afrida, Isaac's cousin. She's 7, and usually very patient with him.  

This morning, Isaac bonked a little kid in the eye with a toy. Thanks to Karma, he was attacked by another boy this evening. The boy grabbed both of his ears and dug in his thumb nails. There was bleeding. What a good life lesson. The bandaids are more for his feelings than his ears. 

Here's a guy who my brother in law hired to do some yard work. He's about 60 feet up in a tree, cutting branches with a machete. He worked all day for meals and 100 taka (about $1.75). 

Ahhh, my fellow countrymen!

So far, I have had to explain to exactly 14 people why my country's people are so "boca" (stupid). People just don't understand what it is that US citizens see in Bush. I find myself defending him to some degree, just so Americans can save some face. I try to emphasize the fact that Americans are scared of terrorists, and they believe that Bush will protect them and their children. People reply that because of Bush's actions abroad, terrorists are becoming more determined to hurt America. I've even had conversations with some less educated people from the village, who say that because of Bush's foreign policy, the entire world has been upset. If these people can understand that, why can't the voting public?
I had high hopes, the psychic in India predicted that Kerry would win, the international polls showed that the entire world was overwhelmingly in support of Kerry, and my sister in law had two dreams that Kerry would win. She's rarely wrong when she dreams something. But apparently my fellow voters didn't hear that news. My mom even convinced my 95 year old grandma to vote Democratic for the first time in her life, but she changed her mind at the last minute. It must be the fear factor.
Oh well, at least now there is an end in sight. I'll be out of the country for the next 8 months anyways, and after that, I only have to wait 3 1/2 more years.

Isaac the washer-woman. Yeah, he's bored. 

This is how chips are transported in Bangladesh. Hmmmm. 

You can tell he's really enjoying himself. 

So I was in the "mall" the other day, and I noticed this half naked guy carrying a bunch of live chickens around by their feet. Apparently he was trying to sell them. It was a great Kodak moment. 

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!

Ok, all of my American friends are freaking out at my bald headed child, but my Bangladeshi friends know what has happened. In Bangladesh, kids get their heads shaved often from the time they are born. This is for a few reasons. 1 - it's hot here. 2 - the hair grows back thicker and darker. 3 - tradition. I can now tell all the bangladeshi people who ask me that YES, HIS HEAD HAS BEEN SHAVED. I know, he looks like a cancer patient. He thinks he looks like a pirate. 

How to explain to a four year old why we projectile vomit...

...and other fun things I learned this week.

"Well, one time when you ate some food or drank some water, there was a little nasty bug in there. And it went in your stomach and made more bugs. Then the bugs decided to have a party. Your stomach didn't like all those bugs having a party in there, so it decided to squeeze them out."

Do any of you spoiled American people know how hard it is to HAND WASH A KING SIZED SHEET in a BUCKET??? Do you? Just try it once, for fun. But make sure you do it after you have been awake all night holding a bucket and fanning your kid. And don't just wash the sheet, add your pajamas, your kids 3 pairs of shorts, a few pillow cases and a towel. Yep, no need to go to Curves, just do your laundry.

Bangladesh's "Dubious Distinction"

The headline in the paper a few days back was something like "Government Officials Reject TI's Corruption Ranking". Bangladesh has, for the fourth year in a row, been labeled the most corrupt country in the world. Transparency International uses surveys and focus groups to measure the perceived corruption of businessmen, developers and countrymen, to give each country a rating between one and ten (ten being a perfect score). Anything below a three is termed "rampant corruption". Bangladesh scored a 1.5, which is surprisingly a slight improvement over last year. This time, at least, Bangladesh can share it's shame with Haiti.

Of course, the ruling government of Bangladesh "rejected" the findings. One official said something like "hey, our values are different here. We don't see human rights in the same way as the rest of the world." YIKES.

Truly, this is a corrupt country. My friend, Faruk bhai (also my spoken English student), was telling me about his experience as a government employee. He refused to take bribes, and had to resign because the system just doesn't work that way. His fellow employees were all affected because he wouldnt take bribes, and although they liked him as a person, he thinks they resented him for messing with the system. So he quit. If he would have taken the bribes, he'd be well off and rolling in money, but now he's living a modest lifestyle. How many people have the strength to give that up? Not many.

On our way back home, I snapped this picture of the back of a rickshaw. In case you don't recognize him, this is Saddam Hussein. He is holding his hands in the Islamic prayer gesture. Beside him there are pictures of mosques. Many people in Bangladesh are sympathetic towards Saddam. So far everyone I have spoken to is against Bush, and they feel sorry for Saddam. 

This is one of the stages (there is another name for it, but it escapes me at the moment). People come to these statues to pray to Durga, who is believed to come down and inhabit the statues for the duration of the puja. 

A little puja, a little "purge-a".

Ok, that title was very corny, but I'm trying to be witty here. This week was Durga Puja, the biggest Hindu festival. Comilla has a high Hindu population, so I was so excited to go and see all the festivities. But, alas, three days ago I ate some questionable pizza and gave myself a wonderful case of food poisoning. I have been bed ridden and unable to go and see the sights. Last night I did manage to walk a block away from my apartment and see a few of the stages that were set up. The settings were gorgeous, and they had music and dancing and food offerings for the goddess Durga, but my mind was on my digestive system the whole time. Sadly, I don't think I'll get another chance to see anything like this in the near future.

In other news, two of my Bhabi's and one of my nieces came to see me yesterday. They could only stay for one day, which was sad, but it was very nice to have new people in the house. I've been working a lot lately, so it was nice to have a day off to relax with them (and recover from the food poisoning!)

More soon!

Technology strike.

I'm mourning the death of my laptop, and so I have not had the heart to log on for the past few days. Instead I am reacquainting myself with the pen and paper. Ahh, my handwriting has suffered from lack of practice. My niece has a nice computer where I can check my email and print out stuff, so that's a saving grace.

It was really hot again today, and fasting was a little rough. Actually I slept until 11:00, but it was really hard to wait for Iftar tonight. Somehow food tastes so much better when you're starving though, and I was so thankful for that first glass of water. Fasting is a good experience, especially for this food addicted person.

Durga Puja started today, and I've made a deal with a new friend of mine that we'll be going to see all the festivities this thursday and friday. I can't wait! Comilla has a really high Hindu population, so I'll get a taste of a real Puju in this little town. I like this town though. It reminds me of Montello somehow. I know that's weird, and I can't explain it. Maybe it's the restaurant called "Yum Yum" that reminds me of "Yahooz". I'm not sure.

Well, time to get off the line. More soon.

Disaster.

My computer just died. I was happily working, and all of a sudden it said "going into hibernation mode" and shut down. It won't turn on. Now I'm using the old IBM we brought for Isaac to play games on. No USB port = no photo blogs, no web cam, no flash drive. So, basically, no fun. Of course, I can still go downstairs and commandeer my niece's computer, but what fun is that?
I'm SO SAD!!

All in the family...

I'm so excited, because now that I'm here, I have the chance to see an entire Bangladeshi wedding, from start to finish. Masud's cousin Dalia is marrying another one of Masud's cousins, Jahir. (Yes, my American friends, they are first cousins, which is culturally OK here.)

Today was the engagement ceremony at the bride's house. Here is what happened. We got to the house around noon and were served a light snack. As there were a lot of people, we ate in shifts. After eating, the women went with the women, the men with the men, and the kids with the kids. We chatted for a while. Usually at this point, the two families would be getting to know eachother, but since everyone here is related, there was no need.

We were then served lunch. I ate so much that I thought I'd explode, because as soon as my plate was empty, someone was dishing out more. I had polau and veggie curry, and later polau with sweet yogurt. I've never had polau and yogurt at the same time before, but it was actually quite good.

Then we went back and sat with the "bo" (bride). WHen it was time for the ceremony, she got up and gave "salam" to her parents, and asked for their blessing. She cried when she did this, and of course that made me cry too. Then she went to meet her future in-laws. They all sat on the couch together, and her future mother in law, aka her aunt, put a ring on her finger. Then the bride's mother put a ring on the grooms finger. Then we all sat together and prayed for their happiness. That was another touching moment, because everyone in the room was praying together for the happiness of these two young adults. THere were lots of tears and lots of smiles as well.

I took some pictures which I hope will give you somewhat of an idea of the engagement party. I'm really looking forward to the next few parts of the ceremony, which will happen after the month of Ramadan is done.

Speaking of Ramadan, we will find out in a few hours if we will start fasting tomorrow. Thus begins a month of fasting. For those of you who don't know, we don't eat or drink anything, not even water, from sunrise to sunset. I'm sure I'll be able to describe this more in-depth as the month progresses. It might be interesting for those who don't know about this part of the Muslim religion.

Tomorrow I'll try to post more.

This is Masud's aunt "Laili" putting the ring on the groom's finger. 

This is Masud's aunt "Kushum", mother of the groom, putting the ring on Masud's cousin Dalia, who is the daughter of Masud's other aunt, "Laili". 

Close up of Dalia, the bride-to-be. 

This is the "bo", Dalia, with Mun-Mun. Mun-Mun also married one of Kushum-Khalamma's sons. She is the daughter of Masud's uncle. 

Shumi and Mun-mun 

isaac and his favorite Shumi Fupi 

Hello, Anonymous!

Today I was pleasantly surprised to open my email and find that some random visitors to my blog have posted comments. I have been feeling like my posts are frivilous and a waste of time, but apparently even random people who don't know me are interested. So thanks, random people! And thanks, not so random people (Hey Gilo!).

Yesterday my brother-in-law went to the family "gram" (village) for a visit. He took three of my disposable cameras with him and took lots of pictures depicting daily life - both the good and the bad - in the village. I am eagerly awaiting the prints. I am planning on doing a photography project on a large scale with residents of Comilla, so these test prints will tell me if the cameras came through the postal system without being zapped by the scanner (or intense heat for that matter). Plus I'm going to use them as examples for each of my photography groups. I'm so excited about this project - even more excited about this project that my real research that I proposed.

I've got a gross infection on my left foot. A mosquito bit me and I scratched it in my sleep, and it just happens to be right on the spot where every pair of sandels I own rubs. It's so inflamed that it even hurts to walk - it's the size of a yo-yo. I'm told I'll have to take some antibiotics if I want it to get better. Ahhh, I might as well just take antibiotics the whole time I'm here.

I'm out of witty things to say, so I'm signing off.

I took this picture at a function I attended yesterday in honor of Dr. Akhtar Hameed Khan, founder of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Advancement located in Comilla. He was an amazing guy who did a lot of wonderful things for the rural poor of Bangladesh and Pakistan. I'm planning on learning more about him soon.