Top 10 list!

This is an email I received from a colleague at work. I don't know if it's true, but interesting nonetheless. Extreme Robert will be excited to know that Canada is on the list. Have a good one!

By the way, Grease was pretty cool. I managed to remember all my lines for the three performances. I asked earlier today about pictures and video. They said they would get them out soon. I'll bet you can't wait....

Also, Happy Garifuna Settlement Day!! (I miss Belize...)

Hi all,

Bangladesh has recently been included in Lonely Planet's top 10 countries to visit.

The list is:

• Algeria


• Bangladesh


• Canada


• Georgia


• Greenland


• Kyrgyzstan


• Oman


• Peru


• Rwanda


• Sierra Leone

'Bangladesh is not the country of disappointment as portrayed by the media nor is it merely the poor cousin of India. Instead Bangladesh is a revelation that leaves India looking a little worse for wear. Any visitor who ventures here will return home with stories so improbable that claiming you have a pet unicorn will sound more believable.

So, what is it that makes accounts of this big-hearted nation so refreshingly unlikely? For a start, Bangladesh, one of the poorest nations on earth, has done what California, the richest area on earth, claims is prohibitively expensive - it has banned all petrol and diesel vehicles from its two major conurbations and soon will do so for the entire country. If that hasn't confounded the disbelievers, then wait until they hear that the highest point in Bangladesh, which is famous for being frying-pan flat, is higher than the highest peak in Scotland, which is famous for being leg-achingly mountainous.'

Crafty Mama

Over the past few months, while waiting for our shipment to arrive, I have spent quite a bit of time -- perhaps more than I should admit! -- reading craft blogs and thinking about all the things I would make when my sewing machine arrived. Not having had much free time over the past few years (what with the full-time graduate school, and full-time motherhood, and a part-time job or three), I am somewhat new to the world of blogs. [Yes, I realize that I am behind the times. The way I see it, though, that just means that there is more out there for me to read now!] It has been such an inspiration to read about all of the wonderful projects that people are working on and to see others' creativity. While reading the blogs, I quickly amassed heaps of notes, lists, and drawings of potential projects for myself. And when my sewing machine finally arrived -- oh, the excitement! -- I got right to work.

First, I made a bag for myself, to carry my papers and books to Bangla class every day. It was super simple, quick and very satisfying. The next day, I hadn't even made it through the front door of the language center before a friend asked me to make her a bag as well! So I made two more bags, on the theory that doubling a recipe is easier than making two batches. Why not, right? So here are my three bags:

Then, having been inspired by SouleMama's homemade blank books, I decided to make a few for one of Kaya's friends whose 8th birthday was coming up. I used the sewing machine to do the bindings and glued on white paper so he can write and draw on the cover as well.

Unfortunately, that is as far as I got with the sewing, because then my machine broke. I turned it on one evening, and it would only sew in reverse. What? Yes. esrever ni ylnO. People have very helpfully suggested that I could just sit behind the sewing machine and pretend like nothing happened, but people! That is just crazy. No, the only reasonable and truly American way to handle this situation is, clearly, to buy a new machine. Fixing it is not really an option because I would have to take it to Mumbai, where I know exactly nobody. Instead, I'll probably just buy a very basic machine locally, and that way there will (theoretically) be someone here in Dhaka who can fix the new machine when it inevitably breaks.

In the meanwhile, I figure I can practice some embroidery. Does anybody need a hot pink bag with a whole lot of flowers embroidered on it? Because I now have one.

I am in Grease! I am the Coach. I will post any video that I come across!