Worlds collide

Here is something that I'll bet nobody else has noticed: today, September 21st, is both the first day of Eid al-Fitr and -- get ready -- Belizean Independence Day! The date for Eid shifts with the cycles of the moon, coming a bit earlier each year, so this will not happen again any time soon. It's double the holidays!! Although, I'm not quite sure how the two celebrations would be combined. A hearty dinner of rice and dal with punta music playing in the background, perhaps??

Barisal, Round 3 :: by mama

I recently made my third trip to Barisal, the southernmost of Bangladesh's six divisions. I was there for work, and it was as interesting as ever: muddy walks through villages to talk with local women, hot afternoons spent meeting with local health workers, and bumpy drives along one-lane dirt roads, dodging livestock and men carrying wood on their heads, to visit places like this local health center.

The fact that is was Ramadan made the trip even more interesting than usual. For example, we had some challenges finding food. More than once, we asked the staff in our guesthouse if we could possibly have a meal, and they gave us the ubiquitous Bangladeshi response, "Oh no, not possible." Hm. Even Muslim women are allowed to forgo fasting when pregnant, but apparently that was not of any concern to these guys.

Also, I got to experience firsthand another interesting Ramadan-related practice. In the days prior to the alarm clock, people were traditionally woken up for their pre-dawn meal by a guy who wandered the streets at about 4:30am, banging on pipes and generally making a racket as loudly and energetically as possible. It supposedly doesn't happen much in Dhaka anymore, and certainly not in our expat-heavy neighborhood, but I can verify that it is definitely still happening in Barisal. There was only one day when I didn't hear him -- maybe he had slept in? -- and that one day was blissful. (Side note: it never occurred to me to get up and look outside to see if he was dressed like this guy, but I now wish I had. That would have made it much more awesome than it was.)

We had originally flown down on the MAF flight, but we had logistical challenges and had to return by launch. [Note: The launch is not a boat. My Bangladeshi colleagues were cracking themselves up, talking about how expats refer to the launch as a boat. They are totally different! Silly expats.] Here, see for yourselves:

Anyway, so the launch involves an overnight river voyage pretty much directly north, leaving Barisal at 9:30 pm and arriving in Dhaka at about 8 am. It has three levels: the bottom level is just a big open space, where people lay out mats and food and whatever else they've brought with them:

The second level is small single cabins, and the third has the VIP rooms. Behold the glory of the VIP room (that would be my own sheet and pillow from home on the bed, because I am paranoid like that):

After a bit of a sleepless night, we arrived to the frenzy of the main launch terminal in Dhaka, elbowed our way out to the street, spent about a half hour on the phone with our driver as we attempted to locate the car, and finally, oh so happily, went home. Ah, Dhaka.

Summer 2009

We spent seven weeks in the States this summer, and I felt like I barely even glanced at my computer. It was fantastic in pretty much every possible way. Family, friends, and muenster cheese: what more could anyone want? To wrap up the summer, I put together this post. It's long, but keep in mind, this is a whole summer's worth of posts all wrapped up in one... so really this is pretty amazingly short. Here goes:


Pittsburgh
Although I cannot claim to love Pittsburgh quite as much as my brother does, I will say that the city has really grown on me over the years. Every time I go back, there is more and more to do. It's especially great for kids, with lots of museums and kid-centric activities, and the people are genuine and friendly. Plus, it's actually affordable. Here are a few things we did while we were there.

:: Kaya got a bike! ::

:: At the Pittsburgh Children's Museum. Look at that hair! ::



:: Going down the Log Jammer at Kennywood. Kaya loved this ride and made Uncle Sinan go on it twice with him. ::


Omaha
Kaya loves Omaha. He told me the other day that if Grandma and Grandpa sell their house, we should buy it and live on the lake forever. These photos pretty much sum up the time we spent there, and why he loves it:

:: The water trampoline ::

:: Tubing: in which Kaya and Daddy sit on an inflatable tube, pulled by a motorboat. I kind of can't believe I let him do this. ::

:: Fishing! Yes, that is a live fish; yes, it survived, if just barely; and yes, Kaya did want to eat it. Again, I can't believe I let him do this.::

:: Kaya and his cousins. Five children under five, spending the summer together on the lake? Yes, Kaya was happy. ::


Portland, OR
I went to Portland to visit my good friend Erica, whom I've known for 10 years now. The best part of the trip was, of course, spending some quality time with her and meeting her now-husband, Nick, but Portland made quite an impression as well.

:: On the flight in, I looked out my window, and this is what I saw. A mountain! With snow on top! In July! For someone from the East Coast, this is pretty darn amazing. I am told that this was probably Mount Hood. ::

:: Rickshaws, driven by hippies. Love it. I don't know which I would rather do: transport this guy and his rickshaw to Dhaka, or bring our rickshaw and rickshawallah to see him in Portland. Either way, this rickshaw looks way more comfortable than ours, despite being a bit bland (no decorative golden garlands and plastic birds??). ::

:: So much natural beauty, so close to the city. ::


Vancouver
In Vancouver, we visited our friends Robert and Liz, who were fantastic hosts and even took days off work to show us around.

:: Vancouver is another impressively beautiful city in an impressively beautiful location ::

:: One of my favorite places from the entire summer was, I think, Granville Island, where our friend Liz generously spent about five hours walking around with me. If you ever need to talk to a local person who has been to every single store on the island, that person is now Liz. ::

:: The beach and Stanley Park, where tourists -- clearly unaware that raccoons are rabid pests who should not be approached, let alone fed and coddled -- have created a population of raccoons who are friendly and diurnal. ::

We also went to Washington, DC and Chapel Hill, NC, and spent time with good friends in both places, but somehow forgot to take any photos. I guess we'll just have to go back next year.

And finally, one more image from the summer, and part of what made the summer even more memorable and wonderful:

Dhaka Sightseeing: Year One Review

[This is a post that I wrote last June and apparently never published. Oops. Here it is...]

We have officially made it through our whole first school year in Dhaka! Going back through our photos from the year, I realized that we, somehwat surprisingly, never wrote a single post about any of our excursions around the city. Believe it or not, we did make an effort to see the sights (such as they are). As evidence -- and for anyone who is planning a vacation to Dhaka -- here are some of the places we visited last year:

• Lalbagh Fort/Pink Palace: Not very exciting compared to the forts and palaces of India, but you kind of have to make the trip once to see them.

• Boat trip on the Buriganga River: I don't know if this actually counts as a boat -- maybe a canoe? or raft? -- but it was certainly an experience.
  

• Walking tours of Old Dhaka with the Urban Studies Group: We have done tours of Shakhari Bazaar (a predominantly Hindu neighborhood) and Sutrapur Farashganj (which used to be a French colony and includes a wholesale spice market). There are more, and they are always good.

• Gallery-hopping in Dhanmondi: We have been to the Drik Gallery and Bengal Gallery, and there are more on our list for this year.

• Paddle boating on Dhanmondi Lake: This was probably Kaya's favorite outing, especially since it ended with ice cream at the lakeside cafe.


• Bangabondhu Museum: This can be combined with the galleries or paddle boating in Dhanmondi. It is where independence was declared and where the first leader of Bangladesh was assassinated. (Warning: Blood stains and more have been preserved on the walls, making it a bit macabre, which is maybe why I didn't take any pictures?)

• Exploring the markets of Old Dhaka: New Market, Gausia Market, Chandni Chowk, the Hawkers' Market, Bango Bazaar... there are many, many old markets, each with their own specialities and flavor.

• Dhaka University, the Central Shaheed Minar, and the National Assembly Building: All places of historical importance for Bangladeshis, though somewhat unexciting for the casual tourist.

• Savar and Dhamrai: Savar has the National Martyrs' Memorial (again, not that exciting, but it does have some well-maintained open spaces), and Dhamrai has metal artisans who will invite you into their workshops and show you the process of lost wax casting that they use to create lovely brass sculptures.

• Nandan Water Park: Chris and Kaya went and loved the water slides and pools. Apparently they also have a wave pool and even some amusement park-type rides.

It was certainly a memorable year. There are more places on our list for this year... and maybe we'll even post about them before the end of the year!

Dhaka Cooking, Season One: Season Finale

Before we leave town for the summer, I thought I'd post one more of the recipes that we've discovered while living in Dhaka. This chickpea salad was delicious, but beware of the yogurt sauce. Some curry powders are spicier than others, and the amount of curry powder in the recipe is clearly meant for a mild, non-Bangladeshi version (or for masochists and fire eaters). Proceed with caution!

For Kaya, we mixed the chickpeas with couscous and spooned plain yogurt over the top, and he seemed to like it fine. For ourselves, we had the salad with this green bean dish. The green beans are kind of cheating: there are no proper green beans here, only Chinese yard long beans, and no pine nuts either (ours came back with us from Malaysia). At this point, I am willing to bend the rules a bit.

Next up, I am considering doing a special summer series of recipes that I will call, "Things you can only make in America." First on this list: chocolate chip cookie dough brownies. I am already thinking about how I can bring the ingredients for this back to Dhaka in August.

Moving up in the world :: by mama

My dad just sent me this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which excitedly announces the news that Pittsburgh has been ranked the most liveable city in the US by The Economist magazine. This happens pretty regularly: Pittsburgh has made itself into a really nice little city, and journalists occasionally notice that and write articles about it. It's good publicity, but not really surprising anymore, at least for those of us who spend time there on a regular basis.

What was of more interest to us was the rest of the list, which was actually a list of the 140 most -- and least -- liveable cities in the world, on which Pittsburgh ranked 29th. At the bottom, tied with Algiers, Algeria for next-to-last place out of 140, was Dhaka. The only city to rank lower was Harare, Zimbabwe. (The magazine did note that cities in Iraq and Afghanistan were excluded from consideration, if that's any consolation.)

So is it really that bad? Living in Dhaka certainly has its frustrations -- the pollution, the traffic, the dirt and the unavailability of tater tots come to mind -- but it's not intolerable by any means. Of course, as expats we have a much better standard of living than the vast majority of the population. Maybe if we were ordinary Bangladeshis then, yes, it would be that bad. Ultimately, I think nearly any place is what you make it, barring war or natural disaster, and for us, Dhaka is liveable, at least for a while.

More generally, I've noticed that just as Pittsburgh gets good press pretty regularly, Bangladesh gets some pretty terrible press. Foreign Policy magazine ranked Bangladesh 12th on its Failed States Index for 2008. Somalia was no.1, Iraq was no.5, Pakistan was no.9, and Haiti was no.14, to give you an idea of the kind of company we keep. Granted, Bangladesh had a military government at the time and has since held elections, but it's not a good sign. Aside from Lonely Planet's completely random inclusion of Bangladesh in its top 10 countries to visit for 2009 (after Algeria... anyone else notice a theme?), there is not much positive being said about Bangladesh out there.

So, what is the take-home message from this? Maybe we should move back to Pittsburgh. Then again, if the best city in the US is only ranked 29th overall, that would suggest that there are a whole bunch of other countries that are more liveable than the US. Our Australian friends were quick to point out that they have three cities in the top 10: Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. They had four in the top 10 last year, when Adelaide was ranked no.7. Surely there is an American School in Australia...?

We {heart} fabric :: by mama

One of the many, many wonderful things about Kaya is that he actually enjoys sitting on my lap from time to time to look at fabric online. He tells me which fabrics he likes and doesn't like, and we have discussions about colors and prints. Good times.

In our fabric browsing, Kaya had spotted a rocket print fabric a couple of times and said that he wanted it, so, partly to encourage his interest in fabric, and partly to give myself an excuse to make something for him, I finally gave in and ordered it. Kaya's suggestion was that I should make him an outfit -- a shirt and shorts, to be specific -- to wear out and about. [He calls shorts, t-shirts, etc. "morning clothes" because, of course, you put them on in the morning, so his request was for "morning clothes."] Not wanting to hear complaints in 20 years about how I made him look ridiculous by dressing him in matching outfits, I vetoed his idea. Instead, we compromised on these pajamas. The pattern was pretty simple, he likes them, and I think he looks pretty darn cute!





Apologies for the awful pictures... the kid does not like to be photographed, so this is the best I could do. I will try to sneak some better shots to replace these ones, but it may never happen. Better to have something than nothing!