Food Poisoning

So Salma got food poisoning this week! Poor girl. She vomited about 30 times between Saturday and Sunday and we had to admit her to the hospital. She stayed overnight and had a saline IV to rehydrate her. We got to go home today, and she's doing much better now. We're still not sure what she got the food poisoning from...but it was something at home. Maybe she put something in her mouth from the floor, or she got a mouthful of bad bath water or something. Anyway, we're just relieved that she's doing better now!

Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh

As you may have heard, a cyclone swept through Bangladesh around midnight on Friday. We're doing fine, though. It was mostly the southern districts along the coast that were most severely affected. The latest death count is around 2,000 people and countless animals killed and acres of crops destroyed. Dhaka lost electricity for 24 hours, and a number of signboards and trees fell down in the middle of the night on Friday, but as far as I know, no one in Dhaka died from the cyclone. Here's some pictures from the newspapers. In the middle photo, the man is using an elephant as a living backhoe to clear some huge trees from the road.

Salma's New Buddies

Here's some photos of Salma with her new buddies that she met in Gazipur. She had so much fun swimming with them, and playing in the park, and swinging on the swingset! All the kids wanted to swing with her, so she got plenty of swing-time. With all that attention, by night time she was totally worn out and she slept like a rock.

Swimming in the pond

We had a couple days' getaway in Gazipur, which is a district an hour north of Dhaka. We stayed in a little bungalow at a guest house. It was quiet and beautiful, and really relaxing! It was really nice to get out of town for a few days. We also went swimming in the pond in the village next to the guest house. We made lots of friends with the kids in the village, too! Here's a picture of Salma and I swimming with some of the kids.

At a Wedding

I went to a wedding the other day--the secretary of our department got married. It was a fun get together with other faculty and students! Here's some pics of me with some colleagues and students. And Salma got dressed up in a sari for the event too! The top photo is of Salma with one of my favorite students, Nadia. The middle photo is of me with some of my students and colleagues. The bottom photo is of me with two colleagues who are close friends--Michelle and Sabahat, and Sabahat's cute son Zarar (who is, by the way, Salma's boyfriend). Ain't I gorgeous in my sari? This is a great sari for showing off my belly-button piercing(tee hee).