Visiting Susan & Matt

Salma and I stayed with my friends Susan and Matt for a while. Here's some photos of Salma with their kids Jack, Ella & Tillie.

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!

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.

Videos of Salma

I finally figured out how to upload videos online, so if you want to see a few clips of Salma singing songs and being silly, check out my last couple of posts on her blog: allaboutsalma.blogspot.com. That much cuteness should be illegal, I tell you!

Rajshahi Trip

Salma and I made a 5-day trip to Rajshahi last week to visit some of Azfar's family there. On our way there, we could see effects of the flooding. Many of the green fields that I saw by the road on our last trip were either heavily waterlogged or completely underwater. Some of the worst flooded spots stretched for miles--I couldn't see any dry land except for the road we were on. In Rajshahi, Azfar's sister Rosy took us to the Padma River one evening, and we could see how overflowing it was as well. The last time we saw it, it was barely a trickle. This time it was almost overflowing its banks. We enjoyed watched the sunset cascading over the river. We also met a baoul musician (see the last photo) at the riverside (they live rather ascetic lives and their philosophy mixes music and religion). Also, Salma had a great time playing with her cousins Rupunty, Abundy and Nil. The downside of the trip was that it was SO HOT. Rajshahi is famous for its scorching hot summers. On top of that, the electricity was going off all the time. It was so hot at night that it felt like the sheets were burning. So in order to be able to sleep, I had to drench a towel in water and lay on it. Now that's hot! Anyway, that's it for our adventures out of Dhaka for right now. We decided to wait until December to take our trip to Delhi, when there's cooler weather. So for the rest of this break we're just hanging out in Dhaka, trying to catch up on some work and spending some time with our family here.

Bye Shonna...

I have sad news...our cat Shonna ran away a couple of nights ago. I think she ran out when the front door was ajar, and went downstairs and out the front gate. We haven't seen her since. We've looked for her all over the neighborhood, but we haven't had any luck. She was such a sweet cat. We're all going to miss her, especially Salma.

Salma is two years old now!

Salma's birthday was on July 22. We celebrated her birthday with a huge party--over 50 guests came over to our little apartment! Check out some pictures from the party on Salma's blog. I can't believe she's two already!

Baby Group at our place!

Salma and I have been going to a baby group that meets every Wednesday. All the folks who go are from other countries--the UK, Germany, South Africa, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Belgium, etc. We meet at a different person's house every week. It's been a great way to get to meet new folks in Dhaka and make some friends. This week we had the baby group at our place! Salma was so excited to have all her buddies come and play at our house.

Daddy and Baby

I love this picture of daddy and baby--they've got the same smile here, don't they? This was taken at the Bengali New Year festival.

At the Park

Here's Salma and I at a park in Gulshan by the American club. This park has a really beautiful lake, as you can see (as long as you don't look too closely and notice the garbage floating in it!).

Bye mom and dad!

Here's mom and dad saying bye at the airport...mom was here for 10 days, and dad was here for a month. Dad just left on Tuesday. We had a great time with them and we miss them!

With grandpa at the park

Here's Salma with her grandpa by the lake at a park in Gulshan. Salma had fun, as usual, chasing other babies around the park and finding people to admire her.

Just the three of us!

Here's our little family, out having dinner. Ain't we cute? We took dad out to a burger shop that had a kid's play area, so this is about the only moment Salma was still the whole evening. The rest of the time she spent running around with the other kids and playing in the balls. Azfar broke the rules and got in the play area with her! (See the top photo.)

Salma and Grandpa on the Slide

Here's Salma and grandpa on the slide at the park!

Salma and Grandpa on the swing

Here's Salma with her grandpa swingin' on the swing at the park! Salma's favorite park to go to is this one in Gulshan. They have a big lake and ducks, flowers to pull, and lots of kids to chase. What more could you ask for, right?

At the Dhaka Zoo

Here's some photos from our trip to the zoo. We saw two royal Bengal tigers, lions, a leopard, monkeys, deer, gorillas, snakes (including cobras and pythons), and birds of all kinds. We didn't get to all the exhibits--there were also hippos and crocodiles and other animals. The zoo is very big, but not at all the same experience as a zoo in the US. The zoo feels more like a big park. These photos are taken in the middle of the park. The animals are not very well taken care of, I think. I noticed some deer with very severe eye infections and sores. But it was fun for Salma and Audry to see the animals. Salma loved the big "mews" (tigers) the best.

Goats

Salma and I stopped to check out the goats on the way to visiting Mukhta's house. (Mom went with us--she took the picture.) Salma loves the goats!

At Mukhta's House

Mom and I went over to Mukhta's house a couple of days ago. We had a really good time! Here's a shot of me and Salma with Mukhta in her house. As you can see, there's not much to it: a board with a sheet over it for a bed/table and a couple of shelves under a tin roof.

A Real Elephant!

Ok, so it's plastic, but use your imagination...almost looks real! Here's Salma with grandma and grandpa at the Wonderland amusement park in Gulshan.