My office at school

Here's me and mom in my office (ok, my and Azfar's office--currently we're sharing one) at North South University. It's hard to see in this photo, but I plastered my wall with photos of Salma. It always puts me in a good mood to see her face!

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.

Dad caught in the act

Here's dad eating spaghetti and caught in the act of swiping one of Salma's bibs to keep the sauce off!

Riverside Scenes

Here are some scenes from the riverside--shots that I took as our boat was passing by. Looking at the way workers on the riverside haul rocks on their heads, terms like "postmodern" lose their meaning. Most of Bangladesh hasn't seen "modernity" yet, let alone a postmodern world.

Boats we saw on the river cruise

Here's some boats we saw on our river cruise. The Borigonga river was teeming with boats, ranging from tiny boats that could hold two people to huge steamers and sea-bound ships. I was amazed at the amount of cargo many of the boats were carrying. In the top photo the boat is carrying drums of some kind--I'm guessing to be used for water storage. The boats in the second and third photos are carrying some kind of crop. I'm not sure what crop--our tour guide wasn't much help in answering our questions. My guess is rice. The last picture is my favorite boat picture of the whole day. Check out that load of hay--that was the most cargo I saw on a small boat all day long. Quite a stack!

River Boat Cruise

We went on an all-day river boat cruise today! The cruise started from Savar, which is a suburb of Dhaka to the west. Savar is heavily forested, and has the feel of being far from the city even though it's in the city limits. To get to the boat, we took a tiny dirt road that wound through a small village community. The boat was about 50 feet long, and had a bamboo woven roof over the top (see the picture above). The boat was definitely not up to any cruise boat safety code in the US--there was no railing or guard on the sides, so I was a bit worried about Salma all day, who was determined to go swimming in the river. The cruise was a great experience, although the company didn't quite live up to their promise. They said they would have an English-speaking tour guide, but our guide seemed to know only a handful of words in English. (And the other people on the tour with us were from France, and also knew little English.) The company also promised a "gourmet" meal for lunch. Lunch was basically an airplane meal. But those complaints aside, it was a really good experience. Our boat followed the Doleshwari river, which is a small river leading into the Borigonga river, which passed through Dhaka on the south end of town. We went down the river for about three hours, and then we circled back. We got to see lots of boats and people (including one guy taking a dump by the river!). On the first part of the trip, as we were going through Savar, it really felt like rural Bangladesh even though we were still technically within the Dhaka city limits. We saw men giving cows their morning bath, women doing the laundry washing in the river, and workers carrying bricks off the boats on baskets their heads. Once we got closer to old Dhaka, the river got a really stinky chemical smell. Our tour guide told us (with the help of Azfar's translation) that the smell was from all of the garment factories dumping byproduct into the river. It was also partly due to the brick factories which were letting off huge billows of black smoke. Riding on the boat through old Dhaka was a fun way to see it, as opposed to getting stuck in traffic jams trying to drive through the city. It was very peaceful on the river. And people on the boats passing us were constantly trying to get our attention and get us to wave--it was not a normal thing, I'm sure, to see that many foreigners floating down the river. But while it was generally peaceful, there was the occasional river "traffic jam," especially as we got near old Dhaka. And, like good Bengalis, all of the boat drivers were quite fond of laying on the horn. Our boat had a very creative horn: a trumpet! The man who was guiding the boat rudder would occasionally whip out his trumpet and give it a good blast to warn boats in front of us. Anyway, it was quite an enjoyable day of floating down the river and seeing a bit of the city that way. I took a bunch of photos. I'l add a couple of more posts with some pictures of the kinds of boats we saw and some scenes on the riverbank. Unfortunately, I didn't have the guts to take a photo of the guy taking a dump by the river, so sorry to disappoint you...

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!

My Two Favorite Men

Here's dad and Azfar, my two favorite men, at "Spaghetti Jazz," a fabulous Italian restaurant in Gulshan that we went to the other night.

Dad's new lungi

Here's dad trying out his very own lungi! Lungis are poor men's only dress in Bangladesh, but for the middle and upper classes, it's what men wear to sleep in and lounge about the house.

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.

Salma and Grandma on the Carousel

We went to "Wonderland" today--an amusement park in Gulshan. Here's Salma and grandma having fun on the carousel! This was Salma's favorite ride. She knows the name for horse in Bangla: "gora." After the rid was over she said "abar gora! abar gora!" (again horse! again horse!).

The Streets of Dhaka

Here's a shot of the street outside of New Market, the largest "bazaar" in Dhaka. There are literally thousands of shops in New Market, all of them tiny--row after row of shirt shops, sari shops, jean shops, jewelry shops, toy shops...you name it, it's there somewhere in the maze. And you can see on the street the huge pile-up of rickshaws on the left side of the road--all people coming from New Market.

Lalbagh Fort

Here's a shot of mom and me at Lalbagh Fort in Dhaka. Lalbagh Fort was built in 1677. But construction was stopped after Shaista Khan's daughter, Pari Bibi (Fair Lady) died. He thought it was a bad omen. So the fort was never completed. It consists of three buildings constructed in the Bangla-Mughal style of architecture: a mosque, the Mausoleum of Pari Bibi, and the Diwan (hall of audience). It hasn't been renovated or touched up for tourists--it still stands as it did in the 17th century.

On the roof of our apartment building

Here is Salma with her grandma and grandpa, hanging out on the roof of our apartment building. There's a great view from the roof. Behind them you can see the lake, which is very beautiful as long as you don't look too closely (there's all kinds of garbage and debris floating in it). You can also see a bit of the skyline of Gulshan on the other side of the lake, one of the richest districts in Dhaka.

Buying Eggs

Here's a shot mom took of Rofique buying eggs at the Banani bazaar. Notice the little hand in the right corner--Salma decided she wanted to help pick out the eggs too!

Buying Fruit

Here is another photo mom took of us while we were shopping for some fruit at a local fruit stand. We got some passion fruit and papaya and pineapple...yummy!