Fun at Cox's Bazaar

While Wes was here, we went on a three-day trip to Cox’s Bazaar, which is the longest unbroken sea beach in the world. We took the day bus to get there, leaving at 10am, and arriving around 8pm. That was a long trip, with Salma just about climbing the walls of the bus! Anyway, we immediately went down to the beach front to get some dinner and check out the shops. The next morning we went to the Buddhist monastery there (which had signs written in Burmese), and we also checked out the Burmese market. Wes got some really nice Burmese shirts. We were there at the high tourist time, so we were lucky that there was a circus going on. So we went to the circus there and Wes got to wrist-wrestle an elephant (see the picture), which was very cool. The elephant was just standing in a field outside the circus tent, with a chain around its foot. So Wes got brave and got up close. Our last day at Cox’s Bazaar we spent swimming in the sea, taking a speed-boat ride in the ocean, and shopping for pearls.

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.

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.

Paan leaves

Here's a photo of some paan leaves that had just been harvested, that we came across on our tour of Srimangal. Paan is something people lots of people here chew. It's a big cash crop. It gets combined with some white paste stuff and bits of betel nut, and then you chew it all together. I've tried it, but I'm not a big fan. It makes my tongue go numb. There's some kind of drug quality in the leaves and nuts. Lots of people are addicted to it in Bangladesh, and have all kinds of dental problems as a result.

Jackfruit, a most amazing fruit

Jackfruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh. There were a bunch of jackfruit trees right outside our bungalow in Srimongol, so I took a few pictures. Jackfruit is a very interesting fruit. It can range from the size of a grapefruit to a watermelon. They grow right off the trunk of the tree. The shell is very hard and spiky. Inside, it has sections kind of like an orange. The texture is unlike anything I've tasted before. The closest I can get to describing it is that it is a cross between a banana and a mango, with a bit of extra slime. I can't say that I'm a big fan of jackfruit, but it is quite an interesting taste. Given the choice between that and mango, I'd definitely go for the mango.

Our Trip to Srimangal (The Tea Resort)

We just got back from a two-day trip to the Sylhet region of Bangladesh, which is in the northwest part. It's about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Dhaka. Here's daddy and baby on the bus:

We stayed in a Tea Resort in Srimongol. The resort was very nice--you could rent your own "bungalow"--a two-bedroom house with a kitchen, dining room, living room, and patio. Here's a picture of our bungalow:

During the two days we stayed at the resort we were the only guests, so we had the whole place to ourselves! More than anything, it was so nice to have some peace and quiet for a few days--such a refreshing change from the chaos of Dhaka. The climate there is quite a bit different from the Dhaka region--actually, it reminds me of the Pacific Northwest. It's got lots of trees and thick luscious undergrowth, and the weather is generally misty and cool. Here's a scenery shot from the Tea Resort:

There are also many rice paddy fields in the area like this one below. As we were riding on the bus, we saw workers picking the rice and maintaining the fields.

There are a bunch of tea gardens and tea estates around Srimongol--the whole Sylhet region is famous for its tea. (And thus this area is one of the oldest outposts of British colonialism, via the East India Company.) We visited some of the tea gardens--there are at least 150 tea gardens in the area. A few of them are some of the largest tea gardens in the world in terms of size and production. There are about 300,000 workers are employed on the tea estates, and most of them are women (according to the owners' sexist assumptions, they think the women do a better job picking the leaves and the women are of course paid less). Here's some workers on one of the tea estates:

Most of the workers are Hindus. When the British began growing tea in the Sylhet region, they brought their own workers with them from India. So today, most of the workers are descendents of these original Indian Hindus. Here's a shot of a tea garden, below. The sign tells you what kind of tea is growing there and how long it's been established (this plot has been there since 1956).

We also visited the Bangladesh Tea Research Institute, which was established in 1957. We went there after working hours, so we couldn't see inside, but I found it fascinating that there was a whole room with a sign over the door that read "Tea Tasting Room"--they take their tea tasting seriously! One of the highlights of the trip was having a "panch rong cha" (five color tea). This is most definitely the most amazing tea I have ever tasted! You can actually look at the glass and see the five layers of different types of tea. I'm not sure how they keep the five types of tea separated, but they do. I tasted mint tea, milk tea, black tea, green tea, and...well, another kind of tea! I'm sure if Starbucks got ahold of the recipe they would make a fortune off it. Here we are having our panch rong cha:

One of the biggest highlights for Salma, however, was THE POOL! She was a big fan of swimming in the pool. Also, she made friends with a dog that was hanging out at the resort. Here she is with her buddy:

Overall, it was a very enjoyable trip and nice to get a bit of peace and quiet and a breath of fresh air before the hectic schedule of the school semester starts up again (summer session starts for us next week).

Fun at the Water Park

We took a trip to Nandan Water Park in Dhaka this weekend, with Urmi, Audry, Jasra, Dilara, and Azfar's cousin Shammi and his wife Nuresha. We had a blast! The water park has 3 water slides, children's slides and play areas, a "rain" dance floor, and a wave pool. Salma didn't want to leave. She kept saying "aro goshol!", which means "more bath!"

In Azfar's home village

We just got back from a trip to Rajshahi. We went to Azfar's home village and to his cousin Shammi's wedding. We were there for a week. Here's some shots in Azfar's village. The top shot is a view looking out into the rice fields that surround the village. The shot below that is of a hay stash for the cows, who often roam through the village. The third picture is of a typical clay house in the village. The clay is really strong, and holds together even through the monsoons. And clay has its own built-in air conditioning system! Sitting inside the clay rooms on a hot afternoon, you would think there was an AC running! But of course most of the houses in the village don't have any electricity. The fourth shot is of fresh red peppers that had just been picked--drying in the sun. In the fifth shot you can see what people use for firewood in the village: cow dung dried on sticks. There's just not enough firewood to go around, so dung works very well to keep the fires going. Very ingenious, if you ask me! Nothing goes to waste in the village, not even cow dung! The last shot is Azfar and Salma--this is Azfar's first trip to his home village in eleven years! Some of his family members there just cried when they saw him. They've been waiting such a long time to see him again. It was really moving. Anyway, his family in the village was very welcoming to me, and extremely hospitable. What little they had to offer, they shared willingly, and served us a huge feast, something I'm sure they couldn't really afford to do. We also went to two other villages--Azfar's dad's brother's village (in other words, Azfar's uncle), and Azfar's mom's home village. In his mom's village we saw the mud hut where Azfar was born, which is now part of his uncle Tuku's house. Azfar's mother also wanted the midwife who helped her give birth to Azfar, to see him again. We went to the midwife's house, and it was really sad to see her lying basically on her deathbed. Azfar's mom brought her a sari and told her who Azfar was, but she could barely open her eyes and I'm not sure she was fully coherent, but she did say hello. We all had tears in our eyes. So that was three villages in one day. Whew! It was a long but special day.

Oink Oink

Here's another photo from our trip to Rajshahi...a wild pig just happened to wander into Shafique's mother's front yard. Salma wanted to say hi but he didn't look too friendly!

Boat Trip

This is another picture from our Rajshahi trip. Here is Salma and I with Rosy, Shammi's fiance Nouresha and her sister, Rosy's friend, and Nil on a boat ride in the Padma river! This is Salma's and my first boat ride in Bangladesh. We had fun! The boat had an engine on it and could pick up some pretty good speed. The way they build it is pretty smart: there are bamboo slats on top with lots of space on the bottom for the water to collect. That way you don't get wet!

Shammi's Fiance Nouresha

I just got back from a five-day trip to Rajshahi. One of the most exciting parts of the trip was that I got to meet Shammi's fiance Nouresha. They're getting married in about a month--around the beginning of March! She's very sweet. I can't wait to go to their wedding to see my first Bengali marriage ceremony!

Monsoon rain

Hi family and friends,

Thought I'd send a little longer update, since I haven't in a while. So here you go...sorry if I already talked to you and I'm repeating myself!

Salma's doing good! She's pulling herself up on furniture all the time now. I think she's gonna walk soon. And she's learning words like crazy--Bengali and English. Her new word today is "brishti" (rain). We're having a monsoon today, so I guess it made an impact on her! There's about 3 feet of water in the road right now. The road is literally a lake. It's quite entertaining watching the cars go by--they look like boats. And I feel sorry for the poor rickshaw drivers who are trying to peddle through this rain--they're completely soaked. It's supposed to keep raining for 3 days. Guess we'll have to hole up in our apartment till then. I'm not brave enough to venture out in the monsoon.

Well, we just had our first trip outside of Dhaka, finally. We went to the beach (Cox's Bazaar) for four days. It was so nice to get out of the city for a few days! And Salma loved the beach, especially getting totally dirty in the sand. We also saw two people get drowned in the ocean, though--they went out too far. Scary. We saw their bodies being brought to shore. So sad. And there are so many poor kids there (as there are everywhere), begging for food while we're playing on the beach. Feels a bit out of whack for us to be having our expensive holiday while people around us are starving. But we did have a fun time. I'll send some pictures when I get them uploaded on the internet.

Teaching is going well. I'm really enjoying it. We just finished our first semester about a week ago. I think students like me so far. I've had alot of fun with them, anyway, especially in the literature class. Next semester I teach American literature again, and public speaking and composition. We don't get much of a break between semesters--just a couple of weeks, so I'm just trying to catch my breath before plunging in again!

Azfar says hi. He is certainly is in the limelight here. TV interviews, newspaper articles, journal articles, political lectures, all kinds of stuff. I went to my first Bangladeshi political rally the other day--it was in protest of police killing of some organizers against a coal company that wanted to do open-coal mining and destroy the land of lots of poor people. Although at least 6 people were killed by the police, the people had a small victory in this battle! They managed to kick the coal company completely out of the country. It was pretty exciting to watch all this happen!

Anyway, I am trying to get some work done on my dissertation before the fall semester starts up next week...I'm plodding away, doing some reading now. I found a book called _Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day_, by Joan Bolker, which is helping me feel less panicked and a bit more organized about the whole thing. I've also gotten involved with a women's reading group here--a group of feminist activists. So I'm excited about where these conversations with the group will lead--not only for my dissertation, of course, but for working in solidarity with them.

Well I hope to talk to you soon! Love you all!

Love,

Missy

Off to Bangladesh!

Here we are in the airport in Washington, DC, about to set off on our trip to Bangladesh!