Azfar's Birthday Party

Here's some photos of Azfar on his birthday. We had fun celebrating with his family, although Azfar is currently not taking any questions in regards to his age. But we managed to squeeze lots of candles on that cake, as you can see.

There's a monkey up there!

This is the view from our bedroom window at Azfar's parents' house. So many buildings in Dhaka are like this--half torn-down, with metal posts sticking up all over the place, yet fully occupied. A couple of weeks ago, it seems that some residents of this building captured a monkey. They have it tied up on the top floor on the roof, above the two red brick floors. It's a rather big-sized monkey, like the size of an average dog. It has just enough rope to swing around or sit on the metal posts. All day it sits there. Although it's very entertaining to see a monkey outside my window, I feel sorry for the poor thing! I've thought about going over there and making some threats if they don't let it go, but so far I haven't gotten brave enough. Anyway, this is my first monkey sighting in Bangladesh! I'll try to get a good shot of the monkey and post it soon.

Mukhta, Our Bua

Since I was talking about Mukhta, our bua, yesterday, I thought I should put a picture of her up as well. Here she is! She is a very good human being. And I'm also grateful to her for how much she's been helping me with my Bangla! She doesn't know any English at all, which actually speeds up my learning process quite a bit, since I have to figure out how to communicate with her. She's always teaching me new words. And she's a fabulous cook! I feel rather spoiled here in Bangladesh in that regard--I haven't cooked my one meal on my own (except for snacks here and there) since I've been here! Now, don't get me wrong, I like cooking. But I certainly don't mind the break! Between Mukhta and my mother in law, someone is always cooking meals for me. I'm really enjoying all the fresh fish in Bangladesh! We eat fish every day. And rice. Lots and lots of rice. In Bangladesh, rice is such a staple part of the diet that when you ask someone if they've eaten, you say "bhat caise?" (which means "did you eat rice?").

Our Little Family

Here is our little family on my birthday. (This is taken in our apartment.) We had Azfar's parents and brother and sisters over to celebrate. It was a fun time. We put on some Hindi music and danced around in the living room with Salma and Jasra. When the the two babies are together, they keep us all very entertained. I can't believe we've already been here for seven months. Time is just flying by. Salma has changed so much since we first got here. She's no longer a little immobile baby anymore--now she's running around like a toddler! And getting her to hold still for a picture like this is a real challenge. She is literally running around all day long, until she falls asleep from exhaustion. It's so much fun watching her develop! I'm especially enjoying observing the way she's learning Bengali and English at the same time. Pretty soon she's going to be acting as my translator! (Check out my other blog on Salma to see her new Bangla words -- allaboutsalma.blogspot.com)

Salma & Furqan

Here is Salma with our bua's son, Furqan. "Bua" means something like cook/domestic helper.
Our bua's name is Mukhta. She lives very close to us, and we go over to her house often. Salma loves it there--in the neighborhood there are so many little kids. She gets bored stuck in our apartment with no one to play with. Our bua is very, very poor. Her house is nothing more than a shack with a tin roof thrown over a few boards to keep the rain out. The floor is dirt. But whenever we go to visit her, she always wants to offer us something to eat and drink. She is a very generous human being. Her son Furqan is a sweet boy. He's about 10 years old. He can't speak. When he was about 3 years old, he had a very high fever that burst his eardrums and made him go deaf. So he never learned how to talk, although he and his mom have figured out their own elaborate sign system. But he's very smart, and he does great in school as his mother tells me. And he's a very good athlete. I like to play racketball with him whenever I go to Mukhta's house. There's a net set up in the open field outside her house. Furqan really loves Salma. He always wants to hold her when we go over to his house. He keeps asking his mom to have another baby, but she has told me that she doesn't want any more children. Azfar and I pay her a living wage, but her future is always uncertain, and she told me she doesn't want to have to worry about another mouth to feed.

Rally for Women's Rights

This is a picture I took yesterday at a rally I attended on women's rights. The rally was held on "Begum Rokeya Day." Begum Rokeya is one of the earliest Bengali feminist writers, and her birthday is celebrated every year by feminist activists in Bangladesh. I have gotten to know a number of the women who organized the rally through a feminist reading group I've been going to. We have a really good time talking and sharing ideas. The woman holding the microphone is Lima, who is the key organizer of the group. She has become a good friend of mine. She feels shy about using her English with me because she doesn't practice it with anyone else, but her English is very good, and we share alot of the same passions so we enjoy talking to each other. Anyway, the group asked me to come to the rally to support their efforts, so of course I agreed to go. All of the speeches were in Bengali, so I had a hard time following much of it, but the general message of equal rights for women was clear enough! And they talked about a number of issues that women in Bangladesh are facing, including domestic abuse, various forms of violence against women, acid throwing (which is something that turned-away suitors sometimes do to women--literally throw acid in their face to disfigure it so no one else will think they're beautiful), and other forms of oppression. Anyway, I felt honored to attend and be a part of their rally.

Sisters

I think it might be easier to tell stories that go along with some pictures. So, I'll work backwards a bit with some photos I took a while ago. This is one of the first pictures I took in Bangladesh, with Azfar's sisters. Azfar's mom bought us all these matching outfits. Azfar's sister Rosy is on the left. She's the second oldest after Azfar. She's brilliant and hilarious. We have really hit it off. She teaches at a teacher's training college in Rajshahi, which is about 5 hours north of Dhaka. So, unfortunately, we don't get to see much of each other. But when we do, we have a great time. A classic "Rosy" statement is: "the louder it gets, the more fun we have." Whenever she comes to visit, we get loud, tell funny stories, laugh alot, and generally have a blast. I get to hear some great stories from Rosy about Azfar as a kid. Urmi is sitting next to me on the right. She's Azfar's sister in law, married to his brother Dipu. Urmi is a real sweetheart. She and Dipu and their two children (Audry and Jasra) live with Azfar's parents. So I get to see lots of her. Urmi is staying at home with the kids and is also self-employed as a seamstress. She can do amazing work with a sewing machine. She designs her own clothes and gets orders from all kinds of people to have her make clothes. I keep telling her she could open her own store. She has made me a few salwar kameez that are absolutely gorgeous. (Salwar kameez are the staple women's outfit in Bangladesh--that's what we're wearing in the picture.) Rumi (on the far right) is Azfar's younger sister. She is teaching at an elementary school in Dhaka. She just got married recently, and she and her husband have their own apartment in Mirpur (a neighborhood in Dhaka) not too far from Azfar's parents' house. She is always working so much. She gets up to leave for work at 6am and comes back late in the night. So I don't get to see too much of her, except on some weekends. Even though she's so busy, she's always inviting us over to her house. When mangos were in season this summer, she had us over for a mango feast. Mmmm! I just can't get enough! They're out of season now. There's all kinds of interesting ways Bangladeshis have come up with for eating mangos. One way to eat them is to puree them and eat them like soup, mixed with rice crispies. But I think nothing beats pure, fresh mango all by itself. Anyway, random thoughts...but Azfar's sisters are great human beings, and I'm really enjoying getting to know them.