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).

A great Eid celebration

Eid was on Sunday, and we had a great family celebration! Azfar's sister Rosy and her husband Shafique came down from Rajshahi, and their son Akash (he's in the picture with Azfar above), and Azfar's (6 months pregnant) sister Rumi was there, and of course his brother Dipu and sister in law Urmi, and their kids Jasra and Audry and amma and abba. I bought matching saris for the sisters and I (we're wearing them in the picture below). And I got Salma and Jasra some matching saris too. (Check them out in their saris in the photo below--with belly buttons protruding and all...aren't they cute?)
Salma and Jasra got a bunch of matching outfits as gifts, so we spent half the day dressing them up in their matching outfits and taking photos of them. And we ate lots of food, of course. Everyone breaks their month-long fast on Eid day, so hence the FOOD is a big focus for the day--everyone pigs out! And the food was fabulous. My favorite Eid dish is a dessert called "shemai" which has milk and sweet vermicelli. I ate a bunch of it! Anyway, we spent about a week at amma and abba's house, and we generally had a fun time just spending time together as a family. Now school is open again, and it's back to the grind! (Sigh...)

Ramadan

So we're in the month of Ramadan now, when Muslims fast all day. As Bangladesh is majority Muslim, it's a huge event. The time of breaking the fast is right after the sun sets. The meal that you have for breaking the fast is called "Iftar". There are food vendors that set up shop in the streets all over Dhaka, selling food for Iftar. Most of the Iftar food items aren't available the rest of the year, so they are a special seasonal treat, even for those who aren't fasting. My favorite Iftar item is a sweet called "gulapi" which is basically deep-fried molasses in a pretzel shape. Hot off the fryer, mmm, they are so good! Here's a few photos of some Iftar vendors in Banani bazar. You can see the gulapi that I was talking about in the bottom photo, on the bottom right corner: