Ezra's First Christmas

The Big Day

In Bangladesh, they call Christmas “Boro Din” (Big Day) and New Year’s “Choto Din” (Small Day). Although there are few Christians here, most people are familiar with this holiday and the Government offices are closed for it. Also, they recognize our Gregorian calendar new year’s day, but the Bengali calendar new year starts on our April 14 (by the way, the current Bengali year is 1415).

For our Christmas in Bangladesh, we found a small Christmas tree and our cook bought us some “Christmas” decorations (note in picture above, they resemble something you would see at Mardi Gras) for the tree and the house. We played some Christmas music, streaming from online radio stations when the internet was working well. We all bought some small gifts for each other (somehow Ezra got the most!) and I completely bought out the wrapping paper supply at the local “Hallmark” store (sold in 1.5’ x 3’ single sheets) to wrap the gifts. 

Christmas morning we had a fun webcam session with my family (and had ones with Jeremy’s family earlier and later in the week). Then we opened gifts, with Ezra going first. He actually did a little bit of the paper ripping, but overall he was not quite as interested as we thought he might be. We had a lovely Christmas lunch with special “pullao” rice and fried eggplant. Emily and I provided some entertainment singing Christmas songs and Ezra actually sounded like he was trying to sing along sometimes. One of the biggest highlights of the day was finally making the brownies that we had been saving from a package my mom sent us. And after Ezra was tucked away in his crib, we watched a Christmas movie and ate the warm brownies with some vanilla ice cream.

Ezra and the tree

Christmas Lunch

The Christmas afternoon nap (outside on the roof deck)

So, that adds up to...

Like the letters, the numbers here can also be confusing, even though they are much, much more similar to what we already know.  I learned my numbers first (the symbols anyways), so that part has not been as confusing for me as learning the alphabet, but I do find them interesting since I was a math teacher and have had a very math intensive education and work experience.

Our (Western) numbers are actually derived from Arabic numerals.  However, if you look at Arabic numerals compared to ours, only a few of them are actually the same.  Likewise, the Bangla numbers are also based on Arabic numerals, and show just as many differences.  Then, when you put them all side by side, only a few symbols match up between them.  Even if you reconcile that, some of the symbols have changed values for some reason.  

I don't know what accidents of history make symbols change value from 8 to 4 for example, or from a 9 to a 7.  Or, why a symbol would match in the Eastern and the Western variations on Arabic and not in the original,  central, Middle Eastern one, but it does make me wonder.

*   *   *

But, now for the real kicker...  In English, the names of our numbers are irregular from 1 to 20 (although you can argue on the -teens), and then they are regular (or patterned) after that with new names only for the 10s place:  thirty, forty, fifty, etc., and then for the values of hundreds and thousands.  So, to count from 1 to 999,999 you only need to know 29 unique words that you can combine in various combinations to communicate the value you want.  So, 125 = one + hundred + twenty + five.  

In Bangla, most of the first 100 numbers are irregular!  There are some patterns, but they are contantly changing (like the way English uses three different patterns between eleven, twelve... ; thirteen, fourteen...; to twenty-one, twenty-two... ).  There is no simple pattern you can rely on for any big block of numbers in Bangla.  Just look at a couple of these examples:

1 (one) = aek (pron. EK)

20 (twenty)  = bish   (pron. BEE-sh)

21 (twenty-one) = ekush (pron. EK-oosh)  

[rather than the simpler aek-bish or bish-aek]

3 (three) = tin (pron. TEEN)

60 (sixty) = shat (pron. SHAh-T)

63 (sixty-three) = teshotti (pron. TESH-oat-tee) 

After those, thankfully, there is a word for hundred and thousand, and the names for the first hundred numbers are reused and some regularity (pattern) sets in.  But, a new word appears at 100,000 (one hundred thousand), which South Asians in general call a lakh, and by which they count until the value of 100 lakhs, or 10,000,000, which they call a crore.  They use those in place of our millions, so at least it is just a change and not an addition.

In the end, the bottom line is that to count from 1 to 999,999 in Bangla, you have to use a combination of 102 unique words, an increase in complexity of over 251%.

Get counting !

Take a ride on a rickshaw

On being illiterate

Having learned to read at the age of 6 or 7 most of us have no memory or experience what it is like to not have that ability.  Even when learning another language like French or Spanish or German, we quickly learn how to read those languages (and pronounce the written words), even if we don't always understand the meaning of the words we are looking at; we can quickly recognize the words we do know and get some kind of gist of what is being communicated.

But, imagine not being able to do that at all...

Even though none of us is any expert in Bangla at this point, we all know some number of words as well as names of places and so on.  But, as we haven't learned all of the alphabet yet (we are earnestly studying--check back soon!), we are almost helpless when looking at any kind of text.  It is an odd feeling to have all sorts of education, and yet, have to ask bystanders the meaning of any written information, even a simple sign or advertisement.  What makes it even more frustrating is that many of the signs are actually written in English with Bangla letters.  We could understand much of it just fine were it spoken to us, if only we didn't have to stand there for 5 minutes playing a personal game of multi-lingual Jeopardy in our heads (...I know 3 letters in that word and 2 in that one... can I figure it out?, but what language is it written in?).

And, don't think you can get by without asking dumb questions, either--for a dumb question picture someone in the US asking where the bakery is, right underneath a giant bakery sign.  That sign on the door you walk up to inside the restaurant could say "danger, high voltage" or "women's restroom" or "office, knock before entering".  An elementary school child here in some ways navigates around the world easier than we could by ourselves just thanks to a little literacy.  Luckily, we don't have to do much alone, and often those around us know some English and usually don't expect us to understand what we are looking at in Bangla anyways.  So, next time you run into that foreigner with a heavy accent in the US asking for help but who is having trouble understanding you, be extra nice, because we are receiving the balance of that kindness out here.

Where there is no turkey

Our Thanksgiving Spread

So what did we have for Thanksgiving? We had a goose! They aren't commonly eaten here, but there is a special market twice a week in our town where you can get one. We had one goose (left below) and one chicken for our Thanksgiving meal.

Our Bangladeshi house staff helped us prepare the food (chopping vegetables, etc.) and were watching us cook with keen interest.

Other than the poultry, we made mashed potatoes, green beans, and cauliflower. One of the professors from Johns Hopkins was in town and he was kind enough to bring some holiday food from the states. So we also had cranberry sauce, yams, gravy, and stuffing (the boxed stuff is surprisingly good!). He also brought some graham crackers for pie crust, so we made key lime pie and chocolate pie.

Below is us with our visitors (on the left) - 2 other Hopkins students and one of the professors. And thanks to my mom, we had Thanksgiving napkins (see picture below) and a tiny turkey decoration.

Ezra is on the move

Sitting, scooting.....and biting

Ezra is quite mobile now, but not quite crawling. He scoots and rolls around and easily sits up (even in his sleep!). He also pulls himself up to stand on anything he can grab and trys to do gymnastic moves while breastfeeding (exciting for me!). The biggest news is that he has his first two bottom teeth. They both came in almost at the same time and he hardly acted any different while they were breaking through. He can practically eat a banana straight from the peel now. Unfortunately he tries to take a bite out of us occasionally. Thankfully he is eating well and devours anything I have put in front of him.

The Two-Tooth Smile!

Ezra is definitely the only baby in

Bangladesh with a Blue Bell onesie.

Ezra and Emily experiencing the culture.

3 months, 2 seasons, and 1 big baby

We've been living in Bangladesh almost 3 months. The season has changed from hot and rainy to not hot and mostly dry. The nights and morning are actually quite cool now and we don't use the air conditioners during the day. It is a very pleasant time of year. And, it is harvest time for the farmers, so many vegetables are available now: eggplant, carrots, radishes, green beans, cauliflower, pumpkin, cucumber, tomatoes, cilantro, cabbage, and many types of greens, to name a few.

We are stilling living in a temporary house, but have finally made arrangements for a house to live in for the rest of our time here. We will hopefully move in the next month or so.

And of course, Ezra is getting bigger everyday (and we are getting stronger to carry him).

Here are some pictures of our time here:

Views from our roof

Alison (in local attire) and Ezra

Jeremy, Alison, and Emily at a former ruler's palace

Alison, Emily and Ezra walking down a main street in town

Eat With Us

So, want to have dinner with us? Well, as actually coming over here would probably be a bit expensive and time consuming just for dinner, maybe you can eat what we're eating and pretend you are here.

This is what our normal dinners look like (with the addition of a big bowl of rice).
Most things are generally familiar, especially if you have been to any Indian restaurants, although the flavors are unique.

Dal (usually lentils, but can also be any kind of pea or bean) in the Bangladeshi style is a lentil soup with garlic, chili peppers, and onions cooked until the lentils get mashed up and breakdown and make the whole mixture a consistency of thin gravy. Some Bangladeshis eat this as a soup at the end of the meal, but others mix it in with their rice as they eat the other dishes.

So, what is curry, exactly? Well, it isn't much like the curry mixes you pick up in the grocery stores back in the US. You'll get something much closer if you walk into an Indian restaurant and order Chicken Tikka Masala and Vegetable Do Piaza (if you are in a big city, you might even be able to find a Bengali restaurant). Those restaurant dishes will be somewhat compromised for American tastes (more so if it is a buffet), but it is a good place to start.

To start whipping a curry dish up yourself, you would do something like this (hopefully following a real recipe you find in a book or on the internet):
[1] put some oil in a pan over medium heat (mustard oil is commonly used here, but also regular vegetable oils or ghee, which is clarified butter) along with the whole spices of cinnamon, cloves, green cardamom pods, black peppercorns, and bay leaf, cooking until the spices are just toasted;
[2] add a paste made of blended up garlic, onion, and ginger and cook until this starts to just brown;
[3] add several green chili peppers (to taste, but they tend to use a lot) that look a lot like serrano peppers or ground red pepper, and tumeric;
[4] add vegetables, or meat, or chicken, or fish depending on what you are making and cover cooking over low heat for all the flavors to blend together.
[5] then serve with lots of long grain basmati rice.

Usually our vegetables include potatoes and green beans and eggplant (and chili peppers), with additions of whatever else happens to be in season. So far, we've seen carrots, tomatoes, pumpkin-like squash, and lots of unique squash/eggplant-like vegetables that we haven't been familiar with. Some of them have been good but unremarkable, while others have been good enough we wish we could take them back to the US with us when we return.

Otherwise, we eat a lot of fish (as is traditional in Bangladesh) usually cut into steak like portions and served with some curried squash. We are just starting to be able to tell the fish apart by their flavors and amount of bones, but they have mostly been delicious. Some Indian restaurants will have Bengal-style fish dishes.

So, that's it. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for coming over.

If you want to try the real stuff, just let us know when you'll be dropping by.

Ezra Says...

Click, Click, Click...

Da, Da, Da...

He can also do, "Ba, Ba, Ba..." But, we haven't got that one on "film", yet.

The Birthday

As many of you know, Jeremy and I have the same birthday. We actually had a very nice birthday here in Bangladesh. The Friday night before our birthday, we went to a local development organization (RDRS: http://www.rdrsbangla.net/) that has a guest house where you can get special meals if you call in advance. We had duck, fish, carrots, beets, lentils, and rice (of course). For dessert we had ice cream and chocolate cake. They even put 2 candles in the cake for us. Our other Hopkins friends were there and sang Happy Birthday.

On our actual birthday, one of the staff invited us to his home for Iftar and dinner. Iftar is the meal that Muslims eat to break the fast each day of Ramadan. The family cooked a very special meal for us, although they didn't even know it was our birthday (we told them after arriving).

We appreciate all the birthday wishes from family and friends back home - especially those in Houston who were evacuating or preparing for Hurricane Ike (which hit Houston the same weekend).

2 weeks

We have been in Bangladesh now for 2 weeks and have mostly been resting, eating, and going to orientation activities for work. We've finally unpacked our bags and are feeling somewhat settled in our house, although there is still much to do (like buying furniture!). We are staying in a temporary home that a former staff member lived in and will be looking for a new place that suits our needs. The home we are in now is quite nice with running water (and hot water for showers), electricity, air conditioners (although you have to turn them off when the electricity goes out and the generator is running), a refrigerator/freezer, and a gas stove for cooking. We can buy things like a tv or microwave, but aren't splurging on such luxuries yet.

We have hired staff to help with cooking, cleaning, and watching Ezra. Cleaning has to be done everyday because there is so much dust and hand washing clothes takes a long time. Cooking is done from scratch each day by first going to the market and selecting fresh vegetables and fish/chicken/meat. We have really liked the food so far. Our lunch and dinner meals are usually rice, dal (thin lentil sauce), cooked vegetables, small piece of fish/chicken, and sliced cucumbers. They serve us a breakfast similar to what we are used to in the US - toast, eggs, and coffee (instant Nescafe). The Bangla breakfast is curried potatoes and vegetables, eggs, "parathas" (fried flat bread), and cha (tea). We have this occasionally too. Bananas are in season right now, and they are everywhere. Most of the bananas here are fatter than those in the US and they are much more flavorful too (I'm not sure I will be able to go back to eating our bland ones). We've been buying things to stock the empty kitchen and purchased an electric water kettle. This appliance is fantastic - it boils water so quickly! I think I'll be adding this to my appliances when we move back to the states.

Thankfully, Jeremy and Ezra have not been sick at all. I have been sick once with some kind of intestinal problem, but it was very short lived (just one night). The main doctor on the project insisted I drink ORS (oral rehydration solution) for 24 hours, which made me feel like I was "experiencing" Bangladesh and public health here. In case you didn't know, Bangladesh is the home of ORS, and this public health effort alone has saved hundreds of millions of lives. It is mostly used with children to prevent dehydration from diarrhea, but was initially developed to save people from dehydration during a massive cholera outbreak back in the 1970s. You can read more about it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_rehydration_therapy and http://rehydrate.org/ors/index.html#1million. The beauty of this therapy is that it is just salts and sugar - which in the right balance will allow water to cross the damaged intestines into your body. Water alone will not be transported across, which is why people die of dehydration, not the cholera, rotavirus, etc.

It is nearing the end of the rainy season here. The weather is sometimes sunny and hot; other times it is raining and not quite as hot. It rains everyday and is always muggy - much wetter than Houston. Thankfully it is past the peak mosquito time and we haven't seen many of those.

We have been trying to learn Bangla, but it has been slow going so far. It is hard to find a tutor and most of the office staff we work with speak pretty good English. So we've been getting by, but won't get far doing things like bartering at the market if we don't develop good speaking skills. Thankfully, another student from Hopkins (Becky) who speaks pretty fluent Bangla is also here. She was a Peace Corps volunteer in Bangladesh, which means she knows the language and the culture - which is a huge help for us.

Our weekend is Friday and Saturday, so tomorrow it's back to work for us. I'll write another post soon about the work I am doing here.

Ezra Is 6-Months Old !

Today, Friday, 29 August 2008, Ezra is 6-months old. Here are some photos from his half-birthday.

And this is a video clip of him eating his first "solid" food, rice cereal. He didn't seem all that impressed.

Where Are You ?

In case you were afraid to ask, here is information about where we are living.Bangladesh is tucked into the far eastern portion of India sharing only a small portion of its border with Burma. Bangladesh is almost entirely composed of a huge river delta. The river delta is made up of the confluence of two major rivers: the Ganges (or Padma) and the Brahmaputra. Consequently, it is very flat and very fertile and often has trouble with flooding in periods of high rainfall.

We are living in the city of Rangpur, which has a population of a few hundred thousand. Rangpur is located in the northwestern part of the country about a 6-7 hour drive from the capital, Dhaka. It experiences less of the trouble with flooding and cyclones than other parts of the country.

We are still learning about the area, so I'm sure we will have more information in the future, but for now, at least anyone can point to where we are on a map.

We have arrived

After much planning and preparations and a tremendous amount of help from our families, we departed for Dhaka, Bangladesh last Thursday, August 14. We arrived in the capital about 28 hours after leaving Houston. Ezra did really well on the flights and was mostly happy and entertaining other passengers. He seems to have baby jet lag now and will need more time to adjust to the new time zone. We are 11 hours ahead of Central Daylight Time (will be 12 hours ahead when you go off daylight saving time in the fall).

The weather here is warm and humid with daily rain showers - in fact, it's so humid that my glasses fog up when I walk out of an air conditioned building. For this reason it is also very green with plants and trees, which is quite lovely. We have only seen a little bit of the country so far, mostly from the window of the car when traveling (on the left side of the road) from the airport to our hotel. We did venture out to do some shopping today, which confirmed that we need to learn Bangla fast. Many people speak some English and a few speak it very well however this can only get us so far (especially trying to haggle at the markets). It is definitely a busy place with people everywhere. Physically, it is similar to other developing countries we have been to (poor roads, no sidewalks, etc) but it is amazing how technology is far beyond these limitations, including "free WiFi" at our hotel and nearby restaurants. We have a received a very warm welcome from the people here and we are looking forward to going north to Rangpur tomorrow, where we will live for the duration of our time in Bangladesh.

Moving Out and On Our Way

We are on our way to Rangpur, Bangladesh from Baltimore, Maryland, USA. With Alison having the opportunity to run the operational day to day activities of her nutrition research study for her PhD at Johns Hopkins and Jeremy having a position also with the university to perform some process reliability analysis on the university research organization there, we are making this big international move.

Bangladesh is the most densely populated nation (excepting city-states) on the planet, and one of the poorest in Asia. An extremely fertile land that suffers from torrential flooding and periodic cyclones, Bangladesh has made great strides towards development in the past couple decades. The work we are doing has the potential to make a small step to improve the health of families there, something that we take for granted in the United States.

Now, as of July 25th, we packed our house, put our things into storage, and set out on a drive across half of the United States from Maryland to Texas. Ezra did great in the car on the way down, alternatively napping and playing, much better than Alison and I for the most part.

We will actually leave the US on August 14th and arrive in Bangladesh on the 16th after about 26 hours of flights and layovers luckily having only one stop in Dubai.

We will use this blog to post pictures, video, and stories about our time there. Check back from time to time or subscribe to the entries via email or RSS feed.