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.