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).