So I’m jumping on the blog-bandwagon. I figured that for the next year while I’m out of the country in Bangladesh, instead of bothering people with a flood of impersonal mass emails, I would post it all in a one of these hip and trendy blog thingies, so that those interested could read about my life as they pleased. I have an affinity towards digression and half of what I write will probably be more like journal entries for myself to reread one day than anything else... but enjoy...

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Yay... the fam...

Mommy, Daddy and Zaki all rolled to town for a week or so. Hung out in Dhaka for a couple of days. The natural thing to do when visiting Bangladesh is of course first go to the Sundarbans, but they didn't have a long time, and of course because my parents have been everywhere, this was they're third time to Bangladesh and had already been to the Sundarans (back in the days when my uncled worked for the UN here). Anyway, so I figured I take them to the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It was really nice to show them the part of the country where my project was focused. Of all the travels of my father through Asia and Africa, I think he said this was the closest he'd really come to seeing how real 'indigenous' (whatever that means) people live. We got to walk through villages and just got to see how they lived. And it was getting close to the rainy, by which time all seeds have to be planted, so you could actually see the traditional slash-and-burn Jhum cultivation all over the place... it was a wonderful vacation... (Izzat, I'm sorry you couldn't come... next time, I say)...


















OK now wer're back Dhaka




Some obscure pics of the apartment that was nicer than anything I'll live in for a long time... and it cost us each $150/month... which was actually a ton more than we could/should have been paying... I was embarrassed to tell my co-workers I was paying that much... But it was the bumpin part... Gulshan 2... wha what...



OK, now we're back to the CHT...




































The picture uploading got a lil wacky... back to Dhaka






Old Town, Dhaka


And back to the hill country