Its Christmas in Bangladesh, Charlie Brown!

Yes, I could not pass ONE Christmas without a little holiday cheer which means a Christmas tree, lights and Christmas gifts under the tree! I bought this tree (shrub?!) at a local nursery for 200 taka (less than $3). The first set of lights didn't work, so I had to BUY another set....yes, that's right, no such thing as money back guarantee here! But, we are outfitted for the big day, even if it is still 70 degrees outside! HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!!!

Bad news for our family

We have some bad news for our family about the wonderful Christmas cards they sent us (sent to DC actually). We came home the other day and Molson had gotten into where our cards were and ATE all of them! We were SO upset as we know how much thought and care went into choosing and sending them to us. We are very sorry for this bad boy move and sincerely hope you will consider sending the messages to us a in a quick email (or let us know what we missed on skype). We were so mad that that evening for dinner, Molson got the leftover card in his dish as his supper. The staff tell me he hasn't gone near where the cards were since that episode. So, we are hoping he learned his lesson. The shot on the right was the only thing salvageable and actually came out of his mouth when we got home. If there was any money, we really hope it was in the check form and NOT cash. If it was a check, please cancel it and accept our apology for this. Thanks again for thinking of us and sending us these wonderful cards that we can only imagine had heartfelt wishes for Christmas and the New Year. Lots of love this Christmas from Robin, Dave, Catherine and Molson, aka the 'shredder'.

Only in Bangladesh???

Here is the light pole by our apartment building with an array of wires leading to and away from it. Our Internet cable is one of those wires! I hope our Internet never goes out and we have to have a technician come and "fix" the wire?! The other photo is of a "pothole" on our street. Careful not to walk/bike/run into to this huge hole!

The lake near our house

You can see this lake on Google Earth. It is at the end of our street and across Road 70. We figure the path around the lake is about 1km and have been known to run 5 quick laps for lack of a better workout. Catherine goes to the park here with the aya and she really loves strolling around the lake. Molson, unfortunately, is not allowed in this park or any other here for that matter. We really miss our Arlington County dog parks! He would probably just want to go swimming anyway...and the water (if you can call it that) is really more sewage (lovely, i know!). Many Bangladeshis exercise in this park by walking around the lake in circles. I run on the left and pass on the right (like the cars here) and not the other way like at home. Mostly men walking, although there are some women that walk in full saris or shalwar kameez and usually don;t have good walking/running shoes on. I have never seen a Bangladeshi woman run in the 4 months I have been here.

Where we live...again

Well, here it is up close...our apartment building! The shot with the laundry on the balcony is the side view and that apt is our downstairs neighbors. The window and balcony above the clothes is Miss Catherine's room. The other shot is a front view of the building. We are on the 3rd floor, but you must push '2' when getting on the elevator because you are entering on the ground floor and not 1st floor! The dark red gates are actually garage doors that slide open for the cars to enter our small carport. We have a guard downstairs that opens and closes the gate for cars and when we are coming/going with Catherine in her stroller or on a walk with Molson.

Where we live Part ?

This is our street. We live at the very end (i.e. dead-end) of Road 68 in Gulshan 2 (our neighborhood). I was out walking Molson about 8AM on a Friday (first day of w/e...aka Saturday). So, there was very little traffic and the street looked quite peaceful. The tree lined shot was taken about 30 feet from our house walking away from the house. The picture with the street sign is where our street intersects Road 70. You can see rickshaws driving by and men standing wondering what in the world I find so fascinating to take pictures of??? More on where we live in next post...

WE LOVE CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE!

As I was not able to attach all 4 pictures to the post, I split them up and feel obliged to write something here. Our wonderful dinner of roasted chicken, garlic steamed zucchini and garlic and cheese potatoes was topped off with this little gem of a pie. Our cook's first try at the "chocolate cream pie" was a HUGE bowl of chocolate pudding with some thin cream on top. Yes, SO upsetting to get THAT instead of a pie. Dave and I choked it down (Ha! it was great too!) So, this was pure SUCCESS! The only thing missing from this fabulous supper was DADDY.

Trying out first CHOCOLATE CREAM PIE!

The cook has officially made my (our) day and perfected a chocolate cream pie. Here Catherine & I enjoy if after supper one night! MMMMMMMMMM

We received our FIRST care package today!

It It was shipped in early November from New Orleans and it is the only package we have received. Thank you to our friends Holly and Paul in NOLA who so generously sent such a wonderful package. We know the items were chosen with care and those postage fees were very sizable, so THANK YOU! We have included a couple of photos here so you can see the pleasure it brought to Catherine as she pulled each item out! MANY, MANY THANKS!

CAUTIONARY NOTE ABOUT SENDING CARE PACKAGES to Bangladesh: I asked someone who has lived in Dhaka for many years how she receives care packages…i.e. the above care package took SO long and we were required to pay $6 to receive it after our friends had spent nearly $30 to send it!!! She said I don’t get care packages. I asked “what if people want to send you something?” She said “I tell them not to”. She says it’s just not worth it. I do hope we get the packages that have already been sent (for Catherine’s birthday and others), but keep this in mind before you send anything else.

ENJOYING OUR ITEMS FROM THE SHIPMENT!

Our shipment arrived yesterday (see last post for details) and we are enjoying having a mini-pre Christmas and opening boxes that have things in them we hardly remember! Catherine had her own potty in the shipment that is more her size and enjoyed getting her antlers and "lifey" on. We also have lots of great books, pictures and CDs to remind us of home!

Our shipment arrived!

Yes, it has only been 3 months and 10 days since we packed our stuff up in Arlington and shipped it to Bangladesh! It is a LONG way around the world and it didn’t help when a cyclone hit the port the day our shipment was due to arrive! It was all there and in okay condition more or less (check out that ‘fragile’ box!) Some families come here with 200-300 boxes and I heard of one family that had 341 boxes. We had a very respectable 40 boxes. Didn’t take long to put that away! Of course, I get to do the unpacking as Dave is out of town for work and left the night before it arrived…convenient! Our shipment was mostly books, a couple of boxes for Catherine (games, life jacket, books, diapers/wipes, etc) and we had some additional clothes, some pictures, 4 bikes plus Catherine’s bike, our computer, Cougar bike trailer, bike trainer and our wonderful, beyond comfortable bed. No other furniture (it all got sold at our garage sale!) So, we were getting along just fine before the shipment arrived and now that its mostly put away, you cannot even really tell we got anything. Although, our 3rd bedroom has become the de facto garage…full of bikes, bike trainer, golf clubs, other sports equipment, extra bed, etc.

Catherine's room-part 2

Catherine finally received her birthday gift from us-new bedroom furniture! It was designed and handmade here in Bangladesh. She LOVES it! The drawers under the bed hold most of her toys and games. The bed is over 6 feet long and nearly as wide. You can't really see her in the photo on the left, but she is laying (stretched out!) ACROSS her bed comfortably! She has all of her goodies in there with her: several balls, pillows, blankets, books, stuffed animals ( 1 doggie, 1 doggie backpack, 1 horsey, etc). Our shipment is supposed to arrive next week, so maybe I can include some photos of the rest of our place later!

Brother and sister pose for the camera

Just a little note to say we're all doing fine. Catherine continues to enjoy spending time with her aya (nanny) Mina and Molson likes his usual favorite activities of napping and mealtime. Dave is busy with work and since I have started consulting, I am busy too. We are looking forward to our vacation coming up to Thailand where we will run the Chiang Mai marathon on Dec. 30th. Still hot here so training is not the best. Missing family and friends during this holiday season. :)

Thanksgiving week-end

We celebrated Turkey day last week-end with some of Dave’s co-workers. It was a potluck with about 12 adults and 4 kids, including Catherine. The food was great and the turkey was purchased from the American Club here and was cooked to perfection. We had all the trimmings (including cranberry with the mandatory ringed impressions from the can!) and apple, pumpkin and pecan pies for dessert. Our contribution was homemade bread (not by me) stuffing (also not made by me) and apple and pecan pie (purchased from the American club).

On Thanksgiving Day, Dave and I both worked a full day (yes, I’m working now-consulting for UNFPA). We decided to forego the traditional Thanksgiving dinner at the American Club since we had eaten the very same meal a few days earlier. We, instead, went to the Radisson hotel for a special Bangladeshi food and cultural event. It was a buffet of every imaginable kind of Bangladeshi food ever. There were probably 40-50 stations. At 8:30PM they had a nice show including dancers and various singers, all in traditional costumes.

The day after Thanksgiving, we had a wonderful brunch at home, but unfortunately, we had no access to the internet at home, so could not talk with any family members as planned on Skype. We are back online after getting it fixed today (Saturday) so hopefully will talk with everyone soon. We took Catherine to the pool to go swimming…and on the day after Thanksgiving! She enjoyed playing with some 4 year olds in the big pool and decided that since they went down the big slide that she would/could too! Dave and I took turns treading water in the deep end praying we could catch our little TWO year old as she came flying down the slide…and we did, but not before she went under water. She had a blast and all she could say was “more, more!” Pictures are of her getting ready to go to the pool and her pool side. Understandably, we were a bit preoccupied when she was going down the slide and have no pictures of that! Maybe next time! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Weathering the storm

Thanks to everyone that has called and emailed to see how we are doing after Cylcone SIDR hit a couple of days ago. Thursday night we knew that it was supposed to make landfall after increasing in strength over the Bay of Bengal. We went to bed to pouring rain (not an uncommon sight here!) and awoke at 3AM to HOWLING winds. We live in a big concrete building so felt very safe. The wind was really blowing and we sort of slept with one eye open the rest of the night. We got up a couple of times to check doors and windows and the power went out about the time SIDR rolled through. Catherine slept through the whole thing. We didn't have power all day Friday and the photos above were taken between putting together puzzles, reading and relaxing around the house. Included here to let everyone know we are fine. Many, many Bangladeshis fared much worse than us. The coastal region was hit the hardest and the death toll is up over 2,000 by this morning's paper estimate. People lost their homes (tin roofs blew away) and their crops (fields were flooded from the tidal surge estimated at 7-8 feet). There are photos in today's paper of floating cow carcasses reminiscent of the destruction cause by the tsunami back in late 2004. Emergency relief from various aid organization is promised and we hope it gets to the people that most need it quickly. Life marches on here in Dhaka city, hundreds of miles from the coast and the hardest hit areas. Today, Sunday, people return to work and things seem to be getting back to normal. One last note: the ship carrying our container with all of our belongings was due to arrive Chittagong (the main port here in Bangladesh) on Thursday! We are not sure when we will see it.

The eye of the storm

That red blob is where we live! Cylcone SIDR is picking up steam and heading for the southerrn coast of Bangladesh! We live several hundred miles inland, so are not too worried about ourselves at this point. We have just had rain today and some winds, but the coast has gotten really hammered, we hear. We will batten down the hatches tomorrow and probably stay inside. Give us a buzz on the skype if you'd like to check in with us, and check out updates on weather.com or at the hurricane central site below: http://www.weather.com/newscenter/hurricanecentral/?from=secondarynav

Also, we were expecting our shipment TODAY in Chittagong which is the main port of Bangladesh on the Bay of Bengal where the cyclone was headed! Let's hope the ship is able to weather the storm, and we see our belongings (some of you may remember...5 bikes, our clothes, beds, etc....) sometime soon! :)

Catherine's birthday, the conclusion!

Friday, November 9th, Catherine enjoyed playing with her new friends at the American Club at her very first real birthday party. Everyone had lots of yummy snacks, enjoyed the playground and open space and delighted in the wonderful birthday cake! It tasted as good as it looked. She was happy and very tired by the end of the afternoon and she enjoyed a woderful nap after the festivities. The only thing missing was her friends and family being here from the States. She LOVES the happy birthday song and has been humming/singing it since the big day!

My birthday continued...

I celebrated my birthday by opening gifts at home which included a really cool, retro outfit that mom bought for me from a local artisan store. I like to walk around the apartment with my hands in my pockets and my shades on and act like I am in a fashion show. I don’t know where I learned this or where I got all this great fashion sense because mommy never wears fancy clothes here (or anywhere). Mommy will write more about my birthday festivities in another post.

My birthday, by Catherine Martz

This week (November 7th) I turned TWO! I wasn’t feeling all that great, but mommy and daddy gave me a piece of yellow cake with pink frosting on it and then I felt much better! I blew out both my candles on the first try.

Where we live PART I: Catherine's room

Friends and family have asked what our living conditions are like here in Dhaka and I will try and give a glimpse of what it’s like. We live in a 6-story apartment building with an elevator. There are two apartments on each floor. Our neighbors in 3A are an American couple from California. They also have a dog, Bogart, and love to see Catherine as they really miss their grandkids. Upstairs, there is a Japanese couple with a precious baby; a Scandinavian couple and everyone else are Bangladeshis. I have met one very nice Bangladeshi man who owns his own restaurant in Dhaka. The Bangladeshis living in our building are al professionals. (School principal, doctor, etc).
I will give more detail on the inside of our place and start with Catherine’s room, which is actually the nicest room in our apartment. You can see from the pictures she has some colored mats on her floor. The are letters and numbers and serve two purposes. One, they are educational and two, they provide a soft surface to play on (i.e. fall on) as the floors here are concrete! She has a table and chairs with tea set and some play kitchen pots. She also loves her little books and the newest addition, the house and ball pop-up tent! She loves to crawl through the tunnel and play with the balls inside or just read one of her books in her “house”. She has a little red car that has lots of bells and whistles on it that she likes to ride around. Will includes updated pictures of her room when her new furniture arrives in a couple of weeks! She is getting a new bed and dresser.

Catherine's first haircut!

Well, you would not know if from the pictures, but Miss Catherine was sick today (the day of the haircut and day before she turns TWO!) She had vomited during the night and couldn't keep liquids down this morning. Of course, this happened the day AFTER she was seen for her 2 year well baby visit at the local hospital! Even when she is not feeling great, she is a sweetie and wonderful to be around. I found this barber in the DAWC "yellow pages" a small spiral bound book put out by the Dhaka American Women's Club. The book noted that he cuts children's hair and makes house calls! He spent about 20 minutes cutting Miss Catherine's hair. She was very good and did not fuss or try to get down once. As I write this, she has not thrown up all day and has slept well and is getting her appetite back. Tomorrow will be much better I'm sure and not just because she will be TWO years old!!!

Attended our first real birthday party

Miss Catherine attended her first real birthday party. Her friend Henry was celebrating #2! Funny thing is that Henry and Catherine were born on the same day around the same time (Henry born in Boston a couple of hours later). It was great that his birthday party was last week-end and Catherine's is this week-end. Double the fun! Catherine is playing with her friend Zoellie. We enjoyed wonderful pizza and homemade birthday cake! mmmmmmm.

Catherine has used the potty!

Catherine has gone to the bathroom on the potty a couple of times and we are very excited about this new development. We look forward to the days when she is out of diapers because buying diapers in Dhaka nearly requires a small loan. They are NOT cheap! It will be nice when our shipment comes with Catherine’s potty chair. We are not in full fledged potty training mode, but rather easing into the idea of it. She does love to get the toilet paper off the roll (we have pink TP here!) and flushing is quite exciting too. More later on potty training in Dhaka…

Halloween party

Catherine attended her first Halloween party over the week-end (held at the ARA and hosted by the DAWC-Dhaka American Women's Club, of which I am a member). She dressed up as a mermaid this year. I bought the costume from a small store that sells hand made/sewn costumes and puppets here in Dhaka. It is considered fair trade which supports local artisans. The costume cost 450 Taka or about $7. You can find out more about the shop by visiting their website at: http://www.surjomukhi-handicrafts.net –Happy Halloween!

Enjoying playing in mommy’s purse

Just a quick note and picture to show Miss Catherine putting on lipstick for the first time. I still recall a picture of myself about her age, sitting at the kitchen table on Mamoo’s farm applying the stuff. Girls will be girls. She also enjoys using my chapstick from time to time and can put it on pretty well…except for the couple of times when she dug her finger into it. Yummy!

Keeping in touch

We have hooked up the headphones and gotten registered on Skype! Catherine can be seen here enjoying a chat with “coach” or because she cannot say coach very well, she calls him “Bobby”. It is wonderful because he has a camera on his end and he can wave and when she has headphones on, she can hear him say things like “want to go in the boat?” We have also talked to Kathy and Jerry in Valpo on Skype and they have a webcam too. I am going to get a webcam this week. I have had to find a day where I have several hours to go as the computer store is downtown. Downtown is anywhere from 20 minutes to 3 hours away with traffic, so you have to plan accordingly. Dave and I both have Skype accounts and still use our University of Michigan email addresses, so you can find our Skype address by seearching under the umich addresses. Please give us a call sometime! Hope to be talking to you soon!

What the humans in our household eat

As some of you know we are very fortunate to have our very own cook here in Dhaka! He is a great guy that can cook some really fabulous meals. He has previously cooked for a Belgian family, British family and many other expats. We are eating very well. We continue to eat chicken, pork and seafood, but no red meat. We eat both Bangladeshi dishes as well as more western dishes. Here are some of the things our cook has prepared for us: chicken kebabs with fried rice, spaghetti with Bolognese sauce (pictured here!) fried chicken with green beans and carrots, pork with mushrooms and béchamel sauce, eggplant parmesan, shrimp and sauce over rice, shepherd’s pie (made with pork), rice with vegetables, chicken burgers, green salads with tomatoes, cucumbers and cilantro and of course, the national dish of Bangladesh-chicken with a great spicy sauce served over rice!

We have taught our cook how to make salsa, which is very good. We also eat out and have been to a good Thai restaurant as well as had many good meals at the expat clubs here. We had a good “pie” recently at the British club-it had chicken and mushrooms in a great crust. We have also eaten fajitas, shawarmas and pizza! We have eaten too many good desserts here and have found the chocolate cake and cupcakes to be a bit lacking but the vanilla cupcakes, chocolate cream pie, and milkshakes to be just like home-yummy! I am sure we will try more local dishes as our bellies get more acclimated to the region and will have more to share about those culinary delights in a later post! That’s it for now.