105 T-Shirt Party

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The building party was last night and we celebrated the fact that the breeze actually made sitting on the roof tolerable. We paid extra for the "fairy lights" ... I know it looks empty but I only took photos before and after (people that hung in till the very end .... lushes!) (That's Amiee above, David and Tracy/Justin, Ian, and Lauren) We gave out wine and mosquito rackets for different categories of T-shirts. I hosted the teacher kids in my apartment and the Alam served then drinks and food while they watched movies. Overall, pretty successful party.

Building Deconstruction in Dhaka

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Since Bangladesh is basically a swamp that's below sea level they do not a lot of natural rock or heavy elements. Any time a building is torn down the material is completely recycled ... but first it has to be torn down. This is done completely by hand by a group of workers with sledgehammers. Then the rubble is carried in baskets and used to make new bricks, roads, smaller houses, birdbaths, or whatever they need. The problem with this is that it takes for-ev-er and it's extremely noisy ... clink, clink, clink. This is a photo of what used to be a 2-story house across the street ... now it's some stairs. What's even scarier is the fact that they are probably going to build something there soon, which is bad. It could take years, it's noisier, and they sometimes work at night!

Even in our apartment everything is recycled. All paper, glass, electronics, metals, wires, and containers go to some other use. We even have a composing and a small herb-vegetable garden on the roof. We should import some of their recyclers ... our trash in the US would be like gold.

Irrevocable Proof That Carrie Is Gone

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It wasn't going to the commissary on Sunday (when it's closed) or that I was halfway back to school with my driver before I realized that my keys were in my backpack (something I never do) .... it was putting the kettle on to make tea before a building meeting and leaving for two hours. I actually thought an AC had blown when I came back and it took me a few minutes to work out where the smell was coming from. I melted what I had thought were ceramic parts. In my defense, I was talking to Carrie online and the little whistle that's suppose to blow hasn't worked lately. My bearer is going to pick up a new one today and I told him to make sure it whistles (I hope he understood that's why I was whistling to him this morning). I also told him to make snicker doodles.

Surprise Party

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So I decided after throwing another surprise party for Carrie that we'd agree never to do them again (We had an even score before this). In the last week before Carrie leaves Dhaka for New York, I decided to have a informal gathering of friends to send her off. Instead of asking what she wanted, I decided it was easier to plan around her. An elaborate set of covert plans and secret signals were in place and everything went well. Our friend Justin (in the first floor apartment) agreed to store people in his apartment while we went up for a couple drinks to Aimee and Dean's (5th floor apartment) and waited for the all clear. (For clarification we are in the 2nd floor apartment) I had made the suggestion to Justin that we would move up to our apartment after the surprise but the party was already in full swing when we arrived .... so instead we drained all their wine and left them (at around 10:30) with an apartment full of lushes. It was a lot of fun and Carrie swears she had no idea ... even though she commented that our apartment smelled "fried". (our bearer had made samosas and spring rolls).

Happy New Year!

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Happy 1415!

Bangladesh celebrated it's New Year along with some of Eastern India. Mogul Emperor Akbar (built the Taj Mahal) was apparently not happy that the lunar Islamic calendar did not fit with the crop season (many an unhappy farmer paying taxes in off season) and decided to adopt a solar calender. Well it's still very important in Bangladesh and the school was off kilter in celebrating all day (we should have actually had it off!). There was henna, Bengali music and dancers, tasty treats (well I wouldn't go so far), horse carriage rides, and a bunch of street vendors selling all manor of trinkets. The culture dance show was very impressive It was extremely chaotic but fun and colorful.

A Pork Haiku

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Beef pepperoni?
chicken sausages, beef bacon?
I really miss pork!

-MM

The only thing missing on this wonderful vacation.

Borneo - 5 Star Chinese

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Last night Carrie and I went to the fancy Chinese restaurant in the hotel and the whole experience was unsettling from the beginning. I guess ordering went well: hot and sour soup, crab dumplings, beef with black pepper sauce and a kung pow chicken. It's the way the waiters (all female and one to one ratio to customers) stood behind me or off to the side of us during the whole experience. At any one time there were three pairs of eyes waiting for anything to react to. I'm sure the service was great and they are very attentive but it was slightly creepy. Especially because my chop sticks skills leave something to be desired and I could hear them whispering to each other. When the main dishes came they put them in the middle of the table and left. The only implements on the table were a dessert sized plate and what I later learned was a rice bowl. I asked for a 'dinner plate' but instead she pointed to the small plate and served rice into the small bowl. Is it wrong to like want to mix the rice and main dishes together to get that saucy rice? It was all too comical trying to do this on the small plate and I felt completely conscious of all the eyes on me as I made a small mess. Do you shovel rice from a rice bowl in a fancy restaurant? The really strange thing is when we left I was checking out the rest of the patrons' tables and plenty were eating off large plates. I think it was some sociological experiment in dinning. Overall, it was the tastiest Chinese we'd ever had ... we are buying a new wok this summer.

I guess I'm glad I passed on the "double boiled winter melon with fungus".

Borneo's Big Nosed Monkeys

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We went on a all day 'river cruise' which I thought was going to be pretty cheesy but it turned out to be a fabulously interesting trip. Here's the gist of what went on (click to enlarge):

1. Borneo has the largest flood plain forest in the world! (See our excited looks!)

2. I would never be able to make it in the wild or on Fear Factor for that matter (this guy never actually ate one either so I didn't quite feel that 'man' urge to have to follow him)

3. Most of the plants and fruits in the mangrove are poisonous, so the Proboscis monkeys have two stomachs: one is used to detoxify the poisonous shoots they eat. They also look like they are wearing tightie whities! (Our guide pointed that out)

4. The male eats some fruit or some other thing (i wasn't paying attention) that gives him a 24 hour erection (pay close attention).

5. Sunsets in/on a mangrove are breath-taking.

6. throw in the odd monitor and silverleaf monkey (only 200 left in the wild) and wallah!

Borneo

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It's been a pretty relaxing trip so far and decisions have mainly centered around where to eat and when to get out of bed.


Here's the evening ... watching the sunset and drinking fruity drinks! Although the best deal is the bucket of beer (4 Stellas on ice) which I have to drink myself (Carrie's pregnant and refuses to believe me that a beer here and there will give our girl "the edge" (whatever that is)).

Consumer Warning

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While in Thailand during Christmas break we purchased some new toothpaste in anticipation of the old toothpaste running out. PLEASE BEWARE! DON’T be fooled by the sparkly package and toothpaste that we thought was fortified with vitamins (E & C)…. BE VERY WARY!




After Carrie enjoyed the surprising experience so much, I tried it with full knowledge what was coming and it was still THE most disgusting toothbrushing moment of my life.

Karma to KL

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Blindly tested this vacation from the beginning. We arrived at Zia International Airport at 11:00pm for a 1:20am flight to Kuala Lumpur. Being break and one of the first of relatively few major outgoing flights to the rest of the world there were plenty of teachers, parents, students, and migratory workers. Remember it was a full week of school and we are running on empty.
Here’s the time line of the night:

11:00 get in the checkin line with a few people in front of us
11:25 asked by service ‘person’ to move to a ‘shorter’ queue
11:40 watch as everyone behind us in the 1st line check-in'ed
11:50 finally check-in’ed
11:55 have some chicken wings (I don’t know why I even try) and ice cream and listen to Lee Ann vent about being on stand-by (hopefully she’ll blog that)
12:30 arrive at gate ready to board at 12:50
12:50 not boarding
1:20 not leaving
1:30 a spokesman says there is a small problem and we’ll know shortly
2:00 a spokesman says there a big problem and we might not take off, we’ll know in 30 mins and he stated that it was"unlikely" we'd fly
2:01 migrant worker takes off shoes and noxious odor fills gate area ..
3:00 a spokesman says they are talking with Kuala Lumpur and we’ll know in 20 minutes
3:40 waiting on a telex from KL on whether we can depart or not and we’ll know in 5 mins
3:50 the telex is out of paper

We figure the ratio of actual time stated to the real waiting time is about 2:1

4:00 the telex arrives, a wedge line forms with the migrant workers … I yelled “women and children first!” grabbed the first student I saw and then thought better of it and instead pushed Carrie yelling “pregnant woman coming through!”' We'll discuss migrant workers on airplanes later.

Apparently it was an equipment problem with the manual landing system. Sooo lame! Who needs that? All in good punch drunk fashion we are off to the last vacation sans kids!

All in good fun and spirits we arrive slightly more than three hours behind schedule and checked into a 5-star resort. Very posh! I guess it all comes round because there was a Blue Bayou Texas buffet in one of the restaurants. Not exactly my idea of a Texas BBQ but the lobster, shrimp etouffee, salmon and chile con carne were very tasty.

... see it all comes around! Kota Kinabalu in Borneo is awesome ... there's Carrie in the background and our swim up bar. So happy ...

Cable pains

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So we just got satellite cable (with the fancy on-screen guide) and even though there's a ratio of Hindi/Bollywood/Asian/and other non-English channels to ENGLISH channels of 20:1. We get CNN, BBC World, Discovery, a bizarre version of Nick, and a HBO that seems to play mostly B-movies, made for TV movies, and after-school specials pretending to be movies (the even sadder fact being that they actaully have "the making of" shows for many of the later (I did watch The Making of Merlin: good stuff)).

I return to my original thought: Which was ..we do get VH1 (the MTV is painful to watch as they constantly switch between English and Hindi and they primarily show Bollywood) and this morning I was subjected to complete horror (link below) and honestly could not tear myself away. Watch then rate!

1. They have managed to get all the greatest 90's dances moves into the video.
2. Watch that kick in at 1:08!
3. It's sad to say it does have Beatle-ish sound to it.
4. Go Hammer! or Millie Vanillie?
   
5. If you are watching this in Dhaka sorry that we can't stream video (go 64kbs!)
   

http://youtube.com/watch?v=2OWUQh43WKo

If you need to recover from that:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=SwB9zg7Tbx8 (for Greg)

Knit Donuts

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They are pleasant to hold, squeeze, and I'll admit to smelling them but who comes up with this stuff? In the marketing room ... "I've got it .... kids like donuts ... follow me ... so they are going to go ape-shit for KNIT DONUTS!!! We'll make millions!" I'm thinking they are made through some NGO doing THE 'good' work here in Dhaka with some cottage industry project and some wise ass expat is getting a laugh out of it ... "no really all westerners LOVE knit donuts ... especially in the heat of Dhaka" Well Carrie had her shower and we've got knit donuts, puppets, hats, booties, and other accessories. I guess I got my laughs out of it too. I still like the ones with sprinkles.

Warning Labels

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I've been really trying to get rid of deep congestion, cough, and sore throat for weeks. I'm really not feeling especially ill but instead just slightly annoyed (I can't sing the Seymour parts without sounding like I'm going through puberty). I suppose I should actually do something more about it. Well a few weeks ago I bought several types of congestion, cough, and deep clogging medicines (give me them all!). Many of the type that should come with a small cup to help pour. In Dhaka they don't have the little cups so I've been measuring doses with the patented Matt McEwen swig (I think that's the first time I've typed swig ... cool) technique.

Yesterday I was feeling particularly congestion so I took a rather large swig and 5-10 minutes later I was fighting the urge to fall asleep at my desk in mid-conversation (This normal behavior depending on whether or not mosquitoes got into the net last night). I really thought nothing of it until this morning when I took a medium swig and instantly felt tired again. I have now deduced that this bottle is the "PM" kind but since the label is in Bangali I can't really tell. I'll discontinue use, not because I don't want to sleep during school hours, but because my students were whispering things about playing pranks (April 1st) on me next time it happened.