Spring Growth

Spring has arrived suddenly in Dhaka, and we’ve been surprised by the change in temperatures.  For a tropical country, Bangladesh does have noticable season changes.
Winter (roughly Nov. – Feb. here) is the most polluted time of year, for a few reasons.  There is no rain to cut down the dust and smog – we’ve had [...]

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Polluted

A few days ago in our neighborhood we passed some people burning suitcases in the street.  Let me repeat – burning suitcases.  If you want to talk about air pollution, nothing will gunk up the air like suitcase smoke.
Bangladeshis like to think of November to February as winter.  So far nighttime temperatures have plummeted to [...]

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Yes, you should definitely not drink the water

A topic you might not think about every day: to bleach or not to bleach your veggies? Mmmm. Anyways, we were pondering our veggies tonight, which M procured at the market today and look quite fresh and delicious, and trying to decide whether or not to soak them in bleach. And if we [...]

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A novel idea..

In the news today from India:

It pays to go in a public toilet

Reuters
NEW DELHI – It pays to use a toilet in southern India, as residents are earning close to a dollar a month by using public urinals, a scheme launched by authorities to promote hygiene and research in rural areas.
Dozens of people are [...]

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New Toy!

So you probably want to hear about Dhaka, but I’m so excited about the present I mailed myself that I’m telling you about that instead today.

http://www.bogolight.com/
It’s a solar powered flashlight! Handiest thing ever. You leave it charging on a windowsill so that it’s ready whenever you need it. It gets 6-8 hours [...]

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News from Bangladesh

After a break (the usual craziness around here) an update on the news in Bangladesh:
Rat infestation hits Bangladesh [...]

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Do something good today :)

Americans use 380 billion plastic bags a year! They’re super hard to recycle and they never really biodegrade – they just break down into smaller bits of plastic. Many plastic bags end up in the ocean, where they kill 100,000 poor sea creatures a year.
Get re-usable shopping bags today! www.reusablebags.com. Even if you [...]

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Getting rather concerned …

It’s been a rough news week for Bangladesh.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization said yesterday that the bird flu situation in Bangladesh continues to worsen and now poses a “threat to public health.” There have been no human infections yet in Bangladesh, but there have been flare-ups just about weekly since February 2007. [...]

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