Party hat

As many of you know, when you pull a shirt over a kid's head, the shirt frequently gets caught about half way through. In our house, we call this 'shirt on the head' phenomena a party hat (in honor of one of our favorite bedtime stories, Go dog, go!).

First spaghetti

Lily had spaghetti for the first time tonight! It was a definite hit.

Teeth brushing

Odin has always enjoyed brushing his teeth...

Ghagra shak

This is a picture of some of our data collectors just before leaving for the field again last week. They'll be back tomorrow. For those of you interested in an update on our outbreak investigation...

We've determined that people became sick and died from toxic poisoning after eating seedlings of a local wild plant called ghagra shak. It's in the Xanthium genus and is known to cause similar symptoms and death in livestock who eat it. The plant is safe to eat when mature, however. We think that they're eating more of these plants this year because of inflation- the plants grow wild and are therefore free food. Also, the floods lasted longer than usual this year so the plans are younger than they usually would be this time of year. At least now we have a useful public health message which we hope will prevent future deaths- don't eat ghagra shak!

Grieving

We're grieving for all the cyclone victims in Bangladesh... the people who were washed away or buried under trees and buildings, as well as those who survived the storm just to die from hunger or water-borne disease in the following weeks. Articles in the paper quote local and international politicians who say that the loss of life and property is 'shocking'. Why is it shocking? Has there ever been a cyclone in Bangladesh which didn't cause tremendous amounts of death and suffering? Why are we shocked that the same thing happened again this time? What's really shocking is that we (the country of Bangladesh and the world) haven't figured out how to prevent these catastrophes in Bangladesh yet.

In all fairness, things have improved. During past cyclones hundreds of thousands of people have died- this time many estimate that the number dead will only be about 10,000. (Ok, the using 'only' and '10,000' in the same phrase doesn't make much sense, I know.) Since the last cyclone many shelters have been constructed, although not enough for everyone. And only those with TV and radio are aware when alerts are raised, leaving the poorest areas out of reach. In one tragic account, many locals in one area knew of the alert but refused to go. They evacuated coastal areas a few years back when the tsunami hit Asia only to find that no storm or tidal wave came. Many thought the government warnings were just 'crying wolf' again this time so they refused to leave their homes and belongings behind to seek shelter.

Relief groups and local and foreign governments are providing aid the best they know how. We can only give them our support and hope that those in need will find some peace in the days and weeks to come.

Taking care of babies

Since Lily was born, Odin's learned a lot about taking care of babies. He practices some of these care-giving activities with his 'baby'. Sometimes he puts the baby down for a nap, sometimes he rocks the baby, and sometimes he gives the baby 'my milk'. This was Odin breastfeeding his baby this afternoon. Too cute.

Rock you like a hurricane

Ok, so when I wrote that Dhaka was just going to get some rain and heavy wind, I lied. It was the biggest storm I've seen in the four years that we've been here. I was up all night with Lily (she's not feeling well) and I had plenty of entertainment courtesy of mother nature. I've never been so happy to live in a big, sturdy, brick house.

The power was out in Dhaka for about 36 hours, which also shut down public water supplies. There are already reports of over 1000 dead in the southern districts which makes me confident that there will be at least another 1000 confirmed dead in the coming days. Between the heavy floods, the outrageous inflation, and now a hurricane, it's been a tough year for Bangladesh. For so many who live on the verge of disaster, it's been devastating.

Odin surveying the damage- flooding and broken branches on our roof

A flooded backyard

People from neighboring slums filling up water pots from our tank to take back to their hovels

Go girl, go!

Slammed

The coast of Bangladesh is currently being slammed by Cyclone Sidr, shown here in a satellite photo from NASA. Past cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh. Hopefully most people have been evacuated or are in shelters and will be safe. In Dhaka we're experiencing heavy wind and rain but nothing too concerning.

The simple things

I love the fact that a plastic bowl full of spare bottle and sippy cup parts will entertain my kids long enough for me to reheat dinner.

Another creation

As I've mentioned before, Odin is a very busy person who likes to create machines. This was his creation this evening- a mixer. It is unclear exactly what this machine mixes (concrete? cake batter?), but it is obviously a complex process. Note that the bulldozer is not only connected to the apparatus in his hand, but also to the door.

A new year

Thank you to all my family and friends for the birthday wishes! The day was a good one filled with love, quality time with the kids, professional accomplishment, and of course, cake (designed by Eric and created my Mina, our housekeeper). I'm looking forward to my new year!

Happy Birthday Bebelus!!!

Yes, it's Draga mea's birthday thus my attempt to create a post for the most incredible woman ever! Now that I've tried my hand at this blog thing, I'm even more impressed! She never ceases to amaze me and we love her so much. Happy Birthday Bebelus!!! From all of us! MMmmHHhhh!!!

Trying to get the kids together to do a little birthday blog was a little more of a challenge than I expected. It started rough.

I called in reinforcements which helped a bit, but we were lacking some emotion.

We were able to get the excitement level up but went a little too far!

In the end, we didn't get the shot I was hoping for but everyone was happy and looking forward to celebrating with mama! Happy Birthday!!!!

Mystery continues...

This article was published today about one of the outbreaks we're investigating. Of course, the media has the numbers all wrong but the overall message is correct: there are more cases showing up and more deaths. We're still trying to figure it what's going on...

8 months

Today, Lily is 8 months old. In the past month she has sprouted two teeth, learned to crawl and pull up, and is practicing standing without support. She manages to stand for a few seconds at a time now and likes to share her excitement with high pitched squeals. She's growing up fast, a bit too fast for me.