Update from the Sauna

Hai Allah! It is so hot here that I can feel my proteins denaturing. I still don't get the whole Celcius system, so I guess I'll just say it feels like 100 degrees plus at night. I've had to drug myself with Benadryl (of which even half a pill tends to put me in a comatose state) the past two nights just to get a wink of sleep.

Anyway, its been an eventful few days with ups and downs as usual. My roomate had her purse snatched as she was riding a rickshaw the other night. That was pretty traumatic. She lost her wallet, money, and mobile phone. I was so enraged that I actually called the teenage turds who robbed her on HER phone. I attempted to persuade them that I was a US Embassy officer and was sending a SWAT team to their house. They didn't speak any English, so that didn't go well.

Katie's little sister is coming to Dhaka in May, and I am so excited for her. You should check out her hilarious blog (www.imkt.blogspot.com). It makes me miss my lil' sister (sniffle).

I was introduced to a PhD student working at BRAC on a rural energy project this weekend. He's quite interesting--an engineer and PhD student who teaches at MIT, but has a great sense of humor. You'd have to have a good chuckle if you were doing the research he's doing. Kurt is working on a machine that (stifle laughter) converts animal and human waste into low-cost energy. I call it the "poo for light" program.

Also, spent most of yesterday at the Nari Jibon (Women's Lives) office. I had one of those oh-so-common encounters with a woman there that always makes me feel depressed. She was a poor mother of two boys who kept begging me to take her to America, or at least her sons so they could study and have a chance to do something in life. I had to explain to her (as I have many times to others) that we don't really hire household help in the US like they do in Bangladesh (even poor people have servants here--labor is cheap), and that I am only a citizen, not an Embassy person with 'connections' who can get her a visa. It's always heart-wrenching, because I realize just how many opportunities God--or someone--has given me. It was even more poignant when her little boy started playing with my laptop and said "how much does this cost? I'm going to buy one one day!" Shoot me now.

Well, I should go. Off to Old Dhaka to teach an English class by candle light. The power outages there are more common than rainfall.

Toodles,

TKP