Joy and Sorrow

But first, something that has nothing to do with the title. In continuing on with my series about Ramadan I managed to take a picture of my Iftar meal last night. That big mass of stuff in the middle is a mixture of puffed rice, lentils, and a crushed up fried thing that is pretty spicy. Along the top you'll see (from left to right) dried dates which are quite sweet, some fried thing which was somewhat akin to a fried bread, and last but not least, the jelapi which is basically some sort of deep fried sugar (incredibly tasty in my opinion). You eat this with your fingers and I was given a glass of lemonade with it. I get the idea that it is common for anyone with any kind of money to have some sort of fruit drink with the meal (the previous two nights it was mango juice). After you finish eating all of this, they bring out biriani, which is basically the greasiest rice you'll ever find with meat chunks in it. It is hands down the heaviest thing I've ever had in my life as far as how fast it fills you up. Basically, other than the lentils, dates, and puffed rice, the entire meal is nothing but grease. It is very heavy and I'm not sure how everyone's bodies can handle the shock of eating this to end a fast but somehow they manage


The joy in life lately was found upon arriving home last night. Roommate Nate was sitting outside with his guitar, singing to a group of neighbors. He's done this for the past couple of nights and they seem to love it. His broken hand is healing nicely and the return of guitar playing is a beautiful result of this. I stood out and listened to his song and then told him that if he picks a song from his book that I know, I'll sing along with him. I know I've mentioned this off hand a couple of times, but the singing is one thing I love about this culture. They could care less if you are really any good or not, just the fact that someone is willing to sing seems to always bring a smile to their faces. The other thing Nate and I agreed upon is that the best part of singing for the village is that they know incredibly little English so you can sing nonsensical things and they'll still think it was part of the song. I say all this to point out that those who know me best know that I love to sing but am quite confident that I'm not all that good at it. Suddenly, I have the option to sing in front of people and feel no pressure to perform well at all. This makes me very excited. I think I'll join Nate in the future, I can sing the melodies and he can harmonize to his hearts desire (something he is very good at). :-)

Unfortunately, with joy comes sorrow. One of our guards (a wonderful man) was telling us last night about his sick wife. From what I can gather, she had a large lump next to her eye. He called it a tumor but said the doctor pulled some sort of liquid out of it. He had to take her to Dhaka to find a doctor who could properly diagnose it and just that makes me very nervous about how bad of a situation she is in. He said they'll have an actual diagnosis of it by tonight but it is sounding like she'll need surgery which will cost about 30,000 taka which is roughly 4 months of wages for him. Basically, everything about the situation sounds horrible to me and I'm not sure I can do much to help. Please be keeping him in your prayers!