We've been in Bangladesh about a month now.  We're getting used to the heat and humidity a little more every day.  Our main focus is working with the students at the university.  I led a couple of stress reduction workshops this week, which were art classes with an emphasis on creativity and enjoyment.  The students are very dedicated, and work hard.  Tomorrow they're having an international food festival.  We'll definitely go the that.  The young ladies from outside Bangladesh get homesick for their traditional dishes, and everyone is eager to try something else.  I can't complain about the food, it's mango season, and Jackfruit is also everywhere.  Jackfruit are huge, yellow brown in color, and covered with little spiny bumps, inside are pale yellow nodules, each nodule contains a seed the size of an almond surrounded by a slippery, stringy, unusual smelling fruit.  It's sweet and has a strong flavor.  Our cook, Onjeli, bought the jackfruit and cut it open, dug out the nodules, and served it to us. Karole learned that she's allergic to jackfruit.  She ate one piece and her lips swelled up, she took an antihistamine and drank lots of water, and recovered the next day.  I was concerned that Onjeli might feel responsible for Karole's lips, so I didn't mention it to Onjeli.  She bought another one (they're the size of a watermelon) so we had more than we could handle.  I gave some to neighbors, but finally told Onjeli that Karole's lips swelled up when she ate Jackfruit....Onjeli laughed like it was the funniest thing she had ever heard!  We all had a good laugh, but I'm not exactly sure why.

Three versions of modesty.  Our friend Parsa is wearing sunglasses.

On the Chittagong University Campus there's a market place but very few students, at least the day I was there.  There are a plethora of new fruits and vegetables to try out, along with butchered mammals and fish.  I bought a kilo of jhum, they look like black olives, and taste something like a gritty plum, but with the flavor removed.  I haven't tried the icebar, wonder if they have jhum flavor?

naturally the signs seem fascinating, especially when weathered.

There's no KFC, but I've seen CFC, TFC, SFC, presumably all serving some version of FC,  but the best motto has to go to the enticing establishment pictured above.

Pumpkins are plentiful in the market

An interesting street scene.  I've seen the same cow there a few times.

We went to a friends house, on the way home I finally got my "king of chittagong" photo.  I'm not sure what a marriage garden is, or if it's part of the kingdom.

 Bicycle rickshaws are the most common means of transportation.  The  drivers work all day in the heat and humidity, they're tough and resilient.  I wouldn't last a day.

Another transportation option is the CNG, three wheeled cages powered by compressed natural gas.


The University sends a van to pick up staff and teachers, most of the time I take the van to work.  On the way home, the driver wanted me to sit up front, rather than in the back.  Finally someone explained  the reason they preferred that seating arrangement:  The quickest way home entails going, for a couple hundred yards,  the wrong direction on a one way street.  It turns out that the driver can get in trouble with the police for this infraction....but if there's a white man visible, the police look the other way.  I'll let you guess if the other passengers found this  privileged status too appalling, and insisted that we take the significantly longer route, or if we found the arrangement endurable, under the circumstances.