1st Birthday

Hard to believe time has passed so quickly... here he is on his 1st birthday... my favorite photo

Love a baby with cake on his face & everywhere else!

In his Dad's chair... like father like son!

Birthday toys!

Nonnie & her curly headed boy!

Rest in Peace - Higgins

Higgins, my doppelganger is no more… am I therefore… no more? My most loved kitty is gone after 16 years of devotion… how can I go on? Who will be my kitty nurse when I am sick? She stayed at my side the entire time I was sick, too many times to remember. David insisted that I had to have a cat (he wanted a dog, actually) to be in the house so I would not be alone. Thus Higgins came into my life. In the last 4 months she lost more than half of her kitty weight and then in the last 4 days she lost ½ pound all the while eating like crazy!

Already it has only been 2 days and the house has an incredible void, I feel it, Mom feels it. We miss being greeted by Higgins when we come into the house. She always stood at the top of the stairs and gave a loud meow when we came home… every time, never missed. In the basement, you could hear the thump where she jumped down from wherever she was so she could greet us at the top of the stairs to greet us. I have removed the litter box and all of the stuff that go with it, cleaned the floor, and it is like she was never there… but she was there beloved for many years. I have taken up the food and water dishes, thrown away the medicine and catnip… gone. I miss her terribly

Sitting on the commode in the morning she would always come in, sit on the floor in front of me and meow to say good morning. Sometimes she would play with the toilet paper drifting in the air of the heating vent. Long time ago, I learned to put the tp over the top so Higgins would not unwind the entire roll in one of her playful moods.

She was a proud kitty, spending so much time on her personal grooming, sometimes to the point of distraction. She sat so proudly at the window guarding the house from marauding birds or just checking out the other cats that crossed the yard. I miss her sitting on the various places she loved to sit… the back of the couch or on the top of the chair in front of the window, on the dining room table, on my lap. My lap the most, I miss her warmth sitting on my lap, grooming herself or sleeping, she was always so warm.  I miss her. I miss her now as I type this… not sitting in my lap. Higgins & the computer sitting in my lap, it is a good thing that I have a big lap.

Goodbye my good and faithful friend, goodbye Higgins. To say I will miss you is a complete understatement. Rest in peace.

Mom & Higgins in a standard position.

Dreama

Dreama (Shopna) with her fashionable pink "teep". Ususally it is a black spot on her forehead.

KumKum (r), the mother and Dreama.

OMG!!! You are probably looking at this baby’s picture as saying “What in the world have they done to this child!?!” Yeah, I said the same thing too. The big red spot on the forehead with pencil eyebrows and eyeliner is all a part of dispelling the evil spirits. According to Bangladeshi custom, the evil spirits will look at this baby and say ‘OMG!! What an ugly baby’ and move on to take the next beautiful baby. Such is the way with all of the babies that I have seen in Bangladesh. It is a shock when you first see it. The picture shows her with her pink “teep” to match her dress, a fashion statement. But I digress.

On 22 August, we celebrated the first birthday of Shopna (Dreama). I was responsible for the name. You see, her mother KumKum (just a sweet name) is a sometime maid in our house. Last year when she was pregnant, she kept saying that this is her son, her son, her son. But I dreamed before she was born that the baby was a girl, in fact, I dreamed that there were twins. So when she was born, they named her after my dream... shopna in Bangla.

In this picture of her, she is wearing a dress that I brought her from America for her birthday. It is a size 12 months, just so you can get a size comparison. It is a fact that Bangladeshi people are indeed smaller than American people. But she is a healthy baby, laughs a lot and is trying hard to walk.

Her parents are another interesting story. KumKum, a Muslim fell in love with Akash (Bangla for sky), a Hindu. He converted to Muslim to marry her. Now, KumKum’s family will not speak to her and Akash’s mother, still a Hindu is dying to get her hands on the baby but KumKum will not go to her house because she is a Hindu! It is all so confusing to me. So KumKum and Shopna spend lots of time in our house and Shopna gets lots of attention. Aksah runs a tea and cigarette stand across from the hospital near our house. Kaki gives them food many days, as KumKum is not such a good cook.

On another note, I probably need to catch up. My project in Bangladesh ended at the end of February 2011. I came back to Chattanooga at Easter. Since the end of February, I have been looking for a job on either side of the planet, no success yet, but several maybes on the horizon. I returned to Dhaka in mid-August to celebrate Ramadan (the Muslim fasting month) and Eid (the major Muslim holiday), but still looking for a job as well… more on Ramadan and Eid later.

TTFN

j

21 February 2011

                International Language Day was 21 February 2011. Probably you did not notice in the USA but in Bangladesh it is a huge event. Like so many events in Bangladesh, it is based on a sacrifice. 21 February 1952 saw more than 50 people killed by West Pakistan soldiers because they were demonstrating for the right to speak Bangla not Urdu as West Pakistan desired.

The ability to speak Bangla is almost a sacred right in Bangladesh. Sometimes, we find it hard to believe that people sacrificed their lives to speak a certain language. But thinking a bit deeper, our ancestors fought for the right to speak the kind of English we wanted to speak American English not British English.

Anyway, we joined the millions of Bangladeshis most dressed in black and white who brought flowers in memorial tribute to the “language martyrs”. We went to the Shaheed Minar (Martyr’s Monument) located on the Dhaka University campus. There are Shaheed Minars located all over the country in every county where people went to pay tribute. The parade of people begins at 1 minute past 12:00 midnight on 21 Feb. The Prime Minister and President brought the first floral tributes. By 2:20 in the afternoon, police had removed 3 full layers of floral tributes and single flowers from the brick steps of the Shaheed Minar. Large groups of people from all walks of life joined together behind a banner to make the tribute to the language martyrs. They brought their children and babies so they could learn the importance of language to Bangladesh, about the language martyrs and the role they played in the development of the country.

Actually, pictures will tell this story much better than words. I sat on the curb watching the parade while they watched me.

Always struggling monument at Dhaka University Campus.



A group giving their floral tribute to the language martyrs.




Our floral tribute from Ali's veranda. The pink rose in the center is from France.



Shaheed Minar in all its glory.

Asha & Diana.



Me with my face painted. The painter was happy for the large canvas but charged more!



Mother & daughter outfits.

The red round circle says 21.

Matching outfits.

Even a black bourka can be beautiful.

Big smiles all around.

Dust & Destruction in Dhaka

Hello again from a sneezing and coughing country!

Yes, winter in Bangladesh is a season of no rain. Remember that the rain comes mainly in the monsoon season in June - August. So, the result of no rain is a lot of dust everywhere! Add to the normal dust that covers the leaves of the trees and everything else is the dust that comes from the destruction of lovely single family houses.

Gulshan, the area of Dhaka where our office is, is the upwardly mobile rich peoples place to live. At one time it was a lovely area with lots of trees and nice lawns behind the walls hidden from the street. Now days, those lovely single family homes are being destroyed to make room for 6 story buildings with lots of apartments to accommodate the many more people who are becoming rich and want to live in the rich part of the city.

The picture here is the house next door to our office which is another big house with lots of trees and a lovely lawn and garden. The house next door was lived in until January 2011 and now it is going to the developers. The landowner usually gets several apartments in exchange for the land and the rest is sold or rented by the developer. Lots of money is being made!! Lots of dust is being made!!

Dust & Destruction in Dhaka

 You can see that the work is being done by hand as is most of the work in Bangladesh. In the foreground, you can see the dust on the leaves of the trees. In the right background, you can see the skeleton of another 6 story building rising up from the dust of another lovely home. I might add, that these homes were built in the early 1970's with the end of the Pakistan times and the beginning of Bangladesh times. Most of these home were built by retired Army officers who had additional family money in addition to their military pay.

The next 2 photos are of our office and lawn.

So from me who is taking 2 allergy pills, 2 inhalers, 1 nose spray  and a gallon of ginger tea a day just to keep on a level keel with the dust, I say adieu!

TTFN
j

A Christmas of Many Firsts

Ho!, Ho!!, Ho!!!... Merry Christmas!

Yes everyone, I have been known to be rather crazy at times, but this one is intentional! I was too busy to do anything and now, its January February, things are slowing down and I can think again. I know that you will let me by on this one.

Of course, the biggest first was baby Alex's first Christmas... 2010. Doesn't he make the greatest little Santa's helper? I have also added the photos of David with Alex and then the family around the Christmas tree.



Not sure about Santa, yet!




Logan, David, Alex, Ethan & Brandy



David & Alex, father & son

Another major first was that it snowed 6 inches in Chattanooga on Christmas day, for the first time in 41 years! And, it was the first snow ever for Ali Hossain who visited us from Bangladesh. He thought it was amazing, nothing like in the movies or on the news!

Ali measured 6 inches of snow on Christmas Day!

And, since Ali was with me, we went to visit some of our friends who have worked or are working in Bangladesh. We visited Brad in Marysville Ohio, where they make Honda Accords, we visited Ron in Huron Ohio who Ali worked with in the early days of the rural electrification program, Harun in Erie PA who now works for GE, Shajedul and his family in Niagara Falls, my college room mate Dana and her husband in Buffalo and 17 of Ali's cousins in Albany NY. It was the first time for both of us to see Niagara Falls which was 50 degrees on New Year's Eve Day (probably another 1st but I don't know). This photo shows Shajedul and his family who drove from Ontario Canada to see Ali (I was along for the ride). Another first for me was meeting Ali's 17 cousins in Albany. What a nice town! They had just cleaned up after 18" (inches!) of snow. All in all, we traveled 2200 miles in 6 days!! Yes, another first for me!

Well, that is enough excitement for one day. Thanks for reading!

TTFN

Judy

Alex's Nonnie

Hello y'all,

Today, Sunday October 24, 2010, I am happy to introduce my grandson Asher Alexander. His dad is my son David, and his mother is Brandy, he has 2 other brothers, Ethan and Logan. Oh yeah, did I mention his other siblings, Otis, an American bulldog, Daisy, a Bull mastiff, and Chewie a Pekingese. All are waiting for Alex when he and his mom get home from the hospital! Let the fun and games begin!!