mangos, mosquitos and mania

I have eaten so many mangos, I have so many mosquito bites, and all of this trip has been wonderful mania.

Y'alls posts were hirarious! I love that I can hear everyone's voice telling the story exactly as it's written.
Cars- All in for 10 on a book discussion; I have been meaning to read Teaching a Stone to Talk for quite some time now and would appreciate the accountability. I didn't look into the other options you mentioned, so just let me know what you want to do and I'll go read it as soon as I can once I'm back.
Bex- You are fabulous. I love the commentary.
Mia- I love how you tell stories.
Jululia- Please post about this crush and new puppy! Also, I am wishing you so many good vibes; rock that GRE!
Felon- You went to Bonnaroo!?!!? Are you alive? Or did the music (and excessive esposure to the dredges of humanity) blow your mind?
Hat- This place is one big river delta, so all the boats out constantly remind me of you. ahhhh!

I have just gotten back from three days in Norshindi on a research project with a local team and two researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases. WOW WOW WOW! The district Norshindi is two hours outside of Dhaka. To get to the community where we began conducting interviews, it was another two hour drive the next morning over terrible roads (gluh gluh gluh gluh) and then a 20 minute boat ride. This village was like something out of National Georgraphic. The study is for a collaberative project with ICDDRB and Unicef looking at hand washing behaviors. It was absolute chaos all day and totally otherworldly. By midafternoon, they left me on the porch surrounded by more than 30 locals. I spoke to them in English and they responded in Bangla. No one had any idea what the other was saying. So many kids (can you say birth control? well actually, I quickly discovered that what I thought were balloons were in fact condoms. Much better use. Mia, we should introduce your campers to these kids). A few hours later I was invited to have dinner in some one's home and then posted up by the river where a hoard of kids found me within 5 minutes. I would point at things and they would tell me the Bangla word. They thought everything I did was hysterical and if I had been in their position I certainly would have been busting a gut as well. In the evening I reconvened with the research team until they had had enough of the crowd and sent me away as a decoy. After a few animal impersonations, this extremely old woman was having quite a conversation with me and kept motioning with her hands. I'm just smiling like an idiot, speaking in English like anyone could understand me, when someone finally explained that she wanted me to sing and dance. Now you're talkin' my language. Highlights of my performance included: This Side by Nickle Creek, Two Coins by Dispatch, an Avett Bros medley, a little Coldplay and some DMB. Also, made the "slow clap" into a game for the kids and they loved it. Normally I'm paid for entertaining large groups of kids, but I did all this pro bono.
-------------
The following is an email I sent to my parents on Saturday; the relative dates are wrong, but this is just to give you an idea of what's been going on without me retelling the story in a way that would be more interesting for y'all (sorry for the time-saving cop out):

Thursday morning was spent at the other ICDDRB location talking with more anthropologists and a medical economist. Ryan was in the car when their driver came to pick me up; we ate lunch at a Korean restaurant. My first experience with this cuisine was delicious. After that we hung out at the house, ran some errands, and then went for a run. Once again, saw some pretty unbelievable sights. What I had seen while running the previous day were nice apartment buildings compared to the slums we ran by today (fyi- these are not places off the beaten track but are right in the middle of things). It's an eye-opening experience everytime I walk out the door.

Thursday night we had a delicious dinner prepared by their cook and then talked to Dr. Luby for a while. Ms. Luby and his youngest sister left at 11:30 for the airport and I hung out with Ryan til he left for the airport at 3... and reappeared the next morning because his flight did not leave until the NEXT night. Oh dears.

But this gave us another day to spend together. He joined me in going to lunch with some other female students from the ICDDR and then we all drove out to a river to get on a boat that the Lubys partially own. The drive was about an hour long out there and initially was through a super neat market area before slowly waning to increasingly rural communities. We were on the boat for 4 hours! There was a misunderstanding as to how long we wanted to be gone for; usually people go out for 2 hours, 3 tops. But it was pleasantly cool on the water and there were all sorts of fascinating things to see on the shores. The drive back was along the same road, but there were literally thousands of people in the streets in the market area and traffic under normal circumstances is a complete disaster. If not for the car sickness resulting from the lurching and being in the back-back seat, I wouldn't have minded being the car for the rest of the night watching the people go by in the marketplace.

We dropped off the women at their various destinations and then went to the American club to watch the USA v. Slovenia game. Did you catch any of it? What a great game! We played pool for a bit and then came back to the house to watch the England game. I slept through the first half, but rallied for the second and in time to say good bye to Ryan for the second time. He was not here this morning, so I'm guessing he got it right this time.

Tonight I am going to a Muslim wedding with Ryan's oldest sister Michelle. I'm going to borrow a sari! I'm very excited. Then tomorrow I am going to observe field work! I'm going to Norshindi with Val Curtis (I am told she is an internationally renowned anthropologist who is the female equivalent to Dr. Luby regarding her work with water sanitation) and two others. We will back Tuesday morning in time for me to fly out Tuesday afternoon. I am nearly overwhelmed by how tremendous this opportunity is.
---------
Annnnd, back to the present tense.
Two words- Ryan Luby. I doubt this is going to surprise anyone. He is going to come to town sometime in mid-August. I am thrilled for you to meet each other; he is wonderful.

Every thing here is unlike anything I have ever seen, tasted, felt, or considered as a possible paradigm of reality. This is going to be one of those experiences that the stories slowly come out over time.

I'm about to go to the airport to fly to New Delhi. I doubt I'll have time to post anything again until I'm back stateside on July 14. I LOVE YOU, WOMEN!

Katie B