Pakhi khotai?

The last half of our trip to Gaibandha was fun.  I learned that Henry knows Bangla!  Although I'm sure he understands English, his recognition of the phrase "Pakhi khotai?" was the first time I realized that he understood something I or Shilpi said.  This phrase me where is the bird and when you say it Henry immediately will look up to the sky and hunt for a bird.  He goes bird scouting all the time and clearly enjoys the activity. 

My colleagues and I continued to work despite the cold. My estimation about the temperature wrong; it was actually 39 degrees at night and only about 50 degrees in the office at the height of the afternoon.  Brrrr, I get chills just thinking about it.  What is difficult to grasp is that only a small minority of the people live in apartment buildings and work indoors.  I can't imagine how cold others felt sleeping on the ground in their thatched bamboo walled homes. On our walk to work one morning (usually we take a car) I chatted with two little girls who were walking to school.  There I was in my outfit plus a sweater, a fleece jacket, socks and shoes and there they were in hole-y sweaters, thin cotton clothes and flip flops.  Hopefully the 100+ fleece blankets our project bought for the locals were distributed quickly!

Here are a few photos of us in a electric auto-rickshaw on our way to work.  These electric versions are fairly new and quite fancy.
Henry posed with me before we left:

This last one is the group in the back yard garden - our little oasis.