What a winter

This has been one of the longest January's I can remember.  For one, I was up in Gaibandha on record breaking low temperature days which meant that it was about 40 degrees in the office for a few days in a row. Even when I was standing in the sun during field work I was chilled to the bone.  While trying to get warm, there have been a few health related issues (one with Elliot and one with my dad), both of which happened up in Gaibandha where medical resources are not adequate. With all the back and forth to Gaibandha and the 'adventure' of the past few weeks, I'm glad to be welcoming in February.  I thought I'd just put up a bunch of photos - so enjoy!

Fun fact before going to the photos.  I timed the cacophony of the calls to prayer the other day to see if I was just imagining that it seemed to last forever.  The first call out happens to be the loudest so if that one wakes you up even a little you're definitely going to be awake by the end.  That first one lasts 4.5 minutes all together the continuous Call lasts 24 minutes and 47 seconds.

 A few weeks ago we went with a bunch of friends to a picnic spot outside of Dhaka. There we spent a lovely afternoon grilling, roaming around, and even listening to a live band stationed there.

 Pollobi wasn't kidding when she said she'd try to get Elliot "potty trained" by May.  Right after the December trip to Gaibandha when she said that she started working her magic. That first week Elliot used the potty (after being strategically placed there) 4 times!

 After not really wanting to wear his costume on Halloween and ignoring it for a few weeks, Henry insisted on putting it on and wearing it on the walk to the Club.  I think one of the best parts is that all the people on the street seemed to think that a roaring, dinosaur costume wearing child was a completely to-be-expected thing.

 The other day construction started on our street to, we assume, fix the water piping.  For weeks our road had huge, mostly unmarked, 6 to 10 feet deep holes.  After awhile they filled up with beautiful water.  As the productivity with digging holes mounted but the follow-up activity to make the repairs and refill the holes waned, we had quite the obstacle course to deal with (note - early mornings are wonderfully void of traffic):
Right outside our gate

 I'm so impressed with Scott that he could multi task talking on the phone, dodging cars and avoiding pits.

I launched one of my studies in early January!

 We're finding more high arsenic tubewells (labeled with fresh red paint) then we thought we'd find

 That's a sewing machine out in a courtyard

One day I came home early to find that playgroup was at our house. Henry was so proud of the "train" he made with all of our shoes and

he was having a great time harassing Guinness by crawling all over him.