Getting Back to Normal

We've been painting a lot lately. Here is a bit of Riley's handiwork. Austin and I spent a couple days painting our entry and dining room as well and I hope to post some pics of that soon. It feels so good to have some color and texture on the wall, not to mention finally getting some pictures hung.


In the middle of our painting, the neighbor, who we visited on Eid and took a plate of cookies to, stopped in to return the plate. It was loaded with a delicious fish curry for Austin, though she said I could have some too. When we visited them, they asked if we like fish and Austin told them he does but he doesn't get it very often because the rest of us don't like it that much and, truth is, I don't know how to cook it very well. So they seized the opportunity to give him something he really liked. I was touched by their thoughtfulness.


Life is getting more and more back to normal. During Eid and Puja (the Hindu holidays which came right after Eid this year) the streets of Dhaka were fairly quiet as so many had gone to their home villages for the holidays. There were very few beggars, hawkers or horns beeping for over a week and we enjoyed the quiet. But life goes on and that is okay too. Here is a picture taken from our veranda, of the street below and you can see a bit of the apartment building across the street from us. A vegetable hawker is pedaling by and below you can see a closer view of a similar cart. Sorry about the power lines but they are everywhere and there wasn't much I could do about them.


As I write, there is a cart full of fish across the street and I can hear at least the 4th vegetable hawker coming. We are definitely back to normal!

Now if our health would just get back to normal as well. Jensen has impetigo for the 2nd time and Austin is still struggling with health issues, though all the lab tests have been clear. I managed to get impetigo from Jensen and have been treating it with bleach and antibacterial cream, in hopes that I won't need to take antibiotics. We'll see what happens.

One very exciting thing happened last week - my brother got married! It was hard not to be there but we were actually able to watch it while it happened, via Internet. It was a bit choppy at times but still we felt like we were part of it and even got to see and chat with some relatives afterward.