Bowman Gets Into Basketball

I've gotten much more serious about my sports enthusiasm this year. Last year when we would go to Dad's games, I usually napped or just wanted to play at a park.  This year, I watch at least five minutes of every game, and I've really been enjoying the basketball lately.

Last weekend, he coached his middle school girls to a championship in a tournament with eight teams.  What fun to see them enjoying that. They've worked hard with Dad and another coach who has been a great help to him this past year.

Bowman and the Barber

I have a big, important trip coming up that I'm sure you'll see pictures of in a few weeks.  In order to get ready for the trip, Mom thought it would be a good idea for Dad and me to get haircuts, so we walked to Dad's regular barber.

I waited patiently as long as the champa kolas (small, sweet bananas) lasted.

By the time our whole family squeezed into the eight by eight foot shop with at least four other haircuts happening at the same time, I was pretty tired out, and remained mellow, if not very happy, throughout the process.  The barber asked, "Number two, Number three?" and didn't say anything else the whole time, but was very thorough.

I enjoyed comparing the textures of Mom's, Dad's and my heads during the rickshaw ride home and took a good nap after rinsing all that fine, blond hair off in the tub.  

Shopping in Color

Doing our shopping has continued to get more and more interesting as I learn more about Dhaka.  For instance, last year we rarely used the market closest to Dad's school because it is a little farther away from home than a few others.  However, we've learned slowly that it is a great place to get almost anything we need, kind of like having Target here in Dhaka.  (Did I tell you how much fun I had shopping at Target and Wal Mart this summer?  There are entire aisles of different kinds of cereal and balls in every size I could imagine!)  When we go to the Gulshan 1 Market here, we first pass the fresh flower department, and are soon in the plastic fruits and flower area.

Depending on the gate we choose to get into the covered part of the market, we end up in either produce, cleaning products, tailoring or furniture on the first floor.  If we take the stairs to the second floor, we find all kinds of wholesalers with closet-sized stalls stocked with things like fake Hershey's cocoa, sesame oil and toothpaste tubes labeled in Arabic.

Back on the first floor, once we pass the shrink wrapped furniture, we enter the cleaning supplies that lead to the fresh fruit sections.  This man was eager to sell us more tupperware.   

What we were after that day was mostly at our favorite vegetable stall, though.  The man here sits on top of his vegetable pyramid and rattles off prices while his employees weigh everything out in kilograms and try to upsell tomatoes and pumpkins.

For 260 taka, about $3.50 US, we took home Chinese cabbage, broccoli, beets, zucchini, lemons, cucumbers and clementines.  Mom's only convinced me to eat the clementines so far, but I do like the colors while we're out shopping and she's washing and soaking them in purified water.

Bowman Carols in Bangladesh

In Muslim Dhaka, caroling is a bit unconventional, but that doesn't mean I can't enjoy some of it this December. Last Saturday, our family joined a caravan of eight flatbed rickshaws (that usually transport things like baskets of chickens, industrial size vents or 12-foot rebar for construction sites and even hundreds of eggs). This time, we filled them up with expatriate families who wanted to share a little Christmas spirit. We sang as our drivers cycled through the streets, and stopped at three decorated houses to sing by their Christmas trees and even eat some of their cookies.  (Guess which part of that was my favorite!)

Then, on Monday night, our building was visited by members of a local church who wanted to share Bangladeshi caroling.  I'm sorry that this video isn't the greatest, but I just want you to get to see what we saw.  The following took place in the parking garage of our building and lasted for about half an hour.  Afterward, our neighbors invited everyone over for tea and we share Swedish spritz cookies that I helped decorate with our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters.  

I was pretty shy at first, but I got my groove on with Mom after the first song as we were pulled into the  dancing circle behind our friend.  

Merry Bangladeshi Christmas season, everyone!

Tradition

I think I mentioned traditions in my post about eggnog and my new brother or sister.  Well, one tradition Mom and Dad are trying out is to have me make an ornament every December.  This year, Mom bought wooden trees for me to paint.

She borrowed old brushes and washable paint from an art teacher friend, and she and Dad put me in the bath with a diaper on, the ornaments, the brushes and the paints.  I sort of liked it.  Mostly, I wanted to put the brushes in the water cup and watch the water change color.

With a little help making the whole thing green, here's my finished product for the 2011 Christmas season.  What do you think?

No Egg Nog This Year

Am I allowed to have traditions after only one Christmas?  Well, I do.  After Thanksgiving, we're supposed to put up Christmas decorations and drink Mormor's homemade egg nog.  Well, not this year.  We're not having the egg nog this year because eggs come on carts like that one above, often with feathers and other residue from the egg farms still attached, and they're usually sold next to the meat department.

Mom says she knows she risked it last year, but this year she wants to be even more careful.

She says that's because of what's in her belly, and because she says eventually I'll get a little brother or sister out of the deal, I said that it was all right to skip the egg nog and just eat homemade cookies while we watched our Christmas movie this year.