Sand storms, and other things we take for granted...

Jasim and I on a boat, headed out to a char

Remember that dust/wind storm that I talked about earlier? Well, there was another one today that I got to truly experience! We were on out a char, minding our business, screening some children for malnutrition when we noticed some storm clouds rolling in. We took shelter in a lady's house while a brief rain passed, then headed out to do more work. On our way back to the river to wait for a boat to come by and take us back to the mainland (we just stand and wait for the next boat to come. Jasim always tells me that the boat will come as soon as he has picked people up from the mainland that want to come over to this char. When I ask him how long that will be, he just laughs and tells me "anytime, it could be five minutes, it could be 2 hours"...I never find this as funny as he does) the wind picked up, and when I say "picked up" I mean we looked like the cows in that picture below!

We made it across on the boat to find it even worse on that side of the river. We ran and ducked into a "restaurant" which is a small little hut until we could run for the road to catch an "auto" to take us to our guesthouse.

Then, we make it back windblown, dusty, and a little wet to find that there is no electricity. This is no big surprise as we only have it a few hours a day, but it leaves you to sit outside in the storm as it is pitch black inside your room.

This takes me to the things that I have realized that I take for granted everyday:

1. electricity

2. warm showers

3. unlimited cell phone minutes

4. reliable internet access

5. the ability to drink water from the tap

6. variety of food

7. mattresses (vs the mat on top of my wooden bed frame)

8. being able to go outside without feeling like a celebrity and everyone staring

Oh, and I forgot to mention something when I was blogging about food earlier. I just learned this today, after eating mutton a few times. In the states, we refer to lamb as mutton (as in Keen's infamous mutton chop) however in Bangladesh mutton is either lamb or goat. Goat being the more expensive of the two which makes me think that thankfully when I have eaten mutton here, it is probably lamb!!!

Oh, and they eat pigeon, too.