It’s always something. The most recent something started with my involvement in a motorcycle accident in Bogra. It started out as mechanical failure and ended with user error. I ended up with a few minor brush burns and a sprained hand. I thought I was fine and went about my week. However, about 5 days later I was persuaded by Daniel, my roommate, and his appeal to authority (his mother, Karin, who is a doctor) to actually visit a doctor. After a $3.01 x-ray I realized my 3rd metacarpal was broken. The doctor taped up my hand, charged me $4.41 and sent me on my way with a list of meds and instructions to be back in 2 weeks. Karin actually lives in Bogra, but she’s back in the states right now on the receiving end of a double hip replacement. Her surgeon was gracious enough to take a look at my x-ray and surprised me by recommending surgery to prevent foreshortening. Karin recommended either Bangkok or going south to Malumghat.

Two emails later I was on a night bus with Daniel down toward Cox’s Bazaar. The actual hospital name is Memorial Christian and has been located for many years just north of Cox’s Bazaar, but 10-13 hours by bus from Dhaka. Last year I went with Daniel up to LAMB hospital when he had a concussion and broken right wrist so it seemed very apropos that he would come with me. Upon arrival I was very quickly run through a consultation before gowning up and getting moved into surgery. I remember being wheeled into surgery. I remember being placed on an operating table. I remember a conversation with one of the surgeons. But I don’t remember anything else until waking up in my hospital bed about 3 hours later, hand in a half cast and slung up in the air.

There’s something odd about post injury. Life slows down very quickly. I spent the next 20 hours mostly sleeping, then resting in the guest house for a few days. We got to have some interesting conversations with hospital staff and even observe some surgeries. Now I’m back in Dhaka, healing, and struggling to type one handed. There’s a project I think I can work on here that doesn’t need too much right hand movement. Aro kerup hote parto – It could have been worse

I’ve been spoiled by good bread.  When I was growing up my mother would bake bread almost every week.  Everybody who visited for dinner or something would compliment my mom on the good bread but it was something I took forgranted. One year my Uncle Dan’s Christmas story was about his quest to find good bread in Washington D.C.  It was interesting, but at the time I couldn’t really relate.

I went off to college and didn’t eat much bread.

After graduating in 2004 I went to visit some friends in Europe.  The first day I ended up eating in a bakery/cafe just outside Brussels that had these huge loafs of artisan bread.  It wasn’t something I had seen before, and the bread was wonderful.  Since then I’ve found several places that a little closer which are similar, but they fascinate me.

A few years ago the Independent weekly put out their food issue with the title, “The rise and fall and rise of good bread”.   An interesting issue which sat on my desk for a long time, it had different peoples stories and their experience with bread.  My favorite article was by David Auerbach who ended up making several bread ovens in this quest.  That sounded really interesting to me, so I started thinking about making a bread oven.  I didn’t really have really have the space or felt like I would use it enough, but I filled it away in the back of my mind.

In Bangladesh there isn’t much in the way of wheat.  It’s one long term goal of MCC has never been very successful with.  The best bread that is available is tandori rutti or nan and that’s just considered a snack.  While designing the workshop and house I started thinking about a wood fired oven.  Austin and Daniel started also started thinking about it independently.  So a few weeks ago we had everybody out to the house and had a oven making party after another saturday and a few mornings this week we wrapped it up.  I put some pictures of it up on flickr.  Asha kori ektu pore khub bhalo ruti hobe –  I hope there will be good bread soon.

I have returned… returned to the States and now back to Bangladesh. Going back for Michael and Rachael’s wedding was a really nice vacation. They’re now happily married and moved into their new house in Lancaster. Derrick and Rebecca also recently bought a place in Harrisonburg and I was able to visit that as well. I did lots of shopping, drank lots of lattes and spent as much time with as many people as is possible for this introvert. It’s odd but Bangladesh seemed like dream while I was there and now that I’m back the visit doesn’t seem quite real either. I’ve heard it takes a day per time zone to get over jet lag, but using melatonin seems to make the switch quite a bit faster. So the sleep schedule is back to normal.

There have been several changes while I was gone. Dave, who was part of the SALT program, finished up his term and headed back to the states. Arriving back, the MCC Guest house in Dhaka, or “Bat Cave” seemed very empty since Sarah who working with the Peace program had also finished up her term. And while we can’t replace her, we’re looking for someone to fill her Position

One small change that happened while I was gone Rishi, our office driver here Bogra, turn a prototype tank outside the office into a nice little fish pond by adding some rocks, water plants and of course fish. There are even a few small eels. There wasn’t an aeration system and the fish started looking like they needed oxygen, so I hooked up a little aquarium pump we had to do some wetland research and Rishi was happy. There are probably other ways to increase oxygen levels without electricity. Maybe a small waterfall made from a hand pump and a big bucket or an old tractor inner-tube with a tap and a pressure valve, but this was what I had on hand.

A change that I was hoping for but didn’t happen is with the new house/workshop. I was hoping that it would be finished, but it’s pretty much at the same place where it was when I left. Almost done but… And the biggest issue right now is electricity.

I used to take electrical power completely for granted. Sure I was a part of the NC green power program to buy green electricity, but it wasn’t something I thought about everyday. Electricity is probably overused on the whole, but as a convenient way of moving energy it’s wonderful. That said, I’m a little ambivalent about electricity because even though it’s so useful, unfortunately the first thing that often comes with electricity is the Television. Actually it often comes before because it’s often run from batteries. So it’s a little disheartening that we’re so dependent on electricity, but without fans things can be pretty miserable. Everywhere I’ve been in Bangladesh has either inconsistent power or none at all. If you do have it you should be grateful because you’re part of the 38% of the population which has access to electricity in the first place. If you do have power it’s probably going to go out every day, because the power grid is 30% oversubscribed so rolling blackouts or “load shedding” happen when production is insufficient. The general problem is that Bangladesh is too flat for hydro, doesn’t have enough wind for turbines and solar is _really_ expensive. They’re doing a lot with Bio-gas, generating methane from cow dung, but that’s still pretty small. Most of their power is currently produced from natural gas, but aside the problem of burning fossil fuels, it’s very likely they’re going run out in a few more years, one professor at the University of Dhaka said it could be as early as 2012.

Which brings us back to this construction project. We either could get power from the grid or produce it on our own. On the one hand there’s electricity in the village… but the current transformer is overloaded and a new power line is needed. On the other hand we have this inexpensive generator that I bought a couple months ago for running tools. It’s a Bangladeshi generator belted to a Chinese made Diesel engine, fairly large actually… but it’s producing dirty power and making things burn out. Rock meet hard place.

All this makes the Dilbert cartoon from a few days ago quite relevant and very amusing. I sometimes feel like there’s this shell game that gets played with resources. We, self included, play games moving around labor, energy, and materials and hope we’ll end up with working systems without having to pay the price. Bidudh nei, eta boro shomosha. No electricity, it’s a big problem.