The last few weeks

Hello Everyone,
Sorry I haven't written my blog for so long, I actually wasn't sure anyone but my parents read it. So last I wrote I was just back from Dinajpur. After that I moved in with Adnan. I was a little insecure at first because I thought that his mother didn't like having a girl friend of Adnan's staying in the house, but since then I have decided that she likes me, even if I am a girl. Adnan has two sisters, Sarah is 13 and Farah is 15. They are both very sweet. There is also a maid here, which still makes me a little uncomfortable, but despite myself I have gotten mostly used to it.
The first few days after returning we did our urban part of the project, however people there seem to be much busier than in the field- away in the city working at day jobs or cleaning or cooking. People in the villages just seemed to be standing outside or just inside their homes wherever we went, as if they were expecting us. So in the slum, we mainly talked to shopkeepers. Here everyone uses latrines, because there is no where else to go. But some of them are shared by as many as 50 people. And when the water levels rise, the water in the latrines also rises, and one family confessed to us that theirs was just about to overflow. And now is the rainy season. The lake that you have to cross to get to the slum, there are some pictures of it, was when I first got here about 6 feet lower than the houses, now it is only a few inches. During one of our interviewers with a jewelry seller, who only had 2 rings and 2 necklaces total that she desperately wanted me to buy, there was a very strong downpour for a long time, and finally when it died down a bit Adnan and I decided to leave, and we had to walk back through the streets of the slum in 3 or 4 inches of water, brown water with I can only imagine what in it. All along the streets are just piles of trash, and we walked past one that was just crawling with maggots, and they were being washed into the street. I have a lovely picture of that which I'll put up, once my computer gets fixed (when I get back to the US). Trash is definitely the biggest problem in the slums, we interviewed some people who get it taken somewhere every week by an NGO, but others we interviewed said that this NGO just takes it a little bit down the street and dumps it. Anyways there is trash all over the roads and in the lakes where kids are swimming. But when I see kids just throwing their wrappers right on the ground, how can I say anything, when they're always thinking about their next meal what are they going to care about the cleanliness of the street? This is a big debate in the environmental community.
Today was a great day- well yesterday Adnan and I went back to the slum to find the man (the rickshaw puller!) that we had met without a leg, and we found him and decided that we would take him to the limb and brace center today. He lost his leg in 1988, when he was just 18, in a traffic accident- he was working on a truck then. He has a beautiful wife and a 1 1/2 year old son, I'll put their pictures up. So we met him this morning and took him down there. And he was just overjoyed, you could see it in his eyes. The moment we walked in there were a lot of people practicing with their limbs walking up and down the room, and I can just imagine the way he must have felt seeing that. I went in with him to take all the measurements for his prosthetic limb, and they used plaster of paris to make a model around his thigh. He has about 5 inches of upper thigh. This BRAC center is actually funded in part by private donors, and the doctor that works there volunteered to have Hashem's limb covered by the donors. The rest of it will be covered by one of Adnan's uncles. Heading back, I asked him what he thought of the experience and he pointed to the sky and said "Allah" and some other words, but Adnan didn't need to translate. I am sad I won't be able to see his face the moment he is able to walk with the prosthetic limb, but I'll get Adnan to take pictures. I am leaving Monday, very soon. The girl Rita that we met in the slum lives very close to Hashem Ali, and so we went to visit her home for the 3rd time, and I decided to give her mother some money for her schooling, because she is such a smart and bold girl, I can tell without even understanding what she is saying. Last time we visited was to give her photos that we had taken of her, and got to talking about how expensive school is and how they can't really afford to keep her in school even though she really loves it, and how important they think it is for her. Her mother works in the garment factories, but will lose her job soon because the company is changing locations. So I thought I couldn't think of a better cause to give money to, I just wish I had more to give! I gave them about 6 months of school worth, and i really hope that they spend it on her, but if they need it for food or something else, that will be fine too, but they were really adamant about wanting to send her to school.
Let's see, what else has been going on. This weekend Adnan had a friend from Tufts visit who is from Nepal but is working in Kolkata. So the three of us did all the touristy things in Dhaka, went to the Lalbag fort again, and old pink palace on the river, a mosque that is tiled with stars on the outside, and an Armenian church from the 1700's! I can't believe they were around that early, but I guess it was for trade. We also took a boat ride in the river which was crowed with other small boats, boys bathing, and big boats called rockets that are often in international news for sinking. Lots of people here don't know how to swim. I just can't imagine, how could you ever feel comfortable being on water? I'm tired, I'll write more soon.