So, it appears the drains don't work that well in Dhaka

Wonder Woman! The joys of visiting Singapore when you are older...

The rainy season has started.  So has Ramadan.  The rainy season in the desh is full of contrasts - baking hot one moment, dust blowing everywhere and then ridiculously heavy rain and cooler temperatures the next!  The rain, when it comes, it quite special.  It comes down hard.  Not necessarily for that long but very hard.

Now you might be aware that the roads near where we live in Dhaka recently had some new 'storm drains' added.  They dug the holes in the road - by hand.  They moved the new drains into the ground - by hand.  They covered it over with some rubble - by hand.  Then it rained.  And the rubble all disappeared and massive holes appeared - which obviously you can't see when it's been raining and there are a few feet of water on the road!  Result - a number of cars driving into them and getting a little bit stuck.

So, next step in the process?  Covering the holes and rubble in the road with tarmac - by hand.  Picture the scene, old metal barrels on their side with a kind of metal tray on top. Underneath a fire made from burning old bits of cloth and rubbish.  On top, bits of stone and hot tar.  People all around adding to the fire or to the hot tar - and all in a pair of flip-flops and a longi (or a sari for the women). Payment for a days work on this - approximately 500 BDT per day (for the men - which is about 3 UK pounds) and less than that for the women.

So, the new road and the new drains, they should stand up to the rainfall yes?  Well, no.  The rain at the weekend flooded the road outside the British High Commission - approximately 1 - 2 feet of water after about 1 hours rain.  We now have more pot holes appearing - kindly marked out by a bit of tree so that drivers and rickshaw wallahs don't drive into it!

Meanwhile, down in Old Dhaka, markets were still under 1 - 2 feet of water the next day.  Why is this?  Now some will argue 'oh it's climate change' and yes, with climate change we can expect the rainfall patterns to change and intensify.  But this is a multi-layered problem.  It involves corruption, it involves lack of planning and budgeting, it involves land grabbing.  Oh the list goes on.

Moving onto more lighthearted issues, Isobel and I went to Singapore for a long weekend.  When I was young, Singapore was a little bit dull to be honest.  It was so clean and functional.  I wanted chaos and excitement.  Now when I went to Singapore from Dhaka I thought - oh my, this is paradise.  It functions, there are pavements, there is public transport, there is a cable car (with Wonder Woman no less), there is Ben and Jerrys.  It was a great visit.  And happily in the airport on the way home I found some Belgian chocolates....which tasted lovely with a bottle of Belgian beer back here in Dhaka!

Thinking of beer, one of the many conversations amongst expats here (apart from 'where can I buy food without formulin in it' and 'where is good to go for a weekend break from Dhaka and how long will it take?') is around which of the many expat clubs has the best beer.  Bangladesh is a dry country- so as an expat you can only get alcohol through diplomatic missions (if you are a diplomat), through a 'warehouse' (if you have what they call a passbook) or through some of the clubs.  We have the Dutch club (complete with little climbing wall and bitterballen), the German club (good pizza), the Nordic club (good cinnamon buns) and so on.  But the beer vote goes to......the American club.  What a range of beer! In fact as one colleague of mine said 'thats the fridge I long to sit outside'.

A selection of the beers at the American Club Dhaka

In addition to beer, the other industry which is growing in Dhaka is that related to bread and baking!  I love a good bake.  I'm looking forward to the next Great British Bake Off which I'll be watching thanks to modern technology.  An English guy has moved to Dhaka and is helping train up a group of bakers who are going to open a new bakery for all to enjoy.  Bread and baked products in Asia are often disappointing if what you are after is a croissant or western type product (obviously, Asian roti and other such breads are easily available and incredibly tasty!).  However, growing middle classes in many Asian countries are looking for these western baked goods.  And so Dhaka has now launched the Holey Artisan Bakery.  So far we've only tasted almond croissants, pain au chocolat, sourdough and fruit loaf but they were very very tasty!  Let's hope the Bangladeshi bakers can keep it up when they realise that most bakeries bake through the night and early morning to have bread ready for breakfast as opposed to 7pm at night! I'll be supporting them.

And whilst on the baking theme and before signing off for the day, I have still been baking!  This time, baked doughnuts with cinnamon sugar!  Baked! Yummy.  So much healthier I'm sure (if you ignore the sugar).  Did you know you can get a book just about doughnuts - it's good, look it up - by Rosie Reynolds.  It's small but full of lovely recipes!

Things I am learning in the Desh - the two Eids!

I'm learning a lot here in the Desh:

• I'm learning that Pizza dough puffs up in about 3 seconds. 
  
  

  

  
  
  

  

  After about 30 minutes!

• That sourdough needs to be fed approximately every 12 hours (look at those bubbles!).  
• That they have these great samosa type snacks called 'Singara' which I'm going to have a go at making - filled with spicy potato yumminess.  I found a link with some pictures and a recipe in case you're tempted - http://weloveourbangladesh.blogspot.com/2011/01/somocha.html.

At the moment, the learning is all about religion.  We hear a lot about Eid in the UK in terms of the Eid at the end of Ramadan.  I am now learning about another Eid.  I'm hoping I've got this right - bear with me if I haven't - I'm still learning!

Eid al-Fitr is the Eid at the end of Ramadan.  It marks the end of the fasting and is apparently celebrated for one day.

Eid ul-Adha is next week - Wednesday and Thursday to be precise.  It's known by those in the office and surroundings as the 'bloody eid' (I don't think that's a technically correct name though!).  Why? Well, because this Eid is a celebration of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son, Ismail.  God intervened and swapped his son for a sheep to sacrifice instead.  So, the streets will soon be filled with animals - cows, goats, sheep and even camels apparently (camels for the wealthy).  Then, next Wednesday, the animals are killed in recognition of this sacrifice by Abraham.  This weekend we're going to investigate the roads near here as apparently the cows are being lined up ready for sale.  People will buy them and then decorate them with garlands and feed them up.  They are then killed on the streets on the first morning of Eid.

I'm not entirely sure how much we'll see of the actually killing - we're around in Dhaka over Eid.  This is a fact that our Bangla teach found most strange as most people try to get away. It's the noise that we need to possibly warn the kids about - the animals make a lot of noise before they are killed.  We live in a part of Dhaka where I've been told that they wash the streets down afterwards to remove the blood and bits, but who knows!  We might have some interesting pictures to post here next week!

There are a few of us about though, we're planning some trips to see the mass exodus from the city and also the Durga Puja.  This is the other religious event next week - on Monday.  It's something we know very little about - so another learning opportunity.  Bangladesh apparently has the second largest Hindu community in the world.  The Durga Puja apparently celebrates the victory of the Goddess Durga over the evil buffalo demon Mahishasura.  I have absolutely no idea what it will entail - so, stay tuned for an update!

  

Two posts in one day??? Has the world gone mad?

No, not really.  I'm just thinking of what great joy there is in attempting to eat the contents of the freezer before we move out!

I say joy - that's because I've been eating mince pies and brandy butter this evening. Yum.  One of my favourites.  Who says they have to be eaten in winter? Why not in the garden when it's been 26 degrees?

So I thought I would share the contents of the freezer as we embark on the last few weeks of UK summer before we depart.  We have:

- A never ending supply of pork livers it seems (....my husband, bless him, got into a mini phase of making terrines....he made one - which was lovely - and now we have a lot of pork livers in the freezer);
- Salmon - I was obviously buying it on special.  Smoked salmon, normal salmon, basically lots of salmon;
- Bread - well, I did go on that baking course;
- Fruit cake soaked with brandy (Christmas - I love brandy soaked fruit!);
- Left over Turkey (do you think that is still OK to eat?);
- Frozen Peas;
- Meatballs;
- One mini milk (I sense a fight over that one!); and
- More bread - garlic, pitta, rolls...you name it.

So, balanced it might not be but it has to be eaten! Can't bear food waste - I wonder if the Love Food Hate Waste website will have some recipes for fruit cake with pork livers....

The countdown begins....

Well there has been a slight gap in the blogging.  I think a holiday in Croatia managed to get in the way.  Croatia was lovely. For the first time in 4 years we had decided 'let's go away, let's have guaranteed sunshine, no more of this rain'.

What happened?  Longest heatwave in the UK since 2006.....

Mmh.


Kids loved it and we loved.  For all the warm weather in the UK, being able to step outside and jump into crystal clear water was worth every penny of that flight with dodgy jet.  It was perhaps the most relaxing holiday we've had in years! Same thing every day - up, breakfast, beach, home, lunch, sleep, up, swim, dinner, pass out.  Sometimes there was even an ice cream to break up the routine!

Anyway, the return from Croatia meant one thing (well two actually) - more jabs for the kids and the countdown really beginning.  The kids are now well and truely jabbed up.  The last one was the worst - BCG for TB.  Arty was NOT happy. And boy did he make that known.  Luckily I escaped and took Isobel for a walk leaving Peter to struggle on with the wriggler.

But they are all done.  You need a lot of jabs for the Desh - TB, Hep A and B, Typhoid, Rabies and so on.  That's the least of their worries though - the next major challenge is trying to get Arty to stop drinking the bath water...or in fact to understand that he can't drink any water which comes out of the tap!  Ha ha.  Good luck with that one many people have said.

So, the countdown.  I think it's 6 weeks today that we fly.  We have put the house on the market - something which saw me hoovering at midnight the other night and vaguely trying to hide all the bits of plastic the kids accumulate in various cupboards, hoping no one would open them!  Peter has given up work - that's quite a major step.  Not only does it mean that for the first time since we met he isn't working for the same organisation, he is unemployed effectively and will mainly be spending his days painting and preparing the dinner (well, I'm hoping for the latter!).

It also means I'm the breadwinner! Scary.  I suddenly feel this massive responsibility to be extra cautious with money to ensure we have enough on my 3.5 day a week salary.  I'm hoping the lottery tickets might have come up trumps but I've not checked yet!

And finally it means attacking the task list.  It seems like a never ending task list and it's not a particularly interesting one:

(1) Go to tip
(2) Paint walls
(3) Spill paint on carpet
(4) Clear up paint on carpet
(5) Go back to tip
(6) Sell car
(7) Rent car
(8) Go to tip
(9) Attempt to chuck out really old toys while the kids aren't looking
(10) Fail in (9)

And so on.

Yesterday I distracted myself fully from this venture and went on a bread baking course.  It was a Christmas gift from all the family - and it was such fun!  It was held at the Lighthouse Bakery in Sussex and I had plumped for European Breads.  Ooh, the poolishes, the bigas, the other fermenty things I'd never heard of.  But the best bit was the bread!!! We now have a freezer full of it.  Which will basically add a few tasks to the list:

(11) Eat contents of freezer
(12) Keep eating contents of freezer
(13) Try not to add anything else to freezer.

Anyway, for some reason I am off to Tanzania this evening.  Not ideal timing as it means leaving Peter and the kids with the chaos of the overflowing bread filled freezer but an opportunity to see some overflowing pit latrines I suppose (just what you wanted to read I'm sure!).

So on that note I will leave you with some pictures of some lovely bread I made yesterday and a picture of the Dhaka skyline which awaits us in 6 weeks time.

Here we have a Limpa at the back, Pan Gallego on the right, Pain de Campagne in the middle and Pane Pugliese on the left

Dhaka belly in the desh

Yes, I’ve had my first encounter with Dhaka belly.  Like Delhi belly but luckily for me it only lasted a few days.  People die of diarrheoa every day – in fact Diarrhoea (88% of which in low income countries is due to poor water and sanitation^[1]) kills more children than HIV/AIDS, malaria and measles combined.  In this case it was something I ate.  Peter had gone and I thought to myself, I know, I'll treat myself to room service.  Ah.  Not such a good idea.

Oh well. 

So, life in Dhaka, what will it be like?

-       Hot.  There is not escaping it.  It will be hot (well apart from the winter when it apparently becomes chilly and we will need jumpers!).  We’re lucky.  We will have air-con and fans.  The office has air-con, the cars have air-con.  But outside, it’s hot and very sticky.

-       Busy.  People, rickshaws, cars, motorbikes, more people, buses.  Everywhere you look.  On the pavements (yes, rickshaws, cars and motorbikes also on the pavements).

-       Noisy.  Horns beeping.  Buildings being knocked down.  New ones being built.  The mosque calling everyone to prayer.

-       Hazardous for tall people – Peter almost lost his head to a ceiling fan whilst coming down some stairs.  That and the low hanging electrical cables which he has to duck.  He has now declared ‘I think I might have to look where I’m going here rather than horizon scan’…

-       Challenging – how to help the kids understand the poverty they will be faced with.  The beggars who bang on the car windows, the children running around in the middle of the road, the disabilities which make life so much more challenging.  How to help them understand how lucky they are and how much there is to be done to improve the opportunities for so many people around the world.

-       Rewarding – the people have been so friendly. So smiley. So willing to help teach us some basic Bangla and tell us about Dhaka, their lives and so on. 

-       Colourful.  Dhaka is so colourful.  The airport is so colourful – the seats are orange and red, but not the dull colours you see at Heathrow and Gatwick, vibrant colours.  The saris and salwar kameez that the women wear are so colourful and beautiful. .

-       Sporty.  It seems that for those not working (so that will be Peter to start with), life will involve tennis, swimming, golf, yoga, more tennis, squash, surfing (yes, surfing!), cycling, running, more golf…..

-       Filling.  So, the curry is good.  That goes without saying. But, for me the excitement was the cinnamon buns I found at the Nordic club.  Yes, cinnamon buns. They were massive and very cinnamonny! 

And on that note, bread that is (and baking), I am still thinking that sourdough needs to come to Dhaka.  So, that's the plan.  I'll get a new kilner jar and we'll make sourdough.  I'm already imagining what kind of bacteria there will be in there helping it to grow.....

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[1] WHO (2004) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Links to Health: Facts and Figures

We're moving.....to Dhaka!

So, it's been a while.  Life has gone a bit bonkers.  The weather remains cold and depressing - I've been wondering if it's a conspiracy by British Gas and the like to keep our bills high!

Anyway, I was going to start writing some blogs about my sourdough attempts.  There have been many and varied. 

This is how my starter started (thank you Mr HollyWood).  Contents - a festering organic apple, some flour and some water:

This is a more recent success (i.e - it actually rose and was light and airy!):

However, times have now moved on and it's time to reinvigorate this blogging m-larky.

In fact, I'm going to change the name slightly, a play on words.  From now on I think it should be known as 'Tales of Sundarban motherhood....' after the Sundarbans (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/452) which represent the world's largest stretch of mangrove forest.

We are moving to Dhaka.  Why I hear many people ask?  Well, in terms of work it's one of the best places for me - I'm a climate change and environment nut and so to work in one of the main countries which is going to feel the full impact of climate change it makes such huge sense.  For the kids, well, OK it's going to be a shock (the sheer numbers of people, the air quality, the new schools etc) but I am hoping that it will open their minds to the world, the realities in which so many people have to live and give them opportunities to travel to places beyond most people's wildest dreams (Sri Lanka, Nepal, China, Bhutan....the list goes on!).

Anyway, I thought it would be good to start documenting this process.  And my is it a process.  My first visit in almost 10 years is next week.  For Peter it's his first visit.  He's hard core though.  I don't have any concerns.  After all, he has picked up dead bodies post-genocide in Rwanda.  Here's hoping he can find some sort of job - I'm not sure how long he could really cope with playing tennis at the club and going for tea with the spouses......

The kids aren't coming with us on this trip. They are staying at home with granny and papa.  Granny and Papa have got a house full of gin to cope with the aftermarth! Isobel seems relatively interested in the notion of moving to 'Blangladesh' although I'm not entirely (well, not at all) convinced she really has a clue what it means.  I say that, she understands she has to go on a plane - and then completely freaks out at the thought of them shutting the doors on the plane after she has got on!  Which makes me chuckle, especially as she asks in the same sentence whether the plane 'goes upside down' to Blangladesh.

So, from now on this blog is going to focus on the trials and tribulations of moving to Dhaka and living there with a small family.  The things we see, the smells, the tastes, the chaos, the frustration and the happiness.  I hope it will give an insight into life overseas not only for us but also and in particular for those for whom Bangladesh is home.

And of course, I can always try to make sourdough in Dhaka....and maybe branch out to make sourdough bagels for the expats?

Be Ro - milk fadge anyone?

So, after a few glasses of wine with a friend the other evening, we had a good chuckle about a recipe in my 1950s cookbook which I found at my mum and dad's house a while ago.  It was for a 'milk fadge'.  Never heard of it - but the proof is on the right handside.




So, Saturday came and Isobel and I decided that it was time to make the 'fadge'.  How hard could it be? Not hard at all it turned out.  In fact, the easiest thing I've ever made with Isobel.  And we even did a comparison bake - the Milk Bread.  I had to phone my mum to check that they had turned out roughly as expected - my granny used to make them apparently and serve them warm with butter and jam. So we did as suggested - and ate them warm, and I have to say, they were lovely!  We will be making our Christmas cake this year from the Be-Ro book - why not?  The current age of austerity and high food prices seems to tally quite well with the idea of 1950s Britain, food shortages and so on.

Fadge is on the left, milk bread is on the right!

Back to reality and naan breads!

So we're now back from holiday and it's back to reality - getting the boiler fixed, Peter going to work, constantly having to think about what everyone else is going to eat (is that a mum thing? no idea.  I never used to think about it - marmite on toast would suffice when I was unmarried and couldn't think of anything else/didn't have anything in to cook....but now?), etc etc.

I am going to keep my crafts up to help keep fighting this PND - even went and purchased some batting and lining in preparation for some Xmas present making.  Did my bit for the 'big society' and helped out at a local Nearly New Sale which was entertaining - why does anyone buy anything new for children???

So, Peter and I have decided to stop eating meat for a bit.  The thing that sparked this was a Radio 4 interview with Hugh F-W (can't spell it) from River Cottage who had apparently lost loads of weight after reducing his meat intake, cream etc (and probably al-k-hol).  Now the challenge is - what on earth to cook?  Obvious things are pasta based and pie based (eg. spinach pie, a favourite, yummy) but a good opportunity to open new doors to new things?

Made a curry root vegetable thing (2 medium onions, 3 cloves garlic, 5 carrots, 2 parsnips, 4 biggish potatoes all mixed together and cooked for 8 minutes or so in some vegetable oil; then add about 120g of red split peas and curry powder - which I had to make up and consisted of about 1 tsp garam masala, turmeric, mustard powder (not too much), dried chilli flakes, fennel seeds and cumin I think - and some stock.  Simmer until vegetables tender.

It was yummy.  But the most yummy thing (apart from the MD Mango Chutney which is the best in the world - have only found it in shops in Tooting in SW London and not where we live now.....oh my it's lovely!) was the naan bread! 

mmmh, yummy

My first attempt at naan bread (based on a M Jaffrey recipe) and it was pretty good - used 150 ml warm milk, 1 tsp sugar, 7g active dried yeast which I left in a bowl for about 20 minutes until it was frothy.

Then add this, 1 egg, 150ml yoghurt, 0.5 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar and 1 tsp baking powder to 450g of plain flour.  Mix it, kneed it for at least 10 minutes (I had to add about 10g more flour as it was quite sticky) then put in greased and covered bowl and leave to rise.  I ended up leaving it for about 4 hours due to various other tasks!

Then knock it back when it's doubled in size and form 6 balls.  Pre-heat oven to highest temperature and put in baking tray, and preheat grill.  With one of the balls, form a naan bread shape - round, teardrop, however you like really, and then plonk on baking tray (which should be hot from oven) and put in hot oven for 3 minutes then move over to grill and grill for about 1 to 1.5 minutes or until brown on top.  And voila.  Naan Bread.  Yummy.  We tried various toppings - garlic, seasame and caraway being particularly exciting.

Finished garlic naans

Good 'crumb' I thought.

What an amazing sight.....

I am not a big birdwatcher but on my run this evening I saw the most wonderful sight of geese migrating to their winter home I presume. There must have been thousands of them. Quite a sight (and quite a noise). Was quite inspired by nature. Run was good too! If only I had had a camera. Oh and a blob is called a blob because it is just a blob of dough.....not shaped like a cob....so there we go, a nice simple reasoning behind the Norfolk Blobb