Coconuts

The other day when I got home from work, there was a whole coconut picking and juicing operation underway in the garden. The coconut was delicious, though I am not a fan of the coconut water. I was also able to resolve my most pressing question about coconuts, which is: how are the big green ones that coconut water comes from related to the fuzzy brown ones that you eat? As you can see in this picture, the big green coconuts actually have the fuzzy brown coconuts inside! Still to be resolved: where does coconut milk come from?

The operation proceeded like this: This man attached a very small board to a coconut tree with rope and then climbed onto the board to cut down the coconuts.

Here are the coconuts he had cut down up to this point.

Akram,  who takes care of the house, cut the tops off of the coconuts and poked a hole to get to the water, which Jahangir, our cook, poured into glasses. 

 

And finally, here is Muzi enjoying her coconut water in the garden.

Birthday "fruit cake"

As promised, here are some pictures from my birthday. Muzi made a fruit salad "cake" complete with decorative fruit animals and a candle. She and Neelu sang Happy Birthday to me and made me blow out the candle and everything. It was so sweet! I had an idea that Muzi had something up her sleeve but I had no idea what! Keeping it a surprise turned out to be especially hard here because everyone seemed to want to tell me about it right away. Jahangir, our cook, was super involved in the whole process and even made sketches of the project once Muzi explained her plan to him. Even so, as soon as the "cake" was completed he tried to show it to me. Muzi had made me promise not to look in the fridge all day, though, so I didn't let him spoil the surprise. Here are a couple of pictures of the "cake" and there are more in an album (click the link on the top of the right side panel).

The photography is nothing fancy - I switched it to auto because the dining room has really dingy lighting and stray glasses/plates/salt shakers managed to make it into pretty much every picture - but I still wanted to share the pictures.

First photos of Gaibandha

Here are some pictures from my first adventure with my camera in Gaibandha. The district where I am living is called Gaibandha, and this part of the district is the most urban so people call it "Gaibandha City". It's urban in that the market here is quite large, including several multi-level shopping centers and some furniture and appliance stores in addition to the usual fruit and vegetable venders, tea stands, etc. and the houses are fairly densely packed without rice paddies in between them. Pictures of the city part will come soon, hopefully this weekend.

The house where I am staying is at the edge of the more densely populated area and this first set of pictures is from a walk in the opposite direction, away from town, where the scenery starts to look like a typical village almost immediately. Here are a couple of pictures to give you a sense of what the area looks like.

This set of pictures represents my first attempt to get the hang of aperture. Here are a few of my favorite shots from the day. You can tell when I got the aperture right in the portraits because the person is crisp and stands out from the blurred background. It's something that's hard to see on the camera screen while you are out shooting but that's very satisfying to see you've gotten right when you get home and upload the pictures to the computer.

Feel free to check out the whole album from that day by clicking on the albums link on the right side of the screen.

What's a bideshi?

What does the name of this blog mean, you ask? Well, "bideshi" means foreigner in Bangla. Foreigners are a pretty unusual sight in Gaibandha, so walking around the neighborhood I often hear little kids yelling "bideshi!" to alert other little kids to the excitement. This generally produces a small crowd of children following me along the road. In my albums, you will see lots and lots of pictures of groups of kids, because once I have a little following I tend to feel obligated to take pictures of them, especially because they get so excited when you show them the images.

I hope to include pictures from many other travels here eventually, but at the moment my mind is very much on Bangladesh and Bangla language, so for now I will call my blog "Bideshi Adventures in Bangladesh"

Welcome

Hi! Welcome to my photography blog. I am planning to use this space to post photos and stories as I explore Bangladesh and get acquainted with the amazing capabilities of my new camera.

I am living in rural northern Bangladesh at the moment, working on a nutrition research project for my future PhD program. I decided to take advantage of the unique scenery and slow pace of village life to teach myself how to use my shiny new dSLR camera and to try to get the hang of composition, lighting, and so forth.

I hope to fill this blog mostly with photos along with some descriptions of my subjects and learning process. I welcome your comments and critiques (and encouragement please) and hope you will check back often to see updates.