The Wolfgang Press - Queer

Is there any 4AD band I won't put on this list? Probably not. In fact, if you love music just go to http://www.4ad.com/ right now and buy anything in their catalog and chances are you will be happy. Of course the 80's were the best of times for 4AD and The Wolfgang Press. I saw them live at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood which has not seen a band so cool since The Doors played there in the 60's. I saw them a few years later in Portland, this was close to the end of their run, but they were still pretty great.

A lot of critics called Queer their "dance" record. I would agree with that assesment, this is a more funky and dancable beat than any previous record. One of my all time favorite singles is their cover of Randy Newman's 'Mama Told Me Not to Come'. More $AD to come.

Campbell's BBQ

This is a restaurant we have been going to for a long time, and it's finally getting a post. Campbell's BBQ has been around for 20 years now and when we first moved to Portland, the folks you see in the picture still ran the place. This is Texas style BBQ: great brisket, pork and beef ribs, chicken and sausage. There are also awesome sides, my favorites are the slaw and the potato salad, but the greens and the beans are really good too. I would recommend the cornbread over the rolls and make sure you get some honey to go with them. They have four levels of sauces to choose from, I stick with medium; if you are brave go for the extra hot, it's for real. Finally, make sure you leave some room for desert, the home-made pies are great.


8701 SE Powell Blvd
Portland, OR 97266
(503) 777-9795

http://campbellsbbq.com/

Le Pigeon

We have been meaning to check out Le Pigeon for quite a while, but the last time we actually made it to the front door it was closed. On a whim we tried it out on a Tuesday, hoping it would not be too crowded, as it is a very intimate space. There is a short bar area with several stools that look straight into the kitchen, and a few large tables where you sit family style. While Le Pigeon is getting a lot of hype, I don't think it is ready to join the Portland big boys yet. It still feels like a small experiment stuck in an unsuspecting strip of East Burnside, that is otherwise home to strip clubs and second hand stores. Much like the French bistros of last century, the menu is short and smart, concentrating on local ingredients and a few specialties. You can actually get pigeon as an appetizer, however I can not imagine eating the rat of the bird family. They also have rabbit, an interesting beet salad (which was more fish than beets), and my choice the potato soup. The highlight of the soup was the sweet bread accompaniment. The soup itself was trying way too hard. The fois gois and whatever else was in there overpowered any hint of potato. The entrees were better, we had the steak accompanied by tongue stroganoff and a blue cheese torte. Both were very nice. Unfortunately we could not attempt a desert due to the richness of the previous courses. So to the only restaurant question that matters: would I go back. In short, not any time soon. I think this place still has a lot of growing up to do. They are long on the attitude and hype, and still short a few consistently good dishes. They are also a little overpriced for what you get. It's a crazy time here in Portland, you want to say good for you, interesting thing you trying to do here, but you also can't help but think... get over yourself, you're not in NY.

Le Pigeon
738 E Burnside St.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 546-8796

Prince - 1999 and Purple Rain

If you could only buy one Prince record, which one would it be? I know, I couldn't decide on just one either, so I decided to include both Purple Rain and 1999. If you were into music at all in the 1980's you probably wore out both these records. There are so many good songs on these two records it is ridiculous.

Look at the playlist and I am sure there are at least three songs that you know all the words to: 1999, Little Red Corvette, I Would Die 4 You, Purple Rain. My favorite song? Darling Nikki, of course.

I know I haven't given anyone else two records (yet) and Prince is not my favorite artist, but you can not deny his influence is huge. I am also not going to cheat and try to put these together as one record. I am going to accept this and move on.

The Greatest Game Ever Played by Mark Frost

The Greatest Game Ever Played deftly tells the story behind the legendary 1913 U.S. Open, in which Francis Ouimet, a 20-year-old golf amateur from Massachusetts, shocked the golf world by defeating British champion Harry Vardon, the most famous pro golfer of his time, or so says the intro on Amazon. I am reading Frost's books out of the order they were written in, which is fine as they are not sequential. In fact, I am so far behind that this, his first book, is now coming out in a movie. I have to say, I am very excited to see this movie, as it is such a great story, I don't see how they could screw it up.

Like The Match, this book is captivating. If you know anything about golf, you know how it turns out, but you still can't put the book down. The most amazing thing about reading this book is that I am questioning whether Tiger or Jack are really the best golfers ever. I remember my grandfather telling me about how good Harry Vardon was, but it really didn't click until you hear about the amazing shots and scores they posted with the equipment available at the time. Also, many of the early golfers lost at least four years of playing time to world wars.

On to Bobby Jones next.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes

This is the record that made Tom Petty a rock star. If you add a couple of other songs to about half this record you have his greatest hits. This is the one that spawned: "Refugee," "Here Comes My Girl," "Even the Losers," and "Don't Do Me Like That." Listening to this record again reminded me of how great the Heartbreakers were. Of all the incarnations of the band this has to be the strongest. There is also that great voice over that Petty left on the record , "it's just the normal noises in here," that always makes first time listeners think there is a glitch with the record.

Greetings from Bangladesh – Day 8 and 9 (heading home)

Sorry, I was unable to write yesterday as we did not go into the Save the Children office and there is no internet access in the hotel we were in.

Yesterday was a really interesting day. We were in quite a remote area and had the chance to talk to parents about safe house programs and meet the girls who lead the groups. We talked to a couple of Mullah's who told us they were not too happy about girls getting together to talk and learn at first, but after they saw the program first hand they were converted. All the parents we met were excited to get their girls into the programs and they felt they were all helping them to learn more about health and social issues. It was also great to meet the field trainers and the peer leaders. This is truly the girl effect. The field trainers find the most talkative and outgoing girls in the villages and they recruit them to be peer leaders. After a few months of training, they start safe houses in their villages and recruit more girls to be part of the group. What they learn then gets disseminated down to their siblings and the rest of the community.

We explained (in a very basic way) the girl effect to one of the classes and got one of the girls to write it on the board. Unfortunately I was not able to film it, but I got some pictures.

After our trip to the field I had the best meal of the trip at the Barisol Chinese restaurant. I don't think there were actually any Chinese people working at the restaurant, but the food did vaguely resemble Chinese. I think the most important thing is that it was not rice and dhal. As I have said earlier, this seems to be the only thing people eat here. They are also very regimented in when they eat; if they don't get food at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 9 p.m., they get a little worried. Also, meals are for eating only. As soon as everyone is finished eating they all want to get up and leave. I usually tried to keep the conversation going after dinner, but I got a lot of blank and anxious stares.

Road signs you don't see in Portland:
- No Rickshaws - picture a sign with a rickshaw and a red line through it, and 50 rickshaws sitting right under it
- No Horns - this only makes people want to honk their horns louder
- Always Drive on the Left - unless you need to pass, or turn, or just don't feel like it, and the sign is in English

We started back for Dhaka at 6 a.m. this morning and the streets were quite and calm. There were still more people out and about than Portland in the middle of the day, but for Bangladesh it was quite and calm. I am sure I am going to miss all the noise and traffic when I get back, and I don't think I should drive a car for a while as I have a lot of road rage built up. My flight leaves at midnight tonight (Monday here) and I will be back in Portland on Tuesday afternoon, about 25 hours of travel time - Dhaka to Singapore to Tokyo to Seattle to Portland.

Greetings from Bangladesh – Day 7

The day began with breakfast at a local place that I would not have gone near when I first got here, I guess I am adapting. Unfortunately everyone seems to eat the same thing for breakfast, lunch and dinner here, and I am getting tired of rice and dhal.

Saturday we spent the day with Save the Children. They have a nice office with internet access and western toilets – these are my Bangladeshi essentials, I will gladly live without a TV or a/c to get a western toilet. In fact you delay going a lot here in hopes that there is a better bathroom at the next stop.

Save the Children is funded by USAID, your tax dollars, so they are slightly Americanized compared to Grameen and BRAC. They have much more rigorous studies in place to show that programs work before they spend a lot of money on them. They actually make you sign release forms and get approval from people before you can put them on camera. They have PowerPoint presentations to show you all their research (Bangladeshi groups have printed brochures for everything). And they put US flags on all the products they distribute. In the case of commodities like wheat and peas I hear this is a big disruption to the local market, as all the product USAID sends is from US farmers – keeping them in business and hurting the local farmers in the countries we are trying to help. That’s not to say that emergency aid isn’t a great thing, it’s the long term programs that continue to send American product that seem to be the issue.

After a couple of PowerPoint presentations and lunch (rice and dhal) we went out to see two village safe houses that have been built for girls to come to play and talk to each other, as well as get lessons on hygiene, finance and job training. They were a lot like the ones we saw in Dhaka, but it is great to see how different organizations are implementing the programs that seem to work. When we talk to the girls they often have questions for us, they usually go in this order: Where are you from? Are you married? How many children do you have? There is one woman on this part of the trip with us who is not married, and she has gotten tired of the sad looks, so she is now inventing husbands. If you invent a spouse you have to have a back story, because there can be follow up questions. One day I got asked what my wife does and I told them she works at the Humane Society helping animals. The interpreter looked at me with a blank stare and had no idea what to say. I tried to explain that they rescue stray animals and adopt them out to good homes. Again nothing. In a country where, I am guessing, 90% of the dogs and cats just hang around the village and eat whatever scarps they can find, this is a very foreign concept.

When we got back from the village we all went to dinner (rice and dhal). Our guides have been a little taken aback by how early we eat. They usually eat dinner at 9 or 10 p.m. and they are worried they will be hungry again if they eat with us at 7:30 p.m. We keep telling them they will digest their food better if they eat with us and then go for a walk. This is pretty funny when we outweigh each of them by 20-50 pounds.

Tomorrow we have been promised to go out for Chinese food for dinner.

Greetings from Bangladesh – Day 6

Most of today was spent driving from Dhaka to Barisal, in the south of Bangladesh. We were told the trip would take eight hours so of course we planned for 12 in our heads, but the good news is it only took eight.

I am quite sure I have now witnessed my first traffic fatality. About half way into the trip we came up to a busy intersection where there was a woman lying in the middle of the street. From the angle of her head and body, I don’t see any way she survived. The chances of her (or anyone in a remote area) getting medical help in a timely manner are nil. There don’t appear to be any hospitals outside of the main cities, and even in Dhaka there are not a lot. For day-to-day illnesses, most people rely on the local pharmacist to help them out, and from what I hear they are quite knowledgeable. Still not a place you want to get sick or worse.

The one part of the journey that we had all been joking about, the ferry crossing, went smoothly. The ferries come every 15 minutes, so you don’t have to wait very long if you are in a car or on foot. If you are in a bus, or a truck you could be waiting for hours as those lines stretched back a few miles. The ferry looked like a well used version of the ones you see in the US. During the crossing, we got out of the car and went up to the deck where it was a little cooler and checked out the view. Because it was the weekend the ferry was not overly crowded. It was full, but not dangerously full. We were told that the pictures you see on the news of thousands of people hanging off the sides only happens at festival times.

Barisal is basically a very small version of Dhaka. Our guide was asking us if we saw any difference and the honest answer was no. Same buildings, same crowded streets, less cars but just as many rickshaws. We ate at a local restaurant that was pretty good. You could tell they have had westerners there many times, because as soon as we sat down they swept away the water jug and brought bottled water. Also, the music changed from Bengali pop to Phil Collins, which I am sure made the locals really happy. We ordered a dish called X, which is a thick vegetable mix that you pick up with flat bread. I utilized the skills I have acquired from many years of eating Mexican food and rolled up the veggies in the bread like a burrito. The one thing that is a little strange about eating in local restaurants is that the waiters just stand there and look you all through the meal. Staring is not considered rude in Bangladesh, but it makes you feel like you should be more entertaining all the time.

One thing I was a little worried about was what our hotel would be like. I have to say it is a big step down from the Westin in Dhaka, which had become the oasis after the craziness of Dhaka. The Hotel Ahtena International is the nicest hotel in Barisal, but that is not saying much. The hotel is more like a hostel. I have stayed in much worse places as I travelled through Europe, but I was younger then. Truth be told, the hotel is fine. You just have to adjust your expectations a little. There is a/c, a real bathroom and a TV. The thing with the bathroom is that the shower is right in the middle between the sink and the toilet. There is no shower curtain so when you turn it on everything in the bathroom gets wet. So before each shower you have to move everything out that you want to keep dry, like toilet paper.

I have been taking my anti malaria pills for a couple of days now and I heard you are supposed to have really vivid dreams. The dreams kicked in about 2:00 a.m. last night. They were so real, that you don’t feel like you have slept when you wake up.

Greetings from Bagladesh - Day 5

Happy Thursday! The Muslim weekend is Friday and Saturday, so I have been telling everyone "Thank god it's Thursday" and they look at me like I am crazy.

Thursday began with a bone jarring ride out to the countryside. We are back to the old driver and the road to where we were going is especially bad. I think the trip was worth it as we got to see some great stuff. Grameen is training girls to install and service solar panels, so remote areas can have a small electricity supply. The smallest panel costs around $100 and can run three light bulbs, a phone charger and a CD player. If you upgrade you can run a TV. First we saw one of the places where the girls get the training and met with two women engineers who initially install the panels. Then we saw two examples of the panels in action. One was a small (very small) store right by the bus stop. The owner explained how the panel had allowed him to run a light so he could keep his store open after dark and make more money. It also allowed him to run a TV, so people would come by to watch and buy more stuff. The next stop was a woman who was running a sewing business out of the front of her house. She told us how the panel allowed her to work longer and also allowed her kids to read and do their homework at night. While we were out there we also saw a gas supply that runs on manure. If you have three cows or 100 chickens you should have enough dung in a day to run a pretty powerful stove. We also saw a very simple cooking set up that uses less fuel, burns hotter and vents out the smoke. This is a huge advance as many women and children die every year in poorly ventilated cooking areas.

Technically, Thursday was supposed to be a day off as we are travelling out to a much more remote area for the next four days, but it we couldn't pass up seeing the solar panels. If you ever go on a trip like this I would recommend having a free day planned. It allows you to catch up on all the things you hear about after you get here. Also, things take a lot longer in developing countries. When someone tells you it's going to be a 30 minute drive, plan on an hour. When they tell you it's 10 miles away, it's probably more like 15.

After our trip to see the solar panels we had a few hours left in the day so we arranged a half day tour of Dhaka to see the "tourist" sites. I have to say, I had no idea what to expect, but it was really great. One thing we wanted to find was a rickshaw art store that Julia P. had told us about. The hard part is that there are very few places in Dhaka that have real addresses. Looking for a small store is literally like looking for a needle in a haystack. Our guide took us down to "Old Dhaka" which is very hard to distinguish from new Dhaka. We had heard the shop was on a street called bicycle lane. He knew where this was, so we got out and walked around trying to find it. By the way, bicycle lane is well named, there are about 100 bicycle shops on the street. Our guide kept asking if anyone knew where the rickshaw art shop was. We were excited, because everyone seemed to know of it and kept giving us directions. I soon came to understand that no one in Dhaka wants to admit that they don't know where a place is, so they all give you directions somewhere to save face. After about 30 minutes of walking through all the small lanes we finally found... a rickshaw maker. While we were a little bummed, it was still pretty cool. The rickshaws he was making were great and I was seriously thinking, how can I get one home. He told me I could drive away that day in a brand new rickshaw for 12,000 Tacka, about $170. The guide laughed and told me that must be the American price and I should offer him 6,000 Tacka. I may go back on Monday if I can find a way to ship it to the US.

On the tour, we also saw the Dhaka University campus which was nice, they have about 29,000 students here. We saw the US embassy building, which is boring, the National Museum, several mosques, a Hindu temple (about 10-15 % of Bangladeshis are Hindu - I was wrong when I said the country is 90% Muslim, it is 80%) and a monument to the Bengali language. Bangladeshis are very proud that they fought (and some died) for their mother language. Pakistan had tried to dictate that they all speak Urdu, but in 1952 there was an uprising and they won the right to keep Bengali.

Friday begins the four day trip to southern Bangladesh. This is an area that was badly damaged by flooding and is going to be much poorer than what we have seen so far. I have also had to start taking my malaria pills, which is exciting. I have been told that the office has wifi, but not to expect much from the hotel. Should be interesting.

Greetings from Bagladesh - Day 4

Weather update: Another storm last night and I woke up this time to see an amazing light show. The electricity also went out four times, but the elevator worked. It was quite a bit cooler today than it has been, and there was a nice breeze.

We drove out to a remote village this morning to see more of the BRAC training centers and meet some girls who have started their own businesses. The roads were so bad that we had to stop the van and take rickshaws the last mile or so into town, so I can now say I have been in a rickshaw and I didn't have to risk my life in Dhaka to do it. The village was surrounded by rice fields that were full of people up to their waists planting the rice crop; it looks like pretty dirty work. Although it was very poor, the village, and the fields around it, looked like a movie set.

We met a few girls in the area that were in the BRAC program. One girl made money by starting a vegetable garden. This may seem very basic, but it is amazing what a little training in what to plant, and when, can make the difference in barely getting enough to eat and having enough food to sell the excess and make money. We met a second girl that was raising two cows and selling the milk to make money; she had also gotten the training through BRAC. Seeing the cows reminded me of an interesting exchange between one of the Nike folks and one of the BRAC employees a few days ago. Lisa asked the BRAC person if they had done a saturation analysis to see if too many girls in any one area were trying to raise cows. The BRAC guy looked at her like she was crazy and said, "we have 150 million hungry people here, I don't think we have to worry about too many cows."

Interesting fact: Bangladesh's per capita income is $2,300 compared to the world average of $10,200.

When westerners show up in a small village with cameras everyone from miles around gathers to see what is going on. This presents an interesting challenge in that they make a lot of noise while you are trying to film and some start yelling unsolicited answers to the questions you are asking the girls. Since a lot of boys were hanging around doing nothing, we interviewed a few to find out what they think of the programs the girls are involved in. Most didn't seem too interested in the girls or didn't care too much about seeing them better themselves. We asked the boys some of the same questions we were asking the girls about what they saw in their futures or how they thought Bangladesh would be different in 10 years. After a few weak answers the girls all laughed and said, "see how stupid boys are, this is why people should concentrate on girls."

After we left the village, we headed back to Dhaka to interview the founder of BRAC, Fazle Hasan Abed. He was a little late so we got to visit the BRAC store where they sell all the products the girls in the program make. There were a lot of traditional embroidered clothes, some jewelry, handicrafts, etc. Kind of like the Nike employee store. I bought an entire new wardrobe of Bangladeshi outfits, so I will be sporting a new look when I come home.

The interview with Dr. Abed was really great. He gave us a lot of good info about why they choose to focus on girls; his key quote, "I have met many defeated men, I have never met a defeated woman." He also talked about how they are branching out to find new job skills they can teach women. One that was really interesting was training girls to be journalists. He feels that the more girls they can train, the more women's issues will be covered in the media.

Interesting fact: 90% of Bangladeshis are Muslim and it is illegal to drink here, but they have a bar at the hotel, where you can order alcohol as long as you have a foreign passport.

This evening we went out for our first meal at a Bangladeshi restaurant. We were told the food was really good, but that it is expensive. Three of us ate like kings and the total bill was $60 with tip.

Greetings from Bagladesh - Day 3

I found out the reason the electricity went out a few times during the night. Turns out there was a big storm that knocked out the power and the hotel was running on a generator for a while. I guess I was pretty tired as I didn't hear a thing. I did notice a big difference when I looked out my hotel window, the rain had cleared the smog enough to see the buildings across the street.

Funny third world happening of the day: The elevators were out in the hotel this morning and people had to walk up and down the fire escape stairs to get to their rooms. I got a written apology from the hotel when I got back this evening.

We had an early start this morning and drove about two hours out into the countryside to see some of the BRAC programs that are effecting adolescent girls. BRAC is one of the longest running and most successful aid programs in the country. It was started by Fazle Hasan Abed (who we are hoping to meet tomorrow), who is related to Professor Yunus. This is a crazy successful family, another family member started CMES which we visited yesterday.

Today we met a girl who got a loan to buy her own sewing machine after completing a BRAC training program, we got some great footage of her talking about how the money she is making is helping her family and allowing other siblings to go to school. She was super engaging. We asked her what she would do if she was Prime Minister. She laughed and said this would never happen, but if it did, she would make sure every child went to school until they are 18. She also told us she wants to visit America, she said it must be a nice place because all the Americans she meets can't wait to get home. We met two other girls that are also making money to help their families, one by embroidering and the other opened a beauty parlor. We finished the day at a safe house where girls aged 11-18 can meet to talk, play games, read books or do what ever else they want to do. It is a great refuge for them and it was great to see them having fun.

A strange thing you don't notice at first is that there are no adolescent girls out and about as you travel through the city and the countryside. Most girls under 18 are not allowed out of the house, so you only see them on these special visits or on the way to school, then they disappear again.

We had a new driver today. He was a huge improvement over the last guy, much less aggressive. Also his car was much nicer; the seat belts actually worked, although I have not seen any Bangladeshis wearing them. I have to say that you can't be too passive when you drive in Bangladesh. If you don't drive fast enough, then everyone will start passing you and force you off the road. It's like wild kingdom, the weak are killed and eaten.

If you are looking for a quick divorce, you should plan your next vacation in Bangladesh. Under Muslim law you only have to say "divorce" three times and that's it, you are divorced.

In sports news, South Africa crushed Bangladesh in their cricket match this week. It was a complete route. If you know anything about cricket, this should set the scene: Bangladesh was asked to follow on after their first innings and they didn't even score enough runs to force South Africa to bat again. We have no equivalent to this in American sports, but it is about as embarrassing as it gets. I tried to bring the topic up with a couple of Bangladeshis and they acted like there was no game. They looked at me blankly, like they had never heard of the sport cricket before. The first day we got here the match was headline news, now no one talks about it. It's probably how we'll treat the Bush years, just pretend it never happened.

And finally, although I am living in the future, I still can't tell you if Obama or Hillary won the Ohio and Texas primaries.

Greetings from Bagladesh - Day 2

Hello from Tuesday.

We are about to leave the hotel to see some of the work that BRAC is doing for adolescent girls here in the rural areas around Dhaka. Hopefully we will have a new driver today. Although we didn't kill any animals yesterday we did knock a few peds over as they tried to cross the road. I sat in the back seat for the ride out yesterday and it was too boring so I moved back to the video game that is Bangladesh driving for the ride home.

It is truly amazing some of the maneuvers we made. I kept thinking, "he'll never make this," and then at the last second we avoided death. A new challenge was added to the driving mix last night. Seems like most drivers don't like to turn their lights on until it is totally dark. With the heavy smog this makes it very hard to see oncoming cars at twilight - as I said earlier people will pass anywhere, even on blind turns. Also there are literally no lanes painted on the road, I guess they just gave up

We spent the day yesterday visiting CMES schools. They teach very rudimentary skills like textile making, carpentry, and candle making along with regular classes. You have to be amongst the poorest people to qualify for this school. We also got to see the end result of the girl effect, with two young adults who were running successful businesses after graduating from the program. Hopefully the video will be OK, it is hard to make adjustments as it is really bright outside and then we duck into dark rooms to talk to people.

We had dinner with Warren Buffet's son and wife which was interesting (they have a big foundation called NOVO, and are interested in helping adolescent girls - Nike is hosting them on a fact finding tour). We were late so we had to come directly from the field, pretty dirty and sweaty. They were all showered and dressed nicely. Needless to say, I did not get a seat at the head table.

Interesting challenge: The electricity in the hotel room goes out several times a night. You have to get up and restart it by putting your key in a slot. You usually know it is out because the room has gotten pretty hot. Makes it hard to charge batteries for the video camera if you don't wake up.

Hope you have a good Tuesday, it is shaping up to be pretty nice here.

Greetings from Bagladesh - Day 1

I arrived at 4:30 a.m. this morning and we got to the hotel by 5:30 a.m., hard to beat a hot shower after 24 hours of flying. After a couple of hours of sleep I had to try half a dozen banks to find one that took my Key Bank cash card - a piece of advice if you are coming to Bangladesh, get a Visa cash card, not a MasterCard one.

After breakfast we got picked up and driven out to a village about an 90 minutes out of town to meet women who are benefitting from microloans from Grameen Bank. To say Dhaka is a big city is a crazy understatement. Most of the trip was spent getting out of town. Also, driving is a full contact sport here. You can not find a car, bus, or petty cab that is not scraped to crap. Two lane roads, are treated like six lane roads, if there is a space you fill it, and you don't stop for peds or animals in the road. We hit and killed a dog and barely missed a couple of goats.

Interesting fact: If everyone in the world moved to the US, it would still not be as densely populated as Bangladesh.

I recorded the Grameen women's meeting so you will all be able to see that and get the full scope of how the loans work. I also got some footage of the village, which I am told is one of the nicest the Nike folks have ever seen. All I can say is, if this is nice, I don't want to see bad (which I will be seeing later in the week). A family of five lived in a small, clean room that was about one third the size of my hotel room. They pump water from a well. The animals all ran around in the open. I took a lot of pictures and if I had brought the right cable, you would be seeing them now, but unfortunately you'll have to wait till I get back.

Next was a crazy drive back into town. No animals killed this time, but I think I know what it's like to be a NASCAR driver now. This led to what I am sure will be the highlight of the trip. We got about an hour interview with Professor Muhammad Yunus, the man who started Grameen and recently won the Noble Prize for starting microloans. He is amazing. Very inspirational. He also gave us a great example of the Girl Effect. They are hiring girls to install and service solar electricity panels. Turns out the panels need a lot of work and it is quite easy to teach the girls how to do it. Since most girls are not allowed to travel too far from home it is the perfect job to install and service panels in their neighborhood. I have about 20 minutes of Dr. Yunus talking about all this and hope to interview some girls in the program and see them working tomorrow.

Interesting fact: Only 30% of Bangladeshis are on the national electricity grid.

Things I have done that I was told not to do by travel/health experts (so far):
1) Ate fresh fruit at the little village we went to, it was really good and unlike the Nike people, I could not refuse the nice woman who kept offering it up.
2) Crossed a busy road on foot - I may not do this one again now that I have been in a car.

In sporting news South Africa is whipping Bangladesh in the cricket match they are playing here.
Hopefully more tomorrow.