North End capuccino in Bangaldesh?

This is surely a country of contrasts ---

Elizabeth's apartment is in what would be considered to be a mansion yet there is no washing machine in the whole house.  On the other hand, there are so many servants (leaving the house today I saw at least a dozen) that hand washing clothing is no problem.  Unfortunately, this service does not extend to
Elizabeth :o

In the shadows of high rise building are tiny make-shift stalls selling live chickens or cigarettes (thanks US), cooking food or providing barber services. 

There is an enormous amount of building going on but the methods are arcane and the sense of architecture is entirely lacking.  Yesterday I saw a 10-12 story building going up; the the face was being bricked by men using bamboo poles that were lashed together as staging !   

On the roads are rickshaws, motorcycles, bicycles, cars, a few SUVs, pedestrians, buses, trucks, mini-buses, CNG's (more about that later) and some occasional cattle.  The roads have standard lanes separated by lines and traffic lights but you would never know it.  People drive where they want, pedestrians walk where they want and intersections are a virtual free-for-all.

People wear all manners of clothing- women mostly wear sarees and shalwar cheemez.  Men in the city wear shirts and pants. Shirts are sometime kurta, long shirts that come just above the knees. In the country side they wear lungi (fabric tied around the waste into a knot).  Religious men wear panjabi.

Right now I an sitting in a cafe called the North End Coffee Roasters. It is a lovely, quiet, air conditioned place with internet and the best cappuccino I have ever had.  You would think you were in the US except that the power just went off and we are currently operating on a generator!   The cafe was opened two weeks ago by a couple that originally came from Boston (hence the name).  They spend a couple of years in Bangladesh about a decade ago working in the local schools at the invitation of a friend.  They went back to the US and he learned the coffee trade (he used to be a soccer coach).  Now they have returned here to develop the coffee trade here in Bangladesh. They are working with farmers in Chittagong, Bangladesh (southern Bangladesh near the Burma border) to teach them how to farm coffee.  Currently, coffee is imported and is terrible - Nescafe :(   - so he knows there would be a great market and a wonderful source of revenue for the farmers. They are not yet fair trade certified but are aiming towards it. 

Last night Elizabeth and I hosted a seder.  We did not so much hold a service as explain the holiday and the traditions to Bengali guests that Elizabeth had invited over.  We shopped much of the afternoon for ingredients but then got caught in so much traffic that we did not get home until after 5 pm.   It all worked out fine!  We made tsimis using sweet pumpkin, (modified) chicken marabella and what I am calling "express" matzah ball soup (i.e. we had to cook it fast!).   Interestingly, most of the rooms in the house are air conditioned but not the kitchen because the servants generally do the cooking, not the woman of the house, so the kitchen got really toasty while we were preparing our dinner.  It was a very lovely evening and I got to meet a lot of Elizabeth's friends - all doing interesting things here in Bangladesh. 
 
My luggage finally make it to Bangladesh yesterday :)