Hello everybody,

A lot of you don't know what I've recently been up to; some of you do. I'm writing this note to generally answer all questions and as a way of getting out of having to reply to millions of wall postings.

I am in Boston right now. I got here late July. As you know, I've been having chronic fevers in Dhaka. Every month or even every few weeks would find me with a 104 degree fever, splitting headache, and so on. Same thing happened here and I went to the hospital.

I ended up staying for around a week, three days on full life support because my blood pressure and oxygen levels were too low. There was question of whether or not I would live but as you can see, I'm still alive as far as we can tell.

I have a strain of typhoid which is completely immune to the type of antibiotic treatment that's most used in Bangladesh. Which also brings up a good point--if you or yours have typhoid symptoms, you have to go to the best possible doctor in getting it treated, because apparently it's the _other_ kind of antibiotic treatment that works.

Anyway, doctors recommended that I spend a couple months in bed. Now in Bangladesh I wouldn't be able to stay away from work, since working is probably the most rewarding thing I have in my life. But in Boston, I have books, I have movies and music, all my stuff. I _know_ that I wouldn't be able to stay home in Dhaka, so I've decided to spend a couple months in Boston.

I'll be in Dhaka by late September. See you guys then. And thanks for your prayers and love, it all really helped.

Love,
Arafat.