Aren't you gone yet?

Yes, after months of talk and planning we took the 22 hour journey to Dhaka Bangladesh.

The flights were uneventful other than sitting on the tarmac for an hour in Houston because the power was out in the airport and some creepy guy who decided to hug Sara as we were walking down the isle of the plane from Doha to Dhaka. I quickly grabbed her and told him to let go of my daughter. I have no idea of his intention and I don't care. I told Sara that if someone she doesn't know should ever grab her again or hug her she should yell and try to run to me. She said she understood and then added that if she cannot find me she will stop and draw a map to get to me or her dad. :-)

Because of bathroom stops we were some of the last people to reach customs. The lines were to the back of the room. As we approached a few men who work there told us to go to the only short line that was for VISA on arrival, which was not us. Abu explained that to him but I guess it didn't matter. The whole place was chaos and reminded me of the Bangladeshi embassy on a larger scale. We made it though customs in record time. Another man was very eager to help with the bags and tried to get us carts and load them. I think he was out for a tip. Abu thanked him and and refused his help. After getting all our bags (none lost, nothing broke) we headed toward the exit to find Abu's parents. A police man stopped us and after some rapid Bengali, Abu was using his phone to call his parents just to make sure we didn't have to wait too long. At this point I said to Abu, "you're welcome" he asked for what and I said that if it was not for Sara and I he would have still been in line and there would be no offer to help with luggage and use of a police man's cell phone. He agreed. After a short wait outside, in such extreme humidity that I felt I should have been chewing the air, my in-laws arrived and we were on our way home.

My in-laws have set us up in our own room with our own bathroom and AC. They just remodeled the bathroom. Our room and the bathroom are very big and comfortable. They also just hired another full time maid so when we move into our own apartment we'll have someone to help who is already trained in. From the western point of view having a lifv in maid is for the super-duper rich and an unknown entity for us middle class Americans. Here it works differently and that has been an interesting experience for me. I speak essentially no Bengali (I am working on that) and the maid speaks no English. We have tried to communicate with each other without a lot of luck. Gesturing sometimes works. Luckily, there is usually a family member around for me to ask for help. It is especially strange to me to have someone in the house, who does so much for us and I have no way to show my gratitude besides smiling, saying thank you (in either English or my bad attempts at Bengali), or though someone else. She seems to be a very kind woman and I would love to talk to her to know more about her life.

Sara seems very happy here, she likes have more people around and we discovered her second cousins live downstairs and they are just about her age. Everyday, all day she keeps begging to go to their house or for them to come to ours. Sara also gets to start school tomorrow and she is ecstatic about that. 

There are a few things here that a so very different than America, some easier to adjust to than others, but my main impression is that the Bangladeshi people are very welcoming to foreigners, my in-laws have been very open and kind, and that no matter where you may go in the world people are people, we have the same needs, wants and desires so the differences end up to be little things that we may be shocked by at first but with a change or routine or point of view they are easier to get used to.