The Return!

Some of you may have noticed that I have been gone for the last two months. Your eyes did not deceive you, I really was gone. I gallivanted around the USA, UK, and surprisingly the UAE. Actually to tell you the truth, didn't do that much gallivanting in any of those countries. In the USA I took exactly two trips farther than a couple of hours from my parents house. I mostly just relaxed. In the UK I traveled a bit but it was mostly just going to 4-5 places to see people. Then there was my unexpected day in the UAE. On my return to Bangladesh I got to have some fun. I boarded my flight an hour early because that is when they were boarding us but then the two Malaysian pilots managed to screw up our paperwork so we had to wait until an hour after we were supposed to leave to get clearance to leave. We taxied out to the tarmac and then a nasty storm delayed us for another 1.5 hours. Of course when the storm finished we had to wait another half hour while all the planes that were circling landed. Eventually we got going though and by that time I knew the Catholic couple next to me and our stewardess pretty well. Unfortunately, all the time on the tarmac sitting with the engines running meant that we had to stop and refuel in Kuwait which eventually meant that we landed 2 hours after my plane to Dhaka left. Given the lack of a time machine in Abu Dhabi to transport me back and get me on the plane I missed; I had no alternative but to wait in line like everyone else who missed a flight to get rearranged. Unfortunately again, I had to wait 2.5 hours to get to the front of the line. Luckily, by the time I reached the front of the line I knew the Bengali American Professor standing next to me decently well. Since we both had American passports we could get free visas on arrival so they offered to put us up in a hotel and send us out on an Emirates flight later in the day. We said sure to that and they told us to go have a seat while they arranged the details. 30 minutes later they finally had it figured out and asked if we would mind sharing a room. Neither of us minded so they set us up with a room with two single beds. It then took us 2 more hours to get through customs, baggage, and getting a car to the hotel. By the time we reached the hotel we had 5 hours before the vehicle they had arranged for us take to Dubai for our Emirates flight came to pick us up. We decided that sleep would be silly so we both called our families, took showers, and perused the internet for a few hours. Then we went downstairs for our free breakfast at about 6:30 in the morning. We ate large amounts of food at the buffet since there were no arrangements for lunch and our flight left at 1pm. We had a great conversation over a long breakfast and by the time we got back up to our rooms and packed up, it was time to go. As my older brother predicted, there wasn't much other than sand in between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Coming into Dubai was pretty cool, there are a ton of sky scrapers in that city and the Burj Khalifa is ridiculously tall. We got the airport 3 hours before our flight which was a good thing since we spent the next hour walking from counter to counter trying to figure out why no one could figure out our ticketing. The Dubai airport is insanely big. To give you an idea of scale, we walked in the front doors and the nearest desk area was over 100 yards away. The entrance and check in area alone had to have been 6 acres or more. Eventually one of the check in people figured out our problem and explained to us that Etihad had screwed up the paperwork. Once they realized this they were extremely helpful and nice to us. The flight went smoothly and I arrived in Dhaka about 16 hours later than originally planned.

I have now been back for a weekend and am getting back to regularly scheduled life. I've been surprised so far by how natural slipping right back into my life here has been thus far. My Bangla doesn't seem to have slipped too horribly and my patience is sky high right now. I slept great my first night back but have tossed and turned the last two nights. I would guess that is jet lag getting to me but it hasn't caused me too much trouble during the day. I went to church on Friday and got to see everyone I haven't seen for two months and meet a few new people. Then Esther made it back safely on Saturday morning so I went to pick her up from the airport and help her get home. We both took a nap in the afternoon for a short bit and then we got invited over to dinner by a friend which was a blessing because it created the kind of exciting atmosphere you need to keep you awake when you need to fight sleep like Esther was. On the way over we got our first good drenching as the rain poured out on us with a vengeful fury. Luckily our host had a bunch of dry clothes for people to change into!

So far, so good. Tomorrow morning I will head back to Bogra and settle into home. For the next month I'll be dealing with Ramadan and the shortened office hours and strange times that come with that (more details will be shared in next weeks blog). I'm excited to get back to work and feeling really good about how refreshed and energized I am to be productive.

Until next week,

Phil