getting to dhaka..."i now walk into the wild"

chapel hill to nashville: 10 hours

nashville to omaha: 14 hours

omaha to houston: 3 hours

layover in houston: 5 hours

houston to dubai: 15 hours

layover in dubai: 7 hours

dubai to dhaka: 5 hours

59 total hours travel time!

"I now walk into the wild,” that’s what I text a few people as we boarded our flight to Dubai and eventually on to Bangladesh. For those of you that don’t know, it is a reference to one of my favorite books, Into the Wild. I got several responses that were quite amusing! “don’t eat any berries,” was my favorite.

I don’t know if our journey is as extreme as Alexander Supertramp’s, but it is an adventure nonetheless. As you can tell by the above it has been quite some journey thus far.

The flight over was not too bad actually. We left Houston in the evening so it was the right time for Kaya to go to sleep. I on the other hand didn’t sleep a whole lot. As you might be able to tell from the picture, space was quite limited. Not to mention some little spoiled brat had their seat reclined all the way back. I refused to inconvenience the people behind me like that so I suffered a bit. I also stayed awake because in his sleep Kaya kept kicking the people’s seat in front of us. (Karma at it’s finest!?) The other little spoiled brat didn’t appreciate it too much! I guess one of the main reasons I couldn’t sleep was because I had a lot on my mind.

I remember when I left for Peace Corps I had many thoughts all over the board. I questioned why I was leaving my family, wondered if it was the right thing to do and began to regret leaving. I found myself feeling similar emotions and thinking about those very moments. This time though, I questioned my judgment in taking my family so far away from “home.” With little room to move and so much space to roam in my mind I committed to watching movies! That took my mind off the issues at hand…..at least for a while. I watched, I am Legend, Iron Man and another more serious movie….oh what was it?! Oh well, can’t remember.

As we were arriving in Dubai, I made sure to look outside and sure enough I wasn’t let down. I had heard of these man made island and peninsula’s that made various shapes and had certain themes. Sure enough we caught a glimpse of the beginnings of a new set of islands. So much money…..so darn hot! The temperature in Dubai was 93 in the middle of the night!

We spent the next 6 or 7 hours entertaining Kaya and visiting the duty free shop. Our final flight was only 5 hours! Only…..can’t believe I would say that. It seemed short compared to what we had just endured both in flights and layovers. Kaya was a super trooper the entire time. Chalk up another two gold medals for both Sheela and Kaya on this trip!

When we arrived in Dhaka, we had no idea what to expect. This is a part I had been dreading for quite some while. We had six bags at 50 lbs each plus the max in carry-on luggage, with a car seat and a stroller (we thought we had a stroller). I was certain we would be paying a large sum of cash for duty. After standing in line at Immigration for what seemed like another couple hours we breezed through and found our luggage right away. A Bangladeshi was right there waiting to haul all 600-700 lbs of our luggage. I had no problem letting him push it along. I wasn’t so sure he could do it, but as we have come to find out…..these Bangladeshi people are quite resilient and surprisingly strong! He then demanded 30 US dollars for is efforts which I was not going to pay him. As we passed by customs I was nervous with all my forms ready to go and my explanations of all our luggage rehearsed. The guy looked at me, without even asking to see anything and said, “go, go.” I almost ruined it by stopping to ask him questions. I finally got my wits about me and realized I had better move on out before we had to pay.

The instant we passed the customs officer we were greeted by staff members from my school. I was so relieved and quite taken back by the welcoming committee. Instantly my worries left me. I again thought back to Peace Corps when I realized things were going to be alright.

The school driver and principal took us to our apartment, which was probably 20 minutes away. I was excited to finally see firsthand the environment we would be living in. My worst fears were that we would be able to breath the air because it would be so polluted and that traffic would be similar to that of Calcutta in India. Fortunately I have an overactive imagination and Dhaka, at least initially, far exceeded my expectations in some ways.

I will say this, and I promise to write more about it later, poverty is ever-present in all that is Dhaka. At each stop beggars knock on the windows asking for food or money or both. Still after a month I don’t know what to do or how to react. I can’t possibly give to all of them. What should I do!? My heart goes out to all of them. The naked kids, the mom’s that look way older than they probably are, the rickshaw drivers……everyone. It’s a bit depressing in many ways, quite educational and enlightening in others.

Our apartment is amazing! It really is 2500 square feet! When Kaya gets his tricycle he will be in heaven!! We have three bedrooms with three bathrooms attached, a kitchen, office, living room, dining room and since we are on the top floor we have easy access to the rooftop! It is an interesting view. I promise to post pics at some point. Needless to say, we were and are happy about he place.

Before we left and close to after we agreed to come to Dhaka we had decided to take on two people as our Maid and Nanny. Now I am sure you must be thinking, “wow, neocolonialism at its finest.” Yeah, that ‘s kind of what we thought at first too. After much thought and several conversations with people here. We decided that for only 112 US dollars a month each we would be more than happy to have help around the place and also provide two Bangladeshi women jobs to support their families. They would otherwise have to look elsewhere and may not find work…who knows?! We are very happy with the decision and Kaya has come to really enjoy both of them. Their names are: Kimboley and Merthika (not so sure on the spelling). Kimboley is the maid and she also cooks twice a week for us. Thank goodness for her, if she didn’t work for us we would most certainly have a problem with various bugs. Merthika is also very helpful with Kaya. He has grown quite fond of her kind heart and warm smile.

I would love to write more, but I have to go to sleep. Time is precious for me here. My job really does keep me very busy and thus the gap in postings….I will try and write more. I am excited to discuss life in Dhaka and what we encounter from day to day. It seems as if this will be another experience that will shape my life, my thoughts, my views on the world……poverty…..people……mankind. I am grateful for the struggles and the joy we find at each corner.

Next time…… School, what we see in the streets and some more pics…..I will have to write about Jalal….our rickshaw driver!

I really want to instead of just report......express.....the pain of Dhaka, the hope in my heart and the joy in being......until next time.....be safe.....bunte i really miss you buddy!