leaving the US

i have been wondering what i will miss the most about the states and i am not sure that i will miss anything (family and friends excluded, of course). i am not sure what this says about me. maybe that my desire for change is greater than my desire for stability. maybe change is my stability. whenever we told people that we were moving to bangladesh, the words that came up most often were courageous and sometimes crazy. maybe they are both accurate, maybe not. when we do something truly extraordinary, then you can call us courageous. until then, hold off on the praise.

our last few hours in chapel hill were a mix of emotions as we rushed to pack up the last of our things and move out of our house. our friends ed and nita were saviours! they brought over their pickup truck and helped us make those last few runs to store, sell, or trash our things. it was amazing how much "stuff" we had, for lack of a better word, even after selling so much of it. we estimated that we have about 50 boxes of belongings between all the things that are in storage, our shipment and our suitcases here.

when we were finally ready to go, just as we were about to get into the car, we heard a fierce rumbling of thunder. sheela and i just looked at each other. the timing was exact..... maybe someone or something saying goodbye?!

the first day, we drove from chapel hill to a small town outside of nashville to visit one of our good peace corps buddies..... none other than..... kevin lee! we stayed at his house for two nights. he drove us out to his family farm and told us about the history of the farmhouse as a civil war hospital and home to many generations of lees. he also told us about all the local characters, like the 80-something year old man named "muscles," who only just got electricity five years ago and still only has one lamp and not so much as a fan in his house. there are also the three brothers down the road.... rabbit, sugarfoot and jimmy..... who own a sawmill and only deal in cash. kevin says they all wear overalls and look exactly like the guys in the movie deliverance! kevin is also full of simple truths and sayings like, there are two things hard to find in the world: a homegrown tomato in wintertime and true love. he is a truly great guy.

after nashville, we set out again toward omaha, our last stop before dhaka. about ten minutes into our trip, we had to stop because i had left the doors to our trailer unlocked, a mistake i vowed never to make again. then, as we passed through st louis, i noticed in the rearview mirror that a car behind us was swerving wildly to avoid something in the road. sure enough, our trailer had come open again. now, there are two theories to explain this occurrence: 1. i am an idiot and made the same mistake twice, but the doors did not open until we had already been driving for about 7 hours, or 2. the roads of st louis are extremely bumpy (which they are) and the lock got bounced around so much that it opened on its own. i am stubborn and refuse to believe that i am an idiot, so i am going with #2. in the end, we lost two things, one of my 220$ hiking boots and my machete that i had brought all the way from belize. needless to say, i was bummed. the rest of the drive went smoothly and we were all relieved to arrive safely in omaha. all together, it was about 24 hours of driving.

when we arrived we realized that rain had leaked into the trailer along the way and our stuff had gotten wet, and some of it was ruined. we had to sort through our things and re-pack the boxes. we had been hoping for some relaxation time in omaha, but the next days were busy with packing, weighing and re-weighing our suitcases, trying to sell our car, opening bank accounts.... it was crazy. thankfully we have an awesome family and everyone chipped in to help out, not to mention throwing an awesome farewell fiesta. it was great to see everyone, including some friends who i hadn't seen in years. thanks to everyone for coming and thanks to our family for everything..... we really appreciate it!!

finally, after months of preparations, we were off.

*note, the original version of this post was accidentally deleted and this rendition is from sheela's memory. i am tired, cranky and have no time to rewrite what i had originally posted. more to come in the near future......