I've been telling everyone that I'm going to start blogging again, particularly about our upcoming adventures. I thought this might be a good starting point...
For those who have not already heard, we are moving to Dhaka, Bangladesh!!! Derek has taken a position with the State Department, Foreign Service. I am giddy with excitement. Unfortunately many of my friends and family seem to be taking our excitement over moving to an overcrowded third world country as a sign of mental illness. So first, let me assure you that, while I may genuinely seem mentally ill at times, there is no correlation between going to Dhaka and my mental health. This will be a great adventure!
I've had several interesting reactions to our recent announcement, the most common of which is "where IS Bangladesh", followed closely by "WHY"?? FYI...we CHOSE Bangladesh! It was number one on our Bid List (the list of available assignments). Canada was number twelve or out twelve, so you can kind of see what direction we were wanting to take on this.
Another common response is "Really?? Bangladesh??? Well...you'll be in our prayers. (imagine a worried face when people say that). While I always appreciate being in someones prayers, I assure you, we are not moving to a Bangladeshi prison camp. This wasn't a sentence, rather a choice. We will be fine. In fact, we will be moving into the Diplomatic Enclave. This is an exclusive part of the city designated for embassies and their employees. There is 24/7 security. Lots of it. We have our very own marines.
The truth is, we will have domestic help and drivers. I know...don't hate me. You know those massive, run down barios that you see in pictures and on TV? That's not where we'll be living. Bottom line...we won't exactly be roughing it. Okay, I take that back. There isn't a Target for like 9,000 miles, but that's only my idea of roughing it and there's always Target online.
I had an interesting conversation with a telemarketer the other day. She called from a company that I had closed an account with, eager to convince me that I desperately needed to continue their services so I explained to her that we were moving. She assured me that their services were available all over the country. I informed her that we were moving to Bangladesh to which she replied "I'm sure they're available there too"! Seeing that she wasn't really grasping just where Bangladesh might be, I finally explained to her that it was right next to India to which she replied with surprise "Oh! So NOT in America". Now, I'm not trying to be disparaging. I can give you arguments for why 2+2 doesn't necessarily have to equal four. Math isn't really my thing. By the same token, geography isn't really every ones thing. I had to ask Derek where Nebraska was when he told me we were moving here from England and I'm American!
So in the interest of edification and enlightenment, here is your geography lesson for the day. Bangladesh is a small country surrounded on three sides by India and by Nepal to the north. It is almost the exact square mileage as Iowa. While Iowa boasts a selectively exclusive population of just slightly over 3 million, Bangladesh has a vibrant and bustling population of 159,000,000 I know...that's a lot of digits for a country the size of Iowa. The city of Dhaka, where we will be living is home to around 14,000,000 inhabitants. On a transportation note, it is also home to about a zillion cars and over 400,000 rickshaws. I am also told that Elephants periodically cause traffic jams, hence the need for a personal driver. One might question what the occasional elephant might be doing in the middle of a city that large. One must simply assume that elephants do not have GPS.
The country is 90% Muslim, 9% Hindu, and 1% everything else. We fall into that everything else category. For those who are concerned about the heavy slanting towards Muslim, we are told that it is a country of more moderate Muslims, not the extremist Muslims who so commonly make the news by setting relatives on fire.
It is hot there all the time. The only variation is whether it is hot and dry or hot and wet. During the monsoon season, which is substantial, up to 70 % of the city can be flooded. They can get up to 100 inches of rainfall during the wet season. So it'll be a little like living in Atlantis!
Dhaka sounds like an amazing city. You might be interested to know that is has been one of the premier cities for textile production for over a thousand years and some of the most gorgeous fabrics in the world can be found there.You know what all that textile stuff means? It means I can buy clothes that get sent to large America retailers for a fraction of the cost! So there!
Dhaka is also called the city of Mosques. I think you can imagine how excited I am as a photographer about that! Unfortunately you can only go inside if you are Muslim, but Hey, I'm Mormon, so I kind of get that;-)
I am told that the people are generally warm and friendly and love to have their pictures taken, so that's another huge win for me!
Anyway, I just thought I'd share a little about this amazing city and country with you! Thank you for your prayers! Those are always appreciated. I'm not stupid, there are always aspects that can be dangerous. Like drinking the water, but I get a little nervous in North Omaha too. It's all about being safe and being smart and being aware of your environment.
We are beyond excited at having this amazing opportunity to go on a long overdue second honeymoon and spend some quality Derek and Leni time while having an opportunity to learn about a whole new culture and to meet new people and make new friends, (while, of course, never forgetting our old friends), so if you ever happen to be passing through Dhaka, give us a call!:-)
