The end is near

Our time in Dhaka is growing to a close.  Full Stop.  Am I sad?  No,  Am I happy? A little.  Maybe the stress of moving and planning a move, and planning a home leave with three kids and a cat can damper the joy of a post or the joy of leaving a post.

I have never had an employee before.  I have always been the employee.  Now we as a family have people to worry about after we leave.  Shuspol, the maid.  Suma, the nanny.  Julhas, driver and Akbar the gardener.  We don't really need this many people but felt it was nice to be able to help them out and give them a job.  Currently the gardener, Akbar is in my good books.  He wasn't in the good book, 18-19 months ago when he was lying 'senseless' in a Dhaka hospital due to his poor handling of traffic situations.  He got hit by a rickshaw, CNG or Bus, the story has changed much over time.  Anyway,  he has not asked for ANYTHING.  He does his job, and works hard.  He is great to have around.  The others are not quite the same.

Everyday, the ask me to find them work, when I leave.  I am trying.  I put ads up,  emailed new comers, and put them on Facebook.  Everyday they ask for my TV or camera, or clothes.   I know I have alot compared to them, and I am generous.  But really, my bra?  Please,  I would like to keep my underwear, thank you very much.

Moving is stressful and I have put off the stress for a long time.  This weekend the school had a organised garage sale.  I have been looking forward to this since last year.  What a great way to get rid of all that stuff you have to get rid of.  Stuff that is worth something, and could be useful to other expats staying behind.  Expensive conditioners that didn't get used, toothpaste that I over bought, some great baking supplies I don't use anymore,  baby items for the never ending baby boom.  I had gathered up my stuff and was ready!  So excited.  The night before the sale, I kept waking up with nightmares about how horrible the sale was.  I found this very strange,  it's just a garage sale.  Those were NOT nightmares, they were premonitions.  The sale was horrible.  People everywhere,  local bearers and and local families, grabbing every item and paying 1/20th of the price and walking off with it.  Swapping items for other items.  Taking whole bags of items for the price of one item in bag.  I was overwhelmed and under prepared for such a commotion.  On the good side,  everything sold, whether for free or wildly underpriced such as the stroller for $2.50.  Lucky for me, I held strong on my un-paper towels that I made from a pinterest idea, and to very cute wooden toy dinosaurs.  I refused for them to be grabbed and bargained on.  I think the paper towels might have covered the cost of the table, at the sale.  (you had to pay to sell in garage sale)

I haven't even thought much about what life is going to be like where we are going.  I know there will be more things to do, and places to eat out, and SAFARIS.  I registered the kids for school, but can't figure out on a map where that is in relation to where we might live.  Mostly all I think about is leaving here, and going home.  I miss my family and friends, the kids miss their friends.  It is going to be a nice summer to get back to the US, before starting another crazy chapter.  Not that I have a plan in place for the summer.  Go to parents house, and then we have a week at the beach with the MH family actually scheduled.  Fly by the seat of my pants,  it will be fine.  

Dhaka has been good,  I will miss it when we are gone, but I think life has a way of stressing you out so you can't be sad to leave.  You can be sad later when you think back on fond memories.  So for right now,  I am happy to be going home.

Ruby Tuesday

So two weeks ago, the GSO guys came to do maintenance on the house, and our sweet Bangladeshi dog got out.  Now, Ruby dashes out the gate all the time,  as there are fun street dogs to romp with and awesome piles of garbage to pee on.  She typically prances around with the one eye street puppy, and  pees on some bricks and returns to the safety of her yard.  This day, I wasn't there so I can only so one can only speculate what happened, she didn't come back.  She went down the street and to the left, the guard said.  My Ayah called me in a flap, in the morning, saying Ruby got out and hadn't come back.  It had been half and hour and she was worried.  I told her not to worry, that Ruby knew her way around, and would come home when she was bored.

Ruby came often on bike rides with us,  trotting along side us, as we biked up and down the streets in our neighbourhood.  She was good about mean street dogs, and never gave in to the fights they were trying to pick on her.  She weaved well through traffic and rickshaws, with out flinching.  Some times she would get bored and head home early.  She was savvy about our neighbourhood.  

So when I got home at lunchtime, and Ruby wasn't there, I was shocked.  I spent the afternoon looking for her,  calling out like an idiot for a dog that clearly wasn't hearing me.  I love walking up and down the streets, with open sewers and workers with bricks on their heads.  I especially  love it when a group of deshi men call out after me... "Ruby, Ruby" and giggle.  They must think, some crazy white lady, calling out Ruby, how strange.  I went on the bike, and went all over Baridhara.  The next day, my driver Julhas and I, rode on the back of a rickshaw all over the village across the busy street, for hours.  Then we took the car and drove up and down the streets in Gulshan, which neighbours Baridhara.  To no avail, we could not find her.  We asked rickshaw wallas, and showed drivers her picture.  Everyone knew to look for her, and to call Julhas.

I called my vet, put ads up school, embassy and in guard stations.  I told all the bus drivers and gave them a picture.  I put a message on facebook in the Dhaka section.  No one saw Ruby,  she just vanished.  It was so strange. People suggested I offer a reward, which I refused to, as I thought it would encourage people to steal dogs and ask for reward.  So many locals said,  she was probably stolen,  but how strange I thought,  she wasn't very friendly,  and wouldn't go up to people. It didn't feel right that she got hit by a car.   Then someone suggested I call a vet in Gulshan, who sometimes picks up strays but I got the number wrong and ended up call some lady who didn't speak English.  Ruby just couldn't be found.

Yesterday, I tried again,  I looked this guy up on the internet, and got the number right.  He spoke English, but he could figure out if I was wanting to buy a puppy or leave a puppy.  So I had my Ayah talk to him.  In a flurry of Bangla, I could tell something was happening.  More hurried Bangla, and a few Madam's dog. " Madam very very sad.  Children very very sad, they cry cry."  I have notice in Bangla,  you repeat words, for effect I guess.  So then she told me, he had found Ruby, but had given her away, to another man.  I got on the phone and talked to him.  He gave me the number of the guy who took Ruby.  Great!  We can call and maybe go collect her.  "It's very very far, madam"  I didn't care.  Lets call him and find Ruby.

So Shuspa, called the number, and talked to the man, in a flurry of Bangla, again.  The man told her she must be sick in the head,  crazy crazy.  So she past the phone to Julhas, so spoke calmly and not in a flurry.  Ah, nah, Ji, ah ah ah.  So apparently, he did get a dog from this vet, but wasn't sure it was Ruby.  I told him the dog was spayed, to look for scar.  He said he had too many dogs, to look for a scar, so he would call vet and find out if the dog he took was Ruby, and would call back.  We waited..... no call back.  So we called the vet back and I had Julhas talk,  but the conversation just kept going on about the dog he had now,  he could give me that dog.  But that's not Ruby,  Madam wants Ruby, her dog.

In the end,  I decided to call the vet back, get his address and show him Ruby's picture.  Then we would know for sure.  He didn't answer the phone.  He must have realised I was 'crazy crazy', so I called a different number. I also have noticed that in Dhaka, most businesses have many numbers.  He answered and we arranged to see him.  We drove to the market and walked around the rotting meat smell, the sewer smell, the goat shit and whatever else, and finally found his clinic.  A dog was sitting outside with an Elizabethan collar on, and the classic t-shirt spay dressing.  (random t-shirt tied on them to keep incision clean and dry, and it doesn't work).  We went in, and showed him Ruby's picture.  Ah, nodding and thinking.  Then they bring out a five month old lab puppy.  Sweet little boy, which looked very familiar to me.  He told me that Ruby had come in a few days ago, with an American lady,  to get shots, and lived in Baridhara.  I have a friend who just got a puppy who was the same colour as Ruby, and I wondered if he meant her.  Maybe he was just changing his story so I wouldn't bother him about this guy who has my real Ruby. He didn't have the number of the lady in Baridhara, who had my dog.... why?.... because NO ONE in Baridhara has my dog,  you gave her away to some man, very very far away.  

I looked at the lab puppy,  and I knew I knew him.  I am sure I saw him being walked somewhere in my neighbourhood recently.  I remember thinking what a sweet dog, not pulling but just trotting along beside, which is rare here.  I decided that the dog, this lab puppy was somebodies dog, and he was going to give it away to someone if I didn't take it.  So I took the dog.  Yogee, is his name.  I think it's someones dog, and I am going to find them.  This way Yogee has a chance to get back home, rather than go far far away.  The vet said a Bangladeshi family brought Yogee in, because he was too big, which seemed like a likely story.

Yogee is a nice lab puppy.  This vet is a nice man, and he may mean well, and be doing the best he can for stray dogs.  Finding homes for dogs is hard.  He vaccinated them and re-homes them.  Seems pretty nice, but also a little off too.  I can speculate many things, and I am not going to.  I'll leave that to you, to come up with your own corruption story.  In the mean time,  I'm looking for Yogee's home, because he is to nice of a dog with good good (repeated for effect) manners to just be a stray, or cast away.  If you buy a lab puppy, you know it will get big.

Ah Dhaka life.  It's strange and crazy.  Ruby, we miss you,  we hope you are happy, if you are very very far away with too many dogs to look at.  Yogee, you are sweet and we will love you, and look for your family, before you go very very far away.