I know, not a very sophisticated title today. Sorry folks. I'm all out. This past week has been a bit busy - punctuated mostly by the absence of my other half who has decided to take up temporary residence at the Staff College. He found out - much to his surprise - that they are having an "exercise" this week. While most of us left the world of all-nighters behind with our undergraduate degrees, apparently it's par for the course to hang out pretending to work until all hours of the night. In a large group. Like that ever works. Anyway, it's been a while since we've seen him, but supposedly he's coming home for clean clothes today (much to the combined relief of everyone, I'm sure), so we might get a quick visit.
With his absence, I'm pleased to report that we have had a new visitor for the past few days - a FAO IRTer from India. She came bearing gifts from Nepal (her previous stop) and had the kids wrapped around her finger immediately. So really, who needs dad??!
We started the with a non-visit to the Liberation War Museum. What I mean by this is that after getting my driver to sit in traffic for over an hour and a half, I got an SMS from the person who was supposed to be meeting us to give us the tour that he had forgotten the museum was closed on Sunday. SO... instead we turned around, stopped for lunch at Captain's World (ridiculously good and I'm already plotting a return visit) and then headed home. We made mention of the fact that we would likely try to tour Old Dhaka the following day (my driver's not-favorite locale), and Josh mysteriously got a message from my driver within the hour that he would like the day off to take his wife to a doctor's appointment. She's legitimately pregnant, but the timing was suspect. Not one to be deterred by the lack of a driver, we ventured out on our own and headed to Savar to see the National Martyr's Memorial. I'd been there before if you recall during the Overseas Officer Orientation offered by the school, so I at least had a vague idea where I was headed. Armed with a Google map (conveniently in km instead of miles), peanut butter sandwiches, apples, fruit snacks, cheese crackers, several gallons of water, and 2 traveling companions (K stayed home for this one), we headed out into the great beyond - also known as the suburbs of Dhaka. Google claimed the drive would take 52 minutes, so I planned on it really taking us about 2 hours. Guess who was right? That's right - I'm the master planner :)
Driving here is definitely an art - one I have by no means mastered. We traveled mostly on what would normally be termed a 2 lane road. Here, however, a two lane road is really much more. Both sides of the two lane road will be crowded with people walking 3 or 4 deep being passed by bicycle rickshaws (in the lanes of traffic). Keep in mind as well that no one likes to sit behind a slow vehicle, so there is always someone passing someone else. Generally in your lane. So it's kind of like a 2 hour game of Frogger where you're not the frog. In fact, you're trying desperately NOT to kill the frog. We never really got much faster than 40 kph - roughly 25 mph - the entire trip, but it was harrowing all the same. Throw in driving on the left side of the road and an aging manual transmission and it's no wonder that I was ready to call it a day by the time we got home.
That's enough on that one though. I've also spent the past several days trying to get our television connected here. This one kind of came at us out of the blue although I'm sure somewhere I read something about it. Cable television in the US is NTSC, while televisions here and in India (and other assorted places) operate on the PAL system. So it's not really as easy as just hooking up your TV. In fact, we've been at this for 3 days now with a paid professional and we're not really any closer to having our TV working than we were when it was sitting in a box in the warehouse. But we now have a satellite installed on our roof, a hole drilled through the wall of our home, and lots of new cords. Today, the guy is supposedly coming back with a PAL to NTSC converter box which might or might not fix our problem. We are using Tata Sky service (which I think is actually pirated from India, so maybe I shouldn't be saying that too loudly), and while there is an HDMI output on the set top box (STB), it is not compatible with NTSC televisions (even though the installer said it would be). So, today, he will be making his third attempt to get this thing to work. The only real downside is that I need to be in the house whenever he's working, and thus far, even when he's told me when he's going to show up, he's been both early and late by several hours. Today, he gave me no time, so I will just wait. So - word to the wise on this one - if you're bringing your TV overseas, check into buying a PAL/NTSC converter prior to moving. They're tough to come by over here. The cable provider explained to me that the only one he could find locally was about 4-5 hours drive away. Keep in mind, it's probably still in the city of Dhaka, but he'll have to sit in traffic that long to get there and back. Ah the joy! But at least it's him and not me.
Hope to report soon that we have a cable connection. And if not, we'll stick to our pre-recorded television shows that we brought from the states. The kids haven't seemed to notice (or care) yet that they're watching the same shows over again.
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