I bet you thought I was gone. Like really and truly gone. Maybe "hoped" is a better word. No such luck.
As I sit here in my house full of furniture from storage and unpack boxes of UAB items, I have plenty of time to reflect on just how little thought I gave to the whole "storage" thing. As much as I agonized over what to send or not send in our HHG, UAB, and consumables, I gave virtually no thought to the items I put in storage other than to acknowledge that they were things I would not want to have while we were overseas. You see, the beauty of most embassies is that they are very used to people showing up with nothing but the clothes on their back (and those they managed to cram into a suitcase). Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find... We walked into a fully furnished apartment where someone had even already done all of our grocery shopping for us to get us ready for the first few days. We had pots, pans, dishes, glassware, a television, an iron... I could go on, but you get the point. Essentially we had everything we required.
Leaving Dhaka, we gave great thought to the items we put in our UAB (after contacting Student Detachment to have to them authorize a UAB shipment for us since it was not included in our original orders). We put in a set of sheets for each bed, towels for each person, a small television, the all-in-one printer, kitchen knives, extra clothes, the DVD player - everything we thought we'd need "right away". We flew from Dhaka on the 22nd of June (I think?? - it's been too long...) and signed the lease on our new place in Florida on 1 July with high hopes that our UAB would arrive within the first 2 weeks of July. Here it is, the end of August, and our UAB just showed up. In theory, it came by air, so the delay was not in the actual transport phase. But when we got an e-mail 3 weeks after our departure from an embassy employee asking for Josh's rank (which was clearly indicated in the signature block of the e-mail he had sent them only a few days before) before he could submit the paperwork for our shipment, I had a bit better of an indication of the sort of timeline to expect. Submitting the paperwork is of course only the first step. Then the funding has to be approved. Then the shipment has to clear customs. Perhaps most importantly, the hartals have to stop long enough for airline employees to actually be at work loading planes. <sigh>
So as much as I had good intentions when I packed my UAB, really I needed to put more thought into what we left in storage. Really, my storage should have included:
- at least one small-ish TV (TV, phone, and internet generally require that you actually have a television and phone ready to be plugged in before they will schedule you for installation; as much as we wanted internet, we had no phone and no TV)
- at least one set of sheets/pillow/blanket/mattress pad/waterproof cover for each bed
- bath and hand towels
- kitchen towels and at least one hot pad
- ideally, I'd love to have dishes and a set of silverware in my storage, but I think that might just be too much extra "stuff" for me to hang on to
- a phone (see note above on TV)
- basic kitchen implements
Since Josh and I were both in the Army, and weren't always stationed in the same place, we already have most kitchen items in multiple. For example, I have not one, not two, but three colanders. Ask me where they are. Just ask me. That's right. All 3 went to Dhaka. One fortunately made it in to the UAB shipment, so I have it now, but I really just wasn't thinking. For all of the "extra" mixing bowls I have, you'd think I might have left at least one or two in storage...
So my warning to everyone who is getting ready to head overseas is this: Think about the return trip as well and try to plan for only having your "storage" items for two months or longer after your return. Think about what you will want/need and what you're willing to buy in duplicate.
Note to self - read this post again before you pack up a year from now...
Anyone else excited that open assignments will be posted in less than a month??
Monday, August 26, 2013
Monday, June 3, 2013
We're Coming Home!
Sometime.
Yes, you all knew it would happen. Eventually they have to let us come home. And now for the million dollar question: WHEN?
Turns out no one really knows. While Josh was on his latest and last jaunt to India, we received our RFO sending us back stateside for graduate school. As exciting as it was to receive that little piece of paper (okay, fine, e-mail), now we start the next waiting game for orders. A "normal" Army company contains anywhere from 40-200 Soldiers depending on the location and mission. When a "normal" Soldier gets an RFO, it gets sent to the Personnel Services Battalion on post that processes it and turns it in to orders once the Soldier takes care of getting their company commander to sign and approve their leave form. This process naturally becomes a bit more complicated when you're assigned to a detachment that is in charge of every student in the Army who is assigned anywhere in the world. So the Student Detachment, as it's called, oversees somewhere over 2,000 Soldiers at any given time. And all of those Soldiers are somewhere in the process of arriving at a new duty station (which requires large amounts of paperwork for inprocessing), hanging out to attend school, and leaving (which also requires some paperwork). This detachment does not work the same days we do (standard M-F work week), nor are they even remotely in the same time zone. So anything we send out on the last day of our work week (Thursday) has no chance of even being seen until Monday night our time. Then, if we need any sort of action taken, assuming the stars are alligned, everyone is at work, doing their job that day, we might get an e-mail indicating they are processing the action. That, unfortunately rarely happens. Is it frustrating? Sure. But who doesn't expect a long wait when they call customer service of a big corporation - this is busy season for Army moving after all.
In the case of our orders, we actually heard back the day after we sent in the required paperwork that they had received the packet. It was the cause of a small party in our house. Receiving the packet is only half the battle though as there are any number of formatting issues that could cause them to kick back the packet and we would start all over. To date, that has not happened. And so we are still scheduled to have our move-out survey next week and have all of our Dhaka possessions picked up 4 days later. Of course, if the orders don't come, we can't do that.
We're not buying plane tickets yet, so I guess that tells you how we're feeling right about now ;)
Yes, you all knew it would happen. Eventually they have to let us come home. And now for the million dollar question: WHEN?
Turns out no one really knows. While Josh was on his latest and last jaunt to India, we received our RFO sending us back stateside for graduate school. As exciting as it was to receive that little piece of paper (okay, fine, e-mail), now we start the next waiting game for orders. A "normal" Army company contains anywhere from 40-200 Soldiers depending on the location and mission. When a "normal" Soldier gets an RFO, it gets sent to the Personnel Services Battalion on post that processes it and turns it in to orders once the Soldier takes care of getting their company commander to sign and approve their leave form. This process naturally becomes a bit more complicated when you're assigned to a detachment that is in charge of every student in the Army who is assigned anywhere in the world. So the Student Detachment, as it's called, oversees somewhere over 2,000 Soldiers at any given time. And all of those Soldiers are somewhere in the process of arriving at a new duty station (which requires large amounts of paperwork for inprocessing), hanging out to attend school, and leaving (which also requires some paperwork). This detachment does not work the same days we do (standard M-F work week), nor are they even remotely in the same time zone. So anything we send out on the last day of our work week (Thursday) has no chance of even being seen until Monday night our time. Then, if we need any sort of action taken, assuming the stars are alligned, everyone is at work, doing their job that day, we might get an e-mail indicating they are processing the action. That, unfortunately rarely happens. Is it frustrating? Sure. But who doesn't expect a long wait when they call customer service of a big corporation - this is busy season for Army moving after all.
In the case of our orders, we actually heard back the day after we sent in the required paperwork that they had received the packet. It was the cause of a small party in our house. Receiving the packet is only half the battle though as there are any number of formatting issues that could cause them to kick back the packet and we would start all over. To date, that has not happened. And so we are still scheduled to have our move-out survey next week and have all of our Dhaka possessions picked up 4 days later. Of course, if the orders don't come, we can't do that.
We're not buying plane tickets yet, so I guess that tells you how we're feeling right about now ;)
Sunday, May 5, 2013
The Joys of Life Overseas
Being associated with an embassy, we have access to both American groceries and moderate access to the US postal system. Sadly, these things don't always work exactly the way they are supposed to. First, I will share a recent message we received from the commissary. Second, a message from our postal clerk.
---------
This is just to let you know that next week we are expecting to receive a 40’ FCL containing dry mixed consumables carrying products like select cereals, dish washing liquids, spaghetti/pasta, dry and wet cat and dog food products etc. This particular shipment is from California and was originally scheduled to arrive at Chittagong on April 23, 2013.
As a side note, I can not recall any time that the commissary has ever been sold out of pickles. Additionally, we are not authorized to ship liquid items (or items that contain liquids) in excess of 16 oz, so I'm not really sure what anyone was doing ordering them in the first place.
And that's the news from Dhaka.
---------
Dear
Commissary members,
This is just to let you know that next week we are expecting to receive a 40’ FCL containing dry mixed consumables carrying products like select cereals, dish washing liquids, spaghetti/pasta, dry and wet cat and dog food products etc. This particular shipment is from California and was originally scheduled to arrive at Chittagong on April 23, 2013.
On
this note, please also be advised that the reason for our late receiving of the
above shipment is that we initially placed dry orders (containing the above
products that are currently experiencing run outs) with our lead vendor Ramstein
CMY and after nearly 4 weeks of our closing the bid, we were informed by
Ramstein that they are temporarily not processing any orders as they are
upgrading their software. We then immediately went to our secondary and
commercial vendors in the US and organized the above mentioned 40’ FCL shipment
in addition to ordering of air shipments for select products to meet up products
gaps. You will be happy to note that we have 2 full 40’ FCL shipments lined up
to arrive Chittagong after May 24th carrying dry mixed and freeze
cargo.
As
always, we thank you for your kind understanding, patience and support to the
Commissary!
----------
Just a quick note on this message above - Ramstein CMY is the military commissary at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. It's always nice to see government efficiency at all levels... Meanwhile, the commissary has been out of Multi-grain cheerios (yes, I realize we're usually pretty spoiled) and sandwich bread for weeks. Not that we need things like bread when I make sandwiches for a school-bound kid every day for lunch. I guess I should clarify. The commissary isn't OUT of sandwich bread, but the bread they have is all over $5 per loaf. We routinely get a variety of brands when items come in, and the bread I buy is usually about $3.50 per loaf. So... I'm just not going to pay over $5. I just won't.
And now for our update from the post office:
-----------
Hello All,
Mailroom has received some mailbags with obvious smoke
damage. You may notice smoke odor in your packages. We are inquiring for
further information from Singapore about the incident.
We are also asking DPO how, if possible, you could claim for
damage from USPS.
In one package, from WalMart, a jar of pickles was broken.
The breakage is attributable to insufficient packaging by the shipper. The
goods are protected by mere one layer of twisted manila paper around the inside
of the box. All other boxes and packages in the same bag may have the smell of
pickles.
We are sorry but these incidents are beyond our
control.
----------
Saturday, April 20, 2013
14 Months in to our 12 Month Tour
Strange? Yes. But if you're going to do something, you might as well live it up. Traditionally, In Region Training (IRT) is just a 12 month tour. Unfortunately for families with children, the Bangladeshi staff college begins in April and ends in February. This doesn't really match up with school dates for the kids - one of the main reasons that the staff college has an elementary school at Mirpur that runs from April to February :) Again, unfortunately, this school is not accredited by American standards, so it would not have really done us much good to send B there for the year.
Once we were getting closer to the end of our tour, we asked if we could stay for a few extra months to allow B to finish out his school year which ends in June. I believe the official response was something along the lines of "we currently see no reason why you can't do this, but we remain free to change our minds at any point in time."
And so here we are. The up side of this is that staff college attendance is pretty involved, and doesn't necessarily allow for a lot of embassy time or a lot of travel. Josh is now (for the most part) fully integrated in DAO and will also have an opportunity to do some additional India travel before we leave. Naturally, I will stay in Dhaka and hang out with the kids :)
So what is life like post-staff college? The kids and I get to eat breakfast with Josh every morning, he works a standard 8/9ish to 5ish schedule, and he's both close to home and semi-reachable by phone. He's taken a few small trips within the country, but hasn't been gone for more than a few days at a time, which the kids seem pretty okay with. All in all, a fairly relaxed atmosphere. It's strange to me that so many people who participate in IRT ONLY experience this part. The staff college really forced both Josh and I to get out and get involved in Bangladeshi military culture; we both view this as a good thing. I know every experience is different, but I can't imagine having such an up-close and personal look without staff college. Then again, we were also very busy, and had mandatory evening events almost every week, sometimes multiple times per week. Up sides and down sides...
We have welcomed in the newest American staff college attendee - a non FAO - and I believe he's settling in. We're working on re-homing our staff and also selling on car, but this is complicated by having no idea when we're supposed to leave. With the current budget issues, all decisions for graduate school (our likely next step) are on hold. This means we are in a bit of limbo. We could get orders next week, or we could still be sitting here in August waiting. I'm really hoping for more of the first and less of the second. I'm looking at housing, but we don't know where we're going for sure, nor do we know when we will be there, so other than keeping an eye on the market, there's not much I can do.
Do I like to be this flexible? Not really. But this type of uncertainty just kind of comes with the territory sometimes.
Once we were getting closer to the end of our tour, we asked if we could stay for a few extra months to allow B to finish out his school year which ends in June. I believe the official response was something along the lines of "we currently see no reason why you can't do this, but we remain free to change our minds at any point in time."
And so here we are. The up side of this is that staff college attendance is pretty involved, and doesn't necessarily allow for a lot of embassy time or a lot of travel. Josh is now (for the most part) fully integrated in DAO and will also have an opportunity to do some additional India travel before we leave. Naturally, I will stay in Dhaka and hang out with the kids :)
So what is life like post-staff college? The kids and I get to eat breakfast with Josh every morning, he works a standard 8/9ish to 5ish schedule, and he's both close to home and semi-reachable by phone. He's taken a few small trips within the country, but hasn't been gone for more than a few days at a time, which the kids seem pretty okay with. All in all, a fairly relaxed atmosphere. It's strange to me that so many people who participate in IRT ONLY experience this part. The staff college really forced both Josh and I to get out and get involved in Bangladeshi military culture; we both view this as a good thing. I know every experience is different, but I can't imagine having such an up-close and personal look without staff college. Then again, we were also very busy, and had mandatory evening events almost every week, sometimes multiple times per week. Up sides and down sides...
We have welcomed in the newest American staff college attendee - a non FAO - and I believe he's settling in. We're working on re-homing our staff and also selling on car, but this is complicated by having no idea when we're supposed to leave. With the current budget issues, all decisions for graduate school (our likely next step) are on hold. This means we are in a bit of limbo. We could get orders next week, or we could still be sitting here in August waiting. I'm really hoping for more of the first and less of the second. I'm looking at housing, but we don't know where we're going for sure, nor do we know when we will be there, so other than keeping an eye on the market, there's not much I can do.
Do I like to be this flexible? Not really. But this type of uncertainty just kind of comes with the territory sometimes.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
To Write or not to write...
Isn't that the question? I chose to take a break for a while - mainly because I feel like my writing quality tends to suffer when I force myself to write, and as I'm not exactly a master of words as is, I have to wait for my peak writing periods :)
Dhaka continues to be a source of never-ending emotions. Sometimes we're overwhelmed with wonder, sometimes frustration, but we're always feeling "somthing" here. The past few weeks, we've been making the international news with the results of the war crimes tribunals being announced. It's been a bit turbulent, but not a lot of disturbances near where we live. We've also been fortunate to host a guest for the past few weeks - a visiting South Asia FAO. Life here gets to be very routine, so we've appreciated the opportunity to talk to another adult on a regular basis (okay, so really, I've appreciated this more than my other half since he gets to talk to grown-ups all the time...).
Life overseas presents great opportunities. Probably the best of those is the school that B gets to attend. Where else could you get someone to pay for your kids to go to a top rated private school? Certainly not anywhere in the US, at least not anywhere we've been yet. But at the same time, there are challenges. Josh has been accepted to 2 grad school programs back in the US, which is likely to be our next stop. All things being equal, we should be leaving here in 3 months to start that new adventure, but of course we don't know which school we're going to, we don't have orders, and we don't know when we might. So the downside of this awesome life we lead is that we also learn to live with large amounts of uncertainty. I tend to view our lifestyle in much the same way that I view my spiritual life - I accept that even when I don't understand the plan, I know there is one, and I just need to be patient and trusting. Perhaps this trust is misplaced when it comes to the Army, but the thought brings me a small amount of peace, so I'm going to go with it. Through all of the ups and downs, we've been well taken care of in our Army career, and I'm sure our next step will reveal itself in time.
On the note of other exciting opportunities we have experienced here in Bangladesh, Josh and I took a trip a few weeks ago to visit the Beximco plant just north of the city. Beximco is the largest private sector corporation in the country, and they manufacture a range of goods from clothing to fine china. Our plant tour took us through the factory where they were sewing multi-colored jeans ready to be exported to Wal-Mart as well as their "factory store" where they sell bone china at significantly reduced prices. For those not aware, Beximco is the supplier for well-known name brand china companies such as Royal Doulton. Since it's kind of the "thing to do" and we'd much prefer to leave our wedding china packaged up state-side when we're overseas, we decided to pick up some new bone china. Our grand total for 12 place settings including serving pieces (and a full tea and coffee service with 24 cups and saucers) just was under $400. That's right. It pays to live at the source - even if only for a year or two. And naturally, everything was delivered to my house free of charge. Did it require many phone calls to "clarify" the order and actually confirm everything? Sure. But I consider that the price of doing business. And in the end, I'm happy with what we got.
So, in theory, our time here is growing short, although it's difficult to see the end when it's some nebulous thing off in the distance. The kids are definitely anxious to see family back home, and ask on a routine basis when we can go ride on an airplane to see everyone. But we're also determined to enjoy our time here to the fullest, and we're not in a rush to get home. One breath at a time.
Dhaka continues to be a source of never-ending emotions. Sometimes we're overwhelmed with wonder, sometimes frustration, but we're always feeling "somthing" here. The past few weeks, we've been making the international news with the results of the war crimes tribunals being announced. It's been a bit turbulent, but not a lot of disturbances near where we live. We've also been fortunate to host a guest for the past few weeks - a visiting South Asia FAO. Life here gets to be very routine, so we've appreciated the opportunity to talk to another adult on a regular basis (okay, so really, I've appreciated this more than my other half since he gets to talk to grown-ups all the time...).
Life overseas presents great opportunities. Probably the best of those is the school that B gets to attend. Where else could you get someone to pay for your kids to go to a top rated private school? Certainly not anywhere in the US, at least not anywhere we've been yet. But at the same time, there are challenges. Josh has been accepted to 2 grad school programs back in the US, which is likely to be our next stop. All things being equal, we should be leaving here in 3 months to start that new adventure, but of course we don't know which school we're going to, we don't have orders, and we don't know when we might. So the downside of this awesome life we lead is that we also learn to live with large amounts of uncertainty. I tend to view our lifestyle in much the same way that I view my spiritual life - I accept that even when I don't understand the plan, I know there is one, and I just need to be patient and trusting. Perhaps this trust is misplaced when it comes to the Army, but the thought brings me a small amount of peace, so I'm going to go with it. Through all of the ups and downs, we've been well taken care of in our Army career, and I'm sure our next step will reveal itself in time.
On the note of other exciting opportunities we have experienced here in Bangladesh, Josh and I took a trip a few weeks ago to visit the Beximco plant just north of the city. Beximco is the largest private sector corporation in the country, and they manufacture a range of goods from clothing to fine china. Our plant tour took us through the factory where they were sewing multi-colored jeans ready to be exported to Wal-Mart as well as their "factory store" where they sell bone china at significantly reduced prices. For those not aware, Beximco is the supplier for well-known name brand china companies such as Royal Doulton. Since it's kind of the "thing to do" and we'd much prefer to leave our wedding china packaged up state-side when we're overseas, we decided to pick up some new bone china. Our grand total for 12 place settings including serving pieces (and a full tea and coffee service with 24 cups and saucers) just was under $400. That's right. It pays to live at the source - even if only for a year or two. And naturally, everything was delivered to my house free of charge. Did it require many phone calls to "clarify" the order and actually confirm everything? Sure. But I consider that the price of doing business. And in the end, I'm happy with what we got.
So, in theory, our time here is growing short, although it's difficult to see the end when it's some nebulous thing off in the distance. The kids are definitely anxious to see family back home, and ask on a routine basis when we can go ride on an airplane to see everyone. But we're also determined to enjoy our time here to the fullest, and we're not in a rush to get home. One breath at a time.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
The Itch
I might not like to move, but I also don't really care for ... stagnating - for lack of a better word. As I write this post, I have not left the city of Dhaka (and specifically a very small portion of that city) since July of this year. I suppose that's not totally true. I did just get to go on an all day picnic experience with the Staff College in the days before Christmas. And to do that, I had to get up early, get the kids up early, ride a bus for 5 hours, and got sick from eating the contaminated (yes, contaminated) food they served us. So ... that was the last time I left the city. Might make you think I wasn't anxious to do it again, but truly, TRULY I feel the need to go somewhere.
Here I was thinking our IRT year was going to be all about exciting travel, but really, all I get to do is stay home. Part of this is my own doing of course since I spent a large portion of my fall - and plan to spend a large portion of my spring - working on my masters program. Having an online program is great, but I definitely don't have the flexibility to take off for a week (or longer) when I'm supposed to be contributing 3-4 times per week to online forums. Internet reliability in hotels in the region is questionable at best in some locations. Additionally, B's school schedule doesn't really facilitate us going with Josh when he travels. The other overseas families all live at Mirpur Cantonment, and there is a school there which exists solely for the kids of students attending the Staff College. So the school year runs from April until February and the holidays match those of the Staff College. Of course, this school is not accredited in any way, so it's really not an option for us even though it would be nice to have Josh's school breaks line up with B's. And so with a very few exceptions, B and Josh are not home at the same times.
We anticipate at this point that we'll be sticking around for a few months at the completion of Staff College to allow B to finish out his school year, and that would be a great time to travel since Josh won't be on a strictly defined schedule, except for the fact that, you know, B is in school. And when he's on break (for Spring Break), I've got 2 classes going on. So I'm about to pull my hair out realizing that I might never actually leave this city. Ever. Okay, now I'm just being dramatic. Obviously I get to leave. But I feel ridiculous thinking that in the 16 months we will live here, I will have left Dhaka to travel on only one occasion. No India, no Nepal, no side trip just to relax somewhere. Instead, the two week trip we took as soon as we arrived here, to Sri Lanka, will be the sum total of my overseas travel. And that just makes me feel... itchy. I mean, who comes all this way and doesn't at least get to see the Taj Mahal, right?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)