50 days and counting

This past week we passed the 50 day mark before our movers will be here to load us out.  I need to start getting serious about setting things aside that I know are going to one location or another.  In case I haven't mentioned this before, we've got several shipments going.  We've got unaccompanied baggage that are things we want to bring, but won't fit in our suitcases.  Ideally, we'd get these things shortly after arrival.  In reality, it will likely be almost 90 days.  There's household goods - the bigger of the two shipments accompanying us - which will take probably about 120 days to get there.  And then we've got a consumables shipment (or do we? - more on that later).  Everything not in one of those shipments or physically in our suitcases will be in non-temporary storage for the next year.  So things like flannel sheets?  Definitely in storage.  Clothes - in the suitcases or unaccompanied baggage.  The rest of the house?  Slightly more difficult to decide.  While our orders indicate we are authorized a consumables shipment, the information from Transportation says we can't ship any food, and the liaison in country says Bangladesh is not a consumables post, so I'm a bit confused on that one.

On a definite high note, after waiting over a month and a half, the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) at the embassy finally wrote me back and acknowledged that we would be arriving soon.  I've sent several e-mails, and I have to admit to a bit of frustration that I wasn't even really sure who else to talk to.  Luckily, with a little less than 90 days to arrival, we have established positive contact.  I've taken the first steps to get B enrolled in kindergarten next year.  Schools overseas in general require very early registration because they hire teachers and "import" them based on the numbers of students they anticipate.  In addition to school registration, in order to get the fees covered - since there is not a Department of Defense school in the region - we have to do a completely separate registration through the DoD.  My first attempt did not go so well.  I e-mailed the POC on the DoDEA webpage to get my regional contact, and the information they provided was for a State Department employee who kindly informed me that he was reassigned out of Dhaka over 2 years ago.  DoD not on top of something??  I wish I could say I was surprised.  Luckily, the former POC forwarded my questions to the person I hope is the current POC.  So with a bit of luck, I can have one more loose end tied up by the end of this week.

I spent a bit of time yesterday trying to plan out our drive from here to the east coast.  It's definitely going to be long, but I hope we've found some good stops along the way to help relieve the tedium of sitting in the car.

Inspired by the Harry Potter marathon on the Family channel last week, I decided to go ahead and get the rest of the movies that I was missing, so tonight, I hope to make it through Half-Blood Prince.  Chat more later!