A day in the life of our intrepid sojourners.

This started as a email to a friend showing how we need to live one day, one hour, even one moment at a time here and trust that a bigger force is helping us along the way!

I was telling her about my day this Monday and it just seemed to keep growing as I replayed the day in my head onto the page! so I thought I would blog it, to show you what life is like for us, and to encourage you to take things as they come and trust!

From the original email “The nice thing is the expectations on us here are not unrealistic. Our organisation and expat friends all encourage us to “take it as it comes”.

Today we were expecting our driver to pick us up from language school ... usually we get a rickshaw but today we were getting picked up.

It had been raining heavily all day so, that was going to be good. We came out ... No driver. Ring up ... oops boss forgot to tell him... OK try CNG (baby taxi) ... couldn't find one ... Steve is stressing ... pain in tummy and had it with beggars ... so decide may be we need a walk ... that was working and pleasant enough (smells excluded!) except 1 road 1/2 flood... OK we go another way. I (Jeanette) was trying to navigate as I am not as sure of my bearings as Steve is, so this was training!... then it starts full on monsoonal rain. We go into a shop to get out of rain.

Turns out to be a very nice supermarket. I try on bangles. The ladies here are really into them so thought I would go with cultural values. Find out I get about 10 for less than $1.. Tried one on because I have big hands... break it.. “no problems madam”... from shop lady helping me (unlike Australia there seems to be 1 assistant per 5 costumers so being white I get all the help I need) I got a little cut so she went and got a bandaid and put it on for me. We find some Parmesan cheese ... $10 ... most stuff is cheap here ... unless imported. (I will get mozzarella when I make pasta as a treat because it is more like the price at home... if I can find it next time I go looking!!!) Brought some breakfast cereal (it is worth it to have the type of breakfast we are used to) and a small Cadbury chocolate. It was cheap ... about 60 cents but made in India so we got a small one to see what it is like. The 150 gm Cadbury is from Singapore! Got a few other bits and headed for "the German butcher"

We ring our driver (who we have found out is at our house) to get us from the German butcher but not sure if he understands.

The German butcher is not really German but sells meat from his home that has been killed to our standards and has much less bone. The shop has NO signage ... in fact it is just in a house and is closed 12:30 – 3:00. He also sells pork, bacon and ham!!!! Muslims do not eat any meat from pigs.

It is starting to rain again but we walk on. The paddles are warm! Walking up the drive way I am not sure if I have the right place but I am following another Bideshi (foreigner) I go in and it is a house with lots of freezers. I am pointed to the shop itself in the next room. It has a small counter and I am shown a list of the meat sold by another employee. I am served by a Bangladeshi who speaks good English. As he confirms what I have ordered to a Korean lady sitting at a table next to me adds, on a calculator, my bill! She also tells me they are out of German bread today. Obviously, I am new and may not know that they sell wholemeal or seeded bread. They have a range of other things like tinned tomatoes that Bideshis love. No sign of a European butcher ... although I have been told there is one. Many customers are Bangla. I wonder if they work for Bideshis.

When we come out a man insists I shelter under his big umbrella ... that is what he is there to provide but Steve is being hasselled by a beggar, the rain is very heavy again ... and the driver has not arrived.

We are next door to an international school. We know several of the teachers there so Steve shelters there. A friend see us and offers for their bus to drop us off because it is going that way. We take offer and Steve rings to driver to tell him to go back to our house.

We come home and have ham and toast... even though our house help would like to get us Dahl and rice mixed together again. (She makes Dahl by the gallon and doesn't understand that we keep putting it in the fridge - We hide the ham from her) I check email and Steve is keen to put on shorts (he must wear long pant NOT pants, in public).

Our house help is having trouble with a tooth and tells me the little doctor was Bhalo na (no good) but the big doctor was khub Bhalo (very good). He needs medicine but it is getting better... unfortunately I have learnt at language school today that the bangla word for pain sounds a lot like our word for better so I am not sure if she is trying to tell me in English she is feeling better or that she is still in pain in Bangla ... I think from the context she is feeling better. She did tell me how much it all cost so I think she was hoping for some money!

Steve has a tummy pain and I am just exhausted by the heat and extra high humidity so we both go and have a sleep... I have just gotten up... remembering I had put the kettle on but forgotten to turn it off (Mrs Banu did) .. and it is only 2:30!

Life here is different ... simple things become an adventure... but we are mostly happy and learning lots. ... and very glad that the expectations are for us to do, what we can, when we can, without pressure.

That really is the way it has to be.