We left Mountain Road with the snows piled high and our luggage carefully weighed; four pieces at 50 lbs. each.
We flew to D.C. to a wonderful dinner with Benjamin and David:
(Picture here a wonderful dinner with Benjamin and David.)
The huge surprise when we arrived at the airport: Christa! We were patiently waiting for our luggage to travel by on the carousel when Jan looked out through the window into the main lobby and exclaims, "There's Christa!" At that point, she happily abandoned me to await that sixth and last piece of luggage and sped through customs ignoring customs official collecting our paperwork. I followed shortly with the final piece and we headed for the guesthouse.
In the evening had a wonderful dinner with the Jennings; these people are the most gracious hosts on earth, I think.
Friday we caught an early train (6:00) from Dhaka to Rajshahi. As we were hauling our six pieces of baggage down the platform with the help of a train station 'coolie,' the latches broke on one piece just as I was going through the crowded and busy gate. I furiously sought to stuff things back in the case while people plowed by. We tried to regain our composure and dignity and headed down the platform to our waiting spot, (we were due to take the ‘Kha’ train- the Bengali equivalent of the ‘B’ train) when another coolie ran up to us from behind bearing a torn open package of Dunkin' Donuts Coffee. (Guess what that faulty locked suitcase had been full of.) We thanked him with grateful hearts and a few taka for his effort. Three minutes later he appeared again, this time with one of Jan's sandals which had also spilled from the contents. I was more humbled by the honesty and effort of this simple man going to such lengths to return our wayward belongings than I was the humbling eperience of retrieving our goods on my hands and knees on the train station platform.We arrived safely at Rajahshi Friday noon to a great fish curry meal.
Hey! Maybe next time we'll have REAL pictures to show.
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