The new normal

We’ve been back in Dhaka for over two months now, and things here are good.  We have wonderful friends that help us out when we need it, and we are incredibly lucky to have an adoring nanny (ayah) for our son, M.

M is a happy, healthy baby and he seems to have adjusted to life here as well as one could hope for a newborn.  He slept through the New Year’s firework explosions and the recent earthquake, and he usually doesn’t cry too much when we take him out (unless it’s to a restaurant for dinner, then all bets are off).

Athena has adjusted to having a baby brother, and she periodically checks on him and licks his feet.

Things changed a lot here in Dhaka while we were gone.  An Italian NGO worker was murdered right outside one of the supermarkets most expats shop at regularly, in the middle of the diplomatic enclave.  A few days later a Japanese man was killed in another part of Bangladesh.  There was a bombing in Old Dhaka, and another Italian was shot (but not killed, thankfully) in another region of the country.

So we came back to a Dhaka were we are not allowed to walk on the streets anymore, anywhere.  Movement throughout the city is heavily restricted and we can only be out during certain hours of the day.  There are police and guards everywhere.

That picture up there in the blog header?  I took that while I was strolling around on a Saturday afternoon.  That doesn’t/can’t happen anymore, and it really sucks.

Coming back was a difficult adjustment and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the situation gets better.  In the meantime, Athena has a dogwalker who takes her out in the mornings.  She’s generally happy to see him and every time he rings the door bell to drop her off he’s petting her, so I think that he treats her well.

I was looking through the draft folder of my blog posts, and I had started writing a few posts shortly after we got back in November, but they were all doom and gloom and I never hit “publish.”  I was in a bit of a funk after we got back, and I think I knew I was being unnecessarily negative.  I mean, life is what you make of it, right?

We are making the most of our time here, planning plenty of vacations, and snuggling a lot with M and Athena.  That said, I can not wait to see the bid list for our second post within the next few months.