The excitement began in China. I changed airlines in China and had to go through immigration to reach the second airline. My ticket was apparently confusing because the time changes between America, China, and Bangladesh resulted in me traveling over the span of several days. Consequently, I was delayed at immigration for at least 45 minutes while three different workers looked into the matter. Eventually a man pulled up information on his smart phone and they cleared me to enter the country (I had no idea I would be entering the real world of China.) My next task was to find my new airline.
As I searched for directions on signs, I "happened" to walk past the luggage belt from my flight (that was God's guidance for sure!) There on the floor were all of my bags. This was a confusing sight because my bags were checked to Dhaka. I found a man working and asked what was going on. He said I had to pick up my bags and re-check them. Praise God for leading me past my bags or they may still be sitting in China!
At this point I found a cart and created a mountain with my four humungous bags and two pudgy carry on bags. Off I trudged with my mountain. Little did I know I was about to get my exercise for the year. I think I explored almost every nook and cranny of that airport in search of my airline check in post. Every person I asked seemed to give me a different answer as to where I should go. Finally, I found the counter. By this time concern that I was going to miss my flight had crept into my heart. Perhaps you can understand the dance my nerves were doing when I discovered no one was working the counter. There I stood trying to decide if I should move my mountain once again or simply wait and risk missing my flight.
One Bangladeshi family appeared to share my dilemma. God sent me this family. The family consisted of two older couples, a woman, and two young men. Watching this family interact brought great peace and joy to my soul. In the midst of the craziness they were laughing, smiling, joking, and loving one another. Before I had a chance to decide what to do about the empty counter, the father from the family set out in search of workers. A few minutes later he emerged from a hallway with four workers in tow.
When it was my turn to approach the counter I gave my mountain a big push and began wheeling my way forward. Perhaps my buff act was wearing thin or I just have bad coordination, whatever the cause, I propelled my mountain into a sharp turn and an extremely loud and embarrassing crash. The whole cart tipped over and all six bags went flying. The family, who at this point adopted me, sent one of the boys over to help me gather the bags. He even pushed the cart to the counter for me :)
The next dilemma was paying for my luggage. I was allowed two free 50 pound bags. In addition to those bags I had two 70 pound bags. I already paid extra luggage fees in America and was not supposed to have to pay again, but I was also not supposed to see my bags until Dhaka. I gave the lady my baggage tickets and she said I would need to pay... are you ready for this...an extra $450 for my bags! Jeesh!! I had already paid $270 in America and did not want this extra expense. Seeing few options, and not being the confrontational type, I reluctantly agreed. Thankfully she had to set up her machine to take a debit card. During the set up process she was talking to another worker and they both re-examined my baggage tags. Once again God was showing me He reigns over the crazy because the ladies came back and told me I did not need to pay again!
I finished my check-in process, gathered my carry on bags, and followed my adopted Bangladeshi family to our second security screening. Once again, the family lifted my spirits with their joy and love. You know God loves us and looks out for us right? Then maybe it won't surprise you as much as it did me to find out that my seat on the plane was right in the middle of my Bangladeshi family! What a huge blessing! I was able to talk to one of the young men and he told me they were all painters and just returning from a business trip to Beijing. Our plane went to Kunming and then we changed planes and went to Dhaka. I almost missed the last flight because I was in the bathroom when a shuttle came to bring us to our gate! You should have seen how stuffed we were on the shuttle! When I got on I thought there was no way I would fit. I was literally pressed against the wall, a pole, and two people. The amazing part is that five people got on after me! I was able to sit with my family on this flight as well because we had the same seats as the Kunming flight. The young man even helped me stow and collect my heavy carry on bag.
When I arrived in Dhaka I got in line for immigration. It took a long time to get to the front of the line but I had no problems moving through. My next job was to gather my bags at baggage claim. As I wheeled my new cart to the belt I saw my family leaving with their bags. They gave me big smiles and waves and we parted ways. When my bags were all skillfully piled on board a cart I began my walk through customs. A man stopped me and asked why I had so many bags. I told him it was because I was teaching for ten months and had a lot of school supplies. We had a lengthy conversation and he called over two other higher authorities to make sure I didn't need to pay taxes. Then he thanked me in a sweet speech for teaching the children of Bangladesh. Finally I was in Dhaka and found the van driver holding a sign with my name on it. At this point I was three hours late and the poor man had been waiting the whole time. We decided to stay and wait for the other teachers to arrive because they would be there soon.
The man sat where he could see the arrivals and I sat off to the side guarding my mountain. We occasionally looked over at each other to make sure everything was fine. It was quite early in the morning and we both let out several yawns. The other teachers arrived after a while and we got in line for the man to buy a bus ticket. He was planning to take our luggage to Chittagong by bus while we rode on the airplane. Later we found out that our luggage was so delayed in arriving because no one would sell him a bus ticket for 18 pieces of luggage. He had quite the job transporting our luggage!
Once again God's timing was perfect as my "one small personal item" bag ripped and the zipper broke off right as we boarded the last flight. Life would have been far more difficult if it had broken earlier in the trip. United with the other teachers, spirits were high as we approached our home for the next ten months. The school van was at the airport to pick us up and we piled in for an exciting drive to our homes. We almost had another adventure when the van didn't start at first. However, God decided we didn't need any more excitement and it started after a minute.
Driving through the streets was a thrilling and shocking welcome experience as we remembered all the unique aspects of Bangladesh. I will write more about the wonderful country soon. For now, that is the tale of God's reign over the crazy in getting me to beautiful Bangladesh.
