Day 1 – I arrived in Dhaka at 5 am, Nov 2. As I left on Oct 31, Nov 1 got rather lost in the travel! I’ll make up going back with a day I’ll do almost twice.

As I’m doing so much more traveling, I came over on my own itinerary. The rest of the group arrived just a little later. I was met by the wonderful George, who is the donor liaison here. He is a friend and some of us who know him call him St George as he is such an amazing person. It was such a delight to see his face, get the hug and the flowers. Everyone greets you with flowers here – another reason to love this place.

To the hotel through uncharacteristically light traffic. The early hour helped. I checked in at the same lovely hotel I stayed at the first trip. Such delight to get a hot shower and stretch out on the bed – an absolute luxury! One would think I’d been living in the bush for a month instead of just a day’s worth of travel!

I was a few hours before the rest of the group arrived so I puttered around, sorting child sponsorship gifts, getting some money from an ATM which required a couple block walk along the crowded streets – vendors, beggars, colorful rickshaws, beautiful modern buildings right next door to dilapidated wrecks, and overhead, the incredible tangle of cables, looped and circled around. Some of it almost looks like an art installation! That it all works boggles the mind, but it does!

Then I enjoyed a pastry and a cappuccino as I needed caffeine to stay awake. We all met up for lunch so we are officially off and running.

George, bless him, kept this day very light as everyone is dragging a bit. We have completely flipped day and night and are 13 hours ahead of home.

We shopped after lunch – some of the women needed to buy local clothing to wear here as that is what we do. I’ll be the least colorful among them as I have enough loose clothing from home. Boring and cheap me!

After shopping, we had some down time at the hotel before supper. Some slept but I stayed up and prepped for tomorrow and our time.

A nice supper, fellowship time, and devotions capped off the day and I was in bed and asleep by 8:30!

Sunday will be such a full day – I am deeply honored to be sharing with the World Vision staff. Then I will meet my sponsored child – whoop! In the afternoon, we all will be a part of the new WV initiative in sponsorship – Chosen. More on that tomorrow. Then we grab a quick flight to Jessore. An amazing day!