April in Dhaka! This month brought the realization that we have somehow joined the ranks of the “old-timers” attached to the US Embassy here, simply by dint of having been here more than a year. Transfer season is upon us again, bringing in the fresh faces of a handful of new junior officers to replace the grizzled veterans heading out to new pastures. That means the party (or “function”, in FS-speak) season is here again too, as we celebrate the new arrivals and imminent departures. As usual, we are often homebound with the kids while the other unburdened souls are making the most of their freedom. However we still do try to get out on occasion, and haven’t been lacking in invitations. And sometimes it’s just the two of us going out, trying out a new restaurant or shop. There’s a new Korean restaurant in town that is pricey but quite good; after going there once on our own, we went back with the kids. Tasman was fascinated with the table that had a gas grill built into the middle of it for shabu-shabu, and is trying to wear down our defenses so that we’ll get one for the home. Not likely.

Our new Ambassador, Patricia Butenis, arrived. She’s wasted no time in having the US Embassy community over to her house for a welcome lunch, and also hosted a reception for the other Ambassadors in town that Adham somehow found himself on the guest list for. It was a lot of fun for him to talk to the representatives of Canada, the Philippines, Germany, and many other nations, and do his best to project a good image of our country overseas.

Crystal has recently begun a successful sideline as a relocation consultant. Through a fairly random series of connections, she was contacted by the HR manager of a large corporation in Hong Kong that is trying to convince one of its executives to relocate to Bangladesh and set up a new office here. She was only given a few days’ notice before the man and his wife and young child were due to arrive, but she was able to spring into action and come up with a full schedule of events for their stay, including school and hospital tours, lunches and dinners out with other expats, a survey of the local real estate market, and a guided city tour. Although the firm that hired her couldn’t have known it from the information they had at hand, she is ideally suited to this type of work, as it combines her previous experience in intercultural management with her current knowledge of who to talk to and how to get things done in Dhaka.

The kids are doing great, as usual. It’s hard to believe that Tasman is almost done with the school year; we’re getting a little nervous about how to keep him (and Atlas, for that matter) engaged during the summer break. There are a couple of options for activity groups that we’re looking into, so we hope something will work out. Tasman has made great progress in his pre-reading skills, and is now starting to sound words out letter by letter – these are things his parents didn’t learn until they were in 1st grade, i.e. two years later than Tasman’s current age! It also really seems to help Atlas to have an older brother who is so interested in learning – his vocabulary is growing by at least a word a day, and he’s really interested in learning his numbers now too.

Some pictures from the past month: Easter parties and more.