Quick trip to Asia

 At the beginning of April I was sent to Bangladesh for 10 days for work. The timing ended up working fairly well, as it so happened that I ended up leaving the day that my parents came in to visit us for a month, so they we able to take care of the kids (except that my dad ended up in the hospital with kidney stones for part of it...). It was a great experience for me, and I am especially glad I was able to do it now as pretty soon I will have less flexibility. Leaving a couple reasonably independent boys is one thing, leaving a breastfeeding baby is another.

 Our office in Bangladesh and the field coordinator, Muzahid.

 

This is what my feet looked like from the moment I stepped off the airplane in Dhaka until I was back in Geneva. I have not idea why I was so swollen, but I had never seen my body look like that before. Honestly, from the knees down I looked like elephant man. In the morning I was a little bit better, but I was back to elephant man every night.

 

 I loved getting picture of all the modes of transportation for Jaxon and Jonas. And it was certainly appreciated.    

 Many of the articles of clothing in my home were birthed here.

 The one touristy thing that we did (we squeezed it in early one morning before starting the workshop) was go for a boat trip down Jamuna river.

 A man setting up his net to catch the flying fish.

 Me and my supervisor at the resort where we facilitated the workshop.

 Dinner at Muzahid's house. I had never really thought of myself as a giant before going to Bangladesh, but here I certainly was. It was kind of depressing when I couldn't fit into any of their beautiful shoes with my enormous size 7 (EU-38) feet. I would like to blame it all on the swelling, but that would probably be a little disingenuous.

We headed back to Geneva after a week and a half, satisfied and exhausted. It was literally 10 days of non stop work, but it was great. It was especially good to meet all of the people in person that I have been working with virtually for so long.  Of course I was happy to get back to the family and to eat something other than the curry that I was so enthusiastic about at the beginning of the trip...