Before moving to Dhaka in 2011 I spent two years being based in DC and making one to five week trips to the city. During this period, I remember asking the then chief of party is feelings about life in Dhaka and his response has stuck with me, "Andie, I like my life here, but I can't say I like the country."
As the title of this blog says, expatriates live large in Asia. Most families have at least one but mostly two maids/nanny's/cooks, a driver, kids in the outstanding American School. There is never a lack of interesting work. The other half of the statement above references the other side of the Dhaka coin, the attack on your senses. All of them. Hot, smelly, noisy, incredibly too much traffic, public deification, and lack of system making everything that much more difficult and exhausting.
Without full realization, I had an idea of what I was getting into with this assignment. I knew I was going to have a cream puff life in country with in your face poverty. What I didn't expect was how this juxtaposition would effect my emotional and mental health and how guilty I would feel about simple things, like clothing. A few months ago, I came across this article that reminded me the work here is also emotional work, that it's okay to feel frustrated at times, that emotional work exhausts you in different ways, and not to feel guilty about taking a day of rest or a escape vacation. . . to Thailand. :) http://www.expatbackup.com/2011/05/3-things-that-separate-the-good-aid-workers-from-the-burn-outs/
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