Isolation

 We made it!! We are back in NZ. We touched down, taxied and then received the announcement that after 27 hrs of flying we were going to be put on a bus to Rotorua. To be honest though, the trip down to Rotorua was lovely. It was great to see the NZ countryside again. It was a bit rainy but by the time we arrived in Rotorua the sun was out. We had to sit on the bus for another 20mins to half an hour for processing but we were in luck, they were taking families with children first, woohoo, I knew we had children for a reason!

Our Isolation hotel (The Ibis) has been great. The staff are friendly, the food is plentiful and the outdoor area is open 24/7. Here's an arial view of our walking area.

There's a small patch of grass that up to 15 people are allowed on. It's amazing how that patch of grass is so nice to sit on. The kids were all given bubbles, chalk, skipping rope and a foam fitness dodecahedron. We used the dodecahedron to play our invented game of hand ball/squash/volleyball in a small area of the carpark. The area had three sides so the dodecahedron could bounce off the sides and got incorporated into the game. It was great fun until I lost the dodecahedron on the roof! The sad thing is that we are on the top level of the hotel and can see it sitting on the roof of a lower adjacent building. It's on the roof of the building just jutting into view on the bottom right of the photo.

We've had one negative covid test on day three and had another test yesterday. We are still awaiting the results of this test as this will determine whether or not we will be home for Christmas!

Temperatures, the final hurdle

 The time had finally come, our flight was confirmed and we checked in online. We had our negative covid tests, our isolation was booked in NZ. Everything was set to go but we knew we needed to have a temperature check before we could even enter the airport. I had a bit of a cold that was almost cleared up but the rest of us were all feeling well. We were dropped to the airport and joined the line to enter the airport.

I was at the head of the line and DC brought up the rear. Once we got to the top of the line and they checked our papers, the man took out 5 forms for health checks. He wrote down random temperatures on each of the forms with out even checking our temps. He then pointed a digital thermal thermometer at my forehead and waved me through. I went passed him and turned around to watch the others getting checked. It was hilarious, the thermometer was not even on! 

There was quite a bit of rigmarole in the airport of needing to get copies made of covid test results and different desks all over the place. There was also a bit of a problem with our stop over in Brisbane (possibly because we were Kiwi's without a visa) We don't really know the issue but they got it sorted after some long phone calls. That being said, once we were through customs we were ready to board the plane. We were all given face shields that we would need to keep on for the next 27hrs of our journey home. The boys did so well and no one complained about the masks and shields. It was just one of those things you had to do. We were really well fed and we all managed to get a bit of sleep along the way.

 

Final meal

 We were down to our last days in Dhaka. I got some last shopping done to take back for Christmas presents. All going well, we'll be out of Isolation on the 24th December!

We bumped into some friends of ours who invited us for lunch on our final day before we headed to the airport. Two are Chinese and one from Brazil. We were served delicious home made dumplings and enjoyed a trip to their roof top for one final look over the smokey city of Dhaka. These friends were very cautious with Covid so we felt very safe visiting them.

Off to Dhaka and farewells

The time came where we had to say our final farewells to the staff/friends of Chandpur. We love them so much!! And we also needed to say goodbye to the puppies born right outside our dining window. It was so great for the boys to see these puppies grow in the last few weeks before we left.

To leave Bangladesh, both the government and the airline require a negative covid test. We have already been to the testing hospital in Dhaka twice, once with our eldest son and once with another Kiwi friend.

If you are ever going to catch covid, this is the place. There are crowds of people crammed into a waiting hall where social distancing is pretty difficult. 

It was a long wait for our results to come through and it was just one more barrier to get over before we could fly. Most peoples results had come through within 24 hours but ours were taking a bit longer. As the  hours passed family were also anxiously awaiting the results but finally at about 2pm we all came back covid negative.

A bit of a fright

It was a normal day waking to the sound of roosters, chickens, turkeys, dogs, geckos (tikatiki). The hostel boys were starting their morning singing where their amazing voices filled the air accompanied by drums that played their own beat not resembling the song being sung.

For the last few weeks I would roll over, grab my phone and check our airline app. We were now only 5 days our from our return home but we knew that anything can happen with the current state of travel with Covid still around the world. On this morning I grabbed my phone to the heart dropping viewing that our flight to Doha was cancelled. Our flight from Doha to Auckland was still confirmed but that wasn't very helpful if we couldn't get to Doha. I grabbed my computer and logged into our managed booking to see who we could contact but strangely, the flight was not marked as cancelled on there. DC called the airline and was on hold for nearly an hour. I found their facebook page and sent a private message hoping that someone could confirm the status of our flight. Both of us received the same information
that the flight was still confirmed. The mobile app continued to say the flight was cancelled even after our departure.

Countdown is on

Let's back track a bit

Here we were in Bangladesh enjoying a roof top lunch with our friends and counting down the days until we started our long journey home. I kept busy continuing to do accounts, cleaning up the house and making sure the boys bags were packed. Dad was recovering well and seemed to be back on his feet and walking 40 minute walks around the neighbourhood. It was a strange time that went very slowly, the excitement of being home in NZ with family and friends was exciting but I also enjoyed the slowness that time seemed to be going so we could really savour our last weeks here in Bangladesh.

Here's a little confession: This was the easiest pack up ever! All we had to do was sort our personal stuff and then each day I would put items on our table that were free for staff to take. The rest of our household items had been supplied to us from the mission and we are just so grateful to everything they have done for us to make this time here amazing. And here's the biggest confession, we just walk away and someone else cleans the house for us (we did pay them of course!) I absolutely love the staff here on the compound and they really did become like family. Saying goodbye to everyone was a sad moment as goodbyes always are but we know we will return one day (maybe for shorter stints). Our ties and roots with Bangladesh are certainly not over.