Goodbye but not Farewell

Yikes!

Three days left to go. I'm leaving for Calcutta on Thursday morning, then flying out to Bombay-Amsterdam-Detroit the next night. Today I had a meeting with the American Center staff to reflect on my Fulbright experience and give recommendations to improve the program. As usual, I had a lot of suggestions. I was glad to get some sense of "closure" from the meeting. Things have been feeling pretty anti-climatic lately.

Dr. Ward left this morning. I stopped over by her place last night to join the packing party in her guesthouse. My "help with packing" comprised downing a tasty bowl of red spinach and potato curry while having my right hand artistically decorated with henna paste (mehindi). It looks pretty cool, but smells funny. I would post a picture, but my film camera recently bit the dust quite literally when I dropped and broke it in the dirt near the Buriganga river. Mehindi tends to creep some people out. Kei says "the pattern is too intricate or something."

There's a saying in Bangla that goes something like "this is goodbye, but not farewell." It really captures how I feel about this place. Last time I left I had a strong feeling I'd return, and return I did 18 months later. I have that feeling again this time. I don't know when, but I'm sure that for my thesis field work or maybe just for fun, I'll be back on the shores of Golden Bengal very soon.