A Long Slow Goodbye

Ali had her second goodbye party on Thursday. The first was an Official one with the Committee's partners, with whom Ali had been writing grant proposals, stories and brochures. She got lots (and lots and lots) of thank you gifts, some wonderful, some less wonderful and most of which she doesn't have space for in her luggage, but now she might be shipping some stuff by DSL.
This one was a joint goodbye party with MCC Carolyn. We had a big Bengali pulou dinner at my house with all their friends that remain in-country. I love hosting at my house, but I hate saying goodbye to friends. At the end Ali and I went out to help our friends find cabs home, since it is tough in my neighborhood sometimes. When we came back we found that both of us had left our keys in the locked apartment. It was 10:45, so the extra keys at the office did little good, and the family who keeps my spare set for these sort of occasions is out of the county. So we called my housekeeper, Sheuli, in spite of the fact that she had gone home a scant hour before that. She came back laughing indulgently at our situation and let us in.