"Watch this!!" (or, "How to part w/ your possessions in two easy steps...")

Hello everyone! Just a quick update to let everyone know that I was robbed the day before yesterday in Dhaka. I'm OK and maybe the word "robbery" is too interactive for what actually happened, but it certainly was the result! I was a on a rickshaw (if you're not sure, Google it!), heading to the bus terminal to catch the inter-city bus to Bogra. I had my larger bag on the floor beside me and my smaller bag on my lap. I even had a hand on it so it wouldn't fall or anything. Well, the "anything" is what happened - two guys on a motorcycle slowed beside us just long enough for the back guy to snatch the backpack off my lap. They sped away as the rickshaw driver and I looked on in shock! You can't catch a motorcycle with a rickshaw, so I quickly had to swallow the fact that my laptop, cell phone, flip video camera, keys, flash drive, dollar store sunglasses (hey, they were my favorite dollar store sunglasses), and around $70 (5,000 taka!) - were gone!! The whole thing happened in the blink of an eye!

Of course, I'm lucky. I wasn't "mugged" in the traditional sense - no harm done to me or the rickshaw driver. It was difficult to see my things speeding away, but as I thought about it on the long trip to Bogra, how important are those things, really? Most of it can be replaced. A few things, like my monthly financial report, the receipts, some documents and video clips are irreplaceable, but all in all I came out of it not too badly. And it made me consider anew just how attached we can be to things. Especially electronic things. (If you're not sure of this, just consider NOT using your computer at all for 48 hours...I think most of us couldn't do it!)

Well, enough of THAT - on to "Watch THIS!!"...

Two days before the robbery, I was in a toy shop, looking for a gift for Piash, the 2-year old and only child at my host family house. We were having a good time looking around at the odd assortment of goodies in the store, including snow globes, greeting cards w/ odd usages of the English language, and even an Eiffel tower w/ a hidden dagger inside! Anyway, I finally found something I thought he might like - a roll-up dart board w/ magnetic darts - the kind that won't hurt anybody or anything. Or so we thought. The store manager encouraged Phil and I to try it out, so we divided up the darts and got to it!! Phil hit the bull's eye on his first shot, so I was pretty bummed and decided to do a trick shot for my last throw. After pronouncing the infamous "Watch this!", I proceeded to throw my last shot underhanded, like I had done so many times growing up.

[I'd like to interject here that while growing up we had a REAL dart board with REAL "kill the kids" type darts, not these silly magnetic things! Our dart board, surrounded by a thousand tiny holes in the wall (mostly the attempts of my two siblings at playing the game...!!), was located in the "ping pong room". The "ping pong room" also housed the washer and dryer, so the ping pong table that my dad made served a double purpose. Come to think of it, so did the ping pong paddles, but that's another story...]

... Since the magnetic dart was rather lightweight, it sailed clear over the top of the dart board towards the back of the store. Apparently, it was NOT as "lightweight" as we thought, though, because it managed to bring two glass shelves filled with the snow globes and ceramic nick-knacks crashing to the floor! There was water, glass, and fake snow everywhere!! We all gasped simultaneously, not sure whether or laugh or cry. The short of it is that, a half-hour and 3,300 taka later, we were freed and could properly have a good laugh about it. As an after note, I've agreed to be more careful in situations involving the phrase "watch this!", but I think Phil still plans to carry plenty of cash with us, just in case! (Thanks for bailing me out, Phil, and for splitting the losses - I owe you one!)

So, all in all, it was an exciting week in Dhaka, with three meetings as well! If anyone would like the exciting details of the meetings, please write me separately. Thanks.

In the meantime, if anybody wants to contribute to the "Larry Jones Robbery & Green Dart Catastrophe Fund", please send a check with "LJR & GDCF" on the memo line to Varina Church of the Nazarene (look it up!). The treasurer there is a good friend of mine and knows how to get the money to me.

(Sorry, no video for this posting! Nor the video I took of Eid, where the goats and cows are slaughtered right in the street. Nor the videos from the host family house... (shaking my head sadly...))

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! --Larry

PS - Bangla lessons are going well: Oi khelnar dokan ajke khub lav koreyeche!

Translation: "That toy store made a good profit today!"