Of Sickles and Cells...

The sharp sickle made a clean slice as it cut through the small bundles of rice grass. The early morning sun puts a deep golden orange glow on the already gold stalks. A smoky haze is over the rice fields as we begin to cut. As I’m bent over, I can hear the sounds of the other sickles crunching and crackling through the golden stalks. I am so excited that I finally get to do this!
It’s a BanglaHope tradition to have as many people from the orphanage come out on the first day and help start the rice harvest. So all the staff, some of the caregivers, and the first and second graders all come and help. Everyone just finds a spot at the beginning of the paddy and blazes their own trail through the field.

The sickles are so sharp it doesn’t take any sawing back and forth to cut the rice. Just one swipe and it’s through. The rice grows in bundles and we could average about 3 to 4 bundles across as we moved ahead. When a rhythm was created, we could get moving pretty fast especially if a little competitiveness kicked in. (maybe the competitiveness was just me. hehe) When we got a handful we just laid it neatly behind.

Then someone else came tying them all up and handing them to the kids who carried them to the awaiting carts. We did about four paddies in about an hour. But the experience was so worth it! I have to say that the laborers that do it all day, bent over in the hot sun have my respect. It’s not an easy job but being able to do it for a few hours was a blast!

People Watching... Wait... They're Watching ME!

We’ll we took a trip into the nearest big town, Panchbibi. We took the three wheeled, flat bed cart, which is now named Mr. Puffin Toot. Anyways, Kelsey and I sat on the back. This trip was so fun. I have so many stories just from the six hours we were away. So since I don’t feel like writing them all in one big story, I will make them into bullet stories. All of these stories are about the people here and how they interacted with us. =)

• As I said, Kelsey and I were on the back of Mr. Puffin Toot with our legs swinging freely. It’s an exciting ride since you can’t see what’s coming ahead. We just see what everyone does after we pass. Sometimes, when we pass guys on bicycles we can tell they start pedaling faster and a huge smile comes across there face. Some make an effort to stay so close to us and will come inches from brushing their front wheel against our knees. We got a chuckle out of a few that stuck with us for a ways and decided to make a story of why they were trying so hard to pedal after us. One even tried several times to get close enough to ask us where we were from. Finally after a few miles he asked us the second time and we replied “Bangladesh”. He thought that was funny but then began to pedal less and less until he was too far behind to catch up. I guess that’s all he wanted to know. 
• We passed many groups of children playing on the side of the road. Some playing badminton, some football (soccer), some just talking with each other. Two boys as we passed got the biggest smile on their face and started sprinting after us with their badminton rackets still in their hands. I was quite impressed how fast they could run and how long they kept up with us. Another group of kids started singing so loud as soon as they saw us. Another group of older kids pointed energetically at us and as they did they said, “How are YOOOUUUUU!” and then laughed and danced about. A little girl saw us pass and gasped and said loudly, “OH! Baba!!” Which is the Bangali equivalent to “oh my goodness!” or something of that sort. Then she realized that she said it loud enough for us to here and giggled as she timidly hid behind a friend. 
• I was looking for a birthday gift for Banni at a small shop. Two men were chatting with the owner and as I came over to look at the stuff in the counter, I saw out of the corner of my eye that one of the men looked down at my feet wide eyed and then up to my head. Then nudged his friend to look at my feet and see that I wasn’t wearing any kind of heel. I find that many people look at my feet here just to see how much of a heel I should be wearing. Then when they see I’m only in flip flops, I can see their mouths drop and big grins come across their face. 
• While we were shopping, Mrs. Waid asked one of her Bangali friends to see if he could get a better price on one of the containers she wanted to buy. He would go into the shop by himself and see if it was just our skin color that was making the price go up. We waited out in an ally-sort-of-place and stood under a little grass shade shelter. After being there only one minute a crowd had started to gather. 10, then 20, then 30... I think there must have been 40 people there by the time we left. The Bangali that had come with us tried to get them to walk on by but only ended up convincing two people. So he just started to translate what they were all saying about us. A man that was leaning against one of the bamboo supporters told us that, “We never see foreigners, so when we do, we like to stand and watch them. It makes us very happy.” When we heard this, we chuckled. He saw and said, “See, they are happy and we are happy. So, it’s ok for us to stare at them.” An older woman made her excuse to be, “I am a woman. So I should be able to look at other woman.” After awhile of listening them talk back and forth to each other Mrs. Waid laughed and said to us, “Do you fee like monkeys in the zoo?” And she told the translator to tell them we were monkeys that had escaped from the zoo.       I must say these people are very friendly and they ones crowding around us were so entertained by just watching us stand there that they brought us chairs so we could sit while they watched us. After awhile, the man came back to tell us the price. He had gotten it a little cheaper for us. When we started to walk away we looked behind us and the whole crowd was following us like a parade. I felt for a second what Jesus must have felt like as He walked through towns. Always having His disciples and others following behind Him. No wonder why he went by Himself to pray!

• Now, a short story on road conditions. The roads here vary. There are some that are way better than what I would have expected. And actually well kept. These are in the big cities, like Dahka. When you get out closer to where we are it’s still not too bad but there are pot holes you need to swerve and miss sometimes. And then when you get into the villages there are dirt paths that they drive down. I’m not going to even call them roads. They are quite fun to ride on. It’s like off roading while going as fast as you can, while you try and figure out which side of the path might be a better choice. We had to laugh at the road repairs here. When there is a hole that is really big or deep, they will dump a pile of bricks in there. It definitely makes the hole less deep but it doesn’t make it smoother, that’s for sure. 
• One last story. This one happened today actually. We went to visit the village school, which is walking distance from the orphanage. They were having a “picnic” and we were invited. Here a picnic just means a day of playing games. So we went with the Waids. One thing about Bangali’s is that if you have guest come over, you need to feed them food. So when we arrived they took us into their house. (The school teacher and wife stay’s in a house attached to the school) They gave us fruit, fried egg with cauliflower, this funnel cake type stuff, and palau rice. The funnel cake thing was very interesting. It tasted like deep fried sweet dough but when I bit into it, there was little droplets of sugar water that came out. They make it by frying dough and then put it in a pot of boiling sugar water.  Usually Bangalis don’t like sweet things, but I guess this is an exception. Anyways, we visited for awhile and then started back. When we were almost back home, we met two of the women that work at BanglaHope coming the opposite direction. We asked them where they were headed and they said to make rice flour. I asked if we could join them. Wow! I’m so glad I got to watch! They went into the village real close and went to a friends home. All the houses are made of mud. And this rice flour maker is made into the mud house floor. It’s about 6 feet long. The was it works is there is a big hole in the ground where you put the rice. There is a big log on a level contraption. At the end of the level there is a pounder that goes into the hole. They make this hammer go up and down by pushing the other end down with there leg while gravity does the rest of the job by slamming down into the hole with the rice in it. It took about 30min or so to completely grind about a gallon of rice. We got to help make the flour. It was so fun to see and to help. I would have taken a picture but I didn’t have a chance to grab my camera before we left. So hopefully the description makes sense. Maybe I can get a picture later if we go back sometime. 
  
  
  Well hope you enjoyed a few more stories about what I’m experiencing over here. We’ll be going on another adventure on Tuesday. We’ll go to the village schools in the South and then up to Dhaka to see a wedding. So there will be more stories coming in a week or so. 
  Hope that each of you are having a wonderful November! Enjoy the fall leaves! =D 
  
  
  

Trip to the City

Disclaimer: This entry is really long and not written the best. Just a warning. But there are a few stories in here somewhere. =)

We took a trip to Dhaka this week! The Waids were wanting to buy things for the kids such as, sweaters, shoes, leggings, shirts, blankets, and other things. We traveled by bus starting from the nearby town, Helee. The buses were in better condition then I thought they would be. We each had a seat the whole way. It was more like a charter bus. They sold us the four seats in the very front of the bus. The good thing about those seats is that they have much more leg room. The bad thing is that if the bus was in an accident, those seats would be the first seats to get hit. And let me tell you, it’s not uncommon for accidents to happen here. They drive so crazy here. It’s like they are playing a constant game of chicken with every car. It’s pretty entertaining, actually. On the way, I saw a bus on the side of the road that had gotten hit on the drivers side by an oncoming car. The whole side of the bus had peeled back just like a banana peels. The seats were exposed to outside and the windows were shattered. This is what most of the buses look like here (or worse):

Anyways, back to my trip, I got on a side story. So, us four Americans are sitting in the very front. The other 4 Bangali girls sat in 4 seats towards the back. And the 3 kids that we were taking to the dental clinic, sat on our laps in the front. It must have been quite an unusual sight for the people climbing into the bus; us white people with Bangali kids on our laps. The trip took about 7 hours, but I enjoyed looking out the window and seeing the countryside and cities. I loved watching the kids look out the window as well. It was there first time outside of the little area around the orphanage. They had such a good time pointing out sugar cane, trains, planes, and much more. We finally arrived in Dhaka and got settled. Then headed across the busy street to a place where they had shops. Little did I know that the next day would be packed full of shopping! As packed as the busy streets here; with people and cars and bikes and taxis. 

Tuesday came so soon and we were up and going bright and early. Bungo Bazar was our destination and it took about an hour through thick traffic to get there. They had a 12 seater van pick us up because of all the supplies they were going to buy. The trip over was eventful to say the least. Besides squeezing past cars with only inches to spare, and getting to see the big city, we had an issue with the kids we brought with us. Apparently it’s very common for Bangali people to get motion sick. We didn’t have a problem with it on the way because they were given medicine right before they left. But today, they had a full stomach and the right amount of motion for them to be miserable. The two girls were fine at first, laughing and chatting away. But, slowly they became more and more quite. Tisha needed to go to the bathroom but we were in the middle of traffic and had no way to get out. We had just stopped about 20 min before for her to go so we figured she would be ok for a bit. Wrong! A couple min later the floor was wet and she had a smelly dress. Not 2 min later, without warning, Deborah leaned forward and threw up on the floor of the van. They both looked very miserable now. We had no bags or napkins or anything except a newspaper. So they laid that down and explained that she should come to the window next time but if she couldn’t get there fast enough to try and get it on the paper. Literally, right when they had explained that to Deborah, Tisha threw up. Oh dear! All we could do was laugh at the coincidence. I looked over at the driver to see what he was thinking about all this mess now on the bottom of his van. But he was just laughing at the crazy timing of it all. We still had a ways to go and I felt so sorry for how miserable they were feeling! But after several minutes of being on solid ground they were feeling better. 

Bongo Bazar is so crazy! In the morning it was pretty quiet except for the sellers trying to get you to stop and look at there items. By the afternoon, the path between shops was crowded. These shops are lined up one after another like cells. The walkway is about a yard and a half wide and it’s all inside. You can walk back and forth between the rows and columns for so long! They have so many different booths. They sell everything you can imagine and more than 20 people sell the same type of item. 

(this is one of the walk ways, as you can sort of see, it's stuffed with stuff)

Mrs. Waid got right to work with her bargaining and buying. We got there around 8:30 or 9 in the morning and she didn’t stop till about 4 in the afternoon. I was amazed. I got a chance to go see another market where they sell sports equipment, appliances, and electronics. It was nice to have something to do because otherwise we would just stand around. But when we were standing, watching Mrs. Waid it was still interesting. She is fun to watch and very good at getting the price she wants. You can see a sparkle in her eye as she’s getting the price lower and lower and you can tell she’s having fun. While she was busy getting sweaters for the kids, I got a really good deal and bought a nice sweater for a little less than 2 dollars! All the products they Have here are seconds. They can’t export them to other places because they have some kind of flaw, like a stain or a crooked seam or a little hole. But for only $2 it’s a great buy! 

I got to stay an extra day with Mr. Waid and Banni. He had to see a lawyer about something and they only time he could do it was at 7pm. So everyone left at 5:30 the next morning and Banni and I chilled in Dhaka. We took a rickshaw to a place where there was supposed to be a movie being filmed but it was closed. So our trip just turned into a nice scenic ride. For lunch Mr. Waid took us to a really nice Indian food buffet. In the U.S. It probably would have been a 5 star or close to it. But here it only cost us 4 bucks for all you could eat. They had wonderful Nan, curries, and salads. Soooo tasty! I would have never guessed I’d be eating at such a nice restaurant here. It was quite a treat. That evening we headed over to a place were Mr. Waid got his hair cut. This was crazy! He got a hair cut, shave, massage, facial, and wash for just over two dollars! I was so surprised. And the massage took longer than the haircut. They just do the massage after the hair cut while you’re still in the chair. Neck, shoulders, arms, hands and head. Quite impressive! We headed over to the Lawyers office and while they talked, Banni and I walked in the night market. 

(They like having their picture taken)

It was mostly vegetables and fruits but there were a few selling shoes and shirts and little toys. We wondered back  and forth listening to the venders try and call us over to get us to buy something. Then, all of a sudden a little boy came up to me and grabbed my wrists so tightly. He was shouting something at me but I couldn’t understand him. He didn’t look like he was a street kid because he was pretty well taken care of. I think he just assumed that since I was white I would have money to give to him. He would not let go. It took two random strangers that saw this happen to pry him off of my arms. After that I felt pretty safe and protected. They said it was the most crime infested part of Dhaka but when two men were willing to go out of there way to help me I felt protected. 

After Mr. Waids appointment with the lawyer we headed to the bus stop. It was set back in an ally and so filthy. People were crowding around the tables trying to buy their tickets and then going over to buy a cigarette to smoke while they waited. We sat down for about 2 hours before our bus left at 11pm. It was quite exciting to be leaving at night. This added a whole new level of adventure since traveling at night is more dangerous. They have these medal bars the separate the passengers from the bus driver and they lock the gate between the door and the seats so that if a thief came in they wouldn’t be able to get into the passengers. As we got going and headed into the traffic, I heard a screeaapp. The sound of metal on metal. That sound makes my skin chill. I turned to look out the window and saw that we had gotten too close the the bus next to us. There was quite a shouting argument between bus drivers as they tried to decide who was going to move over first. It was pretty intense looking out the front windshield wondering if we would make it back in out lane before the bright headlights coming toward us would hit us. But thankfully our driver had good night vision and good depth perception. 

(a trip in the rickshaw)

Well this has gotten longer than I expected. So if you get this far, I’m impressed. ;) I have more stories but they’ll have to wait. I miss every one of you!!!