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
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