Sky

I can hear the motor van go “putter, plob, putter” as it takes us back to BanglaHope from the village, Hili. The sky is turning colors from blue to orange and then pink. To the East, I see a huge thunder head off in the distance. It is also changing to a glowing orange from the hot orange/pink sun slipping slowly beneath the horizon. The fields of green rice in the sunsets light, just add to the beautiful scenery. The quietness suddenly changes when we enter a small village. We stop to let one of the men who came with us, buy some sugar cane. As soon as we pull over and wait, it seems like the whole village comes crowding around us just to simply star at some rare versions of humans, us. The children are the closest, giggling and smiling. Then the women are nearby studying our faces like a student studies their books. And the men are around as well. I feel like a museum exhibit or some kind of rare piece of art that is making it’s debut. Everywhere we go it’s like this. I’m used to it by now. And honestly, it’s quite amusing to see everyones reaction as we drive by. As we leave the few shops and head back into the countryside women working in their rice fields stop what their doing to watch us go by. I look into the still blue sky and see the almost full moon shinning as white as a florescent light bulb. 

I’m sitting outside now and as I look over toward India’s border I see fireworks filling the sky. It’s a special Hindu holiday honoring one of their gods and today was the last day so they celebrate even more than they have this past week. I’m unable to write more than a few words at a time because the bugs are swarming around me. There is a bright light on over at the other end of the roof and it’s attracting thousands of bugs. I feel like a light myself. So many keep bouncing into me or landing in my hair. I must say, it is quite distracting.  I don’t have to use a light to write tonight because the moon is so bright. I love looking at the night sky!

Well, the fireworks seem to be slowing down, so maybe I’ll go inside and escape these tiny critters. Just thought I’d share what my afternoon and evening was like.  “Shoebow Rawtree” (good night)

Stillness

As I sit by myself on the roof of our building. The stars shine down brightly. The moon reflects off the water below me and I can hear the quiet chatter of the village people close by. I can also hear the loud conversations of the crickets and frogs arguing back and forth across the pond. Small wisps of clouds float by as they glow with the moons light. I can hear my self think. It’s been a while since I’ve been alone. But still I am not completely alone. I can sense someone greater pulling me towards the beauty around me. I like to think of the stars as God’s eyes, and sunsets, His smile. As I sit looking all around, I wonder what He’ll teach me while I’m here among the smoke filling sky. It’s hard to be patient. It’s hard to let go. But I’m working on both, on this roof top and I will try my best to continue as I climb down from my peaceful perch. 

(This picture was taken in Walla Walla)

The blogs are here!

We have internet now! So, I have written blogs and have posted them in ascending order. If you go to the blog right after the one titled "eyes", that is my first blog of my Bangladesh adventure. Enjoy!

Learning...

Sunday, October 3 

Well it’s been almost two weeks since I left home. If someone told me it had been a month I would believe them. Its felt like such a long time! I have learned so much in these past weeks. And so many new things have been packed into this little amount of time.   

Things about Bangladesh: 

• They hit their baby’s and children for fun and as a joke.
• They don’t use their left hand to eat, and they eat with their fingers.
• Looking down is a sign of respect
• women shouldn’t keep eye contact with men for more than a glance

-All the people here are so beautiful!

Common Bangla words/phrases that I say:

(the spelling is not right. I just spelled how it sounded) =)

• “Ami nahm Lisa” My name is Lisa 
• “Twome goman acho” How are you
• “Ami ballo achi” I am good
• “Ami tumakay ballobashi” I love you
• “Ahshow” - Come here
• “Boshow” sit
• “ballo” good
• “Na” no / “Heh” Yes
• “Donobahd” Thank you
• “Shoebow ratree” Good night
• “Shoebow shacall” Good morning

Friday, October 1  

Right now I am so thankful for generators. After a long while tonight without the electricity, the generators finally kicked in and we have air circulation in our room!  Woohoo! The humidity tonight is around 70% and it’s about 94 degrees. This is the equivalent to 118 degrees! 

After vespers tonight we said goodnight to the kiddos and then got invited into Olie’s room. She is a woman with the biggest heart! (She also is very talented with craft things and cooking.) A small after-vespers chat became a multiple hour story, learning and eating time. That’s the way this culture is. She first told us the story of her family’s situation. Olie has 5 sisters. Her second sister is divorced and her sister’s child lives with her parents. Her oldest is married and her 3 younger sisters are in school. Since they have no brothers, they have to work to help support their parents. Supporting the parents is usually the son’s job. Just recentlyher dad broke is back and had to have surgery but, they think that somehow, in the operation process, they cut his esophagus so now the food and water seeps out into his body instead of all going to his stomach. They don’t have enough money to pay for another operation. So Olie being not married and not in school has the job of caring for her family. She has such an incredible attitude. When she talked about giving her money to her sisters when they need help and to her parents she’s filled with joy! She said, “When I give to other’s, and I see that they are happy, it makes me happy too.” She loves to give to others and told us that she always thinks of what Jesus must have felt on the cross. Nothing we can do compares to what He did for us, she said. And that example is what she truly tries to follow.  She is such an amazing woman and her attitude is so positive! Her story was so so incredible to listen too! 

Beauty!

Monday, September 27  

There are a set of older twin girls her named Tonia and Sonia. They hardly now any English but they are so sweet. They’ll come up to me and hold my hand. (In Bangladesh, holding hands is a sign of good friendship. So you’ll see old or young, males or females holding hands.) Anyways, we’ll try to talk to them but they can’t understand much English. We’ve managed to point to things and learn Bangali words but not very much conversation happens. Even though they don’t get to speak with us, all they want to do is be around us. It’s so special. We sat outside the kids rooms this evening just before we went in to say goodnight. We heard them start their worships in their rooms and they sang their songs so loudly! It was so precious to hear such energetic and happy voices. The boys room wanted a story and song. The younger middle girls room wanted kisses so they crowded around us and gave us kisses. The older girls wanted a song and kiss (apa) so we sang and gave them hugs and kisses. They smuthered us with love.  They are such happy, beautiful children. Have I mentioned that all the people here in Bangladesh are beautiful! Every one of them! 

Memories being made...

Sunday, September 26

Sunday was so good! We went to Hili to get our clothes made. It’s wonderful because Kelsey and I have been wearing the same clothes for quite a while now. The town was bustling with so many people. We took a 25 min “van” ride into Hili. The vans here are a tri-cycle with a wagon type bed in the back. We squeezed 6 people and the poor man peddled us into town. Everyone stared so much and came to the shop windows while we were picking out fabric. Picking the fabric for the Salour and Kamees was a challenge. There are millions of designs here and many with crazy busy patterns on them. We finally chose them and took them to a tailer. They charge $1.50 to make a complete outfit.  And we payed about $5 to get the material. So cheap! We got back to the compound and they knocked on our door with an invitation to a program at 3. They had prepared a lovely program to welcome us even more. Banni had also taught us a traditional dance to preform for this. Oh man, it was embarrassing!! Lets just say, I can not dance! But it was fun to learn and laugh about. They decorated us like they traditionally do. This means painting our feet, tying our hair in a bun and putting flowers in it, painting our finger tips and putting a circle in the palm of our hand. They put a red dot on our forehead and put eyeliner and eyeshadow on our faces. The makeup was definitely for darker skin. It made me look like a clown. The program was so amazing. The little kids had divided into their age groups and prepared something special to do. Some danced, some put on a modeling show, some sang, and some did acting. One group of tiny boys acted out the rhyme “no more monkeys jumping on the bed”. It was adorable! It was such a fun program! And to see some of their traditional things was a great welcome gift! 

RAIN! =D

Sabbath, September 25  

Today it rained so hard! While the closing prayer was being said during church, rain came out of no where and it poured. The roof is tin so it made a beautiful sound. After church we ran outside in the rain and one of the girls here, Banni, took us to the roof of the staff building. This building is the tallest object for several miles around. The compound is surrounded by many rice fields and we could see in every direction for a very long ways. We could also see lightning flashing around and hear the thunder. I was in my element! They had a chili plant growing up there and we tried one. I bit into some of it instead of licking it and wow was it spicy!  I could still feel the heat after 15 min! It was so tasty though! We stayed up on the roof for a bit then all of a sudden the loudest thunder sounded and we jumped and ran inside. I loved it!

Friday, September 23 

We arrive at the orphanage after a 6 hour drive through crowded cities and small villages. Driving here is quite exciting. Without a car horn you would not be able to survive the roads. They use them every time they come up to pass another car to let them know they’re close by. They also use them to let the drivers know they won’t be moving. So when both drivers are using their horns it is quite the experience. They don’t pay attention to the lines in the roads and while passing someone, they’ll wait till the last second to pull in front of the car they’re passing to avoid the oncoming car. All the while, using there horns to communicate. Anyways, we get to the orphanage and are welcomed with very warm smiles. The children were all taking naps so we had some time to take our stuff up to our room and get acquainted with the compound. It’s gorgeous here! We’re set back, away from a city and in the middle of many rice fields. Everywhere is soooo green. I love it! 

Once the children woke up we went to meet them. Some were timid and others came right up to us to hold our hand and to be held. They are so precious and beautiful! That night they had vespers and welcomed us with a bouquet of flowers picked from their compound. I didn’t understand much of the program because it was said in Bangla. Hopefully I will learn to understand most of what they say. 

Thursday, September 22 

I’m here! After a really long trip we finally made it. We didn’t have any trouble getting to where we needed to be except when we arrived in Dhaka and went through immigration. They asked us to write down the address of the place we were staying and we didn’t know. After much discussion with the security officers about how we would get past, we remembered we had the phone number of Simson, the man who was picking us up. They tried calling that number but it was the wrong number. As it turns out, the last two numbers were switched. After a while I noticed a man pointing and waving his hands in huge gestures. He was far enough away that I couldn’t read the sign he had in his hands, but I was pretty sure he was motioning to us. I asked the guard if I could go out and see if this was the Simson and told them that if he was our ride, he would know the address. The guard agreed and escorted me out. It was Simson! It was such an answer to prayer! By this time most everyone had been cleared out of the airport and our luggage had been collected off the baggage wheel. They stamped our passports and gave us our luggage and we were off. We were thankful that Simson had waited around and found us. 

Now, let me back up a bit. We had an 11 hour layover in Hong Kong. This would have been quite dull if we had stayed inside the airport. However, we were told that there was a great place not that far outside of the airport that we could get to very easily by bus. It’s called Lantau Island. We took a public bus to a gondola station and then took a 25min gondola ride up a gorgeous mountain. We could look down on the bay and the airport. As we got further up the mountain we could see waterfalls and green landscape everywhere! When we got off the gondol we walked through this cute little town with shops and booths set up. Up ahead we could see this HUGE Buddha statue. Apparently, it is the tallest stone Buddha statue in the world. We climbed many steps to get to the top of the hill where the Buddha sat. Also in this village, they have a monastery. The landscaping was so peaceful and beautiful. While we were there we got to hear a monk chant and hit a big bell with what looked like a carved log. We wondered around the town for a bit longer and then headed back to the airport. We had to pay per hour for our luggage to be stored so we didn’t want to be out too long. The Hong Kong airport in gigantic so we hung out in there for the remaining 6 hours.