Ami Tomake Bhalobashi

of Nemo and sunburns

2010-04-15T19:05:00.003+06:00

I love Phi Phi Island's Long Beach. My goodness. I feel like I've been photoshopped into a travel book. The ocean is crystal blue and the sand is soft and white. We've been snorkelling a couple times already and I can't believe the beautiful creatures I've seen. What a God we serve!

Right now I'm paying 3bhat/min to be on the computer so this will definitely be a short one. It's only a week until Dad and I head for the airport in Bangkok--to a plane that will take me back to my old life in North America. I'm praying to God every day that I'm not the same person I used to be, nor will I fall back into that person...

But for right now, I'm enjoying seeing Nemo and his friends: angel fish, parrot fish, needle fish, star fish... Just beautiful. But all that comes with a price! Dad and I both have wicked sunburns on our backs. That just means though that I'll have a wonderful tan by the time I get home :) Yay team!

more later,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of lotsa water and sandy beaches

2010-04-13T22:28:00.004+06:00

Ahhh another early morning. At this rate, I'm going to need a vacation from my vacation when I get home! lol We were up at 4 and out the door at 5am this morning to catch our plane to Bangkok. Luckily, Dad and I didn't have anyone beside us on the flight so I was able to stretch out a little and catch some zzz's.

When we arrived at BKK, we had almost three hours before check-in for our flight to Phuket opened up... What to do..? SLEEP! lol We found a couple chairs in a quiet area (if there is such a thing) and I fell asleep again. The sad thing is, at this rate, I'm going to have to retire my blanket soon.. It's been so many places, so many countries with me but now it's starting to get a little tattered looking. That's kinda a sad thought for me so I'll move on to happier things!

I'm in PHUKET! Even more exciting, I'm in Phuket during the water festival! You should have seen the streets on the way from the airport to our hostel. They were just lined with people armed with buckets and baby powder. Yes, Phuket has taken it one step further and has been putting dabs of baby powder on people's cheeks for good luck. It hasn't happened to me yet but I'm sure somewhere along the way it will... :P Dad and I bought little waterproof pouches at the night market last night so I tucked my camera into it and vowed to protect it with my life lol.

After Dad and I checked into the Pineapple GuestHouse (nothing really special but suffices for the night and is close to the beach), we wandered around Karon before heading down to the beach. Good thing we changed into our swim suits in our room because we got doused over and over with full buckets of sun-warmed water. Honestly, this festival is really fun but sometimes creepy old white men come up and pour water down your front... You can't tell me that it's completely innocent. Yuck. So I've been turning around and letting them pour it over my head and down my back. That seems more kosher.

About five minutes walk from our hostel, I set foot on a BEAUTIFUL sandy beach. The sun was just setting and the whole sky was shades of pink and purple and orange. It was stunning. Dad and I ran to the surf and let our toes sink into the wet sand as the waves rolled by our ankles. Wow. Just incredible. This is SO much better than White Rock! lol I feel so blessed to be here and am so thankful that Dad decided to come travel with me.

Tomorrow morning is a slightly less early morning. Only slightly. We have to get up at 6 so we can leave by 7 to make the ferry headed for Ko Phi Phi Island. So many people have recommended that we skip right over Phuket and head for Phi Phi and then Krabi or Koh Lanta. Krabi is where they filmed The Beach, that horror movie from a couple years ago with Leonardo DiCaprio. Anyways, we're hoping it will be just as beautiful--though a lot less violent--as the movie lol.

I've been disappointed with the internet here in Thailand. I thought it would be a lot better because usually the Asian countries are so up on the technologies but I really think I had better internet in Bangladesh. For reals. Anyways, the point of that comment is that I don't know what the wi-fi will be like on Phi Phi but I'll still try my best to blog and put up pictures so you can see what we're up to over here!

9 days til home. Can it really be...? Elliot posted a blog today about how she's contemplating life right now and wishing she could be back in Bangladesh because life was so much simpler there. I really couldn't agree more! That's part of the reason why we are headed for the jungles of remote Phi Phi in efforts to get away from the commercial Phuket area. But moreso, I miss feeling a strong sense of purpose like what I had in Bangladesh. I don't want to slip back into a comfortable materialistic lifestyle. I miss Bangladesh, the people, the language, the sense of family. I guess what I have to realize is that the more I go through life, the bigger my family will get. It's not a bad thing--it's something to be revered and rejoiced upon. I have a big enough heart to go around I think.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of scooters and cooking class

2010-04-12T22:22:00.004+06:00

Yesterday was our relaxing day. The day before, we joined a day-tour and went to the Golden Triangle. It was an early morning (7am) and we didn't get back to our hotel until 9pm. Ugh. It was about 8hrs in a crampy 15 passenger van holding 14 passengers. My poor long legs... :( Sad face. But it was cool to see the place where Burma, Laos, and Thailand all meet up. Granted it's somewhere in the middle of a large river but still! I set foot on Laos soil and got a stamp to go in my passport so I'm happy!

But after all that time in the van, we took a day off. We slept in until like 9am and slowly started the morning. Stephanie at the front desk helped us secure a scooter for the day at only 200bt for the whole day. That's not such a bad deal considering the tuk-tuk (Thai form of autorickshaws) usually costs about 100bt for an across the city ride.

We jumped on the scooter, Dad in the driver's seat, and headed up the hill by Chiang Mai to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (another Buddhist temple). I hate to say this, but after awhile, all the Buddhist temples look the same. This one was nice though because it had a view of the city from the very top--well, what you could see through the smog that is. [I'm really surprised with the amount of air pollution around here. I thought because we were so far away from Bangkok that the skies would be clear.]

While we were in the market at the bottom, we had the brilliant idea of buying water guns. The water festival, called Songkran, is starting tomorrow in honour of the Thai new year. Basically the whole country turns into a big water fight area. So we saw these little water guns and thought we'd better arm ourselves in case we stumbled upon an open battlefield. After wandering around for a while, we decided to head back down to the city to see some more Wats.

I got to drive. I'd driven moped's before in Victoria with Auntie Jane but for some reason, I had a wee bit of trouble driving this one. I was doing great for a long time but then something jolted me out of my happy little world and I started to over think things. Then things got bad. Before, corners were easy to go around since you can just lean in the direction of the force, but now I was freaking out and the scooter was wobbling around coming dangerously close to the ditch.

Then the inevitable happened. We were going around a bend and my mind blanked on how to get it to maneuver smoothly around the corner. "Just bail!" my mind screamed. I didn't bail though... I did my best to slow it down but you have gravity pulling down the hill and we slid into the top of the ditch before we were stopped by well.. I guess me and Dad putting our legs out. Hence, I have road rash on two of my toes, the top of my foot, and the front of my leg. Dad got a little on his ankle and I'm thankful neither of us got hurt too badly.

We stood there for awhile just recollecting ourselves--well that's what I was doing at least. I feel like an idiot. Who can't drive a moped! Those things are designed for children! Anyways, I decided to get back on the horse and proceeded to drive us [safely] another 10min or so before we stopped at a popular Thai hangout by a mountain stream. Since I had already proved I could do it safely, I swallowed my pride and let Dad drive the rest of the way down and into the city.

I still feel like an idiot, not going to lie.

But the whole day really turned around once we got into the city. Someone told me to take a trip around the old moated city if I could so Dad and I headed down the main street, ready to go around the whole square. What we didn't realize is that Songkran started in Chiang Mai and thus some people feel the need to celebrate early than the official April 13 New Year. Woosh! A full bucket of water was dumped on us as we sat at a light. That was only the beginning...!

The north part of the square wasn't too bad, but as soon as we got near the northeast corner and turned onto the eastern side of the square it was on! The streets were lined with kids standing with buckets, water guns, and garden hoses. Anyone and everyone was fair game. Pick-up trucks full of people and bins of water drove around soaking anyone in sight. Luckily the same friend who told me to take a trip around the city also told me that I can either get upset or I can join in the festivities and have fun with the locals. So I told Dad to keep driving (as best he could as he was having water thrown in his face) and I grabbed our dinky little guns and started shooting whoever was throwing water at us. Really, our guns didn't register as more than a sprinkle but we had a BLAST! We ended up driving around the outside of the city once, then pulling a u-turn and driving around the inside of the city TWICE! We were DRENCHED by the end. And laughing hysterically.

What was so funny to me was to see a man driving his scooter with his son standing up at the handlebars holding a huge SuperSoaker. There were tourists with huge backpack jugs of water attached to pump-action hoses--only they were spraying icy water. That was a shock. Even though it was crazy hot out, the icy water was a little much.

All in all, the city-wide water fight made my scooter-accident of a day so much better. Later that evening, Dad and I spent a couple hours walking the blocks and blocks of the night bazaar set up in honour of the New Year. There were so many knick-knacks, so many clothes, so many... EVERYTHING! You could find almost anything your heart desired there I'm pretty sure. We even got 30min foot massages for 60bt at one point. It was a pretty good way to spend $2 if I do say so... :D

Today was another day for the record books. This morning at 8am, we met another pickup outside and joined a group. Today was Thai cooking class. They took us to the market first to explain how to pick out the best produce, how to substitute Western products for Asian products (if you so choose or can't find), and just basic facts about the food itself. At one point, a little boy ran up with a squirt gun and opened fire so I grabbed our little squirt guns and returned the favour. From that point on, I don't think I was completely dry for the rest of the day!

When we left the market, there were tons of kids just WAITING for the pickup full of foreigners to go by.. They mercilessly drenched us. My goodness. One bucket of water hit me so hard from behind that it pushed all my hair into my face. I was just dripping. And we just kept getting pelted all the way to the cooking school. But we were all still laughing--it's just Songkhan!

mmm I learned how to make the most wonderful yellow curry, coconut milk soup with chicken, and basil chicken (all easily made vegetarian by adding firm tofu instead of chicken). We took a lunch break to taste all our dishes, then headed back for dessert. Dad made a yummy pumpkin in coconut milk dish and I made mango sticky rice. Oh my goodness... I will most definitely be making that when I get home as long as I can figure out how to steam the rice. I don't have the bamboo baskets he was using so I'll have to find some kind of substitute.

We were all rolling out the door by this point so in mercy, Max the chef let us put the pad thai in doggy bags to go. Pad thai was our final dish so we all met back at the outside workbench to regroup before heading back into town. Max gave us the cooking school's cookbook and we all exchanged contact info so we could get pictures later. Then the little old ladies who help at the school came by with big bowls of water and gently poured water down each of our backs. And we sat there and took it, cringing as the water dripped from our necks to our knees. This is really an incredible festival. It was just an incredible day. I'm sad that WallaWalla doesn't have an Asian market because I'm going to be wanting to cook my new favourite dishes down there!

Upon arrival back at Penny's Place, we changed our clothes and relaxed in our food comas up in our room. After resting for a bit, I ventured out in search of a hair saloon. I'm so proud of how long my hair has gotten but the dry and brittle ends have really been annoying me lately. The housekeeper here helped me find a place and she explained to the stylist that I just wanted a trim. Well when my hair was that bad, a trim turned into a good two inches off.. Blast... I was really impressed with how long it had gotten--I just should have been maintaining it better along the way. The slight bummer of the day was when I showed her a picture in a magazine of a woman with cute bangs. Then she proceeded to give me Asian bangs. Oh dear, I hope these grow out quickly. And no, I'm not going to post any pictures :P lol I feel like an anime character.

lol How much can hair grow in a week...? Enough to make a bad haircut into a good haircut?

After dinner, Dad and I took the manager and his wife out for dinner. Pete and Stephanie have been so helpful, advising places to see, places to eat, and organizing all our tours for us. Just incredible people. Super sweet, super generous. So we wanted to show them thankyou in some way. We went to a Thai restaurant and Pete ordered for all of us. Yikes, I was able to grin it off and pick around the shrimp and pork but all I could think about was how I wanted to eat my pad thai... lol Oh well, all food aside, it was a great evening with great people so I can't complain.

Tomorrow, I'm sad to say, we are leaving Chiang Mai. I'm going to miss it. Elephants, cooking schools, scooters.. So many memories are here. We fly out at 7am to Bangkok, then have to catch a plane down to Phuket after a 3hr layover. I'm sad to go but also excited to stick my toes in the sand and gaze out over the clear blue ocean. That'll be a first for me. What a way to end my adventures in Asia...

10days til I hit Canadian soil. Crazy thought eh?
ami tomake bhalobashi

of treks and Pwei

2010-04-09T22:04:00.004+06:00

ahhh I'm so tired from our three day adventure... Don't get me wrong, it was an INCREDIBLE experience but wow I'm tired...

The first day we were picked up from our guesthouse at 9am. We sat on bench seats in the back of a pick up with a French couple that ONLY spoke French. It was sad that the first language that came to mind was Bangla and I kept mixing up 'ami' with 'je' when trying to say I. But just as we were beginning to make progress with the conversation, we had to jump out and join another tour group. I was pretty bummed out. I was looking forward to improving my French.

We jumped into the back of another pickup, this time with six Puerto Ricans and three fellow Vancouverites. The group of six had two guys and four girls--all the girls were about to graduate from medical school and take their boards to start interning in America. Each was going into a different area of medicine so it was cool to pick their brains a little.

They took us to the first elephant camp where we stopped to have some fried rice for lunch. Then we headed down to the elephants and climbed into the big chair perched precariously on the elephant's back. We weren't able to take pictures of ourselves on top and instead had to buy a copy from the company's photographer. Kind of a rip off but when it's your first time on an elephant you really don't care. I think the rest of our group got pictures of Dad and I in our chair so hopefully they will post them to Facebook soon so I can steal them.

After about an hour ride through the jungle, we headed back to camp and started our three hour hike from 300m to 1200m above sea level.

[sorry I have to interrupt this blog post because it's so late.. It took forever to load up all 162 pictures to Facebook so I'll continue my story later. Check out the pictures though if you want to get a taste of what Dad and I have been up to :)]

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=204850&id=549112159&l=1f68b1cc41

--And we're back in after a short delay :)

So we started our hike up. At first, it didn't seem too bad. The first hour and a half was pretty intense but our guide Puzaa had us stop fairly often for water breaks. Then he'd say "Okay Puzaa Army! One more mountain!" Of course, we thought that meant, only one mountain left but nooooo... lol He said that about 10 times, each time making us hate him a little more. Especially since the last hour and a half was almost vertical. My goodness. We were all sweating like none other, chugging water, and gasping for breath. My poor calves... While the whole thing was pretty much uphill, sometimes we were walking through jungle-y parts and other times, we were walking through burnt landscape. The local farmers set controlled fires to burn away debris from last year's crops in order to make room for the new. That's also the reason why the whole valley had a dense layer of clouds covering everything. The worst part was when we were gasping for air on the hike up, we were breathing in smoke sometimes which only made our lungs burn more.

Eventually though we made it up to the Black Lahu village. The house we were staying on was built half on the ground and half held up by long pieces of bamboo and wood. The house had a long front porch and a single room with no divisions, save for the mosquito nets between the beds. We showered by garden hose in the room adjoining the outhouse, then relaxed in the setting sun as we let our muscles unwind.

Later on, Puzaa made us yellow chicken curry and green bean fry and we all filled our hungry bodies to the brim. Puzaa pulled out a deck of cards and showed us a couple card tricks, then did a couple mind-bending puzzles with toothpicks. As the night wore on, they pulled out some local moonshine whiskey and we all sat in a circle to play a game. We basically had to count to 21 but there were rules along the way to trick people into messing up the counting. If you messed up, you either had to take a shot, sing a song, or let someone in the group paint your face with charcoal from the bottom of the cooking pot. Like lifelines, once you used one, you couldn't choose it again. Hence I sang "I want it that way" by the Backstreet Boys, let Vanessa put a mustache on my chin, then warded off the whiskey by heading to bed early. All in all, we had a pretty good time.

The next morning, we woke up, ate breakfast, and began our descent of the mountain. We actually went up and over the mountain down a new trail that was just as equally steep. Thankfully no one fell and got hurt but there were quite a few people that slipped at some areas. I don't know if going up or down is harder, but my poor quads were shaking by the time an hour had passed.

The waterfall was well worth it though... So beautiful. And refreshing after a long hike in the mid-morning sun! Puzaa said I could change behind a rock in the distance but he didn't mention that was on the trail. Right after I had put my bikini top on, though I hadn't started changing my bottoms yet luckily, another tour group came by. Freaked me out! lol I scrambled my stuff together and hid behind a more secluded rock to change.

The pool was only about 2-3ft deep but it was enough to wade around in and submerge to your neck if you wanted. At one point of the rock, you could lie against the rock and have the water spray against your back like a full blown shower. It was pretty cold but again, after a long hike, it feels sooo good!

Another hour through the jungle. This time it was fairly flat and half of the time we were walking alongside the road. We came up to the white water rafting station, grabbed paddles and helmets, and headed down to the river. Right now, it's the dry season so the river was kinda low but we still had a lot of fun--though we got stuck quite a few times on the rocks. We rafted for about an hour, then transferred from the boats to bamboo rafts to gently float down the river. Dad was chosen to steer us Venice-style down and did a great job :)

Another 30min of that. When we got the end, we all piled onto the shore, grabbed our bags from the truck, and made a beeline for the showers. Those rivers aren't the cleanest things I've ever seen so it felt nice to wash off any invisible gunk on my skin. lol We had a great lunch of pad thai, browsed the shops, then all piled into the pick-up for one last ride. The truck dropped us off at Baan Chang Elephant Park then headed back to the city to drop off the rest of the people. Again, I really hope I can get their pictures because my library is missing quite a few shots I'm realizing now.

At Baan, we were put up in a really nice room about five minutes walk from the main area. There were three other rooms in the complex but we were the only ones staying over. We rested for about an hour then headed down to see what was going on for dinner. We took some pictures (from a distance) with the elephants and got to spend some time talking with Tom Cruise, our tour guide and main mahout, about how the place is run.

They really have an incredible thing going. They rescue elephants from work camps and other places where they are being abused and give them such a great life. The elephants get plenty of food and never have to have those big metal chairs on their backs because the company only offers bareback riding in consideration of the elephants. They save most of what we pay for the rides so that in low-tourist season, they will still have money for food and such. If they are able, they seek out abused elephants, buy them, and bring them to the park. They actually got a new elephant while we were there that had been working in the rock camps for 20ish years.

Later that night, Tom lit a campfire and made bamboo sticky rice for us. He basically put raw rice down a bamboo shoot, added coconut milk, and sugar and put it over the fire to cook. It wasn't bad actually! He also brought out these huge lanterns that, once lit, fly high into the sky filled with hot smoke. They burn for about 20min then float back to the ground, leaving someone else to deal with their wire frame. lol We put three in the sky and watched the air currents take them high up and over the mountain. We stayed up eating sticky rice, listening to another mahout play the guitar, and just enjoying company with the staff. We were the only guests there!

The next day, we had a traditional Thai breakfast of rice and vegetable soup and helped feed some of the elephants. Tom took me around, sharing some of the elephant's stories, letting me feel their skin, and all around get to know them better. We had to change into these awful blue denim outfits that were supposed to protect our clothes from the day's events. It would have been fine but my dumb shirt was about 15sizes too big :P lol

When the day group arrived, we had a quick orientation with the park's founder who told us all the history and facts associated. Then they let us feed whole bunches of bananas and halved pineapples to the elephants. My favourite elephant was Pwei. She's 10yrs old and whenever she is standing or eating or whatever, she is always swaying. I call it dancing lol. They think she was separated too early from her mother when she was a baby and thus was devoid of contact. Just like babies in the same kind of situations rock back and forth, Pwei dances. She's a really sweet elephant though. I gave most of my bananas to her :)

After the feeding was over, we got our first lesson in driving elephants. I volunteered to be first because it didn't look that hard to climb up. Was I wrong! Those things have HUGE necks and it's a lot harder than it looks to wrap your legs around. But we learned "na-long" means stand-up and sit down and that you really have to yell it.

Then they gave us the little hook tool that mahouts use when driving. It looks like quite the violent tool but really is about the same as using a riding crop or reins as a whip to a horse. The elephant's skin is so tough and thick that it just gets their attention without hurting them. Plus, the mahouts use this as a last tactic, using their legs and voice first to command. "Kway" plus the hook means left or right. You have to put the hook against their right ear to turn left, and against their left ear to turn right. I know that sounds backwards but it works. "Pai" means forward and "How" was stop. I think I used these two commands the most.

Dad rode on the neck for the first half of the ride and I held onto two rings on the back. We went up a hill around the camp, stopped for 10min to let the elephants rest, then I jumped into the driver's seat with Dad on the back. Honestly, for the most part, the elephants just follow one another but it was amazing how aware of your balance you had to be. Otherwise, you are going over the head! lol It was an incredible experience.

But my favourite part BY FAR, probably even my favourite part of our trip around Asia so far, was bathing the elephants. After the jungle walk, we took them to the watering hole by the park and let them play. Don't worry, we handed all our cameras and such over to the staff before jumping in. The elephants had SO much fun playing and spraying water all around. The little baby elephant kept doing barrel rolls beside us and spraying us over and over. We were all given rough scrub brushes to clean our elephants with, a great experience in itself.

I really can't say enough about our day with the elephants. It was just incredible. I would come back again if I could. Dad is wanting me to get off right now so that he can write a review about them on tripadvisor.com actually :) lol

But we had a long day today so I should get to bed anyways. We left this morning at 7am for the Golden Triangle. It wasn't anything TOO spectacular but it was cool to see where Burma, Laos, and Thailand all meet up. We got back around 9pm tonight... long day... About 8hrs in the van. I'm going to take a shower beceause it's blazing hot still and hit the hay! :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of flights and one square kilometer

2010-04-06T22:28:00.003+06:00

Another early morning. We had to wake up at 4am in order to catch our 5am airport shuttle in order to make our 7am flight to Chiang Mai. Normally, that wouldn't be too bad but our dumb hostel was right on Khoa San Road so people were out partying and making TOO MUCH NOISE practically right up until we left for the airport. Blasted tourists.

But it was peaceful when we arrived into Chiang Mai... Ahhhh so nice... Chiang Mai is to Bangkok what Hili is to Dhaka--a relaxing, quiet town far away from the busyness of the main city port. Hallelujah. And our cheap little guesthouse is so adorable. Chiang Mai is restoring my faith in Thailand because, I'm not going to lie, I hated the first couple days of seeing Bangkok such a mess :P

Yesterday we took things pretty easy. We were going to try to get to Mission College and then up to the AIDS hospice but it didn't work out once we realized our flight was this morning :P Good planning eh? That's alright though, we have something saved for our next trip to Thailand lol. Instead we did some more sight seeing, went to MBK shopping mall, then chilled around Khoa San Road for the rest of the night. The coolest part came when I happened to sit next to some Bangladesh-born now-Singaporeans. This world just keeps getting smaller and smaller. I was able to share my experience at the orphanage, as well as converse with the little Bangla I know. It just made me miss my family in Bangladesh even more...

After checking into our guesthouse [Penny's Place], we contacted a guy who runs treks into the jungle up here. We were trying to get to the Golden Triangle but found out you can only do that on a one-day tour. We were looking for something more adventurous. Hence, tomorrow morning, we are leaving on a three-day trek! Day one we have an hour-long elephant ride through the jungle, then we have to hike about three hours to a remote northern village. They'll put us up for the night and then the next day we have white-water rafting (not as exciting as it may sound because the rivers are kinda low from the dry season.. but doesn't matter :D), a bamboo boat ride, two waterfalls, and another hike back down to the elephant camp. Day three is elephant day. We get to feed the elephants, then are given a crash course in how to sit on their shoulders and guide them with your legs and a small rope. Then we go on trail ride through the jungle again (this time steering our own elephants--well Dad and I will be sharing because it's cheaper that way lol), stopping at another waterfall to give the elephants a bath! How fun does that sound!!! I'm so freaking excited. Well, not so excited for all the hiking because I sent my good shoes back home, plus I hate hiking, but so excited to be in Thailand, in the jungle, with elephants!! Will post pictures as soon as I can!!

So after we got that all settled out, Dad and I began our attack on the city. Chiang Mai is an older city and thus has tons of temples. 71 to be exact. The square kilometer that is the downtown hub has 33 Buddhist temples alone. So we didn't really have any specific target in mind, we just went out walking. Inevitably, there was a temple practically every 100m or so. Just mind boggling. After a while, sad to say, you stop taking pictures because, although they are so beautiful, they are all kinda the same. I still enjoyed every moment of it and soaked in as much of the sights I could, stopping to snap a picture every now and again at something that really caught my eye.

Later this evening, Dad and I got lost looking for the night bazaar. We found one block of about four stands and thought, Wow someone really overexaggerated the coolness of Chiang Mai's night market. Then someone pointed us in the right direction. But again, we came across some lame square that had half a dozen stands and a bunch of food carts. Same thought. Yet again someone had to point us in the right direction and WOW! We found the true night market of Chiang Mai. It just goes on for blocks and blocks! Honestly, it's not as cheap as I would have liked--but that may be coming from someone who lived in Bangladesh for so long :P Anytime I see a Thai t-shirt and they are asking 350bt for it (about $10), I start to think "But I could have gotten the same souvenir t-shirt at New Market for 50tk (about 75cents)." It's a dangerous game to play... lol

anyways, that's all the news I have right now. The elephants don't have wi-fi and the village we will be staying at doesn't have any internet cafes so I'm leaving my netbook here at our guesthouse in storage til we get back on Friday. In other words, check back Friday evening if you want to see some SWEET pictures and hear some incredible stories about me fording my way through the Thai jungle :)

til then,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of catching up and first impressions

2010-04-04T22:34:00.003+06:00

wow. A whole week since I last blogged... Where do I even start...? So much has happened since last Monday that I really don't know how I can get you guys all caught up! Luckily, I journaled almost every night but still... SO much! lol
Okay, so I had just gone to Humayun's Tomb (great place by the way) and the next day we headed to Akshardham. Instead of hiring a taxi for the day, we set out with Jaeem's friend Jimmy and navigated the public transit system--which happens to be about a hundred times better than Bangladesh's. Upon arrival to Akshardham, we were informed that we weren't allowed to bring in any cameras or cell phones, as well as really anything in our bags. Yeah, okay. They said the same thing at the Louvre and I may or may not have a picture of Mona Lisa. So I checked my backpack and kept my camera case with me. Oh man, on the other side of the locker station, there was a MASSIVE security check. I'm talking like airport security. The women and men were divided into two lines, walked through metal detectors, then FULLY patted down by guards. When we saw that, we turned around and added our cameras and iPhones to the locker station.

But this place was beautiful. Gardens, statues, fountains sprawled out all over the landscape, all encircling an enormous temple. All around the base of the temple were hundreds of elephants carved into white sandstone. As you walked around the base, the metal plates under the elephants told a story with little one liner quotes to sum up the moral of the story. Some were obvious, yet others were so profound... I wish I had my CAMERA! Or at least a pen to write them down with... Alas ney. I had nothing.
The three of us walked around the outskirts of the temple, we found a photographer offering pictures for 100rp. It's the only picture now that I have of the inside :P Blasted security guards taking away my camera... I love the picture that we got but honestly it looks like we were photoshopped into the scene. But I swear we weren't! lol

On the way out, we walked through a giant concrete lotus flower, two petals for winding stairs and the other six filled of words of wisdom. Again, I wish I had a pen or a camera or something! There were more quotes from politicians, Indian gurus, and random other known and unknown people throughout history. Now that I'm back in the land of internet, I'm going to try to find the quotes and write them all down. I would most definitely go back there again.. Just breathtakingly beautiful!
"We each have enough for our needs, but never enough for our greed." ~Sandstone Elephant

Later the same day, we went to Delhi's Red Fort. I found some beautiful beads in the corridor that were of the same caliber that I had looked around Nepal for. I got a sweet deal for two strings and have been wearing them ever since. Dad had an interesting perspective of the market: we were just outside of the temple and there were so many vendors and shops all displaying beautiful and highly breakable items. It really put it into perspective the story of Jesus chasing out the people in the temple. They must have been so ticked off--but then again, so was He.

Wednesday was the day I got to see the Taj Mahal. THE Taj Mahal. The TAJ MAHAL. THE TAJ MAHAL. Yes, I was so excited as you may be able to tell. We boarded a train at 7am headed for Agra (lol I was humming Aladdin songs the whole day). It was a 3hr train ride, which actually flew by. There was a nice gentleman who chatted with us for most of the trip, one of the friendlier Indians we met on our journey.

Just as we were arriving to the Taj, rain sprinkled down for about five minutes. That's the second time I've seen precipitation since I left last October! But it quickly got hot again... Then, there it was... The Taj Mahal. Just beautiful. A beacon of hope for those who have lost their faith in love. The sheer size (16m tall), the extensive marble, the grounds, the two temples on either side... Just the most beautiful sight. We wandered around for about 3hrs, soaking in everything and storing it to long term memory.

We left when we had seen everything and once our tummies started grumbling. We ate at a [somewhat questionable] place called Joney's Place. The fun part was "Joney" was there! The food was really only so-so compared to other Indian food we've had but we were hungry so it didn't matter!

By the way, I saw a CAMEL pulling a cart along the streets by the Taj. They were kinda nasty looking but it was a CAMEL!! lol Dad also got to see his first monkey in the wild. We saw horse-drawn carriages that were decorated to look nice but the poor animals looked half-starved and sad. I was sad too.

We headed to Agra's Red Fort after and spent the rest of the day there. There wasn't as much to see but I did something pretty awesome: I drank the bottle of Starbucks Mocha Mom sent me for Christmas. I'd been saving it for a special occasion in Bangladesh but at the time, nothing stood out as extraordinarily special. Nonetheless, it was slightly warm but delicious. A little taste of home for sure. Yum :)

The next day, we slept in. Ahhhh. Sweet sleep! Dad, Jimmy, and I headed to the Lotus Temple. It was the last place I really wanted to go to in Delhi so I was able to leave with a peaceful mind lol. What I didn't realize was that the Lotus Temple was only built in 1984 so there wasn't as much history as I thought. Plus, it's a Ba'hai temple, which sparked an interesting discussion between me and Dad about the meaning of religion.

Anyways, no matter whether or not I think Ba'hai should be considered a religion or a global organization, the Lotus temple was beautiful and I felt like it did bring me closer to God--mostly because it was pin-drop quiet. Usually places are so noisy making it difficult to concentrate, but not this place... Soooo hushed. It was wonderful. I poured my heart out to God and He heard me.

We made our way to Lodhi Gardens after, taking some time to rest in the cool shade of the dilapidated mosques. What amazes me is that India has so many mosques and temples that it can afford to not protect all of them, letting some just fall into ruins. After the busy week, it was nice to just stroll through the park, admiring the parakeets and squirrels playing in the trees.

Good Friday. Jaeem invited us his church to hear him speak. He's working towards his Masters of Divinity and was given 5min to speak for the Easter service. Try to imagine a Baptist church in India if you can... Only, there was no pews and the men were all on the left and the women were all on the right. "Amen" and "Yes Lord" rang out through the room and people danced where they stood. The main problem came when it was time to sit. The place was packed already but now you expect us all to sit..? Oh dear. I was so cramped! And for two hours!! My poor bum was in so much pain but I had nowhere to move or stretch or anything. Plus the sermons were in Hindi (and I don't speak Hindi :P) so my mind was free to meditate on the pain radiating from my pelvic bones. Blasted concrete floors!

After church, we went out to eat at a nice Indian place. The food was good but I think it got me sick... I didn't feel well the rest of the day and 4am that night I was doubled over a bucket in the bathroom puking. It was good times. The weird thing is, Dad ate everything (and more) than I ate but he didn't get sick at all. I'm finally feeling just a little bit better today but that's probably because of the massage... :D

Saturday was spent in the airport between Delhi and Bangkok. Josiah met us in the BKK airport and we headed to Khoa Sun Road. Oh dear. This was and IS reverse culture shock to the MAX!! I've just spend 6months in a simplistic, conservative 3rd country and am now staying in Asia's version of Sin City. My first impression was "I hate you all." I know that sounds absolutely awful but seeing all these people drinking their lives away, partying with "lady-boys", and just the overall materialistic mentality has sent for me for a loop. Even as we visited different temples today, I couldn't help but feel angry so much money had been wasted on these stunning, yet exuberantly adorned, buildings while my family in Bangladesh is living by such meager standards. In the same breath though, I know I need to avoid being called a hypocrite considering Dad and I have been blessed with the opportunity to travel around to see some parts of Asia...

Anyways, I know this is just my first impressions of being back in the 1st world. I don't know if I'm handling it well compared to the norm, but I'm handling it. I had my first real Pad Thai, hot from the street vendors wok, and mango sticky rice for dessert. It was such a cheap meal but one of the best I've had in all of Asia, hands down. Next was a Thai&oil massage for an hour... That woman bent me in half, squishing me with her knee as if she was sealing a Ziploc bag. But oh man, it was worth the $7, again hands down. I'm slowly reformatting my view of Bangkok and am trying to find the value.

We're heading to Chiangmai on Tuesday so hopefully I'll have some elephant stories to tell afterwards. I'm going to try to blog more often--for your benefit as well as my own. That way it won't take me almost two hours to write an update :P I blame Emily for distracting me on Facebook chat while I was trying to type lol. Just kidding, I welcomed her interruption with a smile. Anyways, my bed (which I really think it just an old hard door) is calling me. That's what you get for paying 350bt/night for a room. I count us lucky though--Josiah doesn't even have a window in his room lol.

til next time,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Jaeem and Kumayun's Tomb

2010-03-29T20:33:00.004+06:00

I've been in Delhi for a full day now and wow is all I can say. I'm sitting in an internet cafe right now because the flat we are staying in doesn't have any wireless. That really doesn't matter to me because, well, just that we are staying in this flat is a blessing. My friend Caylen was an SM to India last year and a couple days before I left Bangla Hope, I messaged him saying that I was going to be in Delhi for a week. He wrote me back right away, sending all kinds of information--most importantly was the number of his friend who he had worked with. Thus, his friend Jaeem picked us up at the airport yesterday morning, took us to his flat, and is letting us stay there for the week. Just incredible. He's also going to take off Wednesday and be our personal tour guide down to the Taj Mahal.

Today Dad and I set out in a taxi we had reserved for the day and hit up three major sites: Qutub Minar, Raj Ghat, and Kumayun's Tomb. Qutub Minar is the tallest structure in all of India and isn't really used for anything. It's in the middle of a bunch of stone mosque ruins and was probably erected in honour of some important person who died.. Not sure. Raj Ghat is the vast gardens (kinda similar to Stanley Park) where Mahatma Gandhi's grave is. Nothing too exciting but something I can say that I've seen--Have you? LOL

Now Kumayun's Tomb... Wow. It's the precursor to the Taj Mahal and was designed by the emperor's wife upon his death. It's breathtakingly beautiful. Just incredible really... I wish I could load pictures, but after loading them onto my laptop, I could quickly see that the picture really doesn't do it justice.

The one thing that has caught me off guard is how I feel stuck between culture shock and reverse culture shock. It's hard not being able to speak the language and many a time I've found myself slipping up and speaking Bangla to a Hindi-speaking person. Sad day... But the converse is worse! India is by no means up to Western standards and I still feel myself in awe of the quietness of the traffic, the lack of rickshaws, and the price of things here. I know how much a bowl of rice SHOULD cost so why are you charging me so much for it? I could get the same thing in Bangladesh for... And that's when I'm caught thinking about how things are in Bangladesh and feeling confused why they aren't the same here. And I'm in INDIA. How is Bangkok going to feel? How is VANCOUVER going to feel? My goodness... This is going to be rough isn't it...?

I've noticed that I've been beginning so many of my sentences with "In Bangladesh, this/I/it..." and so forth. Any time I start to add anything to a conversation it has to do with Bangladesh! I hope I'm not starting to annoy Dad but I really can't help it! I'm pretty sure this trend will continue even when I'm back home, but honestly, suck it up. This place is a part of me now. I'm petrified of forgetting it so even just talking about random adventures, culture norms, and the language helps me to feel just a smidgen closer to the life I left.

Speaking of which, I miss my kids. Even when I saw the kids at Bill's orphanage it made me miss my kids. Any kids I see remind me of how adorable the kids at Bangla Hope are... I can't NOT go back. And even after only four days, I think Dad has the same sentiments. Who wants to come next time? lol Spring break next year sound good...? lol And I'm only HALF kidding...!

Okay. 10rp/hr is about to run out. I don't know if we will be coming back to the cafe again before we leave, but if not, I'll be in Bangkok on Sabbath and I'm sure we'll have internet in our hostel. Well, we'd BETTER have internet lol. So for now, I hope this was able to be a tiny insight into Delhi... Probably not but it was a good effort eh? Maybe when I have more time I'll go back and update these posts--even if it's for my own benefit. Nonetheless, for now, peace.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of last lists and planes, trains, and lots of automobiles

2010-03-27T23:23:00.003+06:00

So right now, I'm paying 80rp/hr at the airport for internet. This'll be a fast one! I miss YVR.. free internet!

Anyways, we caught the bus later on Friday after tearful goodbyes at the orphanage. I didn't make a big production out of it; I just let the kids know how much I loved them and that I would be back to see them again sometime. It was so hard to say goodbye to all of them, all the caregivers, all the staff--everyone that has become close as family the past six months. I just know God will be bringing me back eventually.

We got into Kolkata after an overall sleepless night (the bus was extremely bumpy and would stop like every hour--who has to pee that much at NIGHT?!?!) around 6am this morning. Luckily, Litton had given me the address of the Seventh-day Adventist church so we took a taxi there. It was early but we were still given a room to change in and a bathroom to shower in. Glorious. You have no idea how hot it has gotten here. Without a/c you just melt into a pool! And not the good kind of pool either.

The rest of the day was pretty eventful. We spent the morning at the Sabbath school but then Dad got a hold of some missionaries here that he worked with back in NYC when my sister was born. We skipped church at Kolkata SDA and jumped into a taxi heading for Sonarpur. That was when we interrupted Bill's sermon at his orphanage. No problem. He was so happy to see Dad. They said it must have been 24yrs. Needless to say, I've never met Bill.
After church, we headed to Bill's apartment for lunch. He shared with us stories from his orphanage and even shed a tear or two at the thought of a specific child's painful experience. He seems to have a very big heart for these kids. What an amazing ministry.

Back in a taxi and heading for the SDAH train station. We were supposed to catch the 4:50pm train to Delhi but I didn't realize we were actually on the waiting list for the train... Dad found out we were 3rd and 4th on the list. But apparently those people showed up because we weren't let on the train. We were told to go upstairs and talk to the booking agents to see about another train out of a different station.
That one had 59 on its waiting list. By now, we were scorching hot, frustrated, and wanting to be done with all of this. We found out we had a chance of getting on a special foreigner's traincar tomorrow but then we would have had to find the tower downtown that dealt with such things. Thus we decided to cut through all the nonsense and fly to Delhi from Kolkata. Thus I'm in the airport, probably about to have another mildly sleepless night. We leave at 7:05am and get into Delhi a couple hours later. Nothing really turned out the way we thought it would (or planned) but we still had an adventure if nothing else.

By the way, whilst waiting in the airport, I took Janet's advice and wrote out some lists.

Top Five Practical Lessons From Bangladesh:
1. How to make dhal and Bengali potatoes (yum)
2. How to chop on that curved knife (and keep all your fingers intact)
3. How to do laundry in a bucket
4. How to kill cockroaches with less fear lol
5. How to barter down prices! (just ask Dad)

I am:
1. Teacher
2. Sister (didi)
3. Mommy
4. Preacher
5. Missionary
6. Cook
7. Artist
8. Cheerleader
9. World Traveler
10. Christ Follower

My Top Five Hardest Moments in Bangladesh:
1. Christmas by myself
2. Taking Shaelah, Dolly, and Amelia from their mothers down south
3. Saying goodbye and leaving Bangla Hope on Friday
4&5 are kinda personal... You can ask me when I get back if you're interested.

My Top TEN Moments in Bangladesh:
1. Dancing in the rain
2. Cooking with Kakoli in the village
3. SUPERBOWL!
4. Last Village Sabbath school with all my kids crowded around listening to me talk about Jesus
5. Playing badminton with Mr.Waid
6. Playing 5 Crowns with Ryan and Mrs.Waid (and rolling on the couch laughing)
7. Helping the woman at the dental clinic get medicine
8. Rooftop vespers with Elliot
9. NEPAL -- through and through!!
10. Rocking Dolly and Natalie to sleep

Top Ten things God has taught me:
1. He works all things for the good (even if I can't see it at the time)
2. I am a beautiful person and don't need a man to confirm that
3. I have so much to offer someone, whether they are male or female, old or young.
4. I have control over my actions and my tongue.
5. God opens doors no man can close; He also closes doors no man can open.
6. Principle before personality
7. He created me special and longs to be the Romancer of my soul
8. He also gave me a creative mind, one that I have been stifling for far too long
9. Life without purpose is just a rat race
10. Joy is a choice and a gift you choose to give

Random other things I've learned:
1. speak Bangla!!
2. Tie a shari
3. Bonno Fulli Hi dance (so cute with Tisha--yes I have it on video lol)
4. Life is too short to be stubborn for the sake of being stubborn
5. Embroider
6. Drive the Hilux!! lol heck yes! All the way from Bangla Hope to my Sabbath School in the village
7. Reformat a computer
8. French braid hair
... more to come when I think of them...

Anyways, the point of all that was that I have really been on an amazing journey and feel so thankful that God led me to this mission opportunity. The bad has brought me to the good and the good brought me to my heart of hearts.

I finally don't regret going to Bangladesh. In fact, I wouldn't trade this year for anything in the world.

Now it's going to be just as important that I don't forget it!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Natalie and tomorrow

2010-03-26T01:00:00.004+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to my girlie Natalie. It's been just since Christmas that this little one has stolen my heart and now that I'm leaving tomorrow, I can't help but wonder if she could fit in my backpack comfortably. Natalie is the one that was in the sick room a while back as I walked by. Ever since I picked her up and soothed her tears, she has been my girl. And everyone knows it. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing but in the last couple days, she has started to call me "Mommy." Yikes. How do you handle a situation like that? This two-year old child has taken a leap from no trust to assigning you as her adopted mother.

I don't have the case history for Natalie because she's so young. All I know is that she is squishy, adorable, and has a smile that could melt Mr.Freeze's heart. Any time she sees me, she runs at me with her little arms fully extended into the air. But unlike the other children, if I'm on my way to breakfast and only give her a hug and kiss, once I put her down she toddles on her way, perfectly content. Most kids here cling on, throw a fit, etc. but my girl is a trooper. I can't imagine what it's going to be like to say goodbye to her tomorrow.

T-1day. Today was a day of lasts: last time in Hili, last dinner at Bangla Hope, last load of laundry in a bucket, last round of goodnight kisses, last badminton game, last round of 5Crowns. Dad and I actually went to Hili twice today to pay the leaving the country tax at the bank (we didn't have our passports the first time) just in case we want to leave after the banks close tomorrow. We had some fun in Hili, browsing through the stores and market, soaking in the final scenes of life in Bangladesh. I also got to practice my newfound bartering skills and was rewarded quite nicely for it :D

The rest of the afternoon, I was perched high above bunk beds sticking glow in the dark stars to the ceilings of some of the rooms. I have more to finish tomorrow because the power cut out and I was dripping sweat without the fans on in the room. I also took down my red star lights and put them up in the little and big girls' rooms across the windows. Because of the power difference, they won't be able to light up but they are pretty to look at and are just a nice decoration.

Then came the party. I brought out the glow sticks and sparklers and unleashed them into the mass of children. We didn't have enough glow sticks unfortunately so we distracted those without by bringing out the sparklers. The wind was pretty nasty so we had to light one by the stove, then run it outside, lighting each one in turn off a lit one. I burnt my finger pulling the wire out of the ground. Ouch. But the kids LOVED it and wanted more after the ten were done. So that makes it worth it.

After awhile, the kids were ushered into their bedrooms, still swinging their glow sticks back and forth in the darkness. I hadn't decided yet about telling the kids I was leaving so I choked back tears, sang my usual goodnight songs, and took extra time to tell each one how much I loved them. Only Hannah and Marisa caught on to what was happening but they seemed to keep it to themselves as they quietly cried in their beds.

You see, I'm leaving tomorrow around 3pm so I don't want the rest of my time here to be a funeral procession. That's why we had a party. That's why I want to continue to make good memories until the moment that I leave.

But can it really be all over? Six months gone? How is that possible?

My room is slightly torn apart, two bags are already heading back to WallaWalla, and I'm left with a backpack and a purse. Even my pillow was packed into a bag and sent back. Tomorrow will consist of finishing packing, cleaning, and making sure all the stuff that is staying here gets sent to the right people (pencils to teachers, clothes to caregivers, Christmas lights to storeroom, etc.). I'm going to try to get as many pictures as I can, even if it's doubles because I don't want to forget ANYONE here.

Leaving tomorrow.. How can it be? Plus I just had a curveball thrown in in the form of a piece of bad news and all the philosophies and lessons I'm claiming to have learned are being put to the test. I don't know what the outcome will be but I'm doing my best to remain calm, pray about it, and not let it ruin my LAST day at Bangla Hope. Yet all I feel like doing is screaming. Hm. Maybe that's a sign I should read my Bible and then get to bed. It's late but I'm seeking comfort in talking to a dear friend back home who is really doing a good job at consoling my poor heart.

So this ends my last post on Bengali soil. I doubt I'll get a chance to blog in the madness tomorrow afternoon and by tomorrow evening I'll be on a bus in India heading for Kolkata. I guess the address "jehannainbangladesh.blogspot.com" will cease to be entirely true but as often as I can, I will continue to post blogs and pictures from my trip through Asia heading home. Thus if this is the end of the road for you, thank-you for reading, thank-you for your prayers, and thank-you for sharing this experience with me. Let's talk soon,
ami tomake onic onic onic bhalobashi

of Tisha (the real story) and T-2days

2010-03-25T00:18:00.003+06:00

Allow me to [finally] introduce you to Tisha. Tisha is in one word: crazy. She is so full of life that it just comes bubbling out of her, yet you should feel so blessed to be around her for even a second. Tisha is in my current grade one class and, when she feels like it, she is so smart! She is the kind of student that will start out colouring sitting down... Then a couple minutes later, she'll be standing up at the corner of her desk colouring... Then a couple minutes after that she's on the other side of the desk, still just colouring away. lol Asking Tisha to sit still is like asking the ocean not to be wet.

Tisha came to Bangla Hope when she was about 8months old and is just about ready to turn six according to her file. One of the teachers at KMMS down south called Mrs.Waid to tell her about a woman who had been caught trying to bury her little baby. The mother was mentally unstable, yet when Mrs.Waid got to the village, she was told the mother had run off with the baby. The husband was busy working as a tradesman and wasn't able to look after Tisha who was the youngest of three. Eventually, both parents came to see that Tisha would be better off at Bangla Hope and gave her away to protect her in hopes of her having a better future.

Tisha has always been the bright spot in my day. Sometimes she is a bit much but I can say that girl knows how to have fun. She knows how to laugh and make the best out of what life gives you. I've learned a lot from her. I was really excited yesterday when Dad caught me and Tisha dancing to Bonno-Fulli Hi (a simple children's dance Elle and I learned) on video. I hope Tisha never loses her spark, her gumption, her passion for life. As long as she learns to control her little diva attitude, she will continue to capture hearts all along the way. She's just... beautiful. T-2days. This morning began the festivities. Most of the medical team left early this morning to head down south to continue the clinics. [Side note: a conservative Muslim woman came by yesterday with a gnarly looking eye that was yellow and so swollen that it actually puckered around the iris. I've never seen anything like it. It was pretty nasty...] Anyways, Banni, Shati, and Papri were all asked to go along to translate for the team. They won't be back up here before I leave on Friday so I had to say goodbye this morning. In some lucky way, it was really early (5am) so we were too tired to fully realize what this meant. I won't see them again for a long time. I know I'll be coming back eventually but... how soon is that really?

We all cried. Banni told me not to forget her, Papri told me not to go, and Shati told me to stop crying and to stay beautiful. I'm going to miss each one of those women so much.

After the last members of the team took off, I headed up to the roof to have some alone time while I watched the sun rise (one of the things on my to-do list). Again, I was really too tired to fully give myself over to the emotions of it all but I sat up there with my thoughts, soaking in the scenery as much as I can before it's gone.

I was cut off for not paying my cell phone bill (they wait like a day and then cut it off, though there is no notice until right before it's cut :P) so Dad, Josiah, and I took a rickshaw van into Jalalpur. You should have seen Dad... He's a natural celebrity. He was waving and saying hi to everyone that we passed. My goodness... LOL. It was roasting hot and by the time we got back we were all just drenched in sweat.

I really can't believe how hot it is here again. Why did I ever complain about the cold weather this last winter?

Speaking of cold weather, I was packing up another bag to send back with WallaWalla people and decided that I didn't need my "South Face" jacket as much as someone here needed it. I gave it to Shoprova because A. I love that woman so much and B. I remember her sweater from this last Christmas was kinda ratty so she deserves something warm. It was worth it to see the look on her face. She was so appreciative. Such a wonderful woman!

So all my pictures are down in my room. All my clothes are either packed away or waiting to be washed in a small pile by my bed. All my toiletries are out of the cabinet. Everything is out from under my bed. My pink lily bag is already gone and heading home. My black bag will depart tomorrow morning with another group and I'll be left with my [aka Auntie Jane's] backpack. It has just a few clothes, toiletries, meds, and misc other things to last me in the last month of my journey.

It's all slowly winding down, coming to an end. Dad and I went to each room tonight and put up glow-in-the-dark letters spelling different messages in each room. "Jehanna Loves You" or "Good Night Girlies" or "Sweet Dreams zzz" or "Grammy Loves You". I don't know how well they worked in the dark but I hope the kids enjoy it. We are going to go in tomorrow afternoon and put up a bunch of glow-in-the-dark stars in each room. Then tomorrow night we are having a party. We are going to crack all the glow sticks that Mom sent along, as well as light the sparklers (with all the kids at a safe distance away) that almost got Dad arrested in Beijing (it's a funny story but you'll have to wait for him to tell it himself).

We also have to make a trip into town tomorrow to pay the "leaving the country tax" at the local bank. Since we are leaving on a Friday, the bank closes at 11am but we don't want to leave until the afternoon. We have booked a bus out of the Indian side of Hili for 6pm Friday evening, then will catch a train in Kolkata on Sabbath afternoon. Dad wrote an old friend of his that is working in Kolkata right now so hopefully we'll be able to meet up.

Other than that, tomorrow is my last FULL day in Bangladesh, my last night at the orphanage. Please continue to pray as I face the hard, heart-wrenching goodbye's ahead of me.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Tisha and overwhelming emotions

2010-03-24T00:56:00.002+06:00

I'll have to introduce you to Tisha tomorrow. She's a hoot.

Right now, it's almost 1am and I've just finished assembling a bag that will go home with the American visitors. I'll have to make a trip down to WW after I get home to pick it up, but it's better than having to lug it around Asia. That's for sure!

I think I have the bulk of everything packed away... Sweatpants that will be too hot for summer, sharis that I won't be able to wear anywhere, and random other souvenirs and memorabilia from my six month adventure. Other than that, it's just some odds and ends, pictures, and small things that I know will amount to a sizable portion of a suitcase once assembled. Nonetheless, with two [full] days to go until this experience becomes nothing more than a blog and a folder of pictures, I need to get ready to leave.

I can't even put into words what I'm feeling right now. I could try but I don't really want to acknowledge my biggest fears right now. Fear, sadness, excitement, anxiety, longing, and love. Those are on the forefront of my mind, battling to come out on top. Makes me wonder what condition I'll be in after this war is done... Please pray for me. I need all the prayers I can get right about now...
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Caleb and new eyes

2010-03-22T22:15:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Caleb. Caleb caught my attention the first night I came to Bangla Hope and I have been hooked ever since. He further impressed me as I taught him math and English for the first three months I was here. He's such a smart kid, always wanting so badly to make you proud. Every art project would bring forth "Jehanna Teacher, come see!" yelled from across the classroom.
Caleb is about seven years old and according to his file, his birthday is February 2 so you know we were meant to be kindred spirits (my birthday is February 1). Caleb's father rented a small shop to have a tea house but wasn't able to pay back the money he had borrowed in the process. Thus he disappeared and Caleb's mother was left with the debt. She had to sell some of their land to pay the bill. Eventually Caleb's father came back and began to borrow more money, of which he also couldn't pay back. He disappeared again and later news came that he had married another woman in Dhaka. Caleb's mother couldn't work and take care of Caleb and his little sister Tanisha (the little girl Ryan fell in love with) so she begged Bangla Hope to take them.

Caleb is probably my favourite little boy here. He is so full of life and is always so willing to wrap his skinny arms around me and say "Jehanna Teacher, I love you soooooooooooo much!" He is such a sensitive boy and just a stellar kid through and through. I really think he has a chance to make something of his life here in Bangladesh. I think he has what it takes to do something great. I will miss him so much, yet he is tucked into my heart safe and sound forever. Just a fantastic little kid through and through...

I booked our bus to Hili for 7am this morning. So counting backwards, we had to leave the dental clinic around 5:50, so we should eat breakfast at 5:30 and get up around 5am. Dad set his alarm and we both fell fast asleep. The next thing I know, Shilpi is knocking on the door. I looked at my watch in the dim light, snapping into reality when I realized it said 5:45. Oh dear. I scrambled of bed, calling Dad to action and ran into the bathroom to get changed. We threw our stuff haphazardly into our backpacks, wolfed down some yummy food (Shilpi is an amazing cook), and ran to catch an autorickshaw to take us to Kalunpur. Luckily Ashok went with us again so we wouldn't get lost. Usually the trip takes about an hour, give or take 15min. This time, it only took us 35min and we made it with 15min to spare. God is good!

Ashok got us safely on the bus and then our adventure really began. I've ridden the bus and the roads here so much that nothing really phases me. But it made me laugh to watch Dad's face as our bus careened around cars, missing head on collisions with other buses by inches. I told him the joke Josiah and I have about if the Olympics had Chicken as one of the events, a Bengali bus driver would take gold every year. Well, unless there was another Bengali bus driver--then they'd just have to clean up the mess afterwards lol. After that, we started handing out awards to the closest of calls: he deserves the bronze or wow, he definitely secured the gold with that one. If you don't laugh, you might cry :)

Even though we left early this morning, neither of us slept at all the whole way. Dad was soaking in all the strange sights and I was torn between soaking in my last views of Dhaka and watching Dad's face. When I asked him what he was thinking, all he could say was that my blogs don't do any of this justice: the sights, the smells, the atmosphere. Even a webcam wouldn't do this justice. The only way to fully get an idea of what it's like over here is to experience it for yourself. In a way it made me proud what I've accomplished in getting to know the ins and outs of this culture, but on the other hand, it's sad to me that people reading this at home really aren't getting an accurate picture of life over here.

But I still try my best...

Eight hours later (there was some delays near the markets) we pulled into Bangla Hope and were greeted by Mrs.Waid and Josiah. Dad and Josiah hit it off right away and talked all the way to the kitchen where Shati had food waiting. We munched on yummy japatee burritos and then I showed Dad the general layout of the campus and my room. It's so surreal showing him the space where at time this year I felt so alone and far away from home.

The rest of the evening was spent between the dental clinic (where the doctors were seeing patients) and the courtyard where all the kids were. We watched the kids sing songs for worship, then watched them down full plates of rice and dhal for dinner. They were so cute! Dad got to meet so many of the kids that I've blogged about but he really seemed to be drawn to little Sheba. I love that girl... Later tonight, he came around with me and said goodnight to all my special rooms with me. He even sat in the rocking chair in the nursery and rocked little Dolly as she sat with a big smile on her face. It was really precious--I wish I had my camera..

Anyways, it was a good day. It was interesting to see Bangladesh again with new eyes, even if they weren't my own. It's going to be a good week--that I can promise.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Banni and arrival gates

2010-03-21T21:54:00.004+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Banni. She's been one of my roommates for the past six months (well until this mission group arrived) and is so much fun to be around. Banni's probably about my age but as with most kids here, she doesn't know for sure what her birthday is. Banni works in the office as everyone's secretary, running here and there, laminating, etc. The Waid's took Banni under their wing a long time ago because she doesn't have any other family. They are Mom and Dad to her.

I've had so much fun getting to know Banni. She really is one of the best dancers I've ever seen. She moves so gracefully to the Hindi music, arms splayed out to the side and head tilted ever so slightly as she spins in small circles. We had a dance party one night in our room, blaring Spice Girls "Wannabe" from my poor laptop speakers. We all just bobbed around to the music and when that was done, Banni put in some Hindi tapes and did a little show for us. It was just incredible to watch her move.

Banni has really become like a sister to me. She's been there for some of my hardest experiences in Bangladesh as well as some of the most fun. She keeps saying that when I go home I'm going to forget about her but I don't think I could. Banni, just like so many other people here, is in my soul and has a piece of my heart. I'm going to miss my Bangla sister so very much.

As I'm writing this, Dad is bustling around me getting ready for bed and figuring out our water situation. I left on a 9am bus out of Hili this morning and got into Dhaka just after 4pm. I promptly jumped into an autorickshaw because I didn't want to be late seeing Dad. If only I knew he was flying on Biman, aka an hour late. So I sat in the arrival section, nervously pacing back and forth, anxiously waiting for Dad. Finally I saw that his plane had arrived but there as no sign of him near the immigration desks that I could see from my seat.

With the plane being 35min late, and after another almost 40min of waiting after that, I decided to head down to the opposite end of the terminal where he should have been picking up his bags. That's when I saw him, my dad. Around the same time, he looked over and saw me too. Tears came to my eyes, shocked that this is becoming a reality and not just existing in the phone lines between Bangladesh and Canada. It was a while before the luggage carousel began to turn but I didn't mind waiting on the other side of the glass, incredulous to see someone that I haven't seen in six months.

Tears, hugs, kisses, and pictures. That's how the first two minutes of reconnection were spent. It was a moment to remember.

We scuttled outside into the humid air and I looked for an autorickshaw to take us back to the dental clinic. Since we were at the airport, everyone assumed I knew nothing and tried to rip us off. 350tk for a ride. As if. lol I came not two hours earlier the same way for only 50tk. I know, I'm Bangladeshi. You should have seen Dad's face the first time in that small cage, hurtling down the roads in crazy traffic, horns blaring. All these things that I've become so accustomed to are now being shown for how OUT of the ordinary they are.

As Dad said, " All your pictures and blogs make so much more sense now. I only understood such a small portion of what life was like here before. Wow..."

We dropped his bags off at the dental clinic and ran to the photo place before it closed for the night. Dad needs some more passport pictures in case we need them for Thailand, Laos, or Burma. And even if he doesn't need them, at 8 pictures for less than $4, you can't go wrong. I paid over $20 for only three pictures in Canada--bloody post office people ripped me off. lol

Then I took Dad to the place that just epitomizes Dhaka for me. There's a pedestrian crossing that goes across the road and when you stand in the middle and fully take in what you are seeing, the culture shock starts to set in slowly. You see the lights, hear the horns, notice how no one is capable of staying in their own lane, and wonder why you don't hear more crunching sounds of metal on metal.

After a couple minutes of soaking in Dhaka, we headed to Dhan Suri, my favourite restaurant. Rice, butter dhal, garlic naan, and vegetable masalla. Yum. I handed Dad a fork then proceeded to mash up my food with my fingers, Bengali style. Dad started laughing so hard at the sight of me doing this, yet another thing that is so second nature to me. He promptly put down his fork and I showed him the ins and outs of eating like a Bengali. We had some good laughs :) [Side note: I was kinda proud of the fact that the masalla didn't bother me half as much as it bothered Dad--spicyness wise. His nose was running and he was reaching for water but I was holding my own! It could have been because I diluted mine with dhal, but I like to believe it's because I retrained my taste buds in the last six months!]

We walked back after dinner and started to settle down for the night. Dad's still pretty jetlagged and is currently snoring loudly in the bed next to me. It feels so weird to have him in the room that I've shared with so many other people along the way, playing tour guide in the life that I've been living these past six months. We are leaving on a 7am bus out of Dhaka in the morning, which means we have to leave by 6am, which further means we have to eat breakfast by 5:30. I'm just excited to get back to the orphanage to spend as much time with my kids as I can! I have four days left in Bangladesh before we go to India. Yikes. Time is blowing by!

anyways, I should get to bed too... I'm sure I'll sleep on the bus but I could sure use some sleep right now too! Keep us in your prayers as we start our journey home, slowly but surely one step at a time.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Hannah and visitors

2010-03-20T22:02:00.004+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Hannah. My Hannah Banana. It's ironic how my feelings for that nickname have turned from animosity to joy. The look on Hannah's face when I called her that for the first time was priceless. She was confused at first but now she loves it. I'm so proud to pass it down to her.
Hannah and little sister Rachel were given to Bangla Hope after their home fell down. Their father was sick and unable to make money for repairs. The mother came to our sponsorship director, desperate for him to take her two girls. She had to go to work in the fields in order pay for the house to get fixed and for medicine for her husband. Thus Hannah and Rachel were brought to the orphanage.

Hannah is such a crazy kid. I love her to death. I feel like half the time I'm yelling at her to behave and the rest of the time I'm smitten by her sweet [yet mischievous] smile. She's in my grade one class right now and is definitely on the smartest... and the biggest troublemaker. Hannah is the one when we first got here that painted lines in snake poison on her arm. Yeah, that's what we are dealing with: a little girl prone to mischief and trouble and adventure and curiosity rolled into one. But man do I love her... I can't wait to see who she grows up to be because I know if she focuses that energy she can do anything!

I realized I missed a day of blog and I'm pretty bummed out about that. But I have to say, it was extremely special circumstances! 27people from America got in last night and thus there are 7 new people in my apartment. I struck up a conversation with a girl my age named and ended up offering my computer for her to check her email on. We ended up talking for a couple hours and by the time we called it night, my computer was near dead. No problem, the generator was turned on so the new arrivals wouldn't fry in the heat so power wasn't a problem. Yet, we made the mistake of trying to turn on our a/c to cut the edge of the humidity in our room. Yeah... a/c plus fan plus four fans throughout our apartment equals a blown fuse. Being the good electrician's daughter, I scampered outside to look at the fuse box but the only broken fuse wouldn't stay switched when I flipped it. So we didn't have power (aka current OR fans) the rest of the night. I about died. I slept half the night on the floor just trying to stay cool instead of melting into a puddle... Thus, I wasn't able to blog because I wasn't even able to cool off.

That being said, there are a ton of people here. We welcomed them at the gate as they arrived on rickshaw vans and the put-puts. Then our little girls welcomed them with a cute dance as some of the caregivers sang a welcome song. It was really cute. I think I should be impressed (if I knew before who he was) but Dan Matthews here. I guess I need to watch 3ABN or LLBN more--but I don't. I guess he's a great speaker though with a great passion for God. I was able to spend some time with him today and he's a really nice man.

Today was my last Sabbath in Bangladesh. So surreal, yet so full of joy. We had Sabbath school outside because the classrooms have been overtaken by beds for guests but it was a beautiful day so I didn't mind. After Sabbath school, I headed to church and sang special music after Dan spoke. I sang of my cousin's Jenny's favourite songs, "Is there any way you could say no to this man", and thought of home. I mostly thought about how I get to see Dad tomorrow. How crazy is that.

Anyways, I also went to my last Branch Sabbath School. I'd been talking to them about parables of Jesus, miracles, and different Bible stories but today, at the last one, I wanted to tell them just how much Jesus loves them in hopes that something would stick. I told them about what Jesus' death on the cross meant and how a life with Jesus is so much better than a life without him. Josiah got up and told a story about a little girl who was persistent about going to church even when she was told not to by her father. While he was talking, I went down and visited with the mothers. They were sad to hear that I was going and I was sad to say that I'm leaving.

The best part of the afternoon came after the colouring when I started to give high fives upon completion. I also brought along all the extra marbles and bouncy balls that were left over from Christmas and that's when things got nuts. I had kids literally pushed all around me trying to get a ball. I know some came back for seconds but there was really no way of telling and well, we had enough. It was an incredible experience. Tim, a videographer from PUC, captured the whole event and I'm curious to see what it looked like from the outside.

Tim made a video for Bangla Hope last year and now is going to follow this med and dent group down south in order to put together a video short for one of the SDA broadcasting channels. Thus, you should all watch nothing but the Hope Channel, 3ABN, and LLBN--for the rest of your lives just in case you can catch a glimpse of me :) lol I'm only half kidding...

As we were leaving the school, the finality of it began to hit me and I started tearing up. I can't imagine how I'm going to feel leaving our kids here if I began tearing up saying goodbye to the village kids I saw once a week. It was rough.

Tim and Dan talked to me afterwards at dinner and asked if I was willing to be interviewed about going south to pick up the kids this last November. I didn't realized I had so much to say about that experience since I haven't really thought about it in such a long time, but the whole experience was actually pretty fun. I sat down with Dan, a camera off in the distance, and basically chatted with him for a good half an hour. I'm not sure how much they will be able to use and such but nonetheless, I hope some of the story gets out there.

Tomorrow is the day. THE DAY. Yes, the day that I get to see Dad. I can't even begin to describe my feelings. There's nervousness, excitement, joy, sadness, and a million other things I can't put a finger on. I'm jumping on a bus at 9am, putting me in Uttara at 4:30-5 which just before Dad gets in. Then we are going to wander around the city, see the "sights", maybe have some dinner, and then hit the hay probably. I'm hoping to catch the 6am bus out of Dhaka the next morning so that we can maximize our time here at the orphanage.

Thus, it's probably time for me to get to bed... I didn't sleep well last night, what with it being 150degrees in our room so I need to catch up a little. Have a wonderful Sabbath...
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Papri and apprehension

2010-03-18T23:08:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Papri. Papri is the grade one teacher I've been working with since I arrived back in October and is so full of life. I'm glad I've gotten to spend so much time in the classroom with her because it's really given me the chance to get to know her better than most of the other staff.
Papri is probably about 28yrs old and has been teaching for quite some time. While she is Bangladeshi, her tribe is considered different from the mainstream Bengali culture. The tribe, called Garo (not to be confused with go-ru, meaning cow lol), is from the north-east part of Bangladesh, just under China. That's why, in my opinion, Papri looks Chinese :) She's told me before that sometimes when she goes to Dhaka people don't believe that she's Bengali and remain convinced she's a foreigner.

When I say that Papri is full of life, I mean it! She is one of the loudest people on campus and you can really hear her about a mile away! She's always joking, always singing Hindi songs, and dancing. Going for a walk with her through the rice fields on Sabbath afternoon, in fact, is like recreating a Hindi film. I love her to death. Since she's not married, she keeps asking me if I will come back for her marriage sometime in the future--I tell her, I hope so Papri but I don't know... This last week, she's been telling me not to go home and how much she will miss me. I know that to be true because when we first got here, all she could talk about was Ryan and missing him. So, for all future SM's to Bangla Hope, get ready to hear all about me :) lol it comes with the territory!

[Quick side note: last night we had a CRAZY wind storm! I woke up at 3:45am because I had to pee and I couldn't believe how the wind was howling through the vents in our apartment. I had to go outside and pick up the laundry that had been blown off the line, but thankfully not off the balcony, but everything was so pitch black that I couldn't see what the wind was doing to the trees. I even went outside our front door that faces the orphanage and couldn't see anything. It was incredible. It sounded like it was raining too but it wasn't. I guess it was just my deep-rooted BC spirit who's only seen one day of rain in 6months that was hoping for some kind of precipitation.]

So today was technically the last "normal" day here. Tomorrow a bus full of 27 people arrives sometime in the evening. Oh dear. Though they are only here til Sunday (they are heading South to do medical and dental clinics), Dad will be here so that doesn't count as "normal". We now have four beds in our living room, two in our spare bedroom, and Elliot's bed was taken out to be put somewhere else. Everything's changing... :( If you know me at all, you know that doesn't always go over very well.

Hence the apprehension, the anxiety, and the strange feelings of possessiveness I'm having. I don't WANT to share MY kids in the last few days that I have with them :P I want everything to stay the same, though I'm finding frantically clawing at the hands on the clock doesn't help. Please don't misunderstand me, I'm happy these people are coming over to help but I can't help but feel... well possessive.

Peace. Find peace.

I did a major clean sweep today of our room as they were taking Elliot's bed out. I'm trying to downsize starting now so packing for home will be easier. I'm a pack rat--I've kept everything. But not everything will fit in a scrapbook, let alone a suitcase headed for home. By the way Dad, I'm counting on you to be the voice of reason (aka "You don't need that at home") when you get here because I'm going to want to keep everything! In the cleaning process, I was relieved to find the two missing art projects though in a box under the sink. All the projects are neatly set aside, all started and waiting to have the finishing touches placed. I hope they will get used or this is just a big waste of time lol.

On the bright side of life, I now have Mozilla and iTunes!! Yay, I tried to get Mozilla a couple days ago but it was "too big" at 8MB to download. But I kept my computer open most of today downloading both. iTunes alone took 6hrs to chew through the 94MB .exe file. Good times with slow Bangladeshi internet. It actually just finished downloading and guess what I'm listening to? "I Gotta a Feelin'" by BlackEyed Peas... "I gotta feeling that today's going to be a good day..." Yes, yes it will be. Everything's going to be okay. ahhh it's so nice to have music back in my life. Now I just need Skype and my movie player and I'll be content!

Tomorrow Brittni and I are waking up early to go make dhal with Shati so I should get to bed... And then the flood gates open and 27people come and nothing will ever be the same again... awesome. lol
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Mikey and... well... the norm.

2010-03-17T22:02:00.004+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Mikey. I was instantly drawn to him at first as much as Elliot was drawn to little Johnny because they both had the same names as our boyfriends back home. The more I spent with Mikey, the more I could see that he needed special love and attention. AKA extra hugs :) This is what I signed up for. Mikey is a lot more quiet than the other boys so I think he gets passed over a lot. But once I started to show him some extra attention, he started smiling and laughing with me. Man, he has a knockout smile!

Mikey is about five years old and was born on Valentine's Day supposedly--must be why he's so sweet. He's been at Bangla Hope since he was eleven months old because his father passed away. His file says that one sad looking lady brought a very nice looking baby boy to Mrs.Waid. She would not talk but others around explained that eight months before, Mikey's parents had gone to eat lunch with relatives. The father became ill and had extreme diarrhea but refused to go see a doctor. Thus he couldn't get enough liquid down him in order rehydrate and was dead by the end of the week. Mikey's mother was also mentally ill according to these people and wasn't able to take care of him by herself. She cried and cried when they took Mikey away.

It makes me sad that Mikey, like some of the other quiet ones, tend to get overlooked. I'm not casting any blame because, let's be honest, I was just as much to blame by getting sucked in as an audience of the Marisa's and the Danny's. But I hope that can be a lesson to me, even when I get back, to be more observant of the introverted people. Based on what I've seen here, they have just as much, if not more, to offer as the extroverts! I'm glad I took time to cuddle Mikey and give him extra love. He told me he loved me tonight and it made my heart melt. He's such a precious little soul, innocent and untainted by the cruelty of this world. I wish I could protect him from the hardships to come but life isn't like that.

I'm afraid I don't have much to report from today... I taught class in the morning and then Mrs.Waid and I went to Hili to run some errands. We came back and I did laundry (by hand!) because I'm getting low on almost everything and I don't want to take dirty laundry across Asia next week :P I made up the progress reports for Mrs.Waid so that each child can see how they are doing in each subject... I studied some ochem. I talked about living out our faith at the caregiver's worship. We played 5 Crowns after watching an animal show on their satellite TV. I lost both times but you can't be good at everything right? lol

anyways, that was the norm... Nothing new, nothing exciting. I'll tell you what IS exciting though! I get to see Dad in four days. FOUR DAYS. After six months of phone conversations, FB messages, and emails, I get to see my DAD. Whoop Whoop! Yes, I'm THAT excited. Part of me almost wishes I was going all the way home but then that part gets squished out by the part that is ecstatic to travel to Thailand and India. Oh dear... can't... contain... EXCITEMENT!

But I must because I'm going to bed and like to sleep :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Dolly and catalogs

2010-03-16T22:55:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Dolly. I was originally going to talk about Mikey tonight but after saying goodnight to Dolly, I just can't resist! Dolly is Amelia's little sister whom we brought from the south this last November. Mrs.Waid carried her in the van and anytime she caught Amelia's eye she would start crying. Both of them had such bad chest coughs when they first arrived and for some reason, Dolly's has persisted even to now.

The thing that strikes me about Dolly is how SMALL she is... She's got to be almost a year and a half old but when you pick her up, it's like picking up air. She's so light and so tiny. She eats so so so much and hasn't gained any weight since coming here. I think that just points to how badly malnourished she was when we first brought her here.

I've been trying to make it to more than just the boys' room to say goodnight and last night I was so glad I stopped in at the nursery. I sat with some of the mothers as they were finishing off the nightly diapers and putting the kids to bed. I asked one of them to show me how to tie a cloth diaper. It's not too complicated, thought it slightly resembles origami--the only difference is that if you don't fold a paper swan right, nothing happens. In this case, you could be wrist-deep in... You know. lol Anyways, after I learned how (and did an awful demonstration of my new skill) I went around and kissed all the babies goodnight. While most of them were scared of me and started screaming at the sight of me, Dolly held out her hands wide for me to pick her up. I picked her up and gave her a ton of kisses, tickles, and hugs. Her laugh was so quiet, yet so energetic at the same time... Such a cutie pie!

Today my day was consumed by this darn catalog. I have to give Elliot and Ryan mad props for getting the backbone of this monster in place because even the fine-tuning has taken forever it seems. Adding, editing, reformatting... Each time through the printed draft produced new errors to be corrected. And because we were doing this all on Elliot's little netbook, Publisher kept freezing under the enormity of the 44-page file. So frustrating at times. I spent the better part of the day with both netbooks opened in front of me, trying to edit between crashes on one and trying to download Mozilla onto the other. Both in the end were successful thankfully. I can't stand Internet Explorer... And Mr.Waid and Josiah are headed to Dhaka tomorrow morning with a flashdrive containing about three solid weeks of work to print it off in Uttara. I think I want to get a copy just so I can show people the amount of work this 'catalog' took--it's really a piece of art in my books lol.

Hence, the art project planning ONCE again got pushed to the bottom of Jehanna's priority pile. yikes. I need to get on that! Eggs with baskets for Easter, three fish threaded onto a popsicle stick with thick twine, seeds glued onto construction paper to make flowers in a vase, and... face masks. That's what I've got so far. When I say "got" I mean, ideas in place but not portioned out with an example and packed into a Ziplock bag. grrrr. Maybe tomorrow I'll tackle that one. I'm really trying to get all this stuff done THIS week so next week can be devoted to packing and showing Dad around my home away from home. So stop procrastinating... lol

So that was about the extent of the exciting parts of my day. Blogging every day becomes retelling a lot of the same stories over and over... So sorry if you're bored :) I don't blame you if you read about the daily kid then move on to updating your Facebook lol
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Litton and computer experts

2010-03-15T22:45:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Litton. Litton is not an orphan here but he has had a significant impact on my life and I think you should get to know him. Litton works here as the business manager and is one of THE hardest working people at Bangla Hope, hands down. The amazing thing is that he's only about 26! He went to school in India at Spicer College and earned his undergraduate in business then completed his masters of English. He worked his way through school, tutoring Korean students and fighting to catch a few hours of sleep before morning classes. Right now he could be back at Spicer, earning a nice salary as a professor but instead he is here at Bangla Hope, helping us.

Litton is also one of the most spiritual people I've met in Bangladesh. He has been beaten down, gossiped about, and threatened yet still remains faithful to God and in pursuit of the right. I wish there were more men like him in Bangladesh, even more men like him here at the orphanage! Litton has shown me what it means to truly follow God and His plan for you against all odds. He has inspired me to be active in my spiritual life and not sit down complaining when things don't go your way. I wish I could tell you more of his incredible story but out of respect I'll leave it at what I've written.

I chose to write about Litton tonight because I had to say goodbye to him today. As you know, he and Suborna just got married this last Friday and are now making their way down to his village for some more wedding festivities. After that, he has to go down south with the American group coming in so I won't get to see him before I leave... It was just another goodbye that shocked me into realizing that I only have 10 days left in Bangladesh. That's it. Oh dear.

Today I was on a mission. My poor computer Daphne has been having problems with the pre-release version of Windows 7 that she was loaded up with before coming to Bangladesh. For the past couple days, she has been randomly restarting (sometimes in the middle of a blog grr...) and when I'm sleeping in the middle of the night she will turn back on even with the lid closed. It's so weird. I was going to wait until I got home to do anything about it but today it was too much after she crashed twice.

Josiah said he had the disc for the new Windows 7 but that doesn't help much when you have a netbook (aka no disc drive). Thus I had to steal Shati's external dvd player and reinstall Windows. It didn't take too long but somewhere along the way, especially with the kind of heat we've been having here, I fell asleep for a 30min GLORIOUS nap... Mmm I love naps! So it's installed and she hasn't had any seizures yet, which is a very good sign. The bummer of it all is that the internet is too slow to download any of the programs I lost when I reformatted: Skype, Mozilla, iTunes, K-Lite Media Player... grr... But at least she's not seizing anymore--that's the bright side! I just can't put into words how much I hate Windows Explorer... grrrr...

Josiah says that now that I've reformatted my hard drive, I'm now certified as a computer expert here in Bangladesh! lol That's their answer to everything here, and the reason why Josiah is missing 80gb in pictures and music. He was having troubles connecting to the internet so the computer tech came and, unbeknownst to Josiah, wiped his hard drive. Yeah, that will solve the problem... lol So if anyone needs me to look at their computer when I get home, I can! I may not fix the problem but I'll give you a lot more hard drive space to figure it all out! lol

anyways, tomorrow is Day 10 in my little countdown so I need to get the catalog finished, pump out some more art projects, and help Mrs.Waid hand out the spring dresses to the little girls. Long day ahead means Jehanna needs sleep!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Amelia and another one down

2010-03-14T22:40:00.005+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Amelia. She has grown so much in her four months here and now runs around with a big smile on her face where once sadness held firm. Amelia has mastered the tight leg grip and whenever you pick her up, she holds on for good. It's like prying mussels of rock to get her off sometimes :) But she's definitely a cutie pie and is more than willing to give you kisses any time you ask for them!

Amelia is about two years old and is in the same room as Gabriella and Natalie. She is one of the five that we picked up down south early last November and Elliot got the privilege of naming her. Amelia's father had two wives (I know I've told this story but for those who are just joining the blog and haven't read the earlier ones I'm repeating), one with a son and the other with two daughters. The father refused to feed or clothe Amelia's mother, Amelia, or little Dolly and instead gave everything to the mother with a son. Thus Amelia's mother had to go work in the field to make enough to survive but she couldn't do it with two small girls. Watching her give up her two daughters was one of the most heartbreaking experiences I've ever laid witness to.

For awhile she was reclusive, always looking for her sister Dolly and screaming when they weren't together. Amelia really has come a long way and is now becoming a energetic, yet extremely mischevious, little girl. lol We are working on hitting right now... She's prone to slapping your face and laughing afterwards... Like I said, we're working on that right now. lol

Today... What did I do today...? Sunday right? I slept in as much as I possibly could and then ran downstairs for breakfast. I convinced Josiah to share some of his bounty with me so I ate baby food for breakfast. lol Not kidding! Josiah found this incredibly delicious gruel in Dhaka and has been making some every day since. I stole a bite once and now I'm hooked. It's sooo yummy. Baby food: apple and corn flavoured.

After that I ran to class and reviewed the joys of words from Dick and Jane. For an hour. I really shouldn't be a teacher. It's settled. I've learned a lot of patience from the whole experience but teaching "go, go, go" really doesn't fuel my engines...

After class I decided it was time to clean. The bugs have been extra bad lately and have found ways to walk through our walls and settle by the the lights. Hence, we have clouds and clouds of bugs everywhere. Well, had! lol It would have been much simpler to just vacuum everything in one swipe but such amenities are not available to me here. Nonetheless, I did a thorough clean sweep of all bodies and cob webs around my window and even swept all the dust bunnies from beneath my bed. It was extremely satisfying...

Later in the afternoon, I geared up for my last art day with the kids. I can't believe it. Instead of having a ton of firsts, I'm starting to check of my list of lasts. I pulled out one of the more difficult projects, water colours, and had the kids decorate paper to later be used at bookmarks for their textbooks. I say difficult because trying to manage 25kids with containers of dirty water and sloppy paint containers.. It's tough. But we made it through in fine fashion and had many of beautiful pieces of art to show for it.

Wow, my last day of art with the kids. You know why? Because in EXACTLY one week, I'm going to be in Dhaka, showing my dad a slice of the craziness I've lived in the past [almost] six months. One week. I know I know I know I keep repeating but it hasn't hit me yet.

Ryan left today for Dhaka. He doesn't fly out until Wednesday but he had some business to get to before leaving. It's so surreal. First Elliot left, then Roger, then Jim (both American board members for Bangla Hope), and now Ryan. Then me. Another one down, just a couple left... I can't believe my SM year is going to be done in 12days. Yeah, that's IT. Then it's back to the grind, back to biochem, Rosario, and the dorm. Whoop whoop... I know it's awful to say, but I feel like everything will pale in comparison to my life these last five months.

Stop thinking about it Jehanna... You've still got 12 wonderful days here. Make the most of them!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Danny and lazy Sabbaths

2010-03-14T00:05:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Danny. Mind you, if you were here in person, Danny would be one of the first to run up and introduce himself to you. He is always trying to practice his English and whenever we need something translated he is always one of the first that we ask. I taught Danny grade one last year and, while he was a pill sometimes, he's a really smart kid.

Danny is almost 8yrs old and has been at Bangla Hope since he was about three and a half. Danny was brought to Bangla Hope by his father after his mother died of liver cancer in the hospital. Danny's older brother was sent to boarding school but since Danny's father had to return to the fields to work, he couldn't take care of little Danny. Thus Danny has been with us since. Mrs.Waid has told me that Danny has memories of being with his mother which is unusual for most of our kids. I think it just makes it all the harder too though...

I feel like I've said this before, but even though Danny is a trouble maker, he is one of my favourites. I don't know why I seem to be drawn to the kids that push their limits, but I am. Danny is one like that. One moment he will be translating for us as we explain why we are punishing another kid for hitting and the next moment we will be punishing HIM for hitting. You can tell though that he knows when he's messed up... He just gets a stubborn look on his face and shuts down, like that night he stole Luke's slice of lime. Danny's different though in that the next morning he will usually say sorry and tell you how much he loves you. He's a really really really good kid--just needs some direction and discipline.

Today in Sabbath school we covered the 5th commandment: Honour your father and your mother. How do you explain this one to orphans...? I mean, the underlying concept of honouring your elders is easy enough but the literal text is hard to explain especially since most of these kids DO have parents. It's just that the parents aren't able to provide for them and thus had to give them up. Anyways, I kinda glazed over that since I know Mrs.Waid has been talking to the grade one and two kids about that stuff at worship and moved onto respecting teachers and caregivers.

After church we buzzed out to the Gohara school for village Sabbath school. I told the story of Jesus feeding the 5000people with 5loaves and 2fishes. Afterwards, Josiah got up and told a story about not having food and praying that his gift card would work in order to buy him a bagel. It sounds simple but to these kids, hope means the world. I want to avoid giving them the picture of a Santa Claus Jesus and instead showing them that Jesus loves them so much and wants to provide for those who believe in him. The kids were so excited to colour a picture of Jesus breaking the bread. I think next week at our last village Sabbath school I'm going to tell them about Jesus dying on the cross for them in hopes that something will really jump up inside of them.

This afternoon after dinner I lugged a quilt, pillow, and a couple books up to the roof to soak in some much needed rays. My poor skin has been so sheltered in this conservative country that I feel the need to slowly introduce sunlight in before I get to Thailand and lay on the sandy beaches... Mmm... I ended up taking a little nap in the sun and woke up feeling so refreshed. I journaled for a little bit as the sun went down and sang praise songs as the last few rays of sunlight disappeared into the haze over the horizon. It was a great way to end the day.

Ryan is leaving tomorrow for Dhaka. He's the first to leave. Then the big American group is coming next Friday to do a medical mission trip. Then I pick up my dad on Sunday (ONE WEEK). Then the Waid's and Brittni leave to fly to Hong Kong around the 25th. Then Dad and I leave for India on the 26th. Then it will just be Josiah here for a couple weeks. Crazy. That's the only word that will adequately describe how the next two weeks are going to go down. Well that and maybe BUSY!

I'm hoping to get a lot of cleaning done tomorrow though, get some stuff ready to go home and such. Really it's the grey fuzz of dead bugs swirling around our floor that is annoying me. That will be gone tomorrow if it's the last thing I do! We are in the final countdown!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Gabrielle and turmeric

2010-03-12T21:04:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to little Gabriella. When we first got here, she would run into her room and hide behind the cribs any time she saw us coming. If we ever tried to pick her up, she would start screaming--I'm telling you, fear of white peopl

e is a legitimate phase in these kids' developments! But now, oh man, if you don't pick her up and give her lots of kisses she will pull at your clothes until you do! When you set her down after, she breaks into a HUGE grin and runs away with her little arms pumping.

I don't have the case history for Gabriella but I would assume she is about 2... ish? She is in the little toddler room where the girls go that have graduated from the nursery. Instead of just going to the boys' room to say goodnight, I've been trying to hit up some more rooms along the way, getting slobbery kisses from all the little sweethearts. Gabriella will run in circles around you, quite literally, until you pick her up and PUT her in bed! lol I can see that she's going to be a little heartbreaker with those big eyes and long eyelashes. She's pretty much adorable.

So today was the day. THE day. The day my friend Litton got married to my friend Suborna. Weddings over here in Bangladesh are so different just because of the different culture and different religions. Even though they are Christian, there is still a Hindu feel to some of the wedding ceremony. Like this morning, I woke up at 5:45 to get to the turmeric party. I got downstairs by 6:30 and there were already women grinding up the turmeric root (you can't run to Safeway and get the pre-ground stuff lol) on big stone slabs in front of the bright yellow stage.

I was wearing my cheap purple seloar kamees in case I got any staining-yellow paste on it. When Rosemary saw me, she dragged me back upstairs and dressed me in a bright yellow shari with a cherry red blouse. I kinda felt like a mixture of a mustard and ketchup bottle lol. When I got downstairs, the women were fetching water in their ceremonious way, singing as they carried big pitchers of water. They met Litton at the entrance to the apartment building and walked behind as Litton's male relatives carried him to the turmeric stage. Apparently before you get married in Bangladesh, you are not allowed to anywhere. People just carry you. lol

Suborna was already sitting on the stage with her flower girls around her. Then one by one, people walk up, smear turmeric on the bride and groom's faces and splash water for good luck. Then with the leftover turmeric on their fingers, they smear it on the other guest's faces. If you can avoid it turning into a food fight it's actually pretty fun. I had some old pastors come up and gently dab turmeric on each of my cheeks. But then I also had the rambunctious ones run up and smear it ALL over my face. My poor eye.. My poor hair... But we all had a great time, spreading luck and turmeric to friends and family.

After a ton of pictures, I rushed upstairs to scrub the stuff off my face. There is a reason why we don't do turmeric parties in North America. I am white. Turmeric is yellow and stains. You do the math. I scrubbed the big pieces off with a loofa, washed the skin with my face wash, and then tried to scrub it off again with a Clean&Clear makeup remover cloth. It took the bulk of the yellow off but, after looking back on my pictures from the wedding, I think I still had a yellow tinge to my skin.

Wedding time. I quickly wrote out the words to "The Rose" and ran downstairs to coordinate the wedding music. It was supposed to start at 11am but since it's a wedding, a BENGALI wedding at that, it didn't start until almost 11:30. Thus, I played "I will be here" by Steven Curtis Chapman about ten times, all the while imaging my own wedding day and remembering my mom sing this song.

The wedding ran smoothly, slightly formal by Bengali opinion but still really nice. I belted out some Bette Midler and thought back to my Auntie Mel singing it at her wedding reception. I like weddings. I could choose to see them as depressing, but I see hope in them. These people found real, long-lasting and unfailing love--so can I. When God shows me it's right, I'll be wearing that white dress and listening to my family sing me many a song!

There was a sermon, vows were exchanged (all in Bangla of course), lighting of the unity candle, and kneeling on white satin pillows for prayer. The whole thing took about an hour but then, as it was winding down, it came time for the kiss-the-bride part. In Bengali culture, couples barely hold hands, let alone kiss in public, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. It was sweet though--Litton reached in and gave her a soft kiss on the cheek :)

After the wedding, we took more pictures and I wrote out the words to the other two songs I was asked to sing. The receptions are soooo different than Western receptions. People sat, ate, left. Litton and Suborna sat on a platform at the front and when people brought forward gifts, they had to take a sip of a milky liquid and eat a concentrated sugary crystal. While the Bengali's feasted on chicken curry and rice, Shati made us rice palau (sooo good), fried pumpkin and potatoe curry. I ate too much, more than my tight shari would allow and I'm pretty sure I still have a line in my side where my petticoat dug in. (Just checked and it's not there... but nonetheless, it was still REALLY tight).

I was asked to sing while everyone was eating and I did... But people were still talking loudly and no one was really paying attention to me--another difference from Western receptions. There were no clinking of glasses, no funny jokes or stories, no dancing. Eat and leave. Granted it was so hot outside, which was amplified by the four meters of thick cotton wrapped around me, but still. I want my wedding party to go late into the night, celebrating and laughing with friends and family. It's going to be pretty fun I'm hoping.

anyways, so that was my day. Bengali wedding. I can check that off my bucket list. It's Ryan's last full day tomorrow at Bangla Hope so we are going to have some fun, play some badminton, and hopefully finish at least ONE of the projects that we set out to do lol. It should be fun. I'm exhausted from all the sleep I HAVEN'T been getting so I'm off to bed to soak in some wonderful Sabbath rest. Have a wonderful Friday,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Shaelah and Bette Midler

2010-03-11T23:25:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to my namesake Shaelah. About a month after we had been in Bangladesh, we all headed south to Gopalganj in a van to see the village schools and bring back some more kids to the orphanage. I met little Shaelah, her mother and grandmother on the way to the pick up point. For some reason, I just felt drawn to this family. I sat with the them, helped the mother wash and change her little girl into the clothes we had brought, and used as much of my little Bangla (really little at the time) to try to give comfort. I blogged all about this in November but it's the only case history I know of for Shaelah.

She's just over a year old now, born on February 11. That was the other thing that drew me to her, close to my birthday, Valentine's Day, and (at the time) my one year anniversary. I considered naming her Michelle decided on Shaelah because, well, she just looked like a Shaelah to me. I hope naming my kids will be that easy!

Shaelah's been doing well at the orphanage. Honestly, I don't see her much because she's in the nursery and I'm prone to play with the older kids. I've gone to see her a couple times but she's at that "scared of white people" phase and starts to cry when I pick her up. Maybe in a couple years when I come back she'll be better... But then I doubt she'd remember me, holding her for 10hours as steadily as I could so she wouldn't wake up and cry. Kids these days eh? They ain't got no gratitude... lol jk :)

Today was a tad bit crazy. I taught English and English Math this morning (adding three numbers and a story about Sally and Spot being scared by scary looking boxes that really only had Dick and Jane under them.. good times) and then headed down to hopefully work with Ryan on FINISHING that blasted catalog. Don't get me wrong, this catalog looks incredible thanks to the hard work of Elliot and Ryan, but I just want it to be done already! Not yet, not yet...

It was Thanksgiving today. lol I got a craving for stuffing and decided to make it a new Thanksgiving on March 11. I grabbed my 97cent Walmart instant stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, and a can of Fri-Chik and headed down to the kitchen with my treasures. I had brought over the instant mixes for Canadian and American Thanksgivings because, at the time, I didn't know that we were going to be eating such good food here! But Shati made dinners for both occasions so I've been saving them, along with the Fri-Chik Mom sent me for Christmas, for a special occasion. But somehow, special occasions never really come. Days pass and before you know it, you're leaving Bangladesh in TWO WEEKS and you have a container full of specialty foods that you've been stocking up on. Yikes.

Thanksgiving on March 11. I think it could become a tradition. Ryan and I celebrated (there was to much food for just one person so I was nice and shared lol) in Litton's back office as we debated the formats of the brochure and catalog. We made a pact to celebrate next year too and we'll be sure to invite YOU if you want to participate in our new holiday. Bring food and gifts lol.

After Thanksgiving lunch, I was excused from classes and ordered to the cafeteria to help Mrs.Waid decorate for the wedding tomorrow. 50 yards of pink tule, flowers, and ribbons. Simple, but beautiful. We have Walla Walla, Brianna Myers, and Tracy to thank too though: they supplied the LIGHTS lol. I took down the red star lights in our room from Tracy to decorate two of the windows. Brianna sent over some really cool battery powered Christmas lights that are now being used to decorate the unity candle, and WallaWalla's Christmas lights are being used at the front of the chapel. Go team go!

The rest of the day was more decorating, with lots of time spent between the cafe and the huge tent set up across the badminton courts for the reception. Don't worry, there are tons of pictures to come :)

But the REAL fun starts at 6:30am tomorrow with a turmeric party. You wear something that you really don't mind ruining and spend a couple hours smearing turmeric on everyone else's face and arms for good luck. lol Now how would that go over in America...? Not well I'm guessing so I'm excited for this opportunity. I'm hoping no chicken's heads will get cut off and I'm fairly certain the odds are low of that happening--that event is contained to young Hindu marriages.

The ceremony starts at 11am and I am in charge of sound. I spent a couple minutes working out how to fade in and out of songs in order to not have such a harsh ending. I'm not stellar at it, but it will do. I was asked to sing for the ceremony and reception, both songs a tribute to the great Bette Midler. "The Rose" for the ceremony and "Wind Beneath My Wings" for the reception. It's a good thing that nobody speaks very much English because I really don't remember the words to "Wind Beneath My Wings" as well as I should.. [Note to self: print out lyrics in the morning...] Papri is adamant about me singing "My Heart Will Go On" at some point and I'm afraid she might shout "Encore, encore" at the reception. [Note to self: print out Titanic lyrics too...]

so there's an early start to the morning ahead and I'm still up at midnight:04 lol. It's going to be a long day... Best wishes to Litton and Suborna on their last night as single people :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Melote and 'funny' people

2010-03-10T21:59:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Melote :) She is the caregiver for the big boys' room and she is GOOD at what she does. She's probably not much older than I am but has more life experience than I could ever imagine. Melote's been with Bangla Hope for many many years now and is loved by all because of how hard she works and how she is so great with the boys. On top of that, she has such a sweet personality and is always so excited to see me and give me a hug. She's such a wonderful person. I'm going to miss her as much as I'm going to miss those kids!

Quick side note: I took advantage of the fast internet (and extra day) I had in Dhaka and was able to post a bunch more pictures. I couldn't believe I hadn't posted since January so there are a ton of different events up! Thus, you aren't a Facebook-er or we aren't friends for some reason, use this link to check out some great shots!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171272&id=549112159&l=908d7b94fe

So this morning, Ashok (the guard at the dental clinic) and I headed to the Embassy at 8am. I still hadn't heard from the visa guy but I went in good faith that I could at least talk to someone if I got there and it wasn't ready. Shilpi (his wife) made a fantastic breakfast of dhal, vegetable fry, and japatee and we were off!

When I got to the embassy, I had to wait in line for about 15min before I could even go in to see about my application for an application :P And it was the same two guys from yesterday. When I sat down, the one visa guy asked me if I had tried to call him. I told him I had because I was curious to know about what was going on with my visa.

Then the other guy turned me and told me that my application had been denied. When I asked why, he just said that his boss looked it over and had denied me. For no reason. I started to panic instantly, my mind running at about a million miles an hour. I told him I didn't know what to do because my dad was coming over in ten days and that we had planned to go to India together. He told me that I should call my dad and tell him NOT to come over. I'm not kidding! I told him that we had already booked our flight out of Delhi so that wouldn't work either.

Then he asked me why I had booked a flight without knowing for sure if I had the visa or not. Well it was a heck of a lot easier LAST time to get this darn thing taken care of so I didn't think about it. I was panicking so much.. I ended up just asking him what could I do and all he told me is that he didn't know--but I wasn't allowed to go to India.

Then the other guy reaches down and pulls out my application and says "alright, I'll do your visa for you." Then the "joker" breaks into a huge smile and starts laughing. Yeah, he was pulling my leg the whole time. Looking back, it was a little bit funny but in the moment I was absolutely in shock as to what my next move would be. So I have an Indian visa... That's the end of that story.

After the embassy, Ashok helped me get from Gulshen to Kalanpur (or something like that) where the bus station was. I was able to get on the 10:40bus out of Dhaka and Ashok went as far as the bus change in order to make sure I was getting on the right bus to Hili. He's such a good guy. He doesn't speak very much English at all but between my alpo Bangla, his alpo English, and a lot of charades, we get by. lol Shilpi taught me a cool way of tying my orna so I wouldn't get as much attention but in the end I got more as people kept asking me if I was Muslim :P But it does help to keep your hair clean from the nasty Dhaka air!

The bus trip back was quiet and uneventful for the most part. Everyone around me stared at me for the first twenty minutes but then they turned to their cell phones, sleep, or boredom. I pulled out my book and read for the first half of the trip, taking time to take in the scenery along the road every now and then.

When we got to the halfway point rest stop, I was planning on staying with my bag when two girls about my age asked me if I was going to get off. I told them I didn't really need to, plus I didn't know if it was safe to leave my bag. One of the girls volunteered to watch my stuff (she looked pretty trustworthy) and the other one guided me to the bathroom and held my stuff whilst I used the good ol' squat pot. Then I held her stuff while she was in the washroom and then we both headed back to the bus. But first, she stopped and bought us both ice cream bars, bought herself a pop and me a bag of fried peas. She was so sweet, never asking for ANYTHING in return.

When we got back on the bus, we talked until the bus began to lurch forward. She took a picture on her cell phone and I got a picture with my camera. An older man (when I say older, I mean the cutie pie had not a single tooth in his whole mouth lol) sitting ahead of me saw we were talking a mixture of Bangla and English and turned to smile. Then he held up his napkin containing fried eggs and japatees: "Tume cowl?" He wanted to share his lunch with me. Such a nice guy! I politely refused but in turn offered him some of my fried peas. He shook his head no, explaining he had no teeth in one big toothless grin. The people you meet on a bus from Dhaka to Hili eh?

But all this just means that I am now an accomplished Bengali traveler. I can make it around the city by myself and even all the way up to Bangla Hope :) Not that I'm going to make it a habit but I can just remember back five months ago when I would hold onto Elliot's shirt wherever we go. I've learned a lot over here, that's for sure!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Joseph and Indian visas

2010-03-09T23:07:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Joseph. Joseph started out in my grade one class last year and now is doing SO well in grade two. He's so smart. He even had the lead in the Christmas play this year with Marissa--he played.. Can you guess? Yup. Joseph. lol I know, I was really creative with that one. But I gave him the part because he does really well with English already but moreso, because he likes to work hard for something. Not that he doesn't goof off too, but when you give instruction he is VERY obedient. Such a great kid.

[Back in Hili now...] According to Joseph's file, he turned six this last February... Born in 2004... carry the one... yeah that makes him "six." But there is no way that's right. He's in grade two and is definitely one of the older boys. It says he's been here since he was "18months" but I think that is also off... Anyways, his mother divorced his father when his father started beating her. The father had been pressured by the villagers because they didn't like the mother according to the file. After the divorce though, she couldn't take care of her children and had to give Joseph to our orphanage.

Joseph is one of the kids that will run up to me every night saying, "Jehanna Teacher, sing a song!" Okay, Joseph, I'll sing a song. If something catches his eye, he is relentless until he gets your attention to show you. It's incredible--I'll be getting everyone quiet and he'll be hollering at the top of his lungs to show me a flower he drew or something. Then he gives me a big smile when I praise his work and quietly goes to bed. He's also the one with the best kid quote "Jehanna Teacher, banana eat me" as he shows me the banana he's eating. Ah, so cute!

So this morning I woke up at 6:45, had a COLD shower and ate some breakfast. We left the clinic at 8:15 but with the crazy traffic it took over an hour to get to the Indian embassy. Last time, I was able to walk in, pay the money (some of which I gathered in the waiting room from the other foreigners), and walk out with a slip telling me to pick up my passport in a week. This time however, though the Bengali man was nicer, he made me fill out an application for my application. If that makes sense... Anyways, he told me he'd call me later tonight or early tomorrow as to if my application for an application was approved. So I got left in Dhaka lol.

I'm kidding. I told Mr.Waid to go on without me and that I'd be fine taking a bus tomorrow back. It was kinda nice to just relax--as long as I put out of my mind all the projects awaiting me at the orphanage. Hopefully though, I'll get the visa taken care of early tomorrow morning and then be on a bus heading for Hili by 10 or 11am. Hopefully... But as I've learned, even the simplest things in Bangladesh take forever to do!

anyways, pray that I get back safely and that my visa goes through okay! I'm heading to bed, another long day of travel tomorrow!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Sheba and Dhaka days

2010-03-08T22:42:00.006+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Sheba. I'm so excited for you to meet her. She is the CUTEST child. Ever. lol I'm going to be saying that a lot but there is a reason why Sheba is one of my top 10 favourites here. She is just adorable through and through! She's in my grade one class and is so smart, but definitely in a shy way. If you ever catch her eye and smile at her, she sticks her tongue just a tiny bit through her teeth and smiles--every time, without fail. In fact, when we first got here and she was in Elliot's Kindergarten class, that is how Elliot described her when I couldn't put a face on the name.

[Now that I'm back at Bangla Hope...] Sheba is about seven years old but I don't know how long she's been at Bangla Hope. Her family lived halfway on a path leading to a village in southern Bangladesh. They had no land so the father used jute sticks to build a small house on the path. Sheba is one of three daughters. When she was small, her mother got typhoid and was left "simple-minded" by the fever. She was no longer able to take care of Sheba or the rest of the family. Thus, Sheba was given to Bangla Hope so that she could get good food, clean clothes, education, and lots of loving :)

Sheba is an absolute gem. She has such thick, beautiful hair and such a cute face. I have to say though, she has a huge head. LOL I know that may sound slightly mean, but it's true! When we made Native American headdresses (you can't call them Indian here because India is right next door), the two strips of paper were barely enough to fit around her noggin. Sheba has the perfect little girl laugh and uses it often. I just love her to pieces. Seriously, she's got all the areas covered: cuteness, smartness, listening abilities, and she sticks out her tongue all the time! Just so freaking cute. I love her!

Dhaka days. Well really it's one day. We left Bangla Hope 5am this morning and are heading back as soon as I apply for my Indian visa tomorrow morning. It's hard to comprehend that this is the last time I'm going to be in Dhaka before I see my dad. 13days. Dhaka will never be the same. Anyways, I had quite the set of adventures and heart-tugging experiences today. Unfortunately though, these stories will only be privy to a certain group of people upon my arrival home. lol I know I'm shrouding this in mystery but if you hear either story, you'll understand why :) And I know all of that was just really vague but I can't help it. My journal tells all though!

I can't believe how hot it's gotten here. I'm sitting under a mosquito net, sweltering and wondering how I'm ever going to sleep tonight... I know Dad is going to call me a liar when he gets here but I swear, I near about froze this last Christmas! I promise. It was ridiculously cold!! And now I'm melting into a pool of... well you know. lol

Two 7hr trips in two days. Awesome. Going to down to WallaWalla is going to be a cakewalk after all this driving. Granted, I'm not driving... but still. I have driven in Bangladesh though. All of about a foot and a half, but I did! I didn't stall our rusty Hilux either! Good times were had by all :)

anyways, I'm exhausted so I'm heading to bed right after I read my daily Proverb and chapter of John. Then I'm going to be out like a light!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Melanie and uncontrollable laughter

2010-03-07T23:11:00.004+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Melanie. Melanie was in my grade one class last year and is probably one of the oldest kids here. She is really smart and catches on to math and English really quickly. When I was teaching her, I'd always have to come up with things for her to do when she finished her assignments so much faster than everyone. I'd also have to quiet her down when we were reading because she would holler out the words and most of the kids would just follow her lead, never actually knowing what the word said for themselves.

Melanie just turned 8 this last January. She's been at Bangla Hope since she was four years old and has a darling little sister named Savanna here. When Melanie was first born, her mother and father were SO happy to have her. While her mother was pregnant with Savanna, their father got sick with jaundice. He died shortly after Savanna was born. The mother had to go back to work but wasn't able to provide for her two girls so she contacted Bangla Hope to take them. This is one of the sadder stories to me... Parents that WANT their kids so badly but can't keep them because of whatever life has thrown their way. :(

Melanie is doing so well though. She has broken into anger or rebellion as some of the children have. Instead, she is bubbly and outgoing, boisterous and loving. I think she's going to be a good leader for the other children--if she chooses to... She's almost at that stage where she can either choose to goof off or accept her wonderful smarts and use them to her benefit. She's such a special kid!
Today was a blur for me. Though it was Sunday, we still had classes to teach :P But even moreso, we all were doing the flight of the bumblebees in order to get the Handicrafts catalog finalized and printed so the Handicraft manager could take it home down south with her. The first printing proved disastrous--pages upside down and out of order... Bad news bears. The second one was better but there were so many things that needed to be edited. If you know me well, you know I love editing, finding spelling errors, and meticulously going through each detail. Ah, with pen in hand I sat for a good hour just going through page after page. Good times.

This evening we had another great badminton game: Josiah and Mr.Waid vs Ryan and me. We ended the night 2-2. We didn't have a championship game because I was just too tired and the bugs were coming out with a vengeance. You should see the stairwells in the morning. The floor is black. I'm not kidding--Dad you'll have to back me up when you get here because it's only going to get worse by the time you get here! When they sweep all the dead bugs into the corner, it looks like black fluff mimicking snow drifts along the wall. It's absolutely incredible. I tried to take video of it but it really doesn't do it justice. Needless to say, I swallowed four bugs whilst playing badminton and had two run up my nose. What they were looking for, I don't know.

Afterwards, we headed up to the Waid's apartment to play some 5 Crowns (basically a version of rummy, just with special cards). I lost as usual. The rest of the gang left just me, Ryan, and Mrs.Waid to play another round before bed. Oh my goodness. I haven't laughed that hard in awhile, nor have I seen Mrs. Waid half stretched out on the couch, tears rolling down her face, and dying with laughter. So funny. You really had to be there so I won't try too hard to explain the situation but some classic lines were: "Mrs. Waid, what are you trying to do with that Jack?" and "Mr.Waid gave me one of those hysterectomy's today and it helped." I said the first, Ryan actually said the second line (he meant to say anti-histamine, you can see how he messed it up lol). Nonetheless, even if you weren't there, it was an evening to remember, full of side-splitting laughter and some great one-liners.

Tomorrow I'm heading into Dhaka because I need to apply for an Indian visa for when Dad and I go to Delhi. I'm not looking forward to that experience again, but I'm making SURE that I have 30tk exactly so I don't have to fish around the waiting room for 5 and 10tk notes. I'll only be gone about a day--leaving tomorrow morning 5am and coming back Tuesday afternoon. One of the board members, Jim Brewer, if flying home so Mr.Waid will be with me in Dhaka too.

It's still crazy to me to think that in TWO WEEKS I'm going to be showing my dad a glimpse into the life that I've been living the past five months. TWO WEEKS. I know I've said this before, but oh how the time has sped by (and gone slow as molasses at other times) and now I'm leaving in about three weeks. That's just crazy talk. Dear me... I'm still undecided as to if I'm petrified of leaving this place or busting for joy to get home. What if it's both...

prayers appreciated!
ami tomake bhalobashi

p.s. My pictures of Melanie aren't uploading right now for whatever reason... Bad internet :P But I'll be in Dhaka tomorrow with mosquitos and high(ish) speed so I'll upload them then :)

of Johnny and SAMS

2010-03-06T23:32:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Johnny. Yes, this is the same Johnny--the one who spits. Since that incident he's been very good with me, always wanting a kiss goodnight and telling me he loves me. I don't know what happened that night to this day... It really was the most random thing.

Johnny is almost six years old according to his case history and has been at Bangla Hope since he was about 10months old. His mother Reba has a mental illness and as she was on her way to another village to visit her sister, she left Johnny under a banyan tree. From what the file says, that was the last time Johnny or his father saw her. A man found the crying baby and took him home--Johnny was later claimed by his father after days of searching villages. The father couldn't take care of him though, so Johnny went to live with the sister-in-law for awhile. But she also wasn't able to take care of him so she contacted Bangla Hope.

I'm not sure what to think about Johnny. It's really as if he has a split personality--well maybe most kids do. They are little angels but suddenly will turn into stubborn, nonresponsive little demons. I know though, that when he is in a good mood, he is a really sweet little boy. I haven't taught him in any classes but he is outgoing and good-natured most of the time. I'm really hoping that with a little discipline, he will develop into a great little kid. Like I said, he has a great personality most of the time, but then slips into the darkest of moods, seemingly for no reason.

Ahhh the fourth commandment. The license to rest. I love it. That was the topic for my Sabbath School today but it's hard to get the kids too jazzed about it since Sabbath isn't very different than the rest of the week, aside from church and no school. Plus you get to wear pretty dresses. Okay, I retract my previous statement lol. Josiah delivered an incredible message about Hosea and the wife God instructed him to marry. It really made me think about how I am with God...

After church, NOT including a nap unfortunately, we all headed back to Branch Sabbath School. Last Sabbath, there were 97 mothers and children colouring pictures of Jesus. This week we had about half that number for some reason. The wind had picked up and was swirling dust like crazy and it was really really really hot out... Maybe that was it. Nonetheless, I told the parable of the lost sheep. I was really happy afterwards when Josiah complimented me by saying that I tell stories really well. I've never thought of myself as a storyteller but with these kids, it's easy to give myself over to doing big gestures, changing my voice, and really getting involved in the story. I really took that compliment to heart :)

After BSS, we ate dinner, wayyy too much dinner because Shati cooks SO well. Then we all piled into the back of the truck and headed to SAMS to see their campus. SAMS (or Seventh-day Adventist Maranatha Seminary) is a boarding school about half an hour from the orphanage and currently has about 800 students. It's actually quite incredible! The campus has full dorms, cafeteria, church building, high school and elementary buildings, and even 33 computers in a lab to teach kids practical skills. Shati's daughter Martina goes there so we were able to say hi to her as well.

I was just impressed that so many kids are there! That's like double the student population at CUC and half of the WWU campus. Plus, each kid is sponsored to be there so they don't have to pay for anything. They get a place to say, food to eat, an education, and an opportunity to learn about God. It's amazing how God blesses isn't it?

Anyways, I'm pretty tired from the day so I'm going to bed. I didn't sleep well last night because so many thoughts were rolling in my head: how to get all my stuff back home without lugging it around Asia, all the projects that need to be finished asap, Walla Walla, and a ton of other things keeping me awake until 2am. *yawn
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Shati and reverse culture shock fears

2010-03-05T21:53:00.004+06:00

When I sat down tonight to write another blog, I realized that there are other people that have impacted my stay here besides the children I see everyday. One of those people is Shati. Shati is the one to blame for me not losing weight over here and I have enjoyed each and EVERY bite. Shati has worked with Bangla Hope for many years and even was able to come to America with the Waid's for six months a few years back.Shati is an orphan as well and was married very young to a very bad man. Eventually she took her beautiful baby girl Martina and left him thankfully. She is now married to a wonderful man here named Julian who treats her so well. Usually Shati keeps her hair up when she is cooking, but if you get a chance to see her smile with her hair down, she looks like a beautiful Bengali model. She's taught me about love and life, as well as how to cut using those floor knives and how to make Bengali potatoes. I can't say enough good things about her. She has become like a pseudo-mother, auntie if you will, for me here. I told her that when we all get to heaven, I told her that I'm coming to her house for lunch every day. She's an absolutely incredible woman through and through.

Ahh Sunday's... You gotta love them. lol With school still switched from Friday to Sunday, I took a break today to get some projects done, clean up, and rest overall. It's getting so hot here... Most of the electricity current goes to the pumps to fill the growing rice fields so we don't have power here in the daytime. And there is only so much you can do when there is no power and you're working with laptops. Nonetheless, Ryan and I got just a little bit closer to finishing the Handicraft catalog and brochure we've been working on. I also took time to read more of the book I've been neglecting to read that my aunt send with me called "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle." It's an interesting novel about a mute boy who is raised on a farm that breeds dogs. I haven't gotten more than 80pgs into this 566pg beast but it's pretty good thus far.

I know I'll have more time to read when I'm in transit around India and Thailand in a couple weeks. Dad leaves exactly two weeks from today (Friday) from YVR. Then we (the Waid's, Brittni, Dad and I) leave the orphanage exactly THREE weeks from today to go our separate ways. Oh dear. This really IS all coming to an end. Such a crazy thought.

I feel like I'm already experiencing reverse culture shock. I'm imaging how it's going to be on the ride home from the airport, how driving down to WallaWalla's going to feel, how stepping into my first day of classes back at school. Eating hamburgers, bagels, coffee, lettuce salad, and all the other things that haven't been apart of my diet for the past 6months. And what about my rice? I can count on probably two hands the number of days that I HAVEN'T had rice since arriving in Bangladesh. No jokes.

Honestly, I'm nervous to come back and spend time with people who have never been in a third world country or seen the kind of poverty I've seen. I worried I'm going to be harsh and incredulous that they live the their lives in such a way that they don't even think about the severe conditions some people live in. I used to be like that. I'm scared to go back to living my life like that. I'm scared of forgetting the lessons I've learned and the people I've fallen in love with over here. Ami boi pa (I'm afraid).

Elliot wrote me a message on Facebook the other day. It said there is no place in the world like Bangla Hope. Soak it in as much as you can because when you are gone you will miss it with everything you've got. You just wish to be back for even a second. Live each day to the max so you don't leave with regrets.

So three weeks left. I know I've said this before, and most likely will say this in the future, but I'm determined to make the most out of this experience. Pray for me!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Marjorie and quiet reflections

2010-03-05T00:10:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Marjorie. Marjorie is in my grade one class and is such a sweet little girl. She's the kind that you'd never notice unless you took the time. Even as I looked through my hundreds of pictures from this trip, I regretfully say that most of my earlier pictures (back when I was so adamant about documenting each step) are of the "loud" kids. I didn't notice Marjorie until one Sabbath day, she quietly came up and held my hand as we were walking. And this was AFTER Christmas. I'm really glad I'm doing this daily blog because it makes me realize how many images I've taken for granted and I really want to make sure I take pictures of everything and everyONE who has meant so much to me.

Anyways, I can't find the case history for Marjorie but I can tell you the blessing she has been in my life. Over here, the first kids you meet are the loud and outgoing ones. They are so sweet, but they get overwhelming and slightly annoying quite quickly. Marjorie is one of those that is so so so smart but is so quiet that you think she can't speak a word of English. But she's also one of those that will sit with you, just enjoying the sunshine and company.

Lately in class, she's been taking longer to finish her assignments. I'm not sure why because I know she knows how to add. It's like she's afraid to get the wrong answer (reminds me of "someone" I know too..). Just a few days ago, she started crying in class because she had to go to the bathroom but was too afraid to ask permission to go (don't worry I haven't had an accident in class yet!). When Marjorie applies herself she flies through her work. And that's how I am too! I'll dawdle around, procrastinating and probably frustrating the people around me that need me to follow through--then at the final crunch time, pull all nighters to get it done and finished. Lesson for the day: don't be afraid to be wrong and don't procrastinate!

Today was relatively uneventful. We started a new story today called "Puff." It goes something like "Puff, Puff. Oh Puff. Puff, Puff. Look Jane. Look Dick. Look at Puff." And that's what we read for a half an hour. Over and over. Again, I'm trying not to complain because I know how important these baby steps are.. but come on! lol After than I came up to my room to take a shower and got to talk to my parents for awhile.

Josiah brought back a care package from WallaWalla again :) It had notes in it from people back home. It's amazing how such small things can make you smile sometimes. Just enough to fit on a sticky note is like gold here. I loved reading the Collegian and asking my roommate Banni which guys in the date auction she thought were good looking. She said none of them lol.

Class was canceled for the rest of the day so the teachers could get the "library" organized and all the books accounted for. I helped Mrs.Waid in Handicrafts and found a beautiful pillow set that I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy--pink lilies on a white case... so pretty. lol

And after that... just a free night to do laundry, brush up on some physics and translational motion. You know, the usual. lol Maybe tomorrow will be more exciting :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Luke and border patrol

2010-03-03T22:57:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Luke. I've never taught Luke in classes before but every time I walk by the boys' room at night, he comes out yelling "Jehanna Teacher, sing a song!" He is such a sweet little boy. He always asks me for a kiss on the nose, which started a epidemic among the other boys thereafter.

Luke just turned 5 on Feb.6 and have been at Bangla Hope since he was 9months old. His father left his mother for another woman soon after he was born and she was forced to take a job at a garment factory. She couldn't take care of Luke while she was working. When he came to us, he was very thin but started to fill out when he started eating good meals.

He is now a boisterous little boy, causing trouble when he doesn't get his way. He has a sensitive personality and cries easily when the older boys play rough with him. He's also very stubborn and has been spanked many times recently for just not cooperating :) Kids will be kids right? But the reason I love Luke is because he always says, "Jehanna Teacher, tomake ami bhalobashi." I think he means it the other way around but it always comes across to me as "You love me?" Then I give him a big kiss and say "Yes, Luke, ami tomake bhalobashi."

After lunch today, Mrs. Waid and I took a rickshaw van into Hili to get some things for Litton and Suborna's wedding. I can't believe it but they are getting married a week from Friday. Oh dear. We have so much to do. We bought a ton of ribbons and some fake flowers and Mrs.Waid is starting to arrange the bouquets for the wedding party.

I was looking for a couple shari's for my sister and a friend of mine throughout the shops. Oh man, I had a blast! Now that I can speak a little bit more Bangla, I was joking with the salesmen and bartering them down to about half their original price. First you ask for good price. Then you ask for friend price. Then you say "Uncle, tume bollo bhalo taka" (very loosely translated: Uncle, you tell me good price). lol And that's the way it's done!

We decided to take a rickshaw back to the orphanage because they are generally easier on the back than rickshaw vans are. Just outside of Hili we were stopped by the border patrol guards. Because Hili is so close to India, some people smuggle in cigarettes and sharis so the border patrol makes sure you pay customs and such. Anyways, we clearly didn't have any such merchandise but, hey, white people! lol

I asked them how they were doing in Bangla, then three guards were around our rickshaw. BP: "What your country?" Jehanna: "Amar deshi Canada." BP: "What you do Bangladesh?" JSE: "Mission." BP: "What your personal life?" JSE: "I'm sorry, what?" BP: "Married you?" Mrs. Waid: (nudging me and leaning in close) "Tell them you're married or they will try to get contact you after." JSE: "Yes, I'm married." BP: "Oh too bad. What your husband do?" JSE: "He's a student." BP: "Okay, thank-you. Have nice day."

Oh the joys of being a foreigner in Bangladesh.

That's the first time I've been asked about "my personal life" though. I've been asked my country, what my father does, why I'm in Bangladesh, but never so bluntly as these guys did. Good times... ahhh soak it in before it's gone right? lol

anyways, that was the biggest news of the day, only 18days until I see Dad!!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Marisa and garlic

2010-03-02T23:33:00.003+06:00

Allow me to introduce you to Marisa. She is probably one of the first kids you would meet upon arrival to Bangla Hope. She is a talker just like Kakoli. She was in my first Grade 1 class last year and is now doing well in Grade 2. Her and I connected over Christmas break when I was helping to sort the storage room while listening to Jack Johnson. She came over, grabbed an earbud and started chilling to music with me. Good ol' Jack...

Marisa is also around seven years old and came to Bangla Hope when she was almost two. Marisa's mother died in childbirth and the father left and went to India, leaving the baby with an auntie. She had been taking care of Marisa but couldn't any longer because she was planning on getting married. Thus, the auntie signed Marisa over to Bangla Hope.

Marisa is another one of those fun-loving, trouble-making, wonderful kids. She has a sassy little attitude and sometimes throws a fit when she doesn't get her way--what kids don't really? But she is such a beautiful little girl. She picks up songs and dances so quickly, paying attention to the small details that really make it into a good performance. She is definitely one of the more graceful little girls here. I think that she could grow up to be an actress or something in the entertainment business--I just hope the diva attitude doesn't go to her head!

Today was class. Again. "Go, go, go. Go, Dick, go. Go, go, go, Help, help." That's a whole story. I kid you not. But my kids are learning to read so I must be patient and realize that the small things are BIG things at this stage in the learning game. We also did English math today--how many different ways are there of explaining that 3 + 4 will ALWAYS equal 7? I've used counting beans, fingers, toes, lines... lol Kids...

After class though, I headed downstairs to get a drink of water from the kitchen. The kids were just starting to eat their lunch so I took a look to see what they were eating. It looked like some kind of potatoe and tomatoe mash.. Not too appetizing looking but I was feeling hungry so I grabbed a bowl from the cabinet and was served up a small mixture of curry and rice. Oh my goodness. It was SO good. I have no idea what it was, but it was freaking delicious! I sat down with the big girls and ate with them on the floor. I finished off my portion quite quickly so they all kept trying to dump some of their food into my bowl. Silly kids. I would have taken it but I know that they needed to eat it... soooo good!

[Side note: I've been taste-testing some of the curries that are made for the caregivers each night lately. It just looks so good that I can't resist, plus they are usually more than willing to let me try on account of seeing my face afterwards. They don't hold back on the chili's with those curries. My goodness. Even Papri, the grade one teacher, can't handle the spice sometimes. Anyways, I've been eating some and I think I'm getting used to the spice! Some still knocks me on my butt but last night I had a pretty good size portion of alloo tacoree (potatoe curry) and lived to write this blog. Yay for Jehanna's tastebuds!]

Anyways, after I was finished stealing the children's food, I saw some of the cooking ladies out back so I thought I'd say hi. I ended up spending over two hours out there with them. I love those women so much. The main three cooks are from the village and barely speak English, but they are so sweet just in their mannerisms. This last Sabbath, I went out before church started and sat on the ground and help them cut up potatoes. My goodness, they are so fast on those things! And they slice them into such small pieces.. My pieces were big and they were laughing at me but we all still had fun.

So today, I grated carrots for salad, sliced tomatoes and onions, and peeled garlic. When I say peeled garlic, I mean my hands are going to smell like garlic for the next 80yrs. I'm pretty sure we peeled about 15bulbs. They use so much garlic here it's incredible. Surprisingly enough though, the food's flavour is not taken over by the garlic because there are so many other yummy spices added in. In Bangladesh, a kilogram of garlic is 120tk (just under $2USD). Isn't that incredible? I just thought it was a cool experience because it reminded me of peeling garlic for my mom when she cooks--granted she doesn't use as much garlic as these people do!

Patule, Shati's helper girl, made up a chutney out of this sour plum while we were working. Basically, it's the plum, salt, chili, and... I don't know what else is in there. All I know is that it's crazy sour and Banni tricked me into eating it once. I spit it out into the flower bed lol. We all had a laugh today because I was telling Patule that the reason she wasn't smiling was because she was eating that nasty stuff. Tume cabo, hasho nah(you eat, no smile) and ami cabi nah, coup boro hasho (I no eat, very big smile). lol I pointed to all the people that were eating it and compared their faces to the people that weren't eating it... Ahh I guess you just had to be there. It was coup moja monushe (very funny).

good day in the neighbourhood, 20days til I see Dad :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Kakoli and Olympic spirit

2010-03-01T22:44:00.004+06:00

It's March 1. That means my dad will be here in 21 days and I'll be leaving this place in 26days. Scary thought. But I've decided to do something to commemorate my time and my kids that I've grown to love so much. I want you to meet them. If all goes as planned, I want to write about one of my favourite kids, in no particular order, every day.

Today, allow me to introduce you to Kakoli Bala, one of my grade one students. She is a energetic, smart, sweet little girl. Any time she sees me, she runs full blast at me and I always have to say "astay, astay" in order to get her to slow down even a hair. She is one of the fastest kids at math and is always so eager to show me her carefully formed letters.

Kakoli will be 7yrs old this June 21 and arrived at Bangla Hope six days after birth. Her mother was a maid for a rich family in Dhaka. The driver for the family took a fancy to Kakoli's mother and soon she was pregnant. When he found out, he suddenly disappeared. Kakoli was born with a severly clef palette and no one wanted her. The mother was able to keep her job as long as she gave Kakoli up when she was born. And Mrs.Waid had the privilege of taking her into the organization.

Kakoli has been one of the fastest to pick up on English and she is always trying to put together sentences to talk with us. She has a great sense of humour and seems to really love life--even if that gets her in trouble more often than not. She is very adventurous and loves to push her boundaries of what's okay. Nonetheless, her smile makes me smile. She loves with no limits and has captured a piece of my heart that is hers for the keeping. I'll miss her but I know God has great things planned for her.

When I logged into Facebook this morning, I couldn't believe how many times I saw "Canada" or "gold" or "proud" in everyone's statuses! But after hearing how the last day of the Olympics unfolded, I couldn't help but beam with pride for my home town and country. I can only imagine how "O Canada" must have rung throughout the arena. Not only did we beat America in an amazing game, but with that win, we broke the record for most golds won at a Winter Olympic Games. I'm so proud to be Canadian--not that there was any doubt really. I wish I could have been there to fully experience the spirit of it all but such is life. I savoured every moment I was able to catch a quite highlight snapshot in between cricket matches so I probably enjoyed it more!

21 days. I can't wait to see my dad at the airport. I can't wait to see his face on the ride back to the dental clinic. I can't wait to see his face even on the road to the orphanage. I hope I haven't overexaggerated things... I can't wait for him to see the newly planted rice fields. I can't wait for him to meet my kids and be able to put faces with all the stories I've written about. I can't wait for him to see just how many BUGS are here at night. I can't wait for him to try Shati's cooking, which will explain why I haven't lost weight over here. I can't wait for him to ride in a rickshaw and rickshaw van, things that have become such a way of life for me but are so completely foreign to him. I'm just excited to see my dad, someone familiar, someone who can now see a piece of my life the past six months and hopefully understand better the person I've grown into.

21 days. Crazy. Five months ago I couldn't see the end in sight. Now I can. Deep breath. Let's see what we can do with these last weeks...

ami tomake bhalobashi

of stubbornness and weddings

2010-02-26T15:15:00.004+06:00

Since Elliot's been gone, I've been filling my time helping Ryan with a ton of different projects: Handicrafts catalog, SM brochure, 2011 Bangla Hope calendar, and hopefully a training video for the caregivers here. It's actually been pretty nice being this busy. I wake up, have breakfast, go to class, work on the projects, more class, study, dinner, badminton, card games with the Waid's, then devotions before bed.

I can't believe that I leave exactly four weeks from today (Friday). Here's what's going down: My dad is coming over March 21 and I'll be picking him up in Dhaka. We are going to come back to the orphanage so that he can see what I've been doing for six months. We'll leave March 26 for Dhaka and take a train to Delhi (no it's not that simple but that's the trip in a nutshell). We'll have a week in Delhi then we're flying to Thailand for a couple weeks. Hopefully we'll get to see Phuket, Laos, Burma, and Chiang Mai--if you have other highlights to see in Thailand, please let me know! Ahhh... then home. It's weird that I leave on Friday, April 23 and get in at noon the same day--yet I'm still in transit for over 24hrs. I can't wait to see YOU.

I know I've said it before, but moreso than ever I'm committed to making the last four weeks I have here the best YET. Spending time with the kids, helping with projects, making memories--all the while neglecting my computer. It actually feels pretty good not to be as tied to this thing as I was before.

I've made an important decision this week too. Looking back on my time here, I would have missed out on so many great adventures and opportunities if I would have had the same mindset as I've had at home. What I mean is that back home, anyone who knows me knows that I've never watched the Office, played Wii or Guitar Hero. Why? Just because it was the popular thing to do so I showed my rebellion in NOT doing it. It's also the reason why I never got my ears pierced--I got a tattoo instead. Just be be different.

How many times have I turned down an Office party or round of DDR for Wii? Sure, people may have laughed at me OR maybe I could have made some great memories with friends.

Thus, I've decided life is TOO short to be stubborn for the sake of being stubborn. So bring on Wii, contra dancing, Guitar Hero, Chronicles of Narnia, and all the other things I turned down before. Jehanna is becoming open-minded and it's about time!

I've also fallen in love. Her name is Natalie and she is about two years old. She has a sweet round face and the cutest pigtails always sticking out the top of her head. Anytime she sees me, she drops whatever she is doing and runs at me full force with her little arms extended. Oh my goodness. I love her. She is just the most precious soul. I love her.

How am I going to be able to say goodbye to Bangla Hope in four short weeks? Oh dear.

The other exciting piece of news is that I'll get to see Litton and Suborna get married before I leave. They will be tying the knot March 13 here at Bangla Hope and have even asked me to sing :) They want me to sing "I will always love you" for the ceremony and "Wind beneath my wings" for the reception. But Bengali weddings are way cooler than North American weddings--they have turmeric parties. Never heard of it? Basically, turmeric is everywhere and everyone leaves slightly more yellow than how they arrived. I'm so excited. Now I just gotta find an outfit that I don't mind ruining :)

On another note, Mr.Waid and his nephew Jim Brewer got on a bus early this morning from Dhaka to Hili. I guess it was foggy out this morning and their bus slammed into the back of a truck that was parked on the road. No one was seriously injured (Jim has a cut on his upper lip and Mr.Waid has a bruise on his chin) but it's definitely one of those times that remind you how fleeting life is. It also reminds me of how amazing and merciful the God we serve is.

anyways, that's all that is going on in my world currently. Four weeks left. Everybody get your countdown calendars out,

ami tomake bhalobashi

of spit and spankings

2010-02-22T19:57:00.004+06:00

We finished off our time in Dhaka and headed back to the orphanage this last Friday. Ryan and I watched April Showers and Push on his laptop. April Showers is a heavy movie that chronicles the lives of students that have just survived a school shooting. It really made me think about the people I love most in this world and what would happen if I never got to say goodbye or that I love them again. In case I don't say it enough, ami tomake bhalobashi, I love you.

Saturday brought another Sabbath School lesson based on the second commandment. I feel like I'm caught in the struggle of living my faith outloud and not making any extremist Muslim's mad. I've settled on showing people the love of Jesus through my actions and not my words. We've been doing a Branch Sabbath School (at the Bangla Hope's village school) and usually a bunch of mothers come along with their kids. I took time to sit with them and use my little Bangla to keep up a conversation with them. I even got to hold a tiny month-old baby that was so adorable...

Yesterday was another holiday in Bangladesh. Don't ask me why, but they have two Veteran's Day's, one yesterday and one way back in December (I remember seeing the parades when we dropped Elliot off at the airport when she went to Spain). Thus, I used the day to clean our disheveled room, do some much needed laundry, and study for a bit. I also took a nap because Dhaka really seems to drain my energy--I went to sleep at 9pm the night before and woke up at 8am still tired. Go figure.

and tonight... Well tonight was tough. I've never experienced anything like it in my life. I had just finished having a really uplifting and encouraging talk with two of the Bangla Hope board members that are visiting and headed to the orphanage to say goodnight. Almost every night, I've gone into the boys' room to sing to them, then give them all kisses goodnight. Tonight as no exception.

I have no idea what happened. Ryan was just finishing telling a story and on his way out he told me that little Mikey had been naughty, earning him a couple spanks on the hand. I thought everything was fine though, finished singing two songs, then went around to say goodnight. Luke started crying and after investigating, I found out Danny had stolen his slice of lime. This really is no big deal because all the kids get a piece every night after dinner... Why he made it a big deal I don't know. Anyways, I could have spanked him (as Caleb in the next bed was encouraging me to do lol) but I used a different approach. Danny is such a smart little boy and I smiled as I encouraged him to do the right thing. I tried to reason with him, yet I was alone in the room with no one to translate for me.

He just stared at me, not saying a word. I got Luke to say please but Danny didn't budge. I ended up prying the lime out of his hand and giving it to Luke. Danny dove into the corner of his bed, sobbing. Wow. Okay so that was the first one.

There was a misunderstanding in the bed below next. I thought David was trying to steal Andrew's blanket so I tried to get little crying David into bed. Then I was told by Caleb (still doing his best to translate for me) that Andrew had taken two blankets so David didn't get one. So I pulled David's blanket out from under Andrew, and sent David to his bed after doing my best to scold Andrew (he's too young to understand English...). Two down, one to go.

I continued going to each bed, giving kisses and saying goodnight. I made a special note to stop at Danny's bed to let him know that while he was being naughty, I still loved him. The next couple beds were fine until I got to Johnny's.

[A little background on Johnny. He has epilepsy and we just found out that the nurse here told the caregivers and children basically to let Johnny to get away with anything he wants because he's sick. Thus, he's being running rampant and we're having a hard time calming him down.]

And we're back in. I came to Johnny's bed and said goodnight. He came to the end of the bed and started spouting off in Bangla. I had no idea what he said to me so I was about to move on, until Caleb piped up from the other side of the room and told me that Johnny was saying very bad and naughty words. Johnny just glared at me. I literally have NO idea what happened--I hadn't even hardly spoken to the kid since getting in the room... So I asked him what he said, then he spouted off again.

He spat in my face.

I was stunned. I climbed up and gave him a spanking. He was still saying bad words to me and when I asked him again what he said, he spat in my face. Again. From about a foot and a half away.

I climbed up again and pulled him down from his bed as he kicked and made a commotion. I took him outside and gave him a spanking on his bare bottom after doing my best to explain why he was getting spanked. I've seen Johnny made before but I've never seen him look so absolutely venomous before. I was shaking. I have NO idea what got into him!

It was awful. I had no idea what to do. I've never been spat in the face before, let alone by a 6yr old.

Honestly, I'm officially scared to be a parent. What do you do with a child that doesn't care about discipline? Just that vicious look is enough to say I hope I get all girls... Boys.

ami tomake bhalobashi

of Helgi and bandaids

2010-02-17T23:12:00.002+06:00

ah this has definitely been a unique trip to Dhaka. We arrived Monday afternoon by bus and headed out almost immediately to the mall. Unfortunately, there was so much traffic that it took almost two hours to get from Uttara to Bashundhara City Mall. But at only 20tk a piece, Ryan, Elliot and I couldn't resist. The city buses actually aren't too too bad but I like taking autorickshaws better!

When we got to Bashundhara City, we walked around the shops for awhile before hunting down some food on the top floor. Guys, we found Taco Belle! No I didn't spell that wrong... The sign had the big Taco Bell letters with a smaller 'e' at the end lol. I usually get the 7-layer burrito--this time I had to get the 6-layer burrito because it's almost impossible to find guacamole in Bangladesh. Elliot and I also got soft serve ice cream and took some pictures by the signs. The guy behind the counter gave us three clay "Taco Bells", which are actually Hindu Bells but doesn't matter to me! Still so cool! I wish they had "Taco Bell" or Bangladesh stamped into them though.

After filling up on the Bengali version of Taco Bell, we walked by the movie theater and decided to drop in. Narnia and Stardust were both playing (in Bangla) but we decided to get the FULL experience and go to a movie called Jaago all about the comeback of the Bangladesh soccer team. Oh man, you can't get much more cliche than that movie... LOL But it was actually pretty good all things considering. We followed the plot line pretty well most of the time but I'm still not sure who died or how they died (sorry if I just ruined the movie for you lol).

The next day we had to go back to the visa office for Josiah because he had arranged a meeting with the same crook we met with a couple months ago. This guy wasted my time for an hour! I was calm and polite, while assertive and firm with him but he kept dodging the ONE question that I had for him. So frustrating... It was worth it though if Josiah can get another 3months here.

After the visa office, we went down to the University to try to find Mrs.Waid but we never found her. Instead, we had a portrait drawn of the three of us. We call it "Pocahontas, Naughty Boy, and Helgi." Guess which one I am...? lol It was so funny though because we weren't allowed to smile so all of us are drawn with straight faces--which is if you know any of the three of us, you know we are always smiling! The man drawing us with pretty strict about us remaining stone-faced while he drew us and that was torture for Ryan. Elle and I did our best to "help" him keep a straight face lol. We're going to try to copy it but if nothing else, I'll take a picture of it and post it :)

Yesterday, we wandered over to Gulshen to do some shopping on Elliot's last day. We found the only official reseller of Apple in Dhaka and hung out there for awhile. It was actually a really nice, clean store--completely the opposite of most of Bangladesh. We then headed to the main hub and found a version of a mall. Yellow is a trendy store that sells actually really nice clothes. They were also having a Winter Sale: everything in the store 50%! Elliot and I bought really cute and SOFT tanktops for only $2 and I got a cute shirt for $7. I can't wait to wear it back home!

We ate lunch at KFC--the real deal. I got chicken fingers and a veggie burger. Yet the veggie burger patty was three pieces of hashbrown... Weird eh? Anyways, after lunch, we wanted to head to NewMarket and as we were asking for directions, we had an amazing experience. Two older looking men, respectable, asked us if we needed a ride. One of the guys owns one of the largest leather exporting companies in Bangladesh and the other guy owns the 4th largest bottled water company here. Incredible! They drove us almost an hour through traffic in their air-conditioned 4-Runner, keeping up amazing converstaions the whole time. I learned so much about the mindset here, especially the Muslim's perspective on the war in Iraq and the US in general. So interesting!

Last night we ate at Dhansuri one more time before Elle had to leave for the airport. Then we came back here, picked up her things and headed to the airport to make her 8:55pm plane. It was so sad :( After almost five months, our adventure together came to an end. I'm going to miss that girl so much. I don't know how I'm going to stand sitting in our room, staring at her empty bed, and seeing the blank wall where all her pictures used to hang. She's been my best friend here, my support, my confidante.

But I know I've been so blessed to do this trip with her and I am incredibly thankful to God and her for that. She is such an incredible person, fearless and humble, strong and passionate. I know God is going to use Elliot to do such amazing things and I can't wait to lay witness to the woman she becomes. Please keep her in your prayers as she heads back home to family, friends, and the difficult reverse culture shock that awaits her. I know I'll see her in a little over two months, but that seems like forever when you've seen someone every day for so long.

I'm just going to miss amar prio bondue.

We head back to Bangla Hope tomorrow by bus and I can't wait to get back to my bed--away from the noise, dirt, and MOSQUITOS! My feet look like I have chicken pox. And that's WITH a mosquito net every night. My goodness.

By the way, real quickly, has anyone else noticed how well Canada is doing in the Olympics? We have 6 medals! What's more exciting is that we won a gold medal for the first time on our own soil. Go team! I wish I was there to get wrapped up in the excitement of it all... Shucks eh?

ami tomake bhalobashi

of tears and friends

2010-02-15T00:03:00.002+06:00

Happy Valentine's Day. Yet, mine was neither 'happy' nor "Valentine's"-ey. You see, today was Elliot's last day at the orphanage. We are leaving tomorrow morning for Dhaka and then she flies to LA on Wednesday. She's going to be spending some time in Argentina with her boyfriend and his family, then flying back home to start Spring Quarter in WallaWalla. She has all her stuff packed, some of which will stay here for another couple weeks until Ryan Wilkinson goes back.

You should have heard the sounds coming from the big girls' room tonight. Keep in mind, we've been teaching these kids every day for almost five months and have grown close with them... But they came unglued! They were crying, Elliot was crying, and I was crying. It broke my heart to see the scene unfold. Elle choked tears back as she sang to them for the last time the little song she made up the first week we were here: "Goodnight little girls... Goodnight little girls... Sleep now, don't cry... Just close your eyes..." But the weird thing is, my heart was broken in two.

Half of me is so incredible jealous that Elliot is heading home. I know that probably sounds awful but it's the truth. I miss home so much. I miss my parents and my family. I miss my friends and my.. well. I miss my life back home--and everything that goes along with it.

But the other half of me is petrified to think of going home. I was walking through the back alleys of Panchbibi this afternoon with the group on the way to the man's house where we had the Eid dinner. Open sewage, gnarly-looking dogs, mud huts--this has become my norm. I just can't even begin to think about how bad the reverse culture shock is going to be. No more prayer calls, no more kids, no more cockroaches... I came to Bangladesh because I couldn't graduate this year anyways--but it was more than that. I was trying to put the brakes on my life and slow time long enough to breathe. I've had time to breathe now, but now I'm scared to go back and have my life pick up again. Graduate, career, family, the rest of my life. And I still don't know for sure where God is leading me.

I feel like I'm living in the twilight zone and none of this is actually real. I'm not actually in Bangladesh. I'm not actually going to have to say goodbye to my best friend over here in two days. I'm not going to be leaving in 5weeks. I'm not... Fill in the blank. But after watching Elliot say goodbye to the girls and caregivers, I couldn't help but imagine my departure. I teared up thinking of singing to the boys one last time and accepting one last round of kisses. Saying goodbye to Banni, Papri, Shati, Shoprova and not knowing when I'll ever be able to come back. ugh. I'm dreading that day...

Right now, I can't imagine dropping Elliot off at the airport and knowing that I'm not going to get to see her for about two months. I can't imagine coming back to Bangla Hope and seeing her bed empty. I want to make the best out of this situation but I feel like I'm frantically clawing at time, begging it to stop ticking by.

More than even, I need to cling to God. He's taken me through (and is continuing to) some hard times these last couple weeks and this has to just be anther lesson in disguise. I've heard the saying that God won't give you more than you can handle; I just wish He wouldn't trust me so much. Mother Teresa said that.

Please keep me and Elliot in your prayers and thoughts these next couple days. They are going to be pretty rough for both of us.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of cooking lessons and watches

2010-02-09T18:31:00.002+06:00

mmm I got so much sleep last night... I needed it! I woke up this morning, early enough to brush my teeth and wash my face before breakfast! I wish I could say this is the norm but usually both those activities have to wait until breakfast is done because I'm pulling myself out of bed in order to just make it to breakfast in time :)

I taught a new way of adding numbers today. The kids had never seen dominos before but after I explained the game they caught on quickly and finished their math assignments really quickly. I also taught the letter W today. lol Nothing too exciting to say about that... After they were done practicing their letters and colouring the corresponding pictures, I read them a couple stories.

[Funny story: I have a little girl in my class named Hannah. Naturally, I call her Hannah Banana. Now if you've known me for a long time, you know I used to be called Jehanna Banana all the time while I was growing up and I HATED it with a fiery passion that exudes from my very soul. Nonetheless, I passed it on with love to little Hannah. She always gives me a weird look when I call her that (cola, the Bangla word for banana, doesn't really rhyme) so I had Papri explain it to her. I told her that I used to be called that as a kid and now I'm sharing it with her. When Hannah heard that I was called that too, she broke into a bright smile and was so excited. Just seeing her reaction has made me lighten up and ALMOST see Jehanna Banana as a cute and endearing name... ALMOST. lol]

After class, Elliot, Ryan, Brittni, and I headed back to the village near the village school we did Sabbath School at last weekend. One of the women, Kakoli is her name, had invited us over to her house to teach us how to cook. So we came armed with a half bottle of oil, rice, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, salt, and a jar of bright yellow tumeric. She first had us toss the rice to get rid of small rocks and pieces of whole rice. LOL Elliot accidentally tossed some on the ground at one point but everyone laughed and she tried again :)

She took the rice into a small room, about 5ft by 5ft with two sunken in fire pits. The pits had dirt/clay built up around them so the cooking pots perfectly fit in. It's a little incredible actually. She got the rice boiling (using those sticks covered in cow dung and bamboo for fuel) and we headed back into the courtyard to get the vegetables prepared.

She brought out those round sickle-shaped knives and we squatted on the ground eager to learn the Bengali way. We sliced eggplant, peeled potatoes, and cut onions and tomatoes with that little knife. It's incredible actually. I'm thinking about bringing one back home, though I can't imagine sitting on the floor cutting up vegetables :) About that time, the rice was done cooking and she took it off the fire and put a small wok on instead. We made a potatoe curry, sweet tomatoe curry, cilantro and potatoe curry, and cilantro bora. It was incredible.

At one point, she put whole chili's on a stone block and took another square block and started grinding it into a smooth paste. She also did this with pieces of cinnamon bark and other spices. I asked to try and suddenly was squatting near the block, grinding up spices for the curries. I sat with her for the rest of the time, doing my best to talk to her and her small daughter, while also observing and helping in the cooking process. It was such an amazing experience. We took a lot of video but I didn't have my camera with me so I couldn't take any pictures--I think Elle has some though.

We were there for almost 3hrs. I know the food was cooked really well--like bubbling and steaming but I really didn't want to eat any food considering I haven't been sick since I've been here. Plus Shati was making food back at Bangla Hope for us to eat. But in the end, I just HAD to try some of the food. And OHMIGOODNESS!! It was absolutely delicious! Not too spicy but so full of flavour. I was eating with my fingers, mashing the potatoes between my fingers, and taking in the full Bengali experience of it all. I feel like there are no words to express how amazing those three hours were...

I've been praying ever since my first bite that I won't get sick from what I ate. When I got back, I made myself a cocktail of charcoal and liquid silver so hopefully that will kill off anything the scorching hot fire didn't... Plus prayer. I should be covered--fingers crossed!

The sad part of my day came on the way back when someone asked me what time it was. I told them 4pm but Elliot said "No, it's 4:15"... Thus I think my watch battery has died. Sad day in the neighbourhood! This watch hasn't left my wrist since I got it back in June of 2006 but I'm not sure I trust the Hili watchsmiths to fix it properly. Sad, sad day in the neighbourhood. It's going to stay on my wrist for the time being nonetheless because I really don't want to take the chance of misplacing it.

ahhh what a good day though. Just incredible really. When you see pictures of what I was working with maybe you'll understand :) I just keep thinking how Kakoli would respond to coming to America, not having to perch over a hot fire or worry about using cow dung as fuel--how different our kitchens look compared to her mud painted 5x5 room. In other words, count your blessings and never, ever take even the simplest things for granted--I really hope I won't ever again!

ami tomake bhalobashi

of SuperBowl and sick rooms

2010-02-08T21:06:00.004+06:00

I had a great weekend. I scrambled a lesson together for Sabbath school, something about the Golden Rule--do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I was supposed to talk about the whole speck in your brother's eye and a plank in your eye so I drew a big picture of an eye. Yeah... my artistic skills were put to shame when the kids said "poka" and "roach" instead of "eye" when I asked them what it was... lol For the record, I've never claimed to be an artist!

Later that afternoon, we headed to the local village school to do an afternoon Sabbath school with them. We brought along four of our kids to lead the songs and then I told the story of Joseph and his brothers. Josiah followed it up with a story about forgiving someone who had injured him while playing soccer. Elle came up with a small art project to do, where the kids traced their hands on the paper and drew how they could do good with their hands and not evil. We had a lot of fun and even got to connect with some of the women that came with their children--we may even be cooking with them tomorrow afternoon!

Later that evening we had a couple games of intense badminton and then we all played 5 Crowns with the Waids (it's kinda like rummy but with special cards). I did well at badminton but got killed at 5 Crowns. Yesterday I redeemed myself though by winning the game with only getting 19pts the whole time! Whoop whoop!

Yesterday Elliot and I had the BRILLIANT idea of buying t-shirts in Hili and decorating them with puff paint in honour of the SuperBowl. The Waid's get some satellite channels so we all planned to get up early to watch the game. We bought chips, tiny oranges, and spicy peas in town for snacks and planned to make popcorn the morning of.

We got t-shirts for Mr.Waid, Ryan, Josiah, and ourselves. Elle was supporting the Colts (her birth town) so I decided to go for the Saints. Thus I choose a red t-shirt--plainly showing how much I DON'T know about football lol. Our shirts turned out soooo cool though. Really, that was half the fun for me :) Nonetheless though, Elliot and I woke up at 4:15am (2:15pm Sunday afternoon back home) to get ready and meet Ryan downstairs to make popcorn. By the way, thanks Mom for the popcorn. We had to use the stuff you sent me because everything in the kitchen was locked since it was 4:30AM! :P lol

With snacks in hand and Ryan wearing his new shirt, we trekked to the Waid's apartment to watch the game. We thought for sure it would be playing on ESPN but what we didn't realize is that the channel was ESPN Asia... So the SuperBowl was replaced by cricket and junior badminton matches. Not so awesome. Josiah and Mr.Waid ended up staying in bed because we couldn't get the game but us 'die hard fans' gathered as many snacks and headed down to the office to try to stream the game. Again, not so much. Good ol' Bangladesh internet.

While we were waiting for the stream to work, we made up one of those 10x10 score cards. No we weren't gambling... What do Adventists call this...? Oh right, raffling. lol We each chose 33 squares at 10tk a square. Each quarter, someone would win 200tk and then the final score would win 400tk. Elliot won the first quarter since she had the 0-0 square, I won the next one with 0-6, we think Ryan won the third quarter (but aren't sure because that's when the power went out--if you know what the score was let me know!), and I won the final jackpot with 7-1. It kinda evened out in the end though lol.

We got to watch snippets of the game but at one point the power went out and any stream that we were almost at shut off. We kept checking the score as long as we could until Elliot's cell phone (and thus Bluetooth) died. In the meantime we listened to music, had a lot of laughs, ate some yummy food, and did our best to really make this a memorable SuperBowl. Near the end we had the brilliant idea of heading to the roof to try to get a better signal so we spent 10min on the top of the roof, waiting to see even a glimpse of anything. Dang. Nothing. But the Saints won and I won our little raffle. It was a good day.

The SuperBowl ended just as breakfast was starting so we ran down to eat. I gave Mr.Waid and Josiah the t-shirts we had decorated for them--I have to say Josiah's was my favourite that we did (it had a tie and pocket printed on the front and looked pretty 80's). After teaching class, I came upstairs and took a LONG nap. It felt wonderful... We were then invited to the mayor of Panchbibi's twin sons' birthday. Yeah we are THAT important lol. Well actually, the man who invited us to the Eid festival dinner was related to the mayor (which isn't surprising considering his father had FOUR wives, totaling 17children). We had another fabulous meal, got to see Polly (she did the henna on our hands at the Eid Fest), and spent time talking with the grandma and niece. The grandma is SO sweet... Oh man, I love her.

When we got back, I stayed down to hang out with the kids for a while. They ran around the side of the building and showed me four HUGE beehives stuck to the side of our building. Seriously, these things are monstrous! One is even shaped like an 'S' and is pretty impressive! "Moe-ma see-chalk" either means bees or honey but I learned a new word in the process :)

The kids all went into the cafeteria to eat dinner and I was walking back to the apartment, I passed by the sick room. Poor little Natalie was standing in the middle of the room, naked, alone, and crying. I went in picked her up and tried to figure out what was wrong. The poor sweetheart was sick with scabbies (a skin disease that is pretty contagious, but 100% preventable, so she had to be isolated from the other kids) and the caregiver had gone to get something quickly. I held her until she stopped crying and the caregiver got back. We got her dressed but she was still crying so I craddled her like a baby in my arms as I tried to cheer her up.

She wouldn't crack a smile for the longest time. I tried everything but surprisingly enough the thing that worked the most was pretending to eat her fingers.. Weird I know. "Ami cabo tomar hot" which means "I eat your hand." She broke into a smile, and when I pretended to eat her stomach and she busted up laughing. She's soooo cute.... Such a sweet little darling girl!

anyways, I only got about 5hrs of sleep last night and am fading fast so I'm going to head to bed... I hope you all had wonderful SuperBowl parties and I can't wait to celebrate with you next year. I realized that while I don't know much about football, I love dressing up, making food, and hosting the parties. Good times, good memories...

ami tomake bhalobashi

of busy days and electrocutions

2010-02-04T11:47:00.003+06:00

I love Elliot. She did her absolute best to make my birthday amazing. She put up the big HAPPY BIRTHDAY banner, made me a tinfoil crown, and a beautiful card. She even got together with Mrs.Waid and had the Handicrafts women embroider a t-shirt for me of my favourite design (it was on a set of tea towels but they were able to put it on a t-shirt--it's adorable!).

Honestly, one of the best parts was having an extra 14hrs of birthday. I mean, it was my 21st right? I've earned it :) lol I couldn't believe how many people wrote emails, messages, and comments! Man, I should leave home more often--just kidding Mom! lol So thank-you to everyone who wrote me because it really made me feel loved!

Also to Brianna, Lizzy, Catie, G&G White, and WallaWalla thank-you for your packages and cards! I've eaten most of the chocolate and ALL of Catie's English Toffee almond roca... Mmm it was absolutely delicious. I can't wait to see you guys again!

Since I made my list of things to do, I have been so crazy busy. I teach in the mornings longer than usual (Mrs.Waid extended English class so the kids can get as much as they can before we all leave) and then we have afternoon classes as well. Elliot and I are setting up art packs so that they can continue art class even after we are gone. We are cutting out fish to be coloured and tied to pieces of twine ("Let's Go Fishin' "), eggs to be decorated at Easter, and tracing vases on construction paper to be coloured and then rice and seeds glued on as flowers. It's pretty intense coming up with ideas but we are padding the schedule with Play Doh days and watercolour painting. We are just trying to come up with one BIG project per month.

I'm also trying to spend more time with the kids, playing, reading stories, and just holding them. I've been so tired the past months that I usually retreat to my room to rest before the next Handicrafts or storage room attack. But in my last couple months, I want to do better!

Funny Story though: last night I was charging my computer in our spare room. I was using Ryan's small adapter because my big voltage adapter hasn't been working lately for some reason. I was taking it back to him but when I pulled it off the wall, the plastic casing came off but I didn't realize the inside and front panel were still attached to the socket. I brought the casing back to Ryan, then had to come back for the rest. Not even stopping for a SECOND to think about it, I reached out and grabbed the METAL prongs still attached to the 220volt outlet. Not the smartest thing I've ever done! I didn't burn my hand but my whole arm was jolted back to life. My goodness... lol I can just see Dad shaking his head at me, incredulous that his OWN DAUGHTER did that.. Sorry Dad--I know I'm an electrical disappointment lol :)

tis all for now, nothing that incredibly interesting has been going on... Thanks again for the birthday wishes,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of 21 and new beginnings

2010-02-01T00:56:00.002+06:00

It is now 1:01am on February 1, 2010 here in Bangladesh (don't ask me why I'm up so late...). Nonetheless, I'm 21!! How absolutely crazy is that to believe... 21 years old. My goodness, how time seems to fly. What do I really want for my birthday... hmmm. As I look at the frightful state of my hair (considering I haven't had it cut since I've been here), I know I could use a haircut from Ashlee Londo at MisBeehaven in WallaWalla with a BIG slice of potatoe pizza from Sweet Basil to follow it (my tummy's a-rumbling). But I know that dream will have to be put on the backburner for a couple more months.. Thus I am happy knowing Elliot and I got massages in Nepal and I will hopefully be getting to travel for a couple weeks with Dad at the end of my mission experience.

This week was a hard week. I avoided blogging because I didn't want to blast my life all around like a tabloid newspaper (too bad Facebook did it for me :P). My boyfriend and I broke up this last week and it really hit me hard. It's been as if I was caught between waves of emotion and logic, just struggling to keep my head above the water in order to breathe, but God managed to turn my pain into something more. As I was curled up in bed, Elliot gave me the book Captivating to read. Captivating, written by John and Stasi Eldredge, is the female version of Wild at Heart and is an incredible read! 200pgs in less than 5days. Yes, that incredible. It speaks to the heart of a woman: who God created her to be and His plan for her in the world.

Reading Captivating really brought me to a place of realizing how much I want God to be my Romancer, my Lover. This is what my next year will be known as: The Year I Truely Fell in Love with God. I want to learn to find my value and my self-worth through God, to seek an intimate relationship with my Creator. "A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ that a man should have to seek Him first in order to find her." This is my mantra, my goal to be attained before pursuing a relationship with someone.

While talking with my dad about travel plans, I realized I have just under 8weeks left here. Wow. That is just plain crazy. I remember the first week in October thinking the time would drag by. It did at points and screamed by other times. In order to make the most out of my time left here and not float through these last 8weeks, I've written a list of goals--things that I want to do so that when I leave here, I have no regrets. And yes, I've been praying for motivation and courage to do some of the things I've just been too scared to do. I'll show you my checked off list when I get home if you take the time to ask :)

First things first: get some sleep.
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Catholic weddings and drive-by giveaways

2010-01-24T22:13:00.003+06:00

Now that we are back to teaching, our schedules have been changed. All the activities of Friday have been moved to Sunday, hence Friday is a my new day off :) Papri is taking a class on Friday near Dhaka so she can slowly work towards getting her master's in education. Poor woman has to travel back and forth every week! That's going to get old fast! So this last Friday, I tidied up our room, did a load of laundry, and relaxed. It was "Sunday" after all :)

But the highlight of that day was talking to my friend Abby on the phone. It was so good to hear from her and to feel like I was home for even just a second. It's the first time we've talked since I've been gone and it was so good to touch base with one of my best friends.

Later that afternoon, we opened the gates for one last clinic stint. We were slowly running out of medications, bags, and bottles, but we were going to go until we had nothing left to give. Some people were coming back for seconds but I hope someone got some help that wouldn't have otherwise. For some reason, most of my patients were men with teeth problems. Here's a tip, brush your teeth! If I had a nickel for every cavity I saw on Friday I would be able to pay for my trip back home for a visit! (Well maybe that was a tad bit of an exaggeration but there were a ton of people with bad teeth!)

On Sabbath, we were presented with a unique opportunity. Abiram, the electrician on campus, was getting married at the Catholic church where Sunity (our little disabled girl) used to stay. He used to work at the Catholic mission but left to come work for us because we needed him so badly. Since then he has been studying Adventist beliefs but his new bride was Catholic so they had to be married in the church. We all piled into the back of the Hilux and set off early Saturday morning and were back in the early afternoon.

So that makes for two weddings in one week. I've been here for almost 4months and then bam! Everyone starts getting married lol.

I took a good long nap in the warm sun on the rooftop in the afternoon :) It was splendid! Later that evening, Dr. Becky handed out glo-sticks to all the kids. You should have seen it! They were all running around in their little onesie pajamas, waving their lights in the darkness, tossing them into the air, and laughing wildly. It was adorable! Elle and I joined into the fun until it was time to usher them off to bed. Elle and I got to watch an episode of House afterwards as we chomped down some delicious popcorn from Shati. Twas a good day.

This morning, I had to go to class. Weird for a Sunday, but nonetheless I spent part of the morning teaching the joys of the letter J--my favourite letter! When English class was over, I headed downstairs to the next task at hand. After spending countless hours and days organizing the storage room, we had weeded out old and tattered clothes. They had been set aside for this day. Now the villagers were waiting outside the gate like kids at an amusement park. Our castoffs were their prized possessions.

We took about four in at a time and handed out a dress or two with a sweater and a pair of socks. When most of the children had been tended to, we loaded the rest of the clothes into the Hilux. Most of the clothes left over were baby sleepers and onesies and little little girl dresses. We drove through the villages, calling for all little children (cho-toe bah-cha!!) to come to the road. We tossed mismatched socks to the excited parents and children, along with bibs and bonnets--probably foreign accessories over here. It sounds like an easy project but it actually took a couple hours to do. After all the baby onesies were gone that I had, Shabourna and I fell asleep in the backseat of the truck as it bumped along. But it was another good day, so exciting to see the looks of joy in people's eyes as they grabbed the clothing.

Tomorrow we are going to the grand opening of an English Medium Secondary School. I'm not sure what the Medium has to do with anything but all I know is that they really want English foreigners to be there. lol I'm so ready to go back to being invisible in the States--enough of this celebrity business!

I'll do my best to attach pictures to the last couple posts later... For now it's bedtime! :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of wedding crashers and roosters

2010-01-21T22:20:00.003+06:00

This morning after teaching my first grade class the wonders of the letter 'I', we piled back in the Hilux and drove to another village for clinics. Instead of turning left to go to Hili, we turned right and went further than I've been yet. We went to the village Polymul (he helps with maintainance around the campus) is from and set up our work station there.

I'm trying to remember if there were any cases that really stuck out. I had a ton of women with "womenly" problems but Dr.Becky didn't bring over enough medication for that kind of thing. Thus we handed out a ton of vitamins and some antifungal cream to try to help a little. There were a ton of children with coughs. One woman had a huge goiter on her neck. Lots of arthritis and general pain from working so hard. There was one little girl whose pinky finger would swell up so much with some kind of food allergy that her nail was being pushed off by the stretching skin. That was really weird, not going to lie.

There was a lot of cases that could have been treated by one of two simple remedies: drink more water and/or stop eating beetlenut! These people are only drinking a glass or two of water each day so there are so many cases of bladder infections, aching joints, fever, and rashes below most likely caused by such highly concentrated urine. As for beetlenut, that stuff is just plain awful. I don't know if I've told about beetlenut yet, but if I haven't, it's a highly addictive substance that most adults use. You put some white pastey stuff on a leaf and chew it--but there is like lye or something in it that slowly eats away at your mouth. It's so bad for you! It's the stuff that causes so many people to have bright red mouths with a ton of teeth missing or straight up rotting.

We saw over 200patients today! After awhile, Polymul stopped counting because we were trying to pack up and go but people were still crowding around us trying to explain their problems. How can you say no to a baby with a fever or an old wrinkly Baba with joint pain? Dr.Becky thought we saw upwards of 300people by the end but we don't know what the official count was.

On the way back to the truck, we saw two men thrashing rice by hand. At the orphanage, the men used a spinning cylinder to pull the rice off the stalk but these men were doing it the old-fashioned way--smacking it against a board. We took some pictures and then Mary asked me to get a picture of her thrashing the rice.

I have to tell you about Mary. There is just something about Mary (lol yes I just made a movie reference :) ). She is 78yrs old and lost her husband of 29yrs about two years ago. She was left money through a accidental death clause with their bank and has been planning mission trips with the money left over from the hospital and funeral expenses. She is going to Africa, Peru, and Indonesia all before August! She is so full of life.. I'm just in awe of her. Following the cues of her and Mr.Waid (he, at 81yrs old, still beats me at badminton most nights), I plan to live my life to the fullest right until they put me in the ground. Just wait though, I have another story about her coming up....

We got back to the orphanage right at dinner time and I settled into my seat to eat some yummy pasta and bora that Shati had made. Even though we were all full, we decided to take a walk after dinner. Elliot, Dr.Becky, and Tammy started hoofing it down the road but me, Rosemary, Yvonne, and Mary took it easy and strolled down the road. Usually the road to the orphanage is a quiet country road and you hardly see anyone for miles outside the village. This time though, the road was congested at points with crowds of people. We heard drumming in the distance and Rosemary found out there was a wedding about to happen. We kept walking in our normal direction when we came upon a second crowd of people around a minibus. Rosemary told us the groom was inside the bus, waiting to go into the bride's family's home. I DIDN'T HAVE MY CAMERA WITH ME. ugh. The one time... Yvonne and Mary took pictures though.

Rosemary asked us if we wanted to go inside and see the bride. Okay. We crashed a Hindu wedding. No joke. The house was decorated with colourful flags and the inner courtyard had a makeshift ceiling of vines and leaves over a center pole. This pole will come into play later... They brought out the young bride, probably not much older than 15 or 16, who was wearing her first outfit: a bright yellow seloar kameese. Then we watched some men make a headdress for the bride to wear at some point during the ceremony. The drums got loud again and we headed back to the outer courtyard. Some people had started to do some sort of a circular line dance, almost similar to something you'd see at a Greek wedding, with the drummers in the middle. A man came up to us, drunk off his keester from homemade rice whiskey and wanted to dance. I hung back because I was the only young one there but Mary stepped up and started mimicking this guy's dance. She was my hero! She is such a sweet, white-haired but full of life, woman. Everyone around laughed and was so happy she joined in the festivities.

At that time, we saw Banni pushing her way through the crowd. How she found us I don't know, but she took us back into the inner court and then into the house. The bride was now in a bright orange shari and getting all dolled up for the coming events. I think that was her second outfit out of three. She changes into a red shari when she is officially married. By the way, it's customary in the culture for the bride to look pretty morose throughout the day because she is leaving her family to join her husband's family. No smiling. That is definitely not how my wedding day is going to go down! lol

On the way out, we stopped to watch another part of the wedding customs. Just as we were sitting, we saw Dr.Becky, Elliot, and Tammy come into the inner court. Someone from the orphanage had seen us go to the wedding and had directed the others to where we were. Then they pulled out the chicken. Oh my goodness. We all knew immediately that things were not going to end well for this chicken.

After Banni had confirmed that they were going to kill the rooster, some people from our group decided they didn't need to see it go down and headed back to the orphanage. Elle and I stayed though to watch this wedding ritual. Someone held the rooster while the father of the bride knelt in front of a palm frond fence that had been put up around the center pole. He drew three short lines using thick red powder on the ground. Then he sprinkled rice over the lines and added rosemary twigs on top of the piles. He repeated the general process by putting the items onto the rooster, each time standing up and holding the rooster up over his head. I don't know if he was praying or offering the rooster as a sacrifice..? Something...

Before the moment of truth, the father of the bride held the rooster near the ground where the rice piles were. If the rooster eats the rice, the newlywed couple is supposed to have good luck. I hope this couple has good luck because the poor rooster snarked down a couple grains for his last meal. Then someone brought out a sharp carved knife and... well.. poor chicken. I didn't watch most of it but I heard it all go down. Afterwards, water was poured over the rooster's head and blood from the body was sprinkled in front of the fence. Ugh. I still get a little queasy just thinking about the rooster's beak still moving even after it had been detached from the body and a headless body flapping wings and kicking feet.. A rope was brought out and the head was tucked between the legs, which were then bound with the rope and tied to the top of the center pole. And it dripped. And dripped.

*full body shiver* yuck. I'm so glad I'm a Christian!

We didn't stay long after that because it was getting dark and the next events wouldn't be until later. Just when I thought I'd seen it all in these last three months, Bangladesh threw me a curveball. Only in Bangladesh... I'm sad though that I didn't have my camera though! Not to document the chicken murder, but just to take pictures of the bride and groom and the rest of the festivities.

anyways, that was my day :) It was a good one--eventful and mildly traumatizing, but good!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of painkillers and moldy heads

2010-01-20T15:34:00.003+06:00

Day 4 of clinics. We have run out of sandwich bags and vitamins but are still full of general antibiotics and children's Clartin :) We've given out so many vitamins because with the things we can't help (eye problems, heart problems, high/low blood pressure) we have to send them on their way with a handful of vitamins unfortunately. Luckily Dr.Becky brought over a lot of cough medicine and since it's been so cold out, there have been many takers!

But the best part is that I get to help! Most of it isn't rocket science but it still it fun to pretend to be a knowledgeable Doctor. Dr.Jehanna--sounds good. At the end of the patient history (aka where it hurts and how long) it usually comes down to picking between the different painkillers on the table: Tylenol Arthritis, Tylenol Sinus, Regular Tylenol, Advil Liqu-gels, Motrin. But on some level, I am able to use basic knowledge to narrow down their symptoms or know which medication to hand out. The time passes so quickly--I like seeing patients :) Who knows, maybe I'll have my own clinic in the future? Some kind of family practice where I can attend weddings of babies that I delivered.

Yesterday we had a full day of seeing over 150 patients. Unfortunately, we had to turn away a bunch of people because we don't have any worm meds. There are so many ways to get worms around here it's almost fruitless to bring deworming medicine over. Dr.Becky told me to tell the villagers how to grind up dried papaya seeds and take a spoonful or two in powder from. I guess that's supposed to help with worms and parasites. My most interesting patient though was the first boy to come to me. He looked like he had bread mold on his head. Black, green, fuzzy. It was incredible and saddening at the same time to think how far it had spread untreated. I wish I could have gotten a picture of it!

We saw 160 patients today. While most complained of sore joints (these people work so hard, it's understandable that they are in pain), there were a couple interesting cases to come through. One young boy had broken his leg about a year ago but it had never been set so it healed completely crooked. Thus whenever he runs, he's in a ton of pain. It felt so weird... Then there was the old lady with a giant hole in her tympanic membrane--Dr. Becky showed me how to work the otoscope again :) But by far the coolest thing I've seen yet (well tied with the kid with the moldy head) was a man who had a discolouration on his tongue. He had thick black streaks going over the top of it, but the coolest part was that he had NO TASTEBUDS on the first inch and a half of his tongue! It was slick and shiny like the underside looks. So weird!

I haven't been teaching as much this week because Dr.Becky goes back on Sunday to start heading home. I'm trying to get as much time and shadowing with her as I can and then it's back to the classroom, back to the short vowels (which I now rock at lol). Thus, other than clinics, I've been able to catch up on sleep, relax and get the rest of this mission experience figured out. I'll let you know what I know :)

And I'll also put up pictures when I get them from the other ladies. I've been so busy listening to symptoms that I really haven't taken a lot of pictures. I think Dr.Becky has though so I'll be sure to grab her pictures eventually.

stay healthy!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Taco Bell sauce and doctors

2010-01-17T21:09:00.005+06:00

I'm sorry. I was blogging almost every day and as soon as I get back to Bangladesh it's back to a blog every 4-5days! I shall try to do better!!

Our last day in Nepal was great. We had to check out of our hotel by noon so we all packed early so we could hit up Thamel one last time. Elle and I bought matching Kathmandu shirts and ended up just walking through the streets, soaking in as much Nepal as we could. Pragun sent us a text message asking if he could see us one last time. It was still morning so we told him we'd meet him for breakfast before checking out.

We met him at Pumpernickle Bakery and ordered some quick breakfast. Elle finally got her bagel and "cream cheese" (it was almost sour cream-like :P) and I had a wonderful bowl of whole wheat porridge. Isn't it amazing that I wouldn't hardly touch the stuff when I was a kid but here I was ordering it for myself as my last meal in Nepal? Weird.

Anyways. Pragun brought us presents. Not even kidding. He said he had enjoyed his time with us so much that he wanted to give us something. What a guy. He even wrapped them! Inside the first piece of wrapping paper were three individually wrapped presents. We each got a chunky bracelet, a classic Nepali hat, and a cool keychain. He gave Elle and me a pretty pashmina too! What a guy! He took time out of his day to be our tour guide and save Elle and I when we were lost, then he takes the time to get us presents as a thank-you. Nepal rocks my socks.

He walked us back to the hotel and we cleaned out our room and headed downstairs to settle our bill. We said goodbye to Pragun, promising to email and call him if we were ever back in Nepal. The ride to the airport was kinda sad in a way... Nepal had been so good to us (well to Elliot and me.. not really to Joe) and it was sad to leave! I really would go back again--so far it's my favourite place in Asia. BUT on the flight back, the plane was really empty so we got to sit wherever we want. We saw Everest in the first couple minutes :) [I don't know if I said this already, but we were told that you can't really see Everest until you get up to the Everest Viewing Hotel at like 14,000ft. Everest is hidden between a couple other tall peaks so flying over was the best chance we'd get at seeing it--we wouldn't have been able to see it from Nagarkot.]

[I think the black peak is Everest... but I got the whole thing on video and never took my eye off the horizon so even if it's not I know I saw Mt.Everest!]

We found out on the flight back that one of the flight attendants lived in Sector 6 right near the dental clinic. When he heard that we didn't have anyone to pick us up (Simson thought we were flying in the next day) he offered us a ride! Free of charge! Such a nice guy. When we got back to the dental clinic in Uttara, we crashed. We slept so much. I don't know, maybe it was the time change from Dhaka to Kathmandu. That 15min will really get you! lol just kidding.

The next day, Elliot and I met up with Litton, Shoburna, and Shushitra at the bus station while Josiah headed to the doctor to get tested for parasites. They found an ova (?) in his stool and I think there were worms spawning in his large intestine. Good times.. But I think he is doing better now. He would wait until Friday to come back while the rest of us piled on a bus and headed back to the orphanage. The coach buses are better than public buses--you have to buy a seat and there is a lot more room than in the normal buses. It was a long ride but I had enough room to put up my feet and sleep a little at least.

School's started now. I'm still teaching grade one and Elliot is teaching my old class in grade two now. Same old, same old. How to write the letters, short vowels, and Dick and Jane. I'm glad these kids are learning English but I really don't think this is my calling in life! Friday we resumed art class and had the kids made butterflies out of Popsicle sticks, coffee filters, and pipe cleaners. They had a blast! (pictures to come)

Later that evening, the van carrying Josiah and four American women pulled in. Dr. Becky Cote, Tammy B___, Mary ___, and Yvonne came to visit Bangla Hope for a week and a half. Dr. Becky and Tammy have been before and brought two friends along for the experience. Dr. Becky brought three big black totes full of medical supplies and Tammy brought new Sabbath School programs.

Sabbath was Mr.Waid's 81st birthday. He can still beat me at badminton too! It's incredible what good health he has. Shati made Mexican food for his birthday dinner complete with homemade salsa and chips. Elle pulled out a bag of goodies her mom sent and handed out Mild Taco Bell sauce. I was in HEAVEN! Oh man I've missed that stuff... I practically drank all three packets--I don't think much more than a couple drops made it onto my japatee burritos lol. Thank-you Candy!! :)

Today, the Doctor was In. We cracked open our gates and had villagers file in about twenty at a time to be seen by Rosemary, Dr. Becky, Elliot, and Yours Truly. That's right. I saw patients! The system was pretty simple: ask where it hurts, long long it's been hurting, and ask the women when their last period was (sometimes they don't know if they are pregnant and Tylenol is better to give than Advil if they are). Dr.Becky brought about ten different medications over, which were separated into vitamins and calcium, antibiotics, topical ointments, cough and cold, allergy, and stomach. Plus we had a whole table dedicated to ibuprofen, Tylenol and all subsequent spinoffs (Tylenol Sinus, Arthritis, Cold, Reg., Liqu-gels, etc.). In most cases we had some solution for the problems but in more serious cases we really had to recommend going to the hospital.

Let's see.. what did we have come through..? Young boy with huge pockets of puss in his ears (Dr.Becky showed me with her otoscope). A 2-yr old girl with one eye (not sure what happened to the other but it was just gone) but both were infected. Lots of arthritis--understandably considering how hard these people work. A couple hemorrhoids. A possible diabetic woman. Many mal-nourished children and adults--one child said she had a cup of tea for the day, that's it. Coughs and colds. Unfortunately, so much of what we can do is just hand out Tylenol to help with the pain. We don't have specific meds and these people can't afford medical care at a hospital. A baggy of 15 Tylenol is the best we could do.

It was an amazing experience though. The four women will be here until next Wednesday and we are going to see people as long as we have things to give them. Dr.Becky is expecting a couple more totes of medical supplies in the next day or so (the airline lost the totes for awhile). Elliot and I have been excused from school for a couple days to help out and I'm so excited to get a taste of my prospective field. I wish I could do more.

I'll be putting up pictures ASAP because you have got to see the 'pharmacy' we have going lol
ami tomake bhalobashi

of hospitals and namaste

2010-01-12T08:55:00.004+06:00

Yesterday was the day. THE Day. We were going to see Everest. The transit strike had kept us from doing that on Sunday but we were determined not to leave Nepal unless we had seen Everest. We felt so bad though for Josiah because he was still sick! He had had his heart so set on going to Scheer Memorial Hospital to do some filming for his dad's Sunday morning Adventist talk show. Scheer Memorial Hospital is an Adventist hospital about 3hrs (or so we thought) from Kathmandu in a little town called Banepa.

As we were heading to the bus stop, Elle suggested we go to the hospital and take video on our cameras so we could surprise Joe with even a little footage. I thought about it for a sec and realized I had the little angel and devil sitting on my shoulders... Part of me wanted to see Everest so badly but we had also been told that if there's ANY fog in Nagarkot, we wouldn't be able to see anything. I also thought about how hard it must have been for Josiah to be sick in Nepal pretty much the whole time. My shoulder angel won in the end and Elle and I hopped on a bus heading to Banepa. Surprisingly enough, it only took an hour and a half to get there!

When we arrived in Banepa, we realized we didn't really know where we were going. We had listened to Pragun explain to Josiah how to get there and followed his directions as best as we could remember. We also stopped for directions with any traffic cop we could find. The hospital was about 2km from the bus stop and we found it with relative ease. At one point we actually walked right past it, but some friendly Nepali woman pointed us back in the right direction.

The hospital is so much more than I thought it was going to be. It was a big brick building buzzing with patients and doctors. We found out that about 90% of the doctors there are Nepali, which also means they are Hindu and not Adventist. There are 150 beds in the hospital but they see way more patients than that in a day. We met the man in charge of public affairs (nice older man from Oregon) and he told us to go to the physio department because a Canadian woman works there. We talked to her for awhile and then she had her Nepali husband (she's been in Nepal for 7years!) give us a tour around the hospital.

After the tour, he took us to meet the SM from Union College who was there for the week. Her name is Anna and she's our age. She is so sweet! We spent over an hour with her, just sharing different experiences back and forth. It was so awesome to talk with someone who knows completely what we are going through. We made rice and curry in her kitchen and then headed back to Kathmandu. Such a good day. God even lifted the fog on the way back to Kathmandu and we got to see the snow capped Himalayas :)

So this afternoon we are leaving on a jet plane.. Leaving this place of joy and hoping to bring some of that joy back to Bangladesh with us. My jeans are packed away and have been replaced by my seloar kameese... Sad day. I really loved Nepal.. I hope to come back and have enough money to do a trek--even if it's just overnight. But for now it's back to Dhaka, go in peace, namaste,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of chocolate croissants and massages

2010-01-10T23:33:00.003+06:00

Sabbath we didn't go to church with our friend Pragun because Joe wasn't feeling well. Instead, the three of us went out for "breakfast" in morning. I say "breakfast" because we ended up going to an Italian restaurant and eating lots of pomodoro pasta, garlic bread, and grilled vegetables. I love how you can have an absolutely fantastic meal in Kathmandu for less than $5. Joe headed back to the hotel to rest while Elle and I hit up the local bakery that makes the BEST chocolate croissants and town and headed to Durbar Square. The square was only about a 20min walk from our hotel and is kinda similar to the Durbar Square in Bhaktapur. We climbed about halfway up the stairs then jumped the railing to sit on one of the many tiers. We pulled out maps to sit on (the tiers were filthy), chocolate croissants, and our Bibles. We spent about an hour there just sitting peacefully in the sun.. It was so great.

We spent some time wandering around the rest of Durbar Square and then headed back to the hotel. The rest of the day followed the same rhythm.. Peaceful and slow. Elliot was still tired from her trip to Spain so she took a nap while Joe rested in his room. I wasn't very tired but I found things to occupy my time and still had a great day. Later that night we hit up some Indian food (mmm curry and paneer masala) and even stopped in a reggae bar for a bit.

This morning we woke up to a transportation strike. I'm not sure what was going on but apparently some political party was mad at another party so all the buses and most of the taxis were out of commission. Thus we all slept in, voiding our plans to go to Nagarkot to see Everest. We hit up a cafe for a late brunch and I got to eat some yummy buttermilk pancakes. Then we took to the market to get some last minute souvenirs. Unfortunately, most people couldn't make it to work (or just didn't want to go to work) and most of the shops were closed. Nonetheless I found the SWEETEST pair of pants for only 250rp that will from now on be known as my Aladdin pants. I'm really stoked to wear them :) We went into a shop and the woman took us upstairs to see different colors and sizes and we met a MESS in her stairwell! No joke. There was a pile about 5feet high of just fabric scraps. And in the storage room we were walking on about a foot of the same kind of scraps. Just incredible!

The best part of the day came when we were passing by the spa by our hotel and saw it was advertising a special: hour long full body massage and facial and 45min foot massage for only 1800rp (about $25). Any woman familiar with North American spas would know this is a killer deal. I decided to give myself an early birthday present (yay only three weeks to 21!!!) and get massages with Elle. We had so much fun. I won't be able to convey the full humour that was those three hours but if you ask me about it when I get back I'll do my best to tell you through the laughing. All in all, it was so relaxing and I feel like I can really return to Bangladesh with a renewed energy to finish off my time strong!

Tomorrow we are catching an early bus to Nagarkot to spend the day trekking about. Thus I should get to bed...
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Bhaktapur and jumping off things

2010-01-09T09:33:00.005+06:00

Yesterday we headed back to the embassy first thing in the morning to guarantee that I got my passport. And I did! Yay! I can have another three months in Bangladesh, with multiple entries! I was so thankful for the woman behind the desk that argued on our behalf. After picking up my passport, we were about to head of the door when Elle suggest asking the woman how to get to Bhaktapur. She explained it to us, then called the guard at the front gate and told him to put on on the right bus to Bhaktapur. I love Nepal. Seriously...

We jumped on the bus and the promised half an hour ride turned into an hour long ride. No problem, we had allotted time for this. Josiah started feeling sick the night before so it was Elle and Jehanna on a whirlwind adventure! We jumped off the bus when the man said Bhaktapur... And were on the outskirts of town. What we failed to realize is that Bhaktapur's Durbar Square is like a city within a city. So we started walking and asking locals to point us in the right direction. We actually took a really nice walk up some hills towards the square, stopping to take pictures at a pool enclosed by concrete.

What's amazing is that there are tons of fish in this pond. This wasn't a tourist attraction because we saw a lot of locals there, just chilling on the steps or feeding the fish. The fish in Nepal are so different than any fish I've ever seen--or at least the fish in this pond are different. They would calmly swim up and take the food in their mouths, no pushing or shoving, and then slowly swim away. Even the fish take it easy here! Incredible!

As we were heading to Durbar Square, the locals kept saying just go straight. At one point I turned to Elle and wondered if this was some cruel Nepali joke to play on tourists. Just keep telling them to go straight but there actually isn't a Durbar Square. lol But there was! And you couldn't miss it. We had to pay about $10USD to get in but it was completely worth it. Each temple or building was so fascinating and worthy of taking a picture of.

Elle and I headed down a narrow street lined with handmade paper shops, art galleries, pashmina stores, and various other handicraft type shops. We browsed in and out but nothing really caught my eye. I think I am going to hunt down a Nepali paper photo album so that I can scrap book my adventures when I get back. When we finally made it to Potter's Square we couldn't believe our eyes. It was raw. Clay, straw, potter's wheels--this stuff was being made before our eyes. We took pictures and video of different potters then one asked me if I wanted to try. Heck yes please! So I sat down and proceeded to turn a blob of clay into an actual piece. Granted, I destroyed it a couple times just with my thumb slipping but the man helped bring it back into shape. Elle got to do the same thing and made a pretty bowl.

Then we kept walking through cobblestone streets towards.. well we didn't know. We were exploring. And then we got to the temple. I really don't know it's name but it is breathtakingly beautiful. It has a perfect pagoda shape and has steep stairs heading up to the top. Stone statues protect its base and the tiers are wonderful to sit on to contemplate life :)

On the way down, Elle had the fantastic idea of jumping off the last statues platform. lol Being the special kid I am, I accidentally took the picture with one of her feet still on the platform. But I went up and wanted the same shot jumping. I was focused so much on pulling my feet up to make an epic picture that I didn't really think about the landing... lol I kinda biffed it. I think I made it look cool in the end but really I was falling face-first towards a cobblestone street. Awesome. Elle looked at the pictures after she was finished dying laughing at me and realized her foot was still on the statue. So we had to take two more pictures, though I maintain her feet WERE off the statue in the second one... lol So funny... The picture of me jumping off has got to be one of my favourite pictures from this trip!

We wandered around some more before heading back to our favourite temple for lunch. There was a cute restaurant in the shape of a pagoda overlooking the temple square. I ordered just a vegetable soup and we shared a plate of the best freaking fries in the world!

After spending some more time just wandering around the temples, browsing through shops, and taking a ton of pictures, we started to head out. Just as we were about to leave, we saw our friend Pragun that had helped us the day before with getting around to the sites. He offered to take us to the bus stop so we didn't have to wander aimlessly again. He was on a motorcycle and drove slowly ahead of us as we walked towards the station. At one point, there was a long straight stretch to the station so he offered us a ride. Motorcycle is one of the last forms of transportation to cross of our list so we jumped on the back and rode down the road for all of about a minute. It still counts! He put us on the right bus and told us when to get off and how to catch the next bus back to our hotel.

The bus back was more crowded so Elle was on my lap most of the time back but I was so happy from the amazing day we had just had that nothing was going to bring me down :) We got back to the hotel and checked in on Josiah who hadn't really gotten far away from the hotel the whole day. Poor guy... Elle and I left to do some browsing and shopping--moreso arguing in most shops over how much the sellers inflate the prices for tourists. In the end though, we got some absolutely smoking deals!

We ran into Josiah after our shopping was done and the three of us headed to a nearby cafe for some hot drinks. Elle of course got hot chocolate, Joe got water with a ton of straight-up mint leaves throw in, and I made the mistake of ordering a 'milk shake'. Mine turned out to be a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a glass of milk. :P phooey. We stayed there for about an hour, talking about life and having Joe explain the strategy of cricket to us. I got lost on more than one occasion but overall cricket seems like complicated game!

Then back to our hotel room to bundle up since the power was off. I guess from 7pm-9pm you are pretty much guaranteed to have no power. Awesome :P That means freezing cold rooms... This morning we were supposed to go to church with our new friend but Josiah's really not feeling well so we decided to stick around in case we need to take him to the hospital or something. Tis okay--today will be epic too! :) By the way, I made a new album on facebook {http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=178661&id=549112159&l=9678f4ce87} so you can see into my adventures some more :)

Happy Sabbath,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of monkey temples and 382 steps

2010-01-07T21:21:00.008+06:00

Now where did I leave off...? Right. Last night we had the idea that we wanted to trek in the Himalayas. The hotel/hostel we were staying at was managed by a guy who had climbed Everest TWICE. He seemed like the perfect person to ask about a trek. He told us all about a four hour hike we would take to a village where you can see Mt.Everest! We would stay the night then hike another four hours back. It sounded really nice--only he wanted $95 USD per person... Yikes. I mean, when you break it down it kinda makes sense... But we just can't fit that into our meek budget :P Our new plan is to take a bus to the place you can see Everest because buses are only 10rupees each way! ahhh public transport! Gotta love it!

This morning Elle and I headed out early to the Bangla embassy while Joe did some research into cheaper accommodations. At the Bangladeshi embassy, the man with the rubber stamp was being difficult but the woman behind the desk had been really nice to us and argued with the man on our behalf. Thus, Jehanna now has a three month, multiple entry visa for Bangladesh! How exciting! God is SO good! I'm going in tomorrow morning to pick it up :)

On the way back from the embassy, Elle and I stopped for breakfast at a small cafe and ordered toast and 'hash potatoes'. Instead of shredded potatoes, we got sliced potatoes mixed with sliced tomatoes and green pepper. Not too bad--the whole breakfast got a lot better when I put the tomatoes on my toast, added some salt, and thought of the sandwiches my mom would make me most mornings before school. We caught up on our Himalayan news (lol) and I drank some 'hot lemon with honey' for my slightly sore throat. My goodness--that was straight up lemon. Between that lemon and the garlic from yesterday I feel so much better :)

When we got back to our hotel, we met up with Josiah and he explained what he had found. We had just stayed two nights at a fairly decent place but the power was sketchy, the heat didn't work, and the showers were usually cold (except for this morning when I had a wonderfully piping hot shower!). That place was $10/night each for Elle and I--Josiah was paying $15/night for his single room. The place Josiah found was basically the Nepali version of a Hilton. He hissy-fit his way into $13/night each. And that's where we are now... It is such a nice hotel! At least a 3-star hotel :) It's really safe, clean, and in a really cool place in town.

Then we headed to Swayambhu, aka the Monkey Temple. This temple overlooks the three major part of Kathmandu and has an incredible view otherwise. The pictures I took really don't do it justice! Because the Monkey Temple is on the top of a hill, we had to walk up a ton of stairs to get there. The closer you get to the top, the more steep the stairs get. Also, the closer you get to the top, the more monkeys there are and there are people throwing food down the steps to the monkeys. Thus you have to dodge carrots being thrown at screaming monkeys... In other words, good times are had by all.. lol

When you finally get to the top of the stairs, you are greeted by monks in full traditional dress, another big Buddha dome with 'all-seeing' eyes, scores of dogs and monkeys, and the most amazing view of Kathmandu. Unfortunately, that's about the time my camera battery decided to die... Elle didn't have her camera with her but luckily Josiah brought along his video camera so we still got some decent footage of the monkey temple. We spent a couple hours just wandering around, inspecting the mini temples, and admiring the dedication of the Buddhist monks.

[Funny story: Elle and I were admiring the view of the city when a couple Indian kids came up to us and asked if we would take a picture with them. They turned out to be part of a Tae Kwon Do team competing in Kathmandu. We took pictures with the boys, then the girls, then a mixture. They were so nice to us! They asked our names and where we were from and we asked them to show us some of their moves. They brought forward their 'star man' and he showed us some stuff. You can see by the photo below, Elle couldn't help but join in on the fun. My camera worked for all of the two seconds that it took to take this picture then it shut off again. So funny...]

It was such a great place to see. A lot of these places charge 200rp or 500rp to see but all in all, they are definitely worth it! On the way down from the temple, Elle and I counted out loud how many steps there were. Josiah tried to mess us up a couple times but we are pretty sure there are 382 steps up to the Monkey Temple. lol I've seen more monkeys than I ever thought I would in my whole life and am enjoying experiencing such a completely different culture.

Tomorrow we are heading to Nagarkot to hopefully see Everest. And by 'see' Everest, I mean use my zoom to take a picture of the beautiful mountain about 350km away. Nonetheless, no trip to Nepal would be complete without seeing Everest. :) Tonight Elle and I went into town to look for souvenirs and just to soak in the culture. Thamel is such a tourist hub that the streets are live with music, shops, and lights. It's such a great environment. We even headed up to a cafe and had some hot chocolate :) I'm having the time of my life here--Nepal is absolutely incredible. Just sayin'... lol

Tis bedtime again.. I guess I could sleep on the bus but my 3-star bed seems a lot more comfortable. I just had to share my experience. I don't want to get to the end and have forgotten what all happened. Plus, I'm trying to get as many pictures as I can uploaded while the internet is a million times better than in Bangladesh!

I hope you enjoy reading :D
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Buddhas and Hindu gods

2010-01-07T08:32:00.001+06:00

Looking back on what happened today, I feel like I can say it was the BEST day I've had in Asia--or at least Top 5. I really should start compiling a list of what makes my Top 5 best and worst days.. But that will have to wait for now. This is how it went down.

We woke up at a reasonable time and took a taxi to the northern part of Kathmandu where the Bangladesh embassy is. On the way, we stopped at a cafe for some breakfast. The food last night was alright.. But this food was freaking amazing! This is the food I thought I was going to be eating when I came to Bangladesh. I love Shati's cooking so much but she cooks a lot of American foods, not so much cultural foods. I have also found that Bengali food is generally pretty bland, but they throw chilis in like crazy and that is supposed to be good enough for flavour. This cafe had naan STUFFED with slices of garlic, chick peas curry, dhal, and an amazing tofu dish. Oh my goodness. I ate until I was soo stuffed and reeking of garlic. The cherry on top is that my slight sore throat went away with all the garlic I ate :)

We headed to the Bangladesh embassy and after filling out the form, I was told by the receptionist that there was another option that I hadn't been offered before. Instead of paying $51 for a single entry, two month visa, I could pay $100 for a multiple entry, three month visa! Unfortunately, I didn't bring enough US cash so we have to go back tomorrow and apply but if we get the visa in before 11am, I can pick the processed visa later in the afternoon on the same day! Awesome eh?

Outside the embassy, we hesitated as we pulled out our Kathmandu map and attempted to ask which way to Pashupatinath temple. Apparently it is one of the most famous temples in the world. It's not just one temple, it's maze of many many many Hindu temples. In other words, it's absolutely incredible! But more on that later. First, I should tell you that we had help. As we were looking at our map feeling utterly confused on how to get from Point A to Point B, a young guy looked over our shoulder and asked us if we needed help. When we explained where we were going, he said he knew the area, was heading that direction and offered to show us how to get there. He helped us get on a city bus (taxi's cost about 200-300rupees while city buses only cost 10rupees) and navigate towards this huge temple. On the ride over, we found out he is a Christian guy in his third year of medical school.

When we got off the bus in the general area around the temple, we all said thank-you and were looking for our way when our Christian friend started walking with us. He ended up spending FIVE HOURS with us, explaining what different things signified, and helped us get the local price (or close to it) for souvenirs. Elliot and I weren't allowed into the actual 'sanctuary' part of the temple because tourists aren't allowed, but Joe and our new friend went in and got busted about 20feet in lol. So we spent about an hour and a half wandering around the hundreds of small shrines and temples set up around the grounds.

HIGHLIGHT: I've officially seen my first monkey, up close and personal, and not in a zoo! In fact, there were like 30monkeys traveling all in a group! No joke, we have photographic evidence! They ran all over the temples, climbing roofs, running up and down the streets. It was sooooo cool!

Also at Pashupatinath temple, they are famous because this is a major site they do body burnings. I have a picture of the next body wrapped and ready to be burnt on a platform. It's pretty gruesome but I guess in the Hindu belief system it's important. We also got some pictures with old yogi men painted from head to toe and chilling next to a shrine. These guys were intense... lol I'll show pictures later when I'm not so tired! :)

After spending a lot of time at the temple and the surrounding temples and shrines, our friend took us to Boudha which is a big Buddhist temple. Our friend had to go for a while, which in my mind meant that he was leaving for good but he said he would come back and find us. We walked all the way around the temple a couple times. This temple is really cool because it has little rolly balls in the wall that surrounds it and you can spin them as you walk by. I guess each time you spin the balls it sends up a prayer of good luck or something. We took a ton of pictures on the temple itself and then went to a nearby restaurant for some dinner. As we were just finishing our meal, we spotted our friend walking across the top of the Buddhist temple! He had been looking for us!

On the way out of the temple, we stopped by the road because there were tons of "North Face" puffy puffy jackets being sold. Our friend got them down to 600rupees (about $8USD) and now I am warm! lol I call it my "South Face" jacket but I really don't care--that's how warm it is!

Josiah headed back early to the hotel because he wasn't feeling well and our friend volunteered to take us to the Monkey Temple. It was still daylight, lots of people were around, and this guy seemed really nice. He helped us get on the bus towards Monkey Temple and it started to get dark on the way so he suggested that we head back towards our hotel. We had to take two buses and one extremely overcrowded van but that transportation was still 100x better than anything you could take in Dhaka. Elle even fell asleep on the bus it was so comfortable--and everything smells sooo good here! Yay for incense!

Anyways we got back to Thamel (the tourist hub where all the hotels are) but Thamel is HUGE! We wouldn't have known how to get back but this guy stopped and asked how to get back. He walked back with us in the dark to make sure we got back safely, didn't ask for a dime, said thanks for letting me hang out with you guys, and then asked us if we wanted to come to his church on Saturday! We got his number and are definitely going to check out his church. I can't believe it. He was such a God-send!!!!

I'm really excited to go to a Christian church because I've seen Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim worship but I really haven't seen Asian Christian worship. At the orphanage, it's a American-style church, complete with singing the Doxology every week. We told him we didn't have any church clothes but he said that didn't matter--all that matters is that you have a good heart. Seriously, we were so lucky to find this guy!

there's more to tell but for now I'm going to run...
ami tomake bhalobashi!!

of illegal residents and NEPAL

2010-01-05T22:30:00.004+06:00

This last Sunday my Bangladesh visa expired. For good. Like the crooked man at the passport office said, I had to leave the country.. or get married. Instead, I left the country. The cruel irony is that I've had one too many debates with my friends at WallaWalla about the illegal immigration problem the United States has on its hands... And now I was technically no better. But Josiah, Elle, and I had a plan.

At the beginning of December I had to leave to restart my (then) 60-day pass to Bangladesh. Elle and I had the brilliant idea of going to Nepal to meet up with friends of hers instead of going into India for the day. We found really cheap flights over and knew we could find cheap hostels over in Nepal. In the end though, we decided we didn't feel safe going with just the two of us. Thus I went into India for the day. BUT that is also around the time that Josiah showed up, feet itching with the travel bug.

After the whole ordeal with the crooked man, Josiah and I started to think about maybe going to Nepal to reapply for a visa. The tickets were still cheap, hostels still available, and Elle was on board too! Thanks to different family members for sending money as Christmas presents, plus money that I earned during the summer, I'm writing this from Hotel Blue Horizon in Thamel, Kathmandu, Nepal. No joke! :D

Today was quite the ordeal though. Elle booked her flight a day later than Josiah and I and was therefore told she had to fly a day later (apparently they needed a week to process her credit card). We flew with Biman Airlines which is not the most renowned airline in the world and they ended up changing our tickets to fly out an hour sooner and also changed Elle's return ticket to have a 3hr layover in India somewhere. It was somewhat of a mess. Elle wasn't too excited to be separated from us on both flights because we had tried to get the return one all together. While she was in the midst of a heated discussion with the airline people, she looked at the ticket confirmation I had printed out and discovered that our tickets were detoured through India as well! Good times...

Elle and I had repacked our backpacks the night before and were ready to go early this morning. After finding out we were all on the same flight, we headed to the airport. Elle brought all her stuff along in hopes that she could get on the same flight as us. And miracle of all miracles, her flight was able to get switched from tomorrow to today :) PLUS, we got all our flights changed to a day earlier so that we don't have the layover in India. So exciting!

There really isn't too much of a security check point anywhere in the Dhaka airport so we had a lot of time to kill. I was supposed to pay a fee for being illegally in Bangladesh at the immigration desk but smiling really does get you far in this country! So I didn't have to pay any fine! With all our time to kill, we had a snack in a cafe and Josiah and Elle taught me the basics of poker. I think we are going to hunt down some jelly beans and play 'for real'. lol

[Funny story: Elle and I had to pee really badly after going through the immigration desk so we left Josiah and hunted down a bathroom. We followed the sign for toilets down a curvy hallway to only one open door. Elle had to go really badly so I held her bag as she went into the stall. As she was in there, I looked around and then joked that this was a unisex bathroom because there were urinals off to the side. Then I looked on the door and it had the man symbol on the front... AND just then, a airport worker walked in and said "Lady toilets that way" pointing to left. I busted up laughing and said "ami bondue shi-shi" (my friend pee lol). Just after she left and Elle came out of the stall, a confused Bengali man walked in as we giggled past him. Oh man... so funny...]

The flight over was good... nothing too special. Honestly, I was expecting a 16-passenger plane with goats walking up and down the aisle and the pilot serving us our beverages. That's the low expectation I had for this Bangladeshi airline lol. But because it's technically an 'international' flight, we actually got drinks and food! The food was awful... but food nonetheless!

As we began our decent into the Kathmandu airport, the clouds began to clear and mountains littered the ground below us. It was so so so so cool to see! I took a lot of pictures but most of them didn't turn out very well due to scratches on the window. Nonetheless... SO cool! I guess I didn't realize this, but Kathmandu is HUGE. Like Huge Huge! I had an idea in my head that it was small and quaint with little huts and such. Nope. It's kinda like a slightly cleaner, slightly less congested traffic, less people-d form of Dhaka. Really! I'm definitely not complaining. The biggest difference to me is the smells. Dhaka smells like death and exhaust--Kathmandu smells like incense :) BIG difference!

After settling into our hostel/hotel and putting our values in the safe, we headed out for food. Kathmandu is such a hippy-ish place it wasn't hard to find a vegetarian restaurant for Josiah. We ordered rice with about a ton of cumin in it, some masalla dosa (potato/veggie mash in a crepe-like shell), spicy dhal, and a veggie szechuan dish. The food was heavily seasoned but not too bad in the end. It's kinda fun to experience new foods in their original countries.

Then we wandered the streets a little, browsing in shops and such. I swear, North Face has a contract with 80% of the shops to sell its merchandise! Everything here is North Face. Well, North Face or yak hair. Speaking of which, my hands were freezing to the bone so I bought a cute pair of $2 yak hair gloves. I love them :)

Now we are planning our week-long attack on Kathmandu. We have a Monkey Temple to visit, Buddha's birthplace, a visa to apply for, and the most famous temple in the world to see... More to come... :D

ami tomake bhalobashi (dang.. I should learn how to say 'I love you' in Nepalese!)

of space heaters and 2010

2010-01-01T18:51:00.003+06:00

The first day of a new decade. In my mind, such a day should be spent as one joyous celebration with brief interludes of song and dance. And wouldn't you know, that's exactly how I spent my day! Well, without the song and dance... And without the joyous celebration. Hmm... I guess that just leaves a normal day! lol

It was extraordinarily cold this morning so after waddling down to breakfast bundled up as well as I could, I gobbled down Shati's delicious man-size pancakes and ran back upstairs to curl up in bed. I'm not sure why, but Transformers seemed to be a good New Year's Day movie to watch as I coloured through another Bangla book for Mrs. Waid. And I pretty much stayed there for the rest of the day. At one point, I curled up on Elle's bed next to the space heater and took a nap as I thought of the shenanigans that were being had back home for New Year's.

[Just an FYI: Daylight Savings happened back in October back home right? That means that when I first got to Bangladesh, I was 14hrs ahead of you people back home on the West Coast until Daylight Savings happened. Since then, I've been 15hrs ahead. Well apparently, Bangladesh is the rebel of the bunch and decided to wait until last night (New Year's Eve) to fall behind one hour. So now I'm back to being 14hrs ahead of everyone on the West Coast. I know this may seem confusing and pointless but, for the few people that actually call, this will become important when school is back in. lol]

Anyways, while I rarely keep my New Year's resolutions, hopefully this year will be different. Most important things first, I want to initiate time with God even when things are good. I have a magnificent way of crying for help and mercy when everything has turned upside down but in 2010 I want to establish a relationship that is consistent through times both good and bad. Another goal for 2010 is to forgive and forget, live and learn--aka as cleanse my life of the poisonous grudges I've held onto for years. This one will be especially hard but most things worth doing usually are.

Then there are the ones that usually fall by the wayside--not this year! Exercise, floss, journal. This shall be the norm. My heart sank when I opened my journal tonight for the first time in weeks and realized that last entry was made December 6. Yikes. I know why that was the last entry for awhile but I feel like all the emotions from Christmas and even New Year's could have been poured into my journal instead of pouring tears into my pillow. Nonetheless, this year will be different. It's 2010 after all!! As for the floss, it's just good health :) And the exercise... I know I'll never be supermodel thin but there is no excuse for climbing the four flights of stairs to my apartment and feeling short of breath! lol Yet I hate running, jogging, and such so I'll probably start with some crunches and badminton. Start small right?

And so begins 2010. A new year, a new decade, a new chance to make your life all you want it to be. I hope you all took my advice from the previous post and had wonderful celebrations with friends and family.

Blessings in the year to come!
ami tomake bhalobashi

of badminton and New Years

2009-12-31T19:25:00.002+07:00

ahhh Christmas vacation. Things have been quiet here at the orphanage the last couple weeks. It has gotten so cold that the kids stay in their rooms, playing around the space heaters. With no school in session, Brittni and I have been assigned to the storage room. Mrs.Waid had cabinets put in that go all the way up to the ceiling and now all the clothes that were previously shoved randomly into bags have to be organized into 0-3months, 3-6months.... and so on... Oh what fun. I did that for about half a day and frankly got kinda bored. lol Brittni's the trooper that's been in there the whole time.

Instead of storage, I was in charge of labeling. I labeled the storage bins and cupboards in Handicrafts, and all the cabinets and drawers in the storage room. It sounds easy enough but somehow nothing ever is quite easy in Bangladesh. The protagonist? The laminating machine. Still. It ate two sheets of paper. Nonetheless, fighting with the laminating machine was better than sorting little girls dresses so I got it done. I've also been spending quite a bit of time colouring Bangla books that Mrs.Waid wants to use for Class 2 starting in a couple weeks. There aren't enough books to go around so she had each book copied and enlarged--but only in black and white. I've gone through with Elle's set of Sharpies and coloured just the important things: a t-shirt, vase, plate, etc. Slow going but again, at least I'm not in the storage room.

I've also started to play badminton at night. Surprisingly enough, there are a lot of people on campus who are really good at the game--one of which is Mr.Waid! The man may be 80years old but he puts me to shame with how quickly he can return that birdie. I try not to get too competitive with the game but have started to play because I know it's good exercise for my otherwise mundane day. I'm actually not bad though! I think it was all those years Jenny and I had to knock the birdie around, hoping one day Uncle Jon and Uncle Brad would let us play. I think I could give them a run for their money now :D lol

...and that's the extent of my exciting life right now. As I write this, I'm only about four hours away from 2010. Wow. 2010. I remember where I was, who I was with, and what I was doing when 2000 came. Does anyone reading this remember what they were doing January 31, 1999 a few seconds before midnight?

Honestly, I'm feeling really lonely. Brittni hasn't been feeling very well lately so she is going to bed early. Mr. and Mrs.Waid are going to bed because they don't feel the need to stay up til midnight lol. So I'm all by myself again--just like Christmas. I can help but feel so sad that I'm not home right now, playing games, laughing, singing. I just wish I could be with all the people I love most in the world. And I wonder, what am I supposed to learn from times like this? How to be okay with being completely alone? I don't plan on being alone for the holidays like this again. At the very least I'll have family, if not friends, to celebrate with.

I am going to try to make the best of it. I'm going to try to stay up, even if it's by myself, watch movies, each some junk food (New Year's diet starts tomorrow lol), and try to be happy. But right now, all I want to do is go to bed and just hope for a better New Year's celebration next year. Which plan I'm going to do... Well I don't know yet. I just know that I miss home, my parents, my family, my boyfriend, my friends--everything familiar--like crazy right now. I can only describe it as helpless loneliness...

I hope you all have a much better New Year's than I'm having. Say a little prayer for me, but then get RIGHT back to celebrating life and love.

Happy New Years,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Christmas programs and Jack Johnson

2009-12-28T17:41:00.003+07:00

Sabbath morning came faster than I probably would have liked. Well, truth be told, I was dreading it. I really didn't feel like my kids were ready enough to get up in front of everyone and do this play. They barely know their lines and don't even know when to come forward... Oh dear...

Luckily almost all the kids from KG and Class 1 are in my Sabbath School class so I took advantage of that and ran through the program with them quickly. I gave each 'scene' a number and then told the kids to look at me and if I called their number to come forward. I gave them the low-down of what was going to happen in hopes that things would be alright...

The moment of truth. When we were called the front, Banni and Brittni went to the podium and I sat on the floor. The kids were all still sitting as if they didn't know what was going on... Great start lol. But I hustled them all together into a choir-form in the corner. But now that I think about it, they didn't stay in lines for very long... lol Brittni welcomed everyone to our program and proceeded to start reading the Christmas story from the Bible and then Banni translated from the Bengali Bible. I called the number ones forward and instead of acting it out, the kids got scared and stood in a line. lol I had to basically sit there and tell each one what to say two words at a time, but the whole thing didn't end up too terribly. At the end of each scene, there was a corresponding song but since the kids had a hard time picking up the old English Christmas carols, Brittni and I had to sing a couple songs. After seven scenes and some jumbled up lines, the kids finished with singing "We wish you a blessed Christmas and a joyful New Year". We had to change a couple words to make it more church-appropriate :)

Banni dressed up little Marissa in one of her Indian-made dresses, put a scarf around Joseph's head, and "King Herod's" crown on Danny's head. That was the extent of our costumes lol. We had a small doll in a towel for Baby Jesus and four brightly wrapped gifts from the wisemen (yes I know there were 'three' but we needed all the parts we could to include everyone lol). I was proud of them though. Most of them had actually learned their lines but stage fright will take any victim it can. That's alright.. the only real cure is repeated exposure. I'm sure they will put on a fantastic Christmas program with next years missionaries--any takers out there for the 2010-2011 school year? :)

After church we took a walk out to the rice fields... We ended up meandering all over the place with no real goal in sight. Nonetheless it was still a relaxing walk. I took a picture of Josiah because I find it so funny we can have such good reception IN THE MIDDLE OF A RICE FIELD. Literally. It should be used for GrameenPhone's advertising or something... lol

I pretty much vegged out the rest of Saturday... I was so tired after doing stockings, the Christmas program, and all the presents for the staff here. But I also realized I had been absolutely dreading Christmas. Not only am I away from family but Elle's gone right now. I was dreading Christmas like none-other... But now that it's over (yet feeling like it never really came), I feel better. I still have to tackle not having a New Year's kiss from Michael but that should be easier now that I know I survived Christmas. That also means that I'm pretty much half way done with my mission experience. I have such contradictory feelings about that--I miss home and Michael and everyone so much so I can't wait to get back but my kids.. How can I say goodbye to them, not knowing when I'll ever see them again? I know people say they will come back but how many people stick to that? Life gets in the way, work never ends, and $1300 plane tickets don't just fall from the sky. I hope my kids will grow up to be great--grow up to change their world and the worlds of anybody that has the pleasure of meeting them.

Yesterday and today were pretty chill. I had a battle with the laminating machine when I was making labels for the storage room and Handicrafts. It full out ate a sheet of labels! It didn't just chew it up, burn the edges, and such--it just didn't come out the other side... Yikes. lol It won that round but I won all subsequent rounds! lol After taping up all the labels, I headed over to the storage room equipped with my Ipod to help sort cupboards and cupboards of children's clothing. Luckily Jack Johnson was there for me. As I was walking past some of the bedrooms, Marissa asked me what I listening to so I put one of my headphones into her ear. She was so surprised that music was coming from them but then didn't want to give the headphone back :) That's right, I'm not only teaching letters but I'm teaching an appreciation for GOOD music! lol It was so cute that I had to take a picture of her and me chilling to Jack Johnson. I know Abby and Tiffany would be proud of me for enhancing her cultural education lol.

in other words, if you haven't gotten his new album, Sleep Through the Static, you should look it up because even Bengali kids that don't speak English love it! lol
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Happy Christmas and happy faces

2009-12-25T21:09:00.004+07:00

As I write this, Christmas is ending for me and beginning for most of you back home. Hence, I'm sure no one will read this for a couple days... Nonetheless, I feel compelled to tell you about the last couple days.

With the kids on vacation, Brittni and I haven't had much to do. We worked some more in Handicrafts for a day or two but then some new girls came to take over--yay as far as I'm concerned! lol I'm glad to help but Handicrafts is definitely not one of my gifted areas. So I've been working on stockings and other Christmas presents, as well as trying to organize a Christmas program with the kids.

By the way, the village school kids LOVED their gifts. I didn't realize this, but not many of these kids have ever opened a wrapped present before. Wrapping gifts isn't too common in Bangladesh I guess. Most of the kids were so hesitant to ruin the pretty paper so it took some prodding :) lol My kids sang beautifully, only slightly bumping over the last few lines of Oh Little Town of Bethlehem.

After working on the stockings for hours and hours (104 is a LOT) I took a much needed break. In a fight for some Christmas spirit, I had an idea. I grabbed a sheet of green construction paper and got to work. After cutting up a square of yellow paper and a bunch of red and green ribbons, my Christmas tree was complete. I even cleaned off my bedside table to display my art and put my presents on. I grabbed a couple of extra stockings and made one for me and Brittni, later Josiah and Elliot's stockings joined the bunch :) While my paper one couldn't compete to the beautiful tree we usually have at home, this little one helped the next few days to feel more like Christmas days instead of just normal Bengali days.

Just then I was talking to Mom and she told me she wanted me to open the package she had sent me. She was curious to see if everything had made it intact through customs and such. After reluctantly ruining my gift setup (just kidding Mom) and opening the package, I was shocked as to what I found! The customs people had made a nickel sized hole in a package of Mr.Noodles so there were pieces of dried noodles dispersed among the whole thing! Not only that, Mom had made my FAVOURITE Christmas cookies, ginger molasses cookies, and put them in a special tin for the journey over. Well the tin looks like someone hit it with a baseball bat and the customs people put the can in upside down so most of the cookies fell out! So not only were tiny pieces of noodles all over, but everything was coated with a thin layer of sugary ginger molasses cookies crumbs. Awesome. lol But I'm so excited and thankful for what was in the box :) I got a couple cans of Fri-Chik, candy cane hot chocolate, a few wrapped gifts, and A BOTTLE OF MOCHA STARBUCKS! Heck yes please! Jehanna has been coffee-free since Oct.5 when she had her last cup of Timmy's--not for long!

Last night was Christmas Eve (of course lol) so after saying good night to the kids, the Waid's had a special surprise for the caregivers. Mrs.Waid had bought a variety of seloar kamees fabrics and sharis for each of them. Hence, Brittni and I got to model each piece as people would call out when they saw a fabric they liked. I was trying extra hard to get into the Christmas spirit so I put on my red petticoat and blouse (what you wear under a shari) over top of my green seloar kamees outfit and put red and green ribbons in my hair :) Everyone laughed at me because I looked ridiculous but laughing somehow brought the joy into Christmas Eve. Anyways, we had a good time modeling the fabrics and afterwards I did the dance the kids taught me--again probably looking like a fool but who cares :)

I had brought down all the stockings with me so I had some of the housemothers help me matching the stocking to its owner. I don't think it had the intended surprise that I wanted but I think the kids enjoyed it :) I heard some of the boys got up in the middle of the night to shi-shi and ate their chocolates :P Nonetheless... haha the tradition of stuffing stockings remains! On some level I think it helped me to bond with the housemothers too--I've always tried to show them that I care about the kids, hoping actions really do speak louder than the words I don't know. Call me crazy, and it might just be because it was Christmas, but some of them seemed a lot friendlier with me today than in the past.

Mrs.Waid gave the housemothers another special treat last night too. They got to make pita. No, we are not talking about the wonderful Greek bread that goes really well with hummus and tzatiki (mmm I'm pretty sure I want that to be my first meal back!). We are talking about a sweet batter that is dropped into a deep-frier, then grated coconut put on top. I didn't have the finished product--but the freshly deep-fried (and scorching hot) batter is freaking delicious! They were also mashing up this almost caramel-ly substance that would also be mixed with coconut, and then wrapped inside perogie shaped shells. The caramel stuff tasted like gritty caramel-flavoured sugar--not bad in other words, but not that great lol.

I didn't stick around the whole time because A. I was getting cold and B. I was wanting to come back upstairs and write a blog post about my day and message some people on Facebook to say Merry Christmas. Well, upon turning on my computer, I was informed that I needed to pay my internet bill... Shoot. The sucky thing is that Friday's are the Muslim day off (aka today) so I couldn't go put money on and then tomorrow is Sabbath so that won't work either. Luckily Josiah is having troubles with his computer's internet (well not luckily... but it worked out well for me lol) so this afternoon he let me borrow his internet card until I put more money on mine. Really, it works out well for both of us because I need the internet card and he needs a computer to use internet on so we end up taking turns :) BUT I did open up one Christmas present last night (thanks Mom, I love the black and white damask post-its!) as per tradition! Tradition is not put on hold by being in Bangladesh... let me tell you! :)

Anyways, back to Christmas... This morning I woke up and went down to breakfast in my comfy WallaWalla sweats. All I could think of was homemade pumpkin waffles with hot apple syrup like I know my house will be having in a couple hours. Don't get me wrong, our food is FANTASTIC here--it's just hard not to compare :P I also had "Happy Christmas" by John Lennon playing in my head over and over... "So this is Christmas, and what have you done...? Another year over, and a new one just begun..." Over and over in my head.

But I realized this Christmas isn't about me. Right after breakfast we handed out winter coats to all the kids because it has actually gotten quite cold here! If we weren't in the dry season we would definitely be seeing a lot of snow here. Or... maybe it's just that I have like two pairs of socks, two hoodies, and uber-thin pants here... Something along those lines.

When that task was done, we ushered all the kids into the cafeteria and handed out presents. All the boys got new shirt and pant sets and all the girls got a new dress :) The boys also got a bouncy ball that lights up when it's hit and a toy car. The girls got a cute little doll set :) They were all SOOO excited :) I couldn't help but be happy along with them!

I headed back up to my room to open up my presents because I knew Mom would be calling soon to A. see if I liked what I got and B. remind her what she sent lol. I really feel blessed and spoiled at the same time. I know how much it costs to send packages over here and for that I feel guilty--but I really wouldn't have it any other way... So thank you to all who sent letters and packages. I also got to read all the notes that WallaWalla had sent me from an SM vespers a couple months back. And I just got the package--yay for Bengali mail systems :P I'm so grateful though to all my friends who wrote notes of encouragement, love, and even updates from the Valley :)

Just as I was getting to Abby's and Michael's notes (I know their handwriting so I saved them for last lol) I started to tear up. I miss everyone back home so much--especially today. I miss making memories, laughing, taking road trips, going for walks, going for coffee... all that amazing stuff. And for some friends back at WallaWalla, this is their last year and are moving on to bigger and better things--how I will miss them :( I have to keep reminding myself that this is 6-8months of my life, one Christmas of many... I remember my kids' faces and things begin to come back into perspective :)

After opening presents, I cuddled up with my tin of half broken cookies and watched the Grinch like a good girl :) I didn't make it through the whole movie but even the first part just made me happy... Again, I'm a tradition kind-of-girl :)

I didn't watch the whole thing because I had to go downstairs to work on the Christmas program. Oh man... the Christmas program. We've never actually gone through the whole thing and I'm not quite sure the kids even know how they are supposed to act the story out... but I'm going to fall back on their cute faces smiling and singing and Brittni narrating the story.. This would be a lot easier if they spoke English--or me speaking Bangla.. either or! So church tomorrow will be interesting to say the least... oh dear! lol I'll let you know how it goes down!

Anyways, to all who are at home with those they love most in the world, hold onto that--cherish every moment... Have a wonderful Christmas and save some turkey for me!

Merry Merry Christmas,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of visas and stockings

2009-12-21T19:58:00.005+07:00

We got back from Dhaka halfway through Friday and I for one was absolutely exhausted... I fell asleep almost as soon as I got to my room and didn't wake up until Patule (Shati's helper) knocked on our door for dinner. The night before had been exceptionally stressful and I think I can finally explain what happened.

After dropping Elle off at the airport, we went to the Bengali Immigration and Passport Office to see about my visa extension. It was after 3pm when we got there so they were only passing out visas that had already been approved and not accepting new applications. I didn't want to get the extension right away but I did want to ask some questions about my visa. Simson told me to muscle my way into the door so someone would talk to me but that's not really how I roll... I just stood near the door, and meekly said "Excuse me, I have a question about my visa" whenever the guard opened the door. Probably not the most effective way of getting things done but these people scare me on some level.

There was a man from Spain that was running into the same troubles as I was so he was standing near the door with me. He started talking with Josiah and me and soon I was lost as the two guys spoke a combination of Spanish, French, and English. Josiah's mother is from Mexico and St.Lucia was passed between English and French hands a bunch of times so he can speak both pretty fluently. Anyways, when the Bengali spokesman for our new Spanish friend came out with his settled visa issue, the Spanish guy muscled HIS way into the door, pointed to me, and said "She has a couple questions for you guys." I tried to explain my situation and then a representative for the office came out to talk to Josiah and me.

After hearing most of our case, he said he couldn't talk about it in the office and to meet him down the road. We met him a couple minutes later and at first he seemed willing to help us. But then he... I don't really know what happened but things went downhill. He said my options were to either pay 45,000tk and write a letter to the High Commission of Bangladesh and petition for a 3month visa, invest about $100,000 USD in a textile business, or to get married. As awful as this is to admit, I actually did consider the marriage option for about a minute before completely dismissing it from my mind.

This guy proceeded to tell me that I was in Bangladesh illegally because my 60day pass had run out. I tried to explain to him that I had two 60-day passes but he said I didn't and proved as such using my passport. Then he told me that for each day I was illegally in Bangladesh, I would have to pay 500tk (which is about $7 USD). So at that point, I was up to a 6000tk debt. My mind started racing, panicking at the thought. All of a sudden I felt pressured to find an answer, an option, anything because for the time being, time IS money!

The whole ride back to the Dental Clinic, my heart was in my throat. I really didn't know what to do. We stopped at another pizza place for dinner but the food was tasteless in my mouth as I slowed chewed halfheartedly through an otherwise delicious pizza. When I got back to the Dental Clinic I went upstairs to talk to Litton to see if he had any advice or a different perspective to offer. He looked over my passport and visa and then explained that I DO have two 60-day passes. He pointed out that if I only had ONE 60-day pass, they wouldn't have let me back into Bangladesh after my Indian expedition. I had been thinking that during the meeting but my irrational self disregarded the thought and readily returned to panicking. Looking back to when I crossed back into Bangladesh, the border guard DID say that I had until January 3 until I had to be out of Bangladesh. [That was when I was trying to argue to stay using the logic that my visa expires 3.1.10 which to North America means March 1st not January 3rd lol.]

Anyways, I've stopped panicking now and am still looking for options on how to stay in Bangladesh longer if that is where God is leaving. I contacted the Bangladesh Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal to see if they would give me a two month visa and they said that I could get one in the same day if I arrived before 11am. So that's one option! I could use my Christmas/birthday money and some of the money I made during the summer to pay for a ticket over (they are ridiculously cheap!), especially because they offer 15-day visas for only about $30 at the airport. We're still looking at other options but I ask that you pray for Josiah and I as we try to find God's will for us over here!

So that's why I was so tired when I got back to BanglaHope. Saturday was a relaxing.. I did Sabbath school, took a nap, and went for a walk with Josiah and Brittni into the rice fields (or what's left of them). We didn't really know where we were going so we just meandered across the field until we came upon a road. Papri just so happened to be going by in a rickshaw van, jumped out, and walked back with us. We got some fun pictures on the way back :)

Saturday night I uploaded a TON of pictures to my new Facebook album "We Want Some MORE! Bangladesh Part 2". The public link is [http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=171272&id=549112159&l=908d7b94fe] so feel free to check them out even if you don't have a Facebook account :)

I started a new project too :) I cut out 108 stockings out of blue, red, yellow, orange, and green construction paper. I'm now in the process of using puff paint to draw a ruffle-like line on the top of the stocking and writing each kid's name on the bottom under some holly. I've done about 30ish so far... After everything's dry, I'm going to tape a hard candy to each one and hang it on their bed posts while they are asleep on Christmas Eve :) Well that is the current plan... Hopefully it will all work out. I should maybe be working on it right now but I need a break! lol

Tomorrow will be a good day I think. We are taking the preschool, kindergarten, and grade one class to the nearest village school so our kids can give Christmas presents to the village kids :) The girls will be given little porcelain dolls and the boys are getting Hot Wheels cars wrapped with a couple marbles and a balloon :) The Waid's want the kids to learn to share their blessings with those around them so they don't grow up with a false sense of wealth. I think it will be a good experience for the kids.

Merry Christmas to whoever reads this.. I'm so lucky to have each one of you in my life, supporting and praying for me each step of this journey.

ami tomake bhalobashi

of Tim Horton's and sad goodbyes

2009-12-17T09:00:00.005+07:00

This last week we had the special opportunity to give out over 50 blankets to some of the poorest villagers around our compound. A man in town comprised a list the poorest, sickest, and oldest folks and arranged for them to come at 3pm Monday afternoon to get a blanket. Keep in mind that while Bangladesh is a somewhat tropical country (complete with palm trees and coconuts) it is about equal distance from the equator as we are back home. Therefore, it gets pretty chilly at night and these villagers barely have one sweater or blanket to keep them warm. One by one, they filed through the gates received a blanket and retreated through another gate to the side. Some shook hands and expressed humble gratitude while others simply took the blanket and turned to leave. Nonetheless, Elle and I made sure to greet each person with a big smile and a fuzzy blanket. Once again, we were reminded just how lucky we are to have been born in North America--we could have just as easily been born in Bangladesh and where these villagers are today.

And now we're back in Dhaka. Elle had to catch a plane to Madrid today and Josiah and I are trying to figure out our visa situation still. We left Tuesday morning at 7am, which is a big improvement from how early we've left in the past (4am = a very sleepy Jehanna lol). We were hoping that some of the fog would have burned off by 7am but it hadn't! In order to get from our small country road to the main road, we had to use the trees on the side to navigate where the road should be. After a couple close calls, I decided to close my eyes and truly trust that God would keep us safe.

[Not-so-funny story: The picture you see below is a picture of the biggest spider I've ever seen first-hand IN MY LIFE! I noticed it by Banni's bed as we were leaving on Tuesday morning. The outlet by it is probably about 5"x5" and even the biggest circle I can make with my forefingers and thumbs touching is smaller than this massive beast. Not fun.]

The trip to Dhaka was fairly uneventful... I got to check my Facebook and email along the way. That's always so incredible to me that while I'm driving on country roads through rice patties, I still have fairly decent internet. When we arrived at the Dental Clinic, Litton brought in an armful of packages for me :) I was so happy! I got a package from Grandma Niemann, Mom, Brianna, and WallaWalla! Thank-you SO much you guys for taking the time and money to send me something over here--it means the world to me to know people care so much :) I haven't opened the packages yet because I think it will be fun to wait a couple days until Christmas. Then maybe if I close my eyes real tight I can imagine that I'm at home with all the people I love most in the world...

Wednesday morning we headed to the Canadian embassy to get advice from our consulate in how to deal with this visa issue. In order to get in through the gate, you had to flash your Canadian passport and hand in your cell phone and camera. As Josiah and I walked up the steps to the front door, the whole atmosphere changed. For the next couple minutes, it was as if we were back home at a regular office building. It was incredible how different the patio and foyer felt compared to the rest of Bangladesh.

We were told to wait in a room for a consulate official to come talk to us. We couldn't figure out how to turn on the light so we waited in the dark until the official came into the room. He looked at us in a funny way and then asked us to turn on the light. lol We felt like idiots for a fraction of a second... We proceeded to explain our situation to him and he told us what we thought he would: that the Canadian government cannot get involved with these kinds of things and that we need to bring our issue up with the Bangladesh Immigration and Passport Office.

We told him we understood but then Josiah asked if there was anyone else we could talk to--anyone maybe in the Canadian Club or something. We were told that's only for expats thought. Josiah explained that I had brought over some Timmy's coffee and was wanting to share with some fellow Canadians that may have been missing home. As soon as we mentioned the coffee, he excused himself for a minute. After about five minutes passed, he came back into the room with a sad look on his face and said that he had checked the policy and was not allowed to accept gifts. But he completely opened up, offered us more options on how to help with our visa, and even joked around with us a little. It's truly amazing the power of Tim Horton's :)

Wednesday was also Victory Day in Bangladesh so after noon, everything shut down. We decided to go to the local mall (an amazing new 8-storey building) and look around. Most of the shops on all 8storeys were closed and blocked off so we rode the escalators to the top and looked around up there. They had a movie theater on the top floor! Transporter 3 and SlumDog Millionaire were playing but we opted out of sitting in a movie because Josiah wasn't feeling too good. Instead, we found a pool room/restaurant. We paid 100tk to use a table for half an hour and Josiah proceeded to kick my butt at two games. Well technically, I won the last game because he scratched on the 8 ball but I don't count that as really winning.. Nonetheless, we all had a blast chilling, playing pool, and feeling just a step closer to home :)

The top floor had a food court with a full selection of fried food. I know that sounds gross but in this country fried food is the safest because not many germs can survive the hot grease. We chose to opt out of fried food and chose another form of hot grease: pizza! We've had pizza at the orphanage but it's really not the same when made with process cheese. Mmm again, a little piece of home can make your day absolutely fabulous!

Finally the day I had been dreading came today... The day Elle jumps on the plane for her fantastic adventure to Spain. Don't get me wrong, I am totally and completely genuinely happy for her--I just know I'm going to miss my best friend here... Driving back the airport to drop her off made me think back to my first night in Dhaka. I was so terrified of the sights, sounds, and smells. I couldn't believe that I was actually in BANGLADESH. Bangladesh! Who goes to Bangladesh? lol But now, almost three months in, I feel like I can hold my own here. I know the basics of the language and feel more confident walking through the streets. What a difference! Anyways, I'm going to miss Elliot like crazy but I know she will have an absolute blast this Christmas with her family and Jon :)

We had a pretty long rest of the day, ups and downs, and have decided to go back to BanglaHope tomorrow with Litton. At first Josiah and I were going to stay until next week so we could go pester the Immigration Office some more but we're going to look into some other options before we nail this one down. When I make a decision I'll let you know what's going on :)

Happy 8 Days until Christmas,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of funfetti cake and sugar cookies

2009-12-11T17:23:00.004+07:00

Wow... a whole week since my last post... I'm really sorry guys! Nothing this week really jumped out at me as blog-worthy and while that is no excuse, I had a pretty boring week :) lol A boring week in Bangladesh... that seems like it should be an oxymoron!

The weather has definitely gotten colder than I ever thought it would here. The seloar pants of the traditional outfit are NOT very warm at all and I didn't think to bring leggings over here. Luckily, I brought over a couple long sleeved shirts and one big comfy hoodie. In the mornings, it's amazing to look out the window and not be able to see even 50 feet in any direction. It takes so long for the fog to burn off and some days it just stays round the clock. I really had no idea they would have a resemblance of winter here. But surprisingly enough, it has helped me get into the Christmas spirit the last couple days. Christmas lights have even been set up on a couple trees on campus but check out the picture below and you'll see why we laugh every time the lights come on.. Yes that is a big tri-coloured fluorescent bulb on the top of the Charlie Brown Christmas tree. Special eh?

Last week I put "Jehanna Shaelah is trying to find some Christmas spirit but unfortunately it jumped the last plane heading home" as my Facebook status. And that's really the way I felt... The beginning of this last week was probably the hardest time I've had in Bangladesh on a personal level. The combination of visa troubles and the Christmas season starting sent me into a dark depressed mood, unable to see the many blessings all around me. I'm so thankful for my roommate Elliot helping me through my hardest night when tears were the only thing I could use to express myself. She made me say five things I'm thankful for or am glad for. She was my number one thing right then and there. But slowly as I whispered four more through the tears, breathed a couple deep breaths, things began to come into perspective.

The next day she dragged me downstairs to the kitchen. We were going to make the treasured funfetti cake Elle's boyfriend sent with her. We ended up only making half the cake because we didn't want it to go to waste. We laughed, took pictures, and made every effort to really think about how many blessings we have here. Plus, the cake turned out pretty amazingly! We ate it at dinner with the Waid's and Josiah as they had just gotten back from Dhaka. Mr.Waid took my visa back to the embassy to see what could be done but as it stands right now, I have to be out of Bangladesh by January 3 (I plan to apply for an extension but I thought my current visa would take me to the beginning of February). Josiah and I are going to call the Canadian embassy to petition that Canadians get the same kind of visas as Americans--in a nice way, you know. He is trying to help me as much as he can because he knows that in a couple months he will be in the same situation.

Even though it seems like we don't do much here, we are always pretty tired. It may have been the cold but on Thursday we bounded back down to the kitchen with hot cocoa packets in hand. We wanted to make hot chocolate, curl up in fuzzy fuzzy blankets and watch a movie in our spare time before conversational English. Mm. And that's exactly what we did. We piled back on Elle's bed and watched 21 on my computer. Again, sometimes it really is just the small things in life that help you work your way back to happiness.

Today for art we came ready with a special surprise. Mrs.Waid bought us red and green food colouring in Dhaka and we found a yummy sugar cookie recipe online--we were going to have a Christmas party. Last night we got the dough made and put in the fridge to chill overnight, then this morning we rolled it out and used a cup to made circles. Unfortunately, there's no Walmart around to go buy tree-shaped cookie cutters or sugary sprinkles. C'est le vie. We made it work. I whipped up the icing then separated it to add the food colouring. I had just finished with the red colouring and headed to the sink to wash off the bit that had dripped onto my thumb. Shati's helper Patool was washing the breakfast dishes so I thought I'd play a little prank. I ran up to her and showed her my thumb saying "owie owie!" She freaked out and ran to grab a towel but I ran my thumb under the water before she could put the towel on. She doesn't speak any English but I communicated to her that it was just a joke--not sure how funny she thought that was.. But we both laughed :) lol

The cookies weren't all baked by the time art was supposed to start so we had Brittni go ahead of us to start singing Christmas songs with the kids. The kids have fallen in love with English Christmas songs and though they already know Silent Night and Away In A Manger, we have added Oh Little Town of Bethlehem and Hark the Herald Angels Sing to their repertoire. Then Elle and I headed up with our special surprise and sheets of white paper. Before decorating the cookies, we gave the kids each a piece of white paper and explained how to make snowflakes. The kids were so timid to cut their papers so again Elle and I had to help them get started but they were so excited to see the tiniest knick turn into a repeated decoration on their snowflakes. When they were finished we used every little nail, tack and corner around the room to display their wondrous works of snowy art.

Then we handed each kid a cookie and put either a pot of red frosting or green frosting and told them to share the colours between tables. They didn't make any particular patterns--they were just amazed to see how the frosting could be spread over the sugar cookie. The night before Elliot and I took a mortar and pestle to a bag of milk candies. We were trying to make "snow" to put on top of the icing but the humidity here is so brutal it came out pretty chunky. But the kids still LOVED it. We got so many cute pictures of our kids decorating and pretending to take huge bites out of their cookies--we had so much fun.

So today I'm thankful for cookies and cake for helping me get out of my SM depression. I was told everyone goes through hard times away from home but I really didn't understand what they meant--I do now. One day at a time, one piece of "paper-bag happiness" at a time, and every breath as a prayer... That's how I hope to survive my time in Bangladesh.

I mean it when I say,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Hindu temples, "There's no green in India" and 8 new stamps

2009-12-04T20:07:00.001+07:00

Today was the day. Yes, THE Day. The day I go into India. Banni, Mr. Waid, Josiah and I all piled into the van and headed to the border around ten this morning. We would have gone earlier but since Friday is the holy day, the bank was only open from 11 to 12. The bank? In addition to the 3130tk I had to pay for the Indian visa, a 320tk tax is put on top. When Nelson arrived at the border 20min after us, he took me to the bank to get my tax receipts. Then we headed back to the border to get me across.

No one at Bangla Hope had a valid Indian passport so I had to go across by myself and would meet up with a relative of Nelson's on the other side. (Nelson works in the office here and his wife Rosemary is the nurse here--both are really nice people.) I had no idea how difficult it would be to get across. There are a bunch of houses on either side of the border and I just assumed they were shops. I was wrong! I had to go to the customs office, then cross the road to the immigration office, then to the border crossing hut. Then the relative met me and took me to the other Indian immigration and customs offices after stopping at the Indian border crossing hut. I had to go to seven different places, including the bank, just to get across!

Now Nelson and Rosemary both speak fairly good English but no one took the time to teach their relative (how he was related I don't know..) any English. Luckily, Nelson gave me their Indian SIM card to put in my phone and gave me his number for any time I was in trouble, physical or conversational. His relative seemed nice enough, saying "seloar kamees? shari?" and taking me to the market. He didn't speak much more than that so I had to point to my own seloar kamees to tell him I was looking for green outfits. We went from shop to shop but no one had anything but really ugly lime green or dull split pea soup green. I couldn't believe it. That's when the slogan for the day became "No Green in India" between the two of us as we would share a laugh.

The real downfall of the day was when we were walking between shops and happened upon the fish market. Ugh. Right there on a tarp in the hot sun, fish were being butchered and sold as birds played tug-of-war with fish entrails. And the smell... I like eating fish back home but here I am definitely staying vegetarian! The meat market we passed wasn't much better as animals were being slaughtered and skinned on tarps as blood flowed down to make a muddy red mess. It was pretty gross...

I ended up finding a pretty green shari that I got for 350rupees. Rupees, not taka. I had to exchange money with someone who has no idea what I'm saying and no one to translate. He showed me on his calculator what I was getting and it seemed reasonable so hopefully I didn't get ripped off too badly! But nonetheless, my green shari is quite beautiful and I'm happy I got it.

After we were done, I asked to buy some "tanda pani" (cold water) so he took me to a shop and I bought my cold water. I didn't know how long I needed to stay in India to make it count but I assumed it was for a couple hours. I thought the relative would take me back to his house to hang out for a bit but when we were finished shopping he took me to the border. I hadn't called anyone to pick me up yet so we had to wait. As we were waiting near the border, I saw a picture of one of the Hindu gods and asked the man to take a picture of me. After he did, he led me back towards the market, stopping at what looked like a Hindu temple.

After we took off our sandals he showed me around and let me take pictures of the different gods, which I hear is uncommon. It was pretty cool though to see something I hadn't seen in Bangladesh yet. The rest of what I saw in that particular part of India was pretty similar: garbage all over the streets, rickshaws, stray animals all over the place, and many many fabric shops. Anyways, I got pictures of three of the gods before we got the call that Nelson was back at the border.

When we got back, we had to do the same procedure only in reverse. Customs, immigration, Indian border hut, Bengali border hut, immigration customs. Good times. I also had to give the relative 100rupees for showing me around and 100tk to a man who helped me and Nelson around the Bengali border offices. All in all, I'm so thankful I'm safe--not that there was any serious threat... I just know I would have had more fun and felt more safe if someone that I knew and spoke English would have come along. Nonetheless, that's how I now have 8 new stamps in my passport!

The unfortunate news though is this: I misread my Bengladesh visa... As did Simson.. I thought my visa worked like a swipe card--I have four months in Bangladesh and can use them as I wish. I found out today that is not the case.. My Bangladesh visa expires January 3, 2010, aka I have to either leave or get a new visa/extension. Shows me for trying not to procrastinate for once! I applied for my visa in July even though I got into Bangladesh in October and now it runs out in January... So I really don't know what I'm going to do at this stage in the game. I was going to have to extend my visa anyways, but that was only going to be for a month or two--now it has to be for three months. Mr. Waid is going to take my passport into Dhaka again this Sunday to see if there is ANYTHING that can be done... Crummy eh? I guess we'll just have to see how the cards fall this time, see what God has planned for me either here or maybe back home :(

keep me and my stupid visa troubles in your prayers,
ami tomake bhalobashi

of oatmeal cookies and India

2009-12-03T21:11:00.003+07:00

So today started out like any other day.. Who knew it could end so awesomely :) Mrs. Waid charged Elliot and I with the task of creating the Christmas cards for all 104 kids here. It doesn't sound like too hard of a task but when we got started yesterday we realized how difficult it was going to be. After all, all we have here is Paint, Word, and Powerpoint lol. We tried searching for cool templates and designs but found nothing... We had a couple ideas going but Mrs.Waid didn't seem to like them. We hit gold when Elliot found some premade templates on her Mac and we went from there.

In other words, all of our spare time today was spent working on getting all 104 kids separated into their respective files. I'm not going to lie, I've been here for two months now and I swear I've never seen some of these kids YET! Also when there are names like Tonna, Vonna, Donna, and Lana you can see how you can put the wrong name with the wrong face. After we were making some headway, we decided to try to print the cards. Again problems arose between Elle having a Mac and trying to get two pictures on one page to print--but once we made it through we began working quite quickly. And even though we worked most of today, we still have about 25kids left to go :P

As of 6:30pm tonight, I still didn't have my passport. I had to leave it in Dhaka with the mean embassy people and then it was picked up this last Monday. No one really had to go to Dhaka this week but luckily, a young Canadian guy flew in last night and will be staying with us at the orphanage for a couple months. He brought my passport to me :) Yay! I didn't get to talk to him much tonight but his name is Josiah and he's a theology graduate from CUC. I'm sure we will have a lot of the same friends so it will be nice to have another piece of home here.

Speaking of HOME, Josiah brought in a package from WallaWalla for me too :D As I ripped through it, I couldn't believe how excited I got! They sent Elle and I the Barn party edition of the Collegian (better late than never), three laminated leaves from WallaWalla, instant mashed potatoes, cornbread muffin mix, OATMEAL COOKIE MIX (just add eggs, butter, vanilla and water and voila!), Jello, and some hot drink mixes. But by far, I'm so excited about the cookie mix :) What a great idea eh? Elliot and I are going to make the cookies in the next week or so before she leaves to Spain for Christmas. My package looked like it had been opened up in customs but I hope everything stayed intact!

[Funny story, I had to do worship for the caregivers tonight. I was so excited that I began to pull out stuff, my smile growing bigger with each item. I pulled out the newspaper and explained where it was from and showed some pictures from the Barn Party. When I got to the center page, which was packed with pictures, I realized my boyfriend Michael was in one of the pictures. When I told the caregivers that he was my boyfriend, they all got really excited and passed his picture around the whole circle--it's a big thing in Bangladesh to have a boyfriend because marriage is really important in their culture. I heard "shoonder, coup shoonder" a couple times and I even pretended to fight Melotie for Michael at one point :) lol it was really funny... Ah good times!]

I also got a letter from my grandparents at home. I wish I could fully explain how I felt to see that someone had taken the time to actually write me a card and send it all the way across the world. They said they had been reading my blog and how proud of me they were. In that moment, I began to miss home and family so much I actually started to cry. So thank-you to Grandpa and Grandma White for thinking of me and for giving me an early Christmas present :) I appreciate it SO very much! I love you guys!

Tomorrow I have to go into India to renew my 60-day pass in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, no one here at BanglaHope has an Indian visa. The nurse here has family just on the other side of the Heli border crossing, so they will be meeting me as I venture into India. I'm not sure how long I need to be gone for in order to qualify that I've been out of Bangladesh but I'm hoping it's not more than a couple hours. I'm a little nervous to be going without Elliot but I know I'll be in good hands with these relatives. Still keep me in your thoughts and prayers as you go through your day...!

I'm heading to bed now to get some much needed rest before my adventure tomorrow. If nothing else, I'll have an Indian stamp to add to my passport collection :)
ami tomake bhalobashi

of Eid and mehendi

2009-11-30T19:32:00.006+07:00

Yesterday was one of the funnest days I've had in Bangladesh so far--definitely top ten! Our invite to an Eid dinner turned out to be for Sunday afternoon so around one o'clock Elle, Brittni, Papri, and I climbed into the back of the Hilux for another adventure. The "grown-ups" were in the cab because I guess they figure us "youngins" can handle getting in and out of the back haha. Supposedly Panchbibi is only 10km from the orphanage but it takes almost 40min to get there--then again the roads here make any speeding near to impossible. [I'm sure that would get people to slow down on the highway back home--just put massive pot-holes in the road and tear up whole sections of it. I'm on to something here... lol]

When we arrived, we walked through a maze of small corridors until we got to the man's home. I'm not quite sure how we/the orphanage knows this man, but he seems to like us and even invited the Waid's last year for Eid. [Speaking of Eid, I'm not sure how I feel about this, but I didn't see a single dead cow. Not saying it would have been a pleasant experience, but it would definitely be something to check of my Bangladesh To-Do list.] He ushered us into his house through a strong iron gate at the front. We took off our sandals and sat in his sitting room. Well, I'm not sure if it was a sitting room because it also had a big double bed in it... But we sat there nonetheless.

Apparently we had gotten there a little early because they didn't have all the food ready. Instead, they brought us apples and oranges, bottled water, and a weird cornflakes mixed with peas snack. And the food kept coming. Next the brought out little pieces of chicken, deepfried potato wedges, and deepfried cauliflower. They also brought out some dessert items: chocolate- and vanilla-y looking TimBits (which were practically made of pure gritty sugar) and a cheesecake replica (ugh so slimy--but I said, "mmmm sooo good!" nonetheless lol).

The whole time, the man sat with us, bringing in different family members every so often to introduce to us. We met his sons and daughter, sister-in-law, mother-in-law, and wife. By the way, another weird thing in Bangladesh is that when you are invited over for a meal at someone's house, they don't eat with you. They just watch you eat, encouraging you to eat more and more. That's what the old grandma was doing the whole time. "Cowl, cowl, cowl. Tume cowl." That means eat eat eat, you eat haha. And then the man's older son brought in two of his friends and while we were eating, they took pictures of us white girls on their camera phones.

A definite highlight came when I noticed the henna (called mehendi here) on the sister-in-law's hand. In the best Bangla I could manage, I told her how pretty I thought it was. When she offered to do it to my hand, I said no because I didn't think it would go over well at the orphanage since mehendi is a Muslim and Hindi practice. But when Mrs. Waid saw my hesitation she told me to go ahead with it anyways. She told me to just tell everyone I had been at a party and not to make a big deal about it. She knew that I really wanted to have an authentic henna tattoo at some point :) So Polly grabbed a tube of henna and did a random decoration on my hand. I don't care--it looks beautiful to me! It's so much cooler than getting a henna tattoo at the Lynden fair by a blonde Caucasian woman! lol

We were all so full from all the food given to us in the sitting room so we were astonished when we were led into the dining room where more food was sitting on tables. They gave us full plates of rice palau (the most amazing rice you will ever have in your lifetime--it's THAT good), cut vegetables, and a hardboiled egg. I love being in Bangladesh with Elle because we seem to compliment each other really well--aka we both hate mushrooms and eggs. We both pretty much cleared our plates, but when they saw we were getting "low" on food, the man of the house came by with another couple spoonfuls of rice. As we protested, patting our bulging bellies and saying "nah nah," he dished us more saying "cowl, cowl." So much food... And when Polly came by to see if we need refills on anything, she saw that we didn't eat our eggs. She stabbed the egg with a fork and lifted it to Elle's mouth as if she was going to shove it down her throat. I laughed so hard and grabbed my camera. She laughed as I took a picture and when she found out I wasn't going to eat my egg either, she thrust the fork under my nose... Ick. lol but we laughed and got some good pictures of it all :)

After they finally let us stop eating, we went back to the sitting room, well, to sit. As we were about to leave, the boys wanted a picture with us white girls. We obliged but didn't know they wanted one boy at a time with us. So three pictures later, then Polly jumped in the picture, then the daughter, then the women in the family, then the whole family. It was a regular photo shoot :) But all in all, they were so accommodating to us, generous as can be, and I would definitely go back again--even if just to have more rice palau!

On the way back to the orphanage, we saw some booths set up by the place we walk to to pay our cell phone bills. When we asked Papri what it was, she said they were having a fair--not for Eid, but I guess the Hindu's wanted to join in on the festivities and have a party like the Muslims. We didn't have any money with us so after grabbing some from our room, Papri, Elle and I headed back to the fair. Like I said, I usually get henna done at the fair, so this was a nice coincidence :D

This fair was really nothing more than booths set up in a square with the road as one side. The booths sold cute hairclips, costume jewelry, toys, and other cheap knick-knacks. I bought hair clips and Elle bought a big ring and then we headed into the middle to see the food being sold. Don't worry, I definitely didn't try any--but it kinda looked like fair food. Sugary, fatty, and twisted into a cool shape. We also saw the balloon man on his mat. I bought a big blue balloon that looks like an apple and when you shake it, the sand inside makes a cool noise! Elle bought a balloon on the end of a bamboo stick and after you blow it up a little, the air exits through the bamboo making a sound like a duck. It's pretty annoying but in a strange way, still really awesome! So needless to say, pretty good day :)

Tis all for now, and if you read this post before it was done, I am sorry for that. I can't be online and talk on the phone at the same time. Mom was calling me and she def takes priority :) lol

ami tomake bhalobashi :)