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
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