It's that Time Again

       The weather has been turning warm here again. This means it is time to switch clothes again. Because I am currently involved with teaching I was not able to be involved with choosing the clothes for each child. I am, however, able to see the results of the chosen clothes!

       I love seeing the girls running around with huge smiles on their faces and wearing new dresses. They all look so cute in their dresses too! Two of the girls have an adorable checkered dresses with duck pockets on the skirt. One is blue and the other is red. Both girls look so cute. It is a reminder that no matter where you are in the world, girls are the same...They always love to get new clothes!

       Recently all the class 4 girls were taken into town and got shalwar kameezes. I was able to accompany some of them. It was really fun. We picked out the material. To find something that looked like the girl who was choosing was a challenge. They are all so excited to get their shalwar kameezes back from the tailor.
       Some of the class 4 girls are going to have to get more shalwar kameezes because Mrs. Waid does not have enough big dresses to fit some of the taller girls. These girls don’t look quite as happy right now, because they don’t have any new dresses. However, after they get their new outfits, I'm sure they will be just as happy as all the other girls though, maybe more so!

Kondima and the Taken-out Eye

       Teaching Sabbath school for Class 1 and Kg has been something I have done for the past 15 or so Sabbaths. The first couple weeks were the hardest. I felt like there was so much time to fill and I never knew what to do with it. After those first trial weeks, I finally figured out how much stuff I needed to fill the time and what stuff to take to fill up time if I needed to.

       Something that we started the second Sabbath I was in charge was to tell a continued story. The story of Jungle Thorn; this is the story of a little girl named Kondima who got a thorn stuck in her eye and had to go far from home to get it fixed. The kids love this story. Whenever it gets close to the end of Sabbath school they all shout out “Kondima, Kondima.”

       Last week we were to the part in the story where Kondima arrives back at her village and takes out her fake eye to show all the village people. I can never tell how much the kids here understand, even when there is an interpreter, and nothing was different Sabbath. The kids didn’t react at all when they were told that ‘Kondima took out her eye and all the villagers freaked out.’ Lauren (our Kondima story teller) asked them if they would be freaked out if they saw someone take out their eye, no reaction at all. We spent quite a bit of time explaining to them what exactly had happened to Kondima to make sure they understood it. Finally, we gave up trying to get a reaction out of them and went on with the story.

       Later that evening one of the little boys in our Sabbath school class, Johnny, called me over. He was like, “Heather teacher, Heather teacher. Look I take my eye out.” As he was saying this he held the end of a plastic spoon over his eye and brought it away from his eye. It was so cute! I still don’t know if the kids totally understand what happened to Kondima, but I do know that at least one of them sort of understands, even if he isn’t weirded out by it!
By the way...Happy Valentines Day!

Baby Room

Tonight I was reminded how much I love the baby room.

       Today was not the easiest day. Nothing went as planned, but I guess that really isn’t out of the ordinary here. Teaching today just was not the unproblematic day that would have been nice. Having a day like this always makes it seem longer.

       Thursday nights are the nights that Kerri gives the caregiver’s worship. She gives talks on being clean and healthy and so she enjoys having all the caregivers there; because of this Lauren, Chantel and I have been helping out in the baby room on Thursday nights. It isn’t always an easy job. Babies cry and when you’re not a mother, you really don’t have any idea why sometimes. Tonight was a good night though. None of the babies were continuously crying, the toddlers next door all stayed in their beds, and so tonight all of us were able to just enjoy the babies.

       Tonight I started off holding Paul; who is an adorable baby boy about six months old. Before she went to worship Paul’s ‘mother’ made him a bottle. He was so cute; he kept his eyes on me and once in awhile would stop eating to smile at me. Paul is a relatively well mannered baby. He doesn’t cry often and loves to smile; he also loves to squirm! After he finished his bottle and seemed to be ready to sleep, I put him in his cradle, where he fell almost instantly to sleep.

       After he was put down, I was handed Ginger by Chantel who had been holding her. Ginger is another well mannered baby. I honestly have never really seen her cry much. She is one that I hold quite a bit whenever I make it to the baby room. I love Ginger and I can tell she knows me, which is so cool to see. Her ‘mother’ is one amazing woman. She is kind of the head caregiver in the baby room and the one that ‘speaks’ English, she knows some words and understands some, but she really doesn’t know much more English than I know Bangla! She is amazing to watch with the babies though, especially Ginger. Whenever I watch her interact with Ginger, I can tell Ginger loves her and knows her. Ginger smiles whenever she sees her, it is so cute. It is amazing to see how all the caregivers act with their babies that they are in charge of. You can tell they love the babies and the babies love them.

       A couple times when I’ve had one of the babies, Silas, his ‘mother’ has kept an eye of me, sometimes with a worried look on her face. I can tell she really loves him and is a little nervous of a know nothing American holding her child. I really do know nothing about babies. I love them and have now changed a couple diapers, but I really am a know nothing American. However, I think his ‘mother’ is getting better. Tonight she was all smiles to us and didn’t have that worried look on her face at all!

       Being in the baby room is a great way to end a long difficult day. I do love being in there with the babies who do not fight for attention, but love whatever you give them.

Correct Paperwork is VERY Important

       Last Sunday (Jan 15) Mrs. Waid and Bob headed down south with some of the newly arrived missionaries, the Philpots. Mrs. Waid went down to retrieve two babies, Bob went to visit the village schools, and the Philpots went to perform a VBS at the schools. Well on Wednesday we heard that they were bringing four babies back, the caregivers were getting their beds ready, bringing down new cribs and such. Then Thursday night we heard some bad news…They were being held by the police who thought they were child traffickers.

       Apparently they had stopped to get the last baby at a village. Where ever the van stops, a crowd forms, because white people are a rare thing here. One of the school teachers brought the baby and it’s mother to the van where the baby was taken and money was given to the teacher for his transportation costs (he had brought them on a bus). The villagers that had crowded around saw a baby taken and money given, a van full of white people, and three other babies. This particular village had a police station nearby and so everyone was taken in and questioned. They were held there for awhile and couldn’t continue until all the guardians of the babies came and got their children. I guess the paperwork they had for the babies had not been filled out correctly, so they were not going to be allowed to bring the babies up here.

       This story made the headlines here in Bangladesh. It was on all the news channels and it was in the newspapers. I think it was only in the Bangla additions, but I’m not sure, we were just told about the headlines, I didn’t actually see them.

       I had really wanted to go down south, to see more of Bangladesh and to pick up babies, but maybe it is a very good thing that we didn’t go. It does not sound like it was a fun experience, but God watched out for them and He will watch out for those babies that weren’t able to come.

First Day of School

      Today was the first day of the new school year here. This means it was the first day of teaching something besides recorder today. It went relatively well I think. They didn't move along quite as fast as I was expecting in math, but they did really well with English (reading and grammar). Today has given me a better idea how to plan for the future and I'm glad that it went well.
       Today was also Mr. Waid's birthday. Tuli and a few of the other staff planned a party for him. Today was a day that homesickness really hit me. It was a day that I was reminded my birthday was not spent with family. Instead it was spent in a van sitting for 7 hours and with people I haven't known for that long. Don't get me wrong, they are awesome people, but there is something about birthdays that make one miss home and family.

Nepal

Sorry about not blogging lately! Since we've been back from Nepal not much has happened. The classrooms are getting set up and us teachers are getting our lesson plans together. Yes, you read right, I'll be teaching this year; I am now the official English, Math, and Geography teacher for class 4. Since writing about Nepal would be longer than would be fun to read, here is a picture blog of our trip!

Day 1 [December 28]:

When we got to Dhaka on the 27th, we found out our flight was postponed from the original 1pm to 7:45pm. We didn't know what to do for the day and so we walked the streets near where we were staying. While we walked we bought some fruit. This fruit is called a pomelo, it is similar to a grapefruit. However, I don't like grapefruit, but pomelo is pretty good!
 
This is us when we first got to Nepal. It is about about 11:30pm in this picture. Our flight had got delayed again and so we didn't end up taking off from Bangladesh until about 9:30pm.






Day 2 [December 29]:
 
This is the house we stayed in the first night, well we stayed in the bottom part. We stayed with some friends of Bangla Hope's treasurer. They were very nice. They don't have much money and rent two rooms on the bottom floor. the window you see on the right is the window of their bedroom, where Grace (the friend) and the baby slept on the bed and the three of us girls crashed on the floor. When you walk in through the door you see and keep going straight you get to a kitchen which they also rent, this is where Santu (her husband) slept.
This family was so hospitable, they fed us and allowed us to crash their house for that first night! We are very appreciative of them!

This is the path heading away from Santu and Grace's house. Getting to the main road from here required a climb up a hill. It was really nice to walk up a hill again!

 

This is my first cup of hot chocolate in at least three months if not longer! With how cold it had been in Bangladesh I was really craving this. However, I was disappointed with this specific cup. It is very nicely decorated on top and the whipped cream was delicious, the hot chocolate itself was a little watery though, but what can I expect for 115 Rupees?! (The exchange rate is about 83 rsp. to $1 usd)

This is the first 'American' food we have had in three months. I had a cheese sandwich, it was delicious! Lauren had the pizza and Chantel got curry, both were also pretty tasty! The dumpling things you see in the middle of our table are called Momos. They are a Tibetan food and are absolutely

scrumptious. They have a sauce with them that is called pickle. It is a spicy sauce and not what you would expect when you hear pickle.

This is the hotel we stayed at this night. It was not a bad hotel. It had nice employees, hot water, and an internet cafe in the loby. However, it had COCKROACHES, small rooms, and the sheets didn't look that clean. This hotel though improved our thoughts of them a couple days later. We were packing up to go on our Safari excursion and I could not find my mp3 player. The last time I remember seeing it was on my bed in this hotel. So Lauren and I went back to this hotel just to find out if they might have found it. We asked at the front desk about a mp3 player. The clerk was like 'a black one with green headphones?' I was so excited and relieved! I honestly did not expect to ever see it again. Before we had gone I had prayed that I would find it and I know that definitely helped!

Day 3 [December 30]:

 

The beginning of Friday morning was one of the most relaxing I've really ever had. The three of us decided we needed massages and while we wandered the streets Thursday we found that spas had relatively inexpensive services. The one we chose to use, had a great morning package. It included 45 min in both the dry and wet sauna and an hour full body massage. I had never experienced anything like this. I had never been to a sauna before and the closest thing I've had to a full body massage was when I took a basic therapy class in college; it was an interesting experience and afterwards all three of us were very relaxed.

This is a picture from the roof of our new hotel, Hotel Nana! It is a great place; spacious rooms, nice roof, warm extra blankets, clean sheets, you did have to watch the time for warm showers though! In the background is the tourist section, called Thamal. It was a great shopping area and most everyone spoke English, which was nice! Bartering was so much fun. That is definitely something I'm going to miss about Bangladesh and Nepal!

We ended up renting bicycles for the afternoon. I was fun, I only messed up once with the side of the road thing and after that, only had a little difficulty weaving between vehicles and pedestrians.

We ended up biking to Swayambhunath. It is on the west side of Kathmandu and is commonly known as the Monkey Temple. It is at the top of a hill and has many steps leading up to it.

 

This picture does not do justice to how steep the steps were, but it kind of gives an idea.

 This is what the Monkey Temple looks like. It is a Buddhist temple, I think. I'm not sure exactly what is supposed to be and all that, but it was an interesting place to be.

Here are the lovely little animals that this temple is named after. They run all over the place and are both ugly and cute at the same time. I did see one perform the sliding down the handrails which is something they have perfected during the time the handrails have been built.

This is a view of Kathmandu from the Monkey Temple

This is just a cool picture of the view from Monkey Temple with a monkey in it.








This is as much of the snow covered peaks as we saw. It's sad, but we were not able to make it to the place we wanted to where we were told you could see Everest on a clear day.


Day 4 (December 31):

Saturday morning was a relaxful time. We slept in and then spent time up on the roof, writing, reading, and enjoying the sunshine.

 For the afternoon we went on a walking tour of Kathmandu. We saw a lot of these. They are called stupas and are basically small temple shrines I think.

We had a fun day wandering the streets.

 Here is more fun we had! Chasing pigeons, I have always wanted to and now I have!

In Bangladesh, all the dogs are sick and skinny and look just plain awful. In Nepal, They actually look like they are being taken care of and that the live on more than garbage. These are some kids we saw that were playing with some puppies.

This is the sign of our lovely Hotel Nana, where we stayed most of our trip. It is taken from the balcony from our room.

Here is our New Year's celebration drink. Lauren convinced us to stay up until midnight, but we went to sleep almost right after. We had to get up early Sunday morning to catch our ride to our safari.

Day 5 (January 1):
For our safari we had to take a six hour bus trip. About halfway through we stopped for a break. The place where we stopped had a neat area to explore and so since we had time, Lauren, Chantel, and I explored. While we explored Lauren saw her yak that she had been wanting to see. We actually saw a couple yaks, but none of them had fur like pictures always show and only a few had the horns.

The place we stopped was by a river and had a suspension bridge going across it. We decided to go across, it was a really cool bridge. We saw quite a few while we were traveling and we were excited to get to be on one.

We finally arrived. Each hotel meets the buses and so our hotel had a truck to take us back to the hotel.

To welcome us the hotel staff gave us girls flowers and put the red on all the guests foreheads. I think they do it to bless us.

This is where we went to ride our elephant and go on our safari: Chitwan National Park. Both days were here it was cold and overcast, but it was still a neat place to visit.

After our welcome and getting settled, we went on a jungle walk. The first place we visited was an elephant keep. These elephants are appantly the ones that the Nepalese government use and ride.

While we were leaving the elephant area and getting started on the real walk, a wild elephant was spotted. You can't see it well, but if you look closely in the middle of the circle I drew you might be able to see the dot that is the wild elephant.

While on the walk, we were also able to see a wild rhino.We couldn't get too close, but it was cool to see it not too far from us. We couldn't get too close, but it was cool to see it not too far from us.

Day 6 (January 2):

The man in the red hat was our guide. He was the one that lead us on our walk and took us to the culture we went to the night before. He is a native to the area and so sometimes he is up front with the dancers, but not this time. This picture actually shows him leading us to our elephant safari pick-up point. The towers you see in the background are the platforms where the elephants get loaded with people.

This is the elephants and their trainers waiting to come up to the platforms and get loaded with people.

The elephant backs into the platform and four people climb on.

Each person sits in the four corners of the saddle like contraption. The trainer sits in front on the neck of the elephant with his feet under the ears. I think they use their feet to steer the elephant, they also have a stick that they use to help control the elephant.

We really didn't see a whole lot of wildlife on our safari. We saw monkeys, peacocks, roosters, a fox, deer, and the neatest thing was a mother and baby rhino. Being on the elephant we were able to sneak up on them and get pretty close. It was a really cool experience.

 After our elephant safari we had to catch our bus back to Kathmandu. This bus ride was a lot longer, but we finally made it after a few close calls, but no catastrophes.

This picture is of us in a restaurant we ate at three meals in a row. It is called OR2K. It is a purely vegetarian restaurant; it has a good variety and very delicious food.

Day 7 (January 3):

 Here is another picture of our delicious Momos. This was at a restaurant that is not really for tourists. It seemed to be a family owned and run place where the locals ate. We were the only white people in there I think.

 The last couple days in Nepal were very cold and we were bundled up consistantly. Especially as we were going to bed. Hotel Nana was a great hotel, but it didn't have any heat, actually I don't think many of the hotels there did have heat. The really nice thing about Hotel Nana (and Potala) was that it only cost 400 rps.(about $5) a night.

 Day 8 (January 4):

Our last day in Nepal we were meeting Santu for lunch before our plane was to leave. He works in the UN building in Nepal and so we got a taxi to take us there. We got there a little bit before our meeting time and so we sat on the sidewalk and played phase 10 while we waited. We got quite a few people to smile and laugh at us. A guard came over towards the end and asked us to stop playing cards because people might take pictures and put them online and this is the UN building. They seem very protective of their bridges and any type of government building and don't like pictures taken of them.

January 5:
We made it back to Dhaka just fine and made it back to the clinic after waiting at the airport for a little while. We did not get an early start to our trip back to Bangla Hope and so most of the day was spent sitting in the van heading back. We arrived late enough that is was dark already. After we had unloaded the van, Mrs. Waid had us all come to the cafeteria where Shati brought out a cake and they all sang to me. It was a nice ending to a long day, that did not feel like my birthday!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

MERRY CHRISTMAS to one and all from Bangladesh!!

       Today was a good and busy day! At home Christmas is mostly a relaxing day; a day to spend with family and open presents. Here Christmas is a day of excitement. Breakfast was when the day started for us. Shati made us delicious pancakes that were topped with her wonderful applesauce. After that we helped take presents from Mrs. Waid’s house to the cafeteria where they were going to be handed out. When they all were down there, the children, caregivers, and guests (orphans from SAMS, the nearby school) were allowed to come in. We started by singing Christmas songs and then the gift distribution began. It all began with the candy; everyone got a packet of either Mentos or M&Ms (adults included). The older girls then got theirs. Last week these girls were given trunks that they were able to decorate; this was one of their presents, so these girls were only given a bag of small goodies today. The boys got theirs next; they were each given a nice toy car and some other goodies in a bag. Then came the real excitement, Mr. Waid and Bob brought in two big bags full of dolls. These dolls Mrs. Waid had ordered from Pollywog. They are the most adorable dolls. They are about 1.5 feet tall and dressed in beautiful shalwar kameez type dresses. Each of the younger girls got one. Everyone was so excited, I can’t say how many cars or dolls I oohed and awed over today!

After the kids all were handed their gifts it was the caregivers and guests turn. They had the option of many shalwar kameezes and shari’s to choose from. Tuli teacher, Chantel, Lauren, and I ‘modeled’ the outfits then handed them to the lady that chose it. It was fun to see all the caregivers look them over and choose which one they wanted.

       After that it was basically the children’s lunch time. I decided that the dolls should each have the girls name on them, so while they were waiting for their lunch to be ready, I wrote names on dolls. This actually got a little crazy when I was just handed dolls with no idea whose doll it was (in the end I did end up with one doll nobody claimed!). Making mistakes when putting names on was something that did happen once or twice, but when that happened, I turned the mistake into a heart and everyone was happy!! :)

       Our Christmas dinner was very similar to our thanksgiving dinner. We had mashed potatoes, gluten, stuffing, and peas. It was all very delicious and filling. To top off the delicious meal, Shati made her apple pie for dessert. We all had a hard time getting up from the table we were so full!

       For the last week we have been learning and practicing a Bengali dance. This dance was performed tonight. We knew we needed more practice and so not long after our dinner we practiced. It was probably our worst practice overall, but I think that usually happens right before performances of any kind. After our practice we went to Tuli teacher’s house to get ready (Tuli was our dance teacher).

       When Bengali’s dance they go all out; their dress up is a little bit more complex than American dress up is. In America to dress up, girls put on a nice dress (very simple), do their hair, wear makeup and maybe some jewelry, then they are done. In Bangladesh to dress up, girls put on a shari (not simple), paint their hands and feet, add hair length, wear makeup, and sometimes put on jewelry or maybe just flowers of some kind instead. Therefore, getting ready is a multi-person job, not just for the fun of it like in America. We took the whole rest of the time before the program to get ready.

       The Christmas program was very entertaining. It started off with a dance from Metali, one of the guard’s daughters, she is in class three. She did a very nice job. There was then songs sung by some of the staff and poem recitations by some of the children. One of office workers and her sister then did a Bengali dance, it was very well done. More singing and recitation happened, and then it was our turn. We headed up and performed. It went well for the most part I think; it was short though, all that practice and it is done in less than three minutes. But it was fun and that is all that matters!

       One of my favorite parts of the program was the baby room fashion show. Now when I heard this I thought what a lot of you are thinking, the babies dressed up and showed off. However, that’s not what it was. It turned out to be three of the baby room caregivers ‘modeling’ different things from the baby room; one modeled the potty chair the babies use, the second a diaper (they use cloth ones), and the third modeled bottles.

       Another favorite performance was actually a game done by Kerri. She called up four caregivers to be the precipitants. They were split into two couples and the objects was for one of them to dress the other as fast and as nicely as possible, while blindfolded. The language barrier created an interesting twist to the explanation, but after Tuli explained it so they understood it was rather entertaining to observe. This wrapped up the program. It was a fun night and even though I really wasn’t sure about dancing at first, it turned out well and was enjoyed by all.

       Now that Christmas is over it is time for our vacation to really start! Lauren, Chantel, and I will be flying out of Dhaka to head to Nepal December 28. We are very excited. We know we will miss the kids, but we also have not been away from here for at least two months, so we are ready to have a break from some of the kids. We are not totally sure what we are going to do in Nepal, but we do know we will very much enjoy ourselves. We plan to stay a week and arrive back in Dhaka on January 4. Right now our plan is to spend New Year’s Eve in a village where the Himalayas are visible (we can’t go to Nepal without seeing Everest! lol). While in Nepal we will not have ready access to internet, so here is a Happy New Year to all of you.