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.

Lovely, Lovely Day!!

       Today did not start off too well. I didn’t fall asleep easily last night, so I was tired when I woke up this morning; I also wasn’t feeling on 100%. However my morning was made 1000x better when I talked to my sister Jodi. I do miss seeing my friends and family! Breakfast was dhal, which did not sound good at all, so I just ate some toast. I then took a nap, which felt wonderful! Not long after I woke up our doorbell rang. It was lunch time for the kids, so we knew it wouldn’t be any of them. It turned out to be someone calling up down to Sushitra’s office (the head of the orphanage) because we had packages. We were all excited and hurried down. I got four packages!! They all had wonderful goodies in them. Each had a little something that was fun! Mrs. Waid watched us all open our packages and said it was fun just to watch us open them!! So many goodies, so much fun! Thank you every one that put in something! It definitely was a huge improvement to my day!

        I also got a package last week that made me smile huge. It was from my hometown!! This package contained many goodies as well. Now let’s hope all these goodies don’t turn into colds and sickness!! lol Although I was also sent cough drops and Kleenex along with goodies, so now if I do get a cold I am prepared! Thank you all for the support and love!

Town And It's Adventures

       So going to town really hasn’t been that exciting lately. We’ve had to go in many times because our outfits haven’t fit right, but that is just annoying, it doesn’t make our trips to town exciting. Today was an exciting day! Chantel and I needed to get passport pictures taken for our Nepal visas. We found out this could happen in Hili, so that was our first and only stop with a translator. This picture place looked a little sketch. I am very glad we had Shuma with us to translate! We found out that four pictures cost 45 taka, which is a ridiculously good price, it’s not even $1 USD. In America you have to pay at least $5 for two! Anyway, the front room of the place was tiny and mostly filled with a desk on which sat a computer and equipment and which three guys were sitting behind. They told us to go through a door which led to another room. This room had only a stool (where we sat), a chair (where the photographer sat), and two photographer like lights (which were extremely bright!). Chantel took hers first. They are very specific with how they have these pictures, your head has to be perfectly straight and no smiles. Well they told us no smiles at first, but Chantel could not keep a straight face, so the photographer gave up on that!! When we were both done, we were told ten minutes, then Shuma told us that is really twenty minutes because they are Bengali!! lol

       After that Chantel and I separated from Mrs. Waid, Kerri, and the children they brought with them. We went on our own to the tailor to retrieve our outfits and then we went wondering to find the other stuff on our list. It really was fun. We didn’t go anywhere new, but we learned that we really did know our way around Hili. We first wondered around the clothes shops and stopped in a nice one to look at shawls. We both found a couple we liked and got them. Then we wondered around more.

        When we had first got to town we saw an elephant. Well we again saw this elephant as we were wondering; another little one had joined it, so we decided to wonder towards them. I had forgotten how small Asian elephants are until I saw these elephants, they were cute! When we got close to the elephants, their trunks came towards us and so we petted them. Chantel got some elephant snot on her hand and jacket! Then the men that were leading them wanted some taka, but we weren’t going to pay for having elephants sniff us, so we tried to walk away. However we were situated in such a way that the elephants had trapped us practically. We had to jump over the sewer in order to get away from them. It was definitely an adventure!

Déjà vu

Last night I had an unreal moment, a moment of home!

       As I said in my last post it is cold. It is the type of piercing cold that I have only really felt when it is raining or snowing out. Many times at home I have felt this cold, especially when I am reading in my bed before I go to sleep. I feel it trying to seep into my room from the outside. I hear the rain taking turns pounding and sprinkling on the roof. I am staying warm by my pink comforter while reading by my bedside light. Well last night I was reading by my flashlight, trying to stay warm under my blue and pink blankets and suddenly it sounded like rain was coming down. For a split moment before Chantel and I got up to see if it was raining it felt like I was at home reading in my room, covered by my pink comforter, and listening to the rain fall. I am very surprised that this did not make me homesick. Instead it brought me comfort and for that I am very glad!

The All Time Low

       Today got to a whopping 15ºC which when put into Fahrenheit comes out to 59ºF. This main not sound all that cold, but let me tell you, put that together with 63% humidity and it is FREEZING!! We are all bundled up in our jackets and using our shawls as scarves. We are still sporting the socks and flip-flops, but really that doesn’t keep our feet that warm! We pulled out the heater from under our food area and when it was plugged in and turned on, it smelt like something was burning. Well I guess to be honest stuff was burning, all the dust and spiders that had collected on it were burning! lol

        It has been dreary all day; the cloud cover has been consistent all day with no sunlight peaking through at all! Having it this cold and dreary kind of makes it a miserable day. It’s times like this that I miss our fireplace at home. The fireplace and central heat! Most places when it gets cold, you only feel the heat outside; here it is cold outside and inside all the buildings. The tile flooring doesn’t help any either!

Learning About Myself

Everyone tells you that as a student missionary you learn a lot about yourself. Well I didn’t quite believe it until yesterday.

       The day did not start off the best. I wasn’t feeling so good and so I didn’t do much that morning. I wasn’t even sure I was going to do recorder, but by the time 12:30ish came and Caleb came up for math tutoring, I felt better, plus after doing tutoring I would feel guilty about not teaching, so I gathered everything and went to face the children. The children were ansty, I wasn’t feeling like teaching and so it just was not a good class over all. My tolerance was at an ultimate low and so I was getting on anyone that was not listening. That day it was mainly four of the fifteen children. Towards the end of class my tolerance was shot and my frustration was at an all time high, this caused me to feel like crying. Finally when it seemed like they were ready to listen and do what I told them I gathered myself and tried to get them to play, but they were done so I told them class was done and to bring up their music and recorder. I was crying by then, thankfully it wasn’t straight out bawling, but it was enough that all the kids knew I was crying. When I had mostly composed myself, I looked at the children and noticed most of the girls were crying. Seeing this made me lose the small control I had and I started crying again. Popri teacher (the class 3 teacher) walked in and wanted to know what was wrong. Some of the kids told her in Bangla what had happened and those that had caused the most problems were forced to apologize to me.

       The rest of the time before dinner was spent helping Mrs. Waid email pictures. Give me something technical, something that does not have feelings and I will get over my crying pretty fast! lol When I came down for dinner, both Chantel and Lauren had notes for me. They all said the sweetest things. My favorite two notes actually came from my two favorite girls, Bristy and Sherry. Sherry’s was actually the first one I noticed was crying. She is one of my best music students, so I figured she was crying because we didn’t do much in class. Her note starts off saying: “I love you so much. I am so sorry Heather. I cri for you.” Reading this note almost made me start crying again. Bristy’s note also touched me. She was the one that was acting up the most and just plain wasn’t listening. Her note said this:

“Dear Heather

I Love you so much. I am sorry Heather Please forgive me. can you forgive me. are you Happy now or sad. I am so sad. Jesus Love you and me. Jesus die for us. I no Jesus can forgive me. Jesus with you and your family. Jesus Love you and He will with you.

Love Bristy”

After this experience I wonder how they will be for recorder today, if they will listen better. One can only pray! So what I learned about myself is that as well as a sympathy crier, I also cry when I get very frustrated.

Not Much in a lot of Time

       Life really hasn’t been exciting lately. It has had its moments, but it has also been busy with everyday life here; helping in office, recorder class, piano lessons, and such.

       Last Sunday we went to Joypurhat. It is a town that is about one and a half hours away from Bangla Hope. While there we shopped for material Mrs. Waid needed and we also looked at shari’s and shalwar kameezes. While in the shops we also looked at shawls. I didn’t end up getting anything, but it was fun to look. Right before we left we stopped in store that is similar to American stores. A small Safeway is probably the closest thing to describe it to, it didn’t have a bakery or fresh food section or anything like that, but it had a dry foods and toiletry section. In this store you are not allowed to hold anything you are planning to purchase, you are followed around by workers who take what you are planning on buying and put it in the basket they are carrying for you. I think we had more than just one person following us though, it seemed more like two or three. One of the three that was following me spoke pretty good English and tried to start a conversation with me. I answered his question and then was caught totally off guard when he asked for my number. Why is it that the first time I am asked for my number I am in a foreign country and don’t even have a phone, not that I would have given out my number, I just find it a bit odd funny. Anyway, I immediately answered him with a no and then realized I didn’t have a phone and clarified that fact to him. Is it bad that I didn’t want to make him feel bad for asking especially if he was just asking to say he had an Americans number!! Lol These Bengali’s are an interesting people and for the most part very friendly and helpful.

       The next exciting event that happened was on Tuesday and Wednesday. As most of you know, when you get older your body does not recover as fast from sickness. Well Mr. Waid I don’t think really wanted to believe this. He got sick about a month ago and started to get better and then over did it and became sick again. He had never really recovered from that initial sickness and finally it was showing. Mrs. Waid became very concerned, along with everyone here, although Bengali’s do tend to over exaggerate things. Tuesday morning at breakfast Mr. Waid did show up, which wasn’t totally odd, since he had been off and on sick for awhile. Mrs. Waid announced that she was worried enough they were going to the hospital in Dhaka tomorrow (Wednesday). Mrs. Waid hadn’t been feeling the best lately either so they were both going to get checked. Well Wednesday morning Mr. Waid woke up with low oxygen levels. This really scared Mrs. Waid and she asked Kerri and Bob to accompany them. So Wednesday morning Lauren, Chantel, and I were left on our own again. Everyone was worried about Mr. Waid and kept him in our prayers. Friday we got the news that he was doing much better and would be coming home as soon as the doctors released him later that day. It ended up taking them a fifteen plus hour trip to get back here. This was because they had three problems with tires, one flat and two blow outs, on the way. They arrived early Sabbath morning and slept through breakfast and church. Mr. Waid is doing a lot better now, but he still needs to take it easy and remember he is NOT a young man anymore. For this reason we would really appreciate it if you all would keep Mr. Waid in your prayers.

       Now after those this next item is not quite as exciting, but it is now cold enough I’m sporting the native dress of socks and flipflops! Lol It has gotten pretty cold in the evenings and mornings. The days really aren’t bad still, but we all are feeling the cold. I can’t say what the temperature is so I can only assume it is really cold enough to wear sweatshirts/jackets, socks, and shawls.