Road Trip

Last Tuesday we had the day off because it was Gandhi’s birthday. We took a little road trip for about 2 hours to a place called Gour and we saw lots of ancient monuments and mosques. It was the first kind of touristy thing that we’ve done since we got here. Then we got to go to the Bangladesh border. We didn’t actually cross into the country, but we saw it. Bangladesh used to be part of India until 1947 when the British took over.

The English class is still going very well and has been a lot of fun. We are getting to know the students much better and they have invited us to come hang out in the park this week. Many of them are about our age (late teens to mid twenties). They have enjoyed teaching us a few Bengali words as well. It is always a guaranteed laugh when we attempt to speak their language. It is a pretty tough language to learn especially if you don’t see the words written out phonetically.

Saturday was a really good day. We went back to the MCs to play with the children. This time many of the kids remembered us. Again, we did Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, The Hokey Pokey, The Macarena, the Penguin dance and “Copy what Scott does”. Then Scott decided to become a scary monster and crawl on the floor and chase after the kids. They loved it and they ran around giggling and hiding. Although while all this craziness was going on, there was also a little boy who was lying down on the bed very sick and in pain. There was a cracker next to him with only one small bite out of it; he was too weak to eat any more. I sat down next to him and remember feeling so helpless. His feet and stomach were swollen and he had burn marks on his stomach and wrist because in the village they didn’t know what was wrong with him and what was causing the illness so they thought maybe they could burn away the pain. It is so heartbreaking to see and play with these children, but at the same time so nice to feel that we are getting a chance to give them the attention they crave and simply to love them. We also get to witness success stories. On a happy note, an orphan baby that we met last time got adopted!

Since we don’t work on Sundays, we did what we often do on our days off. We go church and hostel hopping. :) I’m pretty sure we’ll end up seeing every parish in the whole diocese before we go home. Each place we go to we chat and have coffee and treats and get a tour of the mission. (A mission usually contains a chapel, a school, a boys hostel, a girls hostel, a convent, a presbytery and a dispensary.) Most of the time the kids hear we’re coming to visit and they get all dressed up and ready to do a performance. If they don’t know we’re coming, they often run back to the hostel and put red bows in their hair. After their welcoming song and dance, they ask us how we’re doing. When we answer them with “Bhallo achi” they get really excited and start giggling and whispering to each other. Then any more questions they ask us, we have to get translated. Sometimes after that we sing them a song or do a dance. After many pictures are taken with the kids, they get very excited and say that they are coming to America with us on our cameras. :)

The weather is still extremely hot and humid. Many people are saying that this is an unusually hot year. We have heard a few times, “October is usually much cooler and much more comfortable. You must be quite hot.” We are constantly wiping sweat off of our faces and at night wiping tons of bugs off our bodies. Thank goodness for the mosquito net, the large insects can’t get to us as easily. We often have lizards and other odd looking insects in our room. We always hope and pray that the electricity doesn’t get cut because that means no fan, which also means no sleep. (The electricity gets cut a few hours a day.) These discomforts have taken a little adjusting to, just like everything else, but I know that the more challenges we experience, the stronger we become and the more we grow.