All better again

Well, I think I can pretty safely say that both of us are now in good health, so we're relishing life in Bangladesh.

For those of you interested in the tummy diaries, my tummy has just about made a full recovery as of today but I was back up and running (with a small amount of discomfort) from Friday onwards.

Well who'd have thought that 3 weeks in and we still have more exciting news to report.

On Saturday began the side effects of Cyclone Remish, which hit the Bay of Bengal. The side effects weren't too devastating for us but there was a lot of rain, wind and the temperature dropped significantly. In fact we haven't run any of our fans since Saturday and have had to put a blanket over us in bed! It was pretty horrific at times, particularly travelling by rickshaw and CNG in the pouring rain - not particularly pleasant! One of the main problems with coping with the heavy rain over here is the poor drainage - water seems to just collect, which is pretty bad for the poor rickshaw wallers, especially since they can't see all the pot holes in the road.

On Saturday evening we went to a discussion group at one of our colleague's flats, where the Oasis visitor was speaking on being an integrated church, in particular how the church can integrate with its community and other faiths, whilst remaining true to its identity - very interesting stuff and left us brimming with ideas.

On Sunday we spent the day in the office, listening to the roaring winds and pouring rain (and doing some work of course). We have started having lunch with the "locals" in the office, which has been great - they're such a fab bunch, it's been really good getting to know them better. Andy's even managed to get an invite to the zoo with one of the workshop lads and our design colleague has managed to get tickets for him, his wife and us to go to the cricket (not sure when though).

On Monday we started our Bangla lessons. Unfortunately the language school is over the other side of town, so it means getting up at 6am and leaving the house at 7am in order to get there for 8am (it doesn't take an hour to get there but catching a CNG can be unpredictible). The lessons start with everyone in the language school sitting down together at 8 for a hymn (in Bangla), short thought by one of the students and a prayer - it's amazing that God really is in every aspect of our life in Bangladesh!

There are 10 people in our class, which is a 1 mth beginner's Phonetics course - survival Bangla! It's actually a lot of people to have in a group and the class room is tiny but we'll cope. The style of learning is not ideal for me - they tend to teach by repitition, so it means a lot of study when we get home after work to digest it all. There course is pretty intense, there's a lot packed in but so far we're enjoying it. Just need to start putting it into practice.

After language we went to work - another good day in the office! In the evening we went to the home group at our colleague's round the corner. A really lovely evening where we were able to connect with God and continue to grow the relationship with some of the foreigners (Bodeshis) in our area. Plus, one of the girls, who actually lives in the building next to ours brought chocolate cake for the second week running - yum!

We've discovered that there's a "Bodeshi" cook book, which is a cook book especially for foreigners. It's written in English and Bangla, it contains a lot of Western recipes and the recipes only include ingredients that are easily available over here. Most foreigners seem to have a copy. When they get a craving for a chocolate cake, or a Western meal they will tend to give the recipe book to their cook to make the meal. Unfortunately, our domestic helper doesn't read Bangla, so we're stuck with Bangladeshi food, until we can teach her something Western.

Today we had language again in the morning then back to the office. There was a bit of excitement in the office cause there was a film crew around filming at the school in Duaripara and then doing interviews at the office with some of the teachers at the school. One of our donors is making a DVD of some of the work going on in Bangladesh to show in churches back in the UK. So, given that our office is already cramped when everyone's it, it was chaos for a couple of hours with so many extra bodies floating around. Anyway, anything to raise the profile of the school and highlight the much needed funding is always welcome.

The school is currently looking for alternative premises, cause it's far too cramped, dark and dingy in there, so please remember the project in your prayers and pray that we find a new suitable building and that we have sufficient funding in place to afford it.

After work it was back home for some more language studying and to do our homework.

The cyclone left yesterday, so it's been a perfect day today - still relatively cool after the cyclone (by which I mean still t-shirt weather but pleasant, rather than overwhelming) but beautiful blue sky. I'm so glad we can go pack to tolerating the cold shower in the morning, rather than dreading the thought of it...

Hope all's well in England.

We'll update you soon

lots of love (as always)

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