Finishing off.........

Hi everyone,

Its been another busy 2 weeks in Bangladesh and we can't believe we've been here for a month already!

It's two weeks so let me update you all a week at a time:
Week 1)
This was mainly taking up by Bible Camp. We had a great time with lots of study and praise and worship. Most of the church here managed to attend the 5 day event. We were all bussed out of town on the Sunday evening and were taken to conference centre about an hour out of Dhaka.

It was a nice place close to the first city of Bangladesh and, as always, nice to be out of the hustle and bustle of Dhaka city. We had a full five days of study, worship, eating and good fellowship with everyone. The church was joined by a some field workers from Australia including Ron Hicks who originally set up the church when he came here with the world bank 10 years ago. Unfortunately we had to leave a day early because we needed to be back at work on the Thursday.

On Friday Andy led the class at Banani and we said goodbye to Ken, a long term field worker from Canada who has had to leave his wife and 8 month year old baby and return to Canada for work. He'll be coming back in the New year to pick up his family and take them to Canada.

Week 2)
Last week we had a slow start with one day at the office and then a day off for the Hindu Holiday of Durga Pooja. This gave Nicola and I some time to sort a few jobs at the house including getting a cheap dinning table. On Monday night we had some people over from church for a meal (on our new table) and had chance to give some feedback on the products they had given us to take back to the UK. It was good to spend time with them and organise how we can take their ideas for their business further.

After they had left Andy packed his bag and headed up to Nilphamari on the overnight bus with his boss. He was due to stay for one day and catch the train home but due to the end of both the Muslim and Hindu holiday all the tickets were booked. So Andy was stranded up at the factory for another day!

This gave plenty of time to oversee the packaging of products ready to ship in our container and also plan for production over the next few weeks and months. The following day Andy and boss got the last two tickets on a squashed non-ac bus back to Dhaka. The seats were right at the back with no leg room for two big guys and we were bounced around for 7 hours all the way back to Dhaka! We even had to stop at a rest stop for 40 mins whilst they jacked up the bus and hit the wheel with a metal pole whilst we were all sitting on board!!

Meanwhile, back in Dhaka, Nicola was runnign here and there busy organising things for two short term Oasis workers who are staying at our home for the next month. Getting beds, sheets, extra cups and bowls, setting up internet and welcome packs, and schedules.... all bus busy stuff.

So by the time Andy got back on Thursday morning we were both feeling exhausted!! But, no rest for the wicked, we got up early friday morning to meet our new guests at the airport at 4.15am! They're in Bangladesh for 2 months and will be mainly working on Stop the Traffik and in the community school.

So far so good, both girls are lovely and seem to be enjoying life in this crazy town!! Hopefully this we'll manage to get some time in the office to get organised with all the work that's piling up for us both.

So one month in, and we're both loving every minute! We're still happy to have visitors so if anyone wants to come and share some of the experience then please let us know!

God Bless,
Andy and Nic

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