We're Back

Greetings, once again, from Dhaka.

As you can tell we’ve arrived safely back in Bangladesh. We landed on Monday 31st August on a very crowded Emirates flight from Dubai; crammed full of Bangladeshi men returning from the United Emirates. The volume of people wouldn’t have been so bad if those people hadn’t been accompanied by bags and bags of duty free; so much so that they had to start piling it in the hold and when that was full people had to put it under their seats, on their knees and in the aisles!

After we arrived in Dhaka we went to a colleague’s house to freshen up and then went off to the Oasis Bangladesh annual staff conference in Savar, about 1.5 hours north of Dhaka.

The staff conference lasted 3 days and was great for catching up on what we’d missed and for getting to know our colleagues a bit better. It was also very inspirational and motivating.

Over the course of the conference we did some leadership training, thought about our aspirations and hopes and learnt what was going on in all the different Oasis Bangladesh projects.

Highlight
Riding on some rickety old waltzers at the amusement park with our Bangladeshi colleagues, who were laughing uncontrollably the whole time.
Memorable Quote:
“It is great to have your life used for something bigger than yourself”
Memorable Verse:
(When God called Moses and Moses felt overwhelmed by the task to which he was being called) “[The Lord said to Moses] What is that in your hand?”

After getting back late on Wednesday night we then moved into our friends’ vacant flat for a temporary stay whilst we look for a new place to live. So, on Thursday morning we commenced our search around the area where we used to live. Despite searching for over 6 hours there was very little to choose from. Eventually we’ve got it down to 2, which we’re now choosing between, so watch this space.

On Friday we went to the Bagha club to catch up on some emails and then to church for lunch and memorial service (sermon + communion). It was great to catch up with everyone again and to meet some new faces and it was wonderful to be so warmly welcomed.

It seems that a common question is what the weather’s like here, so to summarise: it’s still monsoon season but we’re coming to the end of it. When we arrived the ground seemed pretty water logged but nowhere near as bad as we were expecting. It’s rained on and off since we arrived, which has been lovely for cooling the air down (although the humidity very quickly kicks in when the sun comes out).

It’s also Ramadan here, so the majority of the population are fasting during the day and then they break their fast at around 7.20. That means they aren’t allowed to consume anything – not even water – during daylight hours. It’s amazing to see the peoples’ devotion to this religious practice, particularly when they have to work so hard in such difficult conditions.

So, almost a week in and it feels like we’ve never been away; the Bangla we spoke (limited as it is) has pretty much all come back; the roads are still as decrepit as ever and the people are still as lovely as ever. We have been amazed by how excited we were about coming back and how warmly welcomed we were by everyone here – our work colleagues and church community alike. It truly feels like God has blessed us in bringing us back and we are praying that this blessing may continue.

Just before we sign off - a huge thanks to all have supported us and continue to support us in coming back; whether it be financially, prayerfully or emotionally - it has made the transition, once again, very manageable.

Love Nic and Andy

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Bangladesh Evening 13th June

Before I get into the events of the past week or so, just wanted to stop you and encourage to go and grab your diaries, calendars, PDAs, or whatever you use to store dates (gents - run and tell your wives / girlfriends).

Go on.....

SATURDAY 13TH JUNE - An evening to experience Bangladesh

Here's the poster




Unfortunately the poster I managed to upload doesn't have the text on so I'll tell you what it says:

"If you've never experienced the sights and sounds of Bangladesh, now's your opportunity. Come and journey with us through the streets of Dhaka and through the bamboo gardens of Nilphamari for an evening of fun, food and entertainment as we share our experiences of Bangladesh. The evening will be held at the Westleigh Christadelphian Hall, Westleigh Road, Leicester LE3 0HH, on Saturday 13th June at 6.30pm"

Basically we're having an interactive evening to share with you what it's like to live and work in Bangladesh. We would love your company and please feel free to bring along friends and family - the more the merrier as far as we're concerned.

If you want more information please drop us an email. Also, it would be useful for us if you could let us know whether you're intending on coming, so we can have an indication of numbers.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Much love

Andy and Nic

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A bit of News

Before we get into the general ins and outs of what we've been up to we thought we should let you all know that after much thinking, praying and talking we've decided to stay in Bangladesh for a further 12 months as of August this year.

We're planning on returning to the UK at the beginning of June for 2 months and then we'll be coming back to Bangladesh again in August, God willing. We'll be coming back to work with Oasis again but our roles within Oasis might change slightly.

We're also planning on having a Bangladesh evening in the middle of June where you can share in the experience we've been having (hopefully bringing this blog a bit more to life). When we've confirmed the date and finalised the details we'll publish a new posting.

So, now on to what we've been up to over the past couple of weeks. It's been back to business as usual. Again, Andy's been putting in some late nights and a bit of weekend work as he and the team desperately try and get the product finished within the next 2 weeks ready for our boss to take back to the UK (sorry can't disclose details about the product, we're trying to keep it under wraps for the time being).

Nic's been doing some contract drafting for the business and on the anti-trafficking front we're currently working on 13 cases of girls who have been trafficked to India that we're now trying to bring back. All of them were sold into the sex industry and have been severely exploited, either in the brothels, or by pimps and almost all of them have now been arrested and are residing in a government home in India.

In case you thought you mis-read that, you didn't - those girls really have been arrested. Some of them have been arrested for commercial sex work, or for illegally residing in India (clearly if you're trafficked, your not going to be able to bring identification documentation with you, even if you have it in the first place).

Anyway, we're now working with partners in India to get a repatriation order from the Indian government to bring the girls back across the border and then work to reintegrate them back into society.

No doubt when we're back in the UK we'll enlighten you as to the experiences of some of these girls but for now it makes pretty harrowing reading, so probably best left off the blog for the time being.

We've also been pretty involved in church over the past couple of weeks. Last week there was a women's day at church, which Nic supported and which was really great. It was so refreshing to see the women sharing their problems and supporting one another.

Nic also helped teach at a slum sunday school that the church runs. It has now moved to a Saturday, which is great cause it's now something we can support. It was most amusing because the kids, who probably ranged from age 2 - 10 had the attention span of knats but we did some drama and some activities, which they loved. It was great fun to see them engaging and enjoying themselves, safe and secure from their ordinarily fairly troubled lives.

We've also been in the middle of a heat wave here. Apparently temperatures peaked last Sunday at 44C. That has meant very frequent power cuts and even water shortages. At the church flat they were without water for 3 days! At our place we've lost water a bit in the evenings but nothing too drastic. We're into a good bucket-filling routine now.

The rise in temperatures has caused a massive increase in diseases in the city. Loads of people are coming down with fevers, flus and chronic diarrhoea. The government hospitals are full to bursting and a lot of people can't afford the treatment in any event. Not a pretty sight!

Thankfully this weekend the rains came, which has brought the temperatures right down and has reduced the power cuts and water cuts (phew).

You may recall that our house-helper's house and rest of the slum got destroyed in a fire a few weeks ago. They are slowly managing to rebuild their houses and help is filtering down. It's still not ideal as they're still sleeping under plastic sheets but hopefully it will only be a couple of weeks before the houses get rebuilt.

All the house owners are having to rebuild their own homes, so the speed at which they can build is slightly affected by the rate at which they can buy materials but little by little help is coming.

I think that's about all from our end.

Hope you're all well and enjoy the Bank Holiday

Love Andy and Nic x

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