Visit to the Zoo

**Video Update - see left **

Well it's been a very exciting day here in Dhaka but before I get into that let me briefly update you about the past few days.

So, nothing much to say about Wednesday, apart from another yummy team lunch. However, yesterday was a sort of "interesting day", where we really developed a love-hate relationship with the city. When we left language at about 10.15 and hopped in a CNG to go to the office for our usual 30 min trip across the city, little did we know that this 30 min trip would turn into a 2 hour trip!!!! And why I hear you cry? All because a political leader, Sheikh Hasina (female), formerly arrested for corruption charges, had returned from the UK a free woman, having received much needed medical attention.

There were people all out on the street welcoming her back and whenever political leaders move round the city they tend to close the roads that they're going to be travelling on. So, as our main road to Mirpur is also the road with the parliament buildings on that was inevitably closed whilst Sheikh Hasina arrived and therefore caused us to be stuck in a massive jam for the majority of our journey - not ideal! Oh well, we made it in the end.

There's a quick route from language to the office, through the Cantonement (army and government officials' area) but we're not allowed to go that way cause we're Bodeshi's. Only Bangladeshis can travel through - very frustrating!

Anyway, after such an ordeal we decided to reward ourself with a drink and snacks at the womens' restaurant round the corner on the way back from work, which was really nice.

So, today we went to the Dhaka zoo (zoo = Chiriyakana) with one of the lads from the workshop, who was dying to take us. It wasn't quite like a British zoo, not least because we were more of an attraction than the animals. Unfortuately many of the animals weren't very well kept and the environment wasn't as good as in the UK but it was a great experience going with our colleague and I think he enjoyed taking the Bodeshi's round, particularly since so many people came up to him and asked about us. A really good opportunity for us to practice our Bangla as well.

After that we went to church and managed to catch the end of the Bible Study, which was useful given that Andy has to give one next Friday. Then we shared lunch with them and stayed for the memorial service, after which we escaped to the Bagha (ex pat) club to meet some friends.

At church there were 2 older Australian couples, who are returning home on Wednesday. One of the men was speaking, which was great cause we could actually follow the service for a change. There was also a couple of younger Australian girls, one of whom had just got engaged to an young Bengali chap from the church, which meant Mishti (Indian sweet) all round - yum!

We always feel encouraged going to the church just to see the passion they all have for the scriptures and how warm and loving they all are. Many of them have invited us round for meals and have been so so welcoming. In fact living over here has really given us a greater understanding of the scriptures cause the culture is a lot more akin to the culture of the bible. Obviously we have a lot more to understand but we feel that even though we've only been here a month we've learnt so much about the people and the culture - it's great!

I'm pleased to say that Bangla's going reasonably well and even better the teacher seems to have stopped giving us homework (although I probably shouldn't speak too soon!). Andy's dropping Bangla now cause he's pretty busy at work, so can't really spare the time to be at lessons but I'm going to continue for another 2 weeks.

We've started sharing lifts to Bangla with another couple and the other day since we couldn't get a taxi we ended up getting a CNG, which normally only holds 3 people max but as there were 4 of us Andy got to ride up front with the driver - quite an experience; the driver thought it was hilarious! Unfortunately no video evidence but next time it happens we'll have the camera at the ready. Travelling in this form is not unusual for Bangladeshis. We've seen 4 adults on 1 motorbike, hoards of people packed into 1 CNG and similar with the taxis. As you can imagine health and safety means a lot less over here than in the UK.

I know I've waffled on for long enough but I must just share this before I go. At the start of Bangla every morning they have a short devotional, during which we sing a hymn in Bangla - normally a pretty cringeworthy experience give that the Bangladeshi's are not particularly known for their singing, particularly unaccompanied. Anyway, the other morning we sang "As the Deer Pants by the Water"! - who'd have thought (for those of you who aren't familiar with this song, it's a bit of a classic back home).

So, I think that about ends the entry for today. Just to let you know that we're both fighting fit and Andy's currently strumming away on his guitar next door, so he's a happy bunny at the moment.

Hope all's well over there and the Bonfire Night events went well.

Lots of love

x

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A Week Later (sorry...)

Hello again to all you avid blog-watchers. We’re really sorry it’s taken so long to write another entry but we’ve had a pretty busy week this week, especially with having to get up early for our language classes and then having to do homework when we get home after work. Anyway, we have been let off homework tonight, so I thought I’d use the opportunity to update the blog.

I guess the first thing to tell you is that we went for dinner on Thursday night with a work colleague, who is a local designer that Andy has been working with and his wife joined us. Andy and our colleague picked up our colleague’s wife after work. Andy had a browse round the after school club that our colleague’s wife runs and then they took him to a couple of nice cafes. After which they came and picked me up after a meeting I had on the other side of town. Then me and our colleague’s wife went for a coffee whilst the boys went handbag shopping (birthday present for our colleague’s wife), then we went for a really nice meal.

On Friday we had a morning in catching up and doing a bit of homework and then went to church in the afternoon. After church we went to an International Night at the ex-patriot church a bit further away. The English team performed a skit involving bus stops and barn dancing – most amusing but not nearly as amusing as the Finland effort.

On Saturday we went to our local shopping area on Road 27 where Andy bought a guitar and we found a great supermarket with nice met and quite a lot of Bodeshi food – they even stock peanut butter (shame neither of us like it)! After our exhausting shopping trip in the heat we went for a drink in a really nice, cool art café that Andy had been introduced to the night before by our work colleague.

One of the amusing things about this country is the ATM experience. When you want to get cash out you have to find an ATM, which aren’t as common as in the UK. There’s normally a queue of people waiting outside, the ATM is inside a lovely air-conditioned booth and there’s a guard on the door. So the ATM experience is one of our lovely air-conditioning hot spots (you tend to jump between these AC hotspots when you find out where they are)

In the evening we then went to babysit for the children of a couple who go to our home group and who live round the corner. We were very privileged to have Moussaka and banana cake for our efforts – yummmm!

On Sunday back to another early start at language and unfortunately Andy got ill again, so didn’t make it in to language (although he wasn’t too sorry). I had to brave the CNGs all by myself and despite getting horribly lost I survived with my pigeon Bangla.

Monday was the usual work and home group in the evening and then today was much the same.

We’re both making good progress on our projects. I’m busy co-ordinating chocolate fondue parties across the city to raise awareness of human trafficking on the back of the Stop the Traffik campaign. For those who might be interested in hosting a chocolate fondue party, or want more information about the trafficking issue, I recommend you look at the website: http://www.stopthetraffik.org/getinvolved/act/chocolate Once you start to look more deeply at the problem I'm sure you'll be as moved as I have been. It brings a tear to my eye every time I think of children being bought and sold, never sure whether they will ever see their families again and kept in conditions of sheer slavery - this issue certainly needs a lot of prayers.

Anyway, before I start rambling too much about such injustices as human traffiking I better sign off for now and hopefully we'll do another update a bit sooner.

Thanks as always for all your lovely comments - we do love to read them, so keep posting away, or emailing us.

Lots of love (as always)

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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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