Invading the South

Handy craft ladies

Our adventure started bright and early. Well, actually before bright, 5:30 to be exact. Mrs. Waid, Ruth, Candy, Ponwell, Joseph and I were heading south to visit some Adventist schools and to pick up a baby. The kids came out of say goodbye. They were all shivering and huddling around for warmth. I thought it was quite pleasant. For once it wasn’t hot! We say our goodbyes and headed on our way. The ride from Banglahope to KMMS, the school we would spend the night at, was about 9 to 10 hours. On the way the van sounded funny so we took it in to get looked at, the air conditioning broke, and I used my first squat pot. It was surprisingly clean. Before we went to KMMS we stopped to see the ladies that do the cross-stitch. They were all so grateful for the job and very happy to see us. KMMS is the first Seventh-day Adventist school in Bangladesh. Other than some chipped paint the campus looked lovely. We ate dinner with the principal at his house. Oh, the food was so good, but my lips were on fire!

 

In the morning I saw my first cockroach and took a shower with it. After another wonderful meal we headed out to one of the day schools, Ramshil, that was sponsored by Banglahope. The country of Bangladesh is fascinating. There is always something new and interesting around the corner. Plus it is so green and gorgeous! Due to bumpy roads and a fast driver I could not picture all the beauty that is Bangladesh but that is probably for the better because at the rate I wanted to take pictures we would never get to Ramshil. On the way we experienced the bamboo bridges, the car kept losing power, we took a boat across a river, and walked a mile, but we made it. It was worth it to see the kids faces light up when we gave them their little goodies. When we got back to the van it wouldn’t start. Oh, no! So we sat out in the sun, tried and tried, and prayed and prayed. Finally after about 30 minutes it started! But it wasn’t as fast or powerful as before. It was like a put-put. At least it was working.

Now we were heading to Suragram, another day school sponsored by Banglahope. We made it about 20 minutes away when the van died again. So the plan was to take an easy power the rest of the way to Suragram and Joseph would get the van towed to Gopalconj, the third school we would go to, and get it fixed. While we were deciding what to do people started to crowd around the car. A man was yelling through the window, “Taka! Taka!” He wanted money. The easy power showed up. As we were transferring to it, the man was getting more demanding. He was especially after Ruth. Ponwell chewed him out, but he still kept coming. We were all grateful to get on our way. At Suragram, after handing out the goodies, they fed us a late lunch. I got to eat quail eggs, water lilies, and a delicious coconut treat. So good! Everywhere we went the schools greeted us warmly and with joy.

Kids at Suragram

Then we took a rented van to Gopalconj, another boarding school and the head quarters of the Southern Bangladesh SDA conference. As I was handing out barrettes to the girls they started to get out of line, crowd around me, and they weren’t satisfied with the colors I gave them. This was so much different than the other schools. With all the pushing and shoving, I felt like our gifts were wasted on greedy kids. Granted it was only the older kids. Then the mosquitoes came. More like swarmed. And the strange thing was that they were only biting people with light skin, especially Mrs. Waid and Ruth. Ponwell was hilarious, swatting Mrs. Waids feet with a rag trying to keep the mosquitoes away. We were waiting for the van to get fixed. They kept saying one more hour, the hour would pass and they would say one more hour. We got tired of waiting and tired of getting eaten. So we took another rented van back to KMMS for the night and Joseph would come later when it was fixed. That driver was fast and good. Thankfully he didn’t use the horn as much; instead he would flash his lights. When we got back to KMMS there was an unwanted visitor waiting in our room. It was a spider bigger than my hand. Oh that thing was creepy! We called Ponwell to come save us and he chassed it out the window which we immediately latched shut. I didn’t sleep very well that night.

Precious Jewel

The next day was baby day. We woke up and saw the van outside. Hallelujah! The van was fixed! After an early breakfast we drove to a village an hour away. We walked through the village until we reached a river and took a boat across. On the other side we road a rickshaw van up the road 10 minutes. Once we reached a bridge we hopped off. There the local SDA pastor was waiting for us to take us to the baby’s house. We walked through the trees on a small path by some ponds and over some bridges. One was a bamboo bridge. We finally got to the right house. The baby and the whole family were waiting. We sat down and got the story: The baby is around 18 months old. The father is 70 years old and sick. He lives with his son from his first marriage. The son would “beat” the mother and baby. So she left to live with her stepbrother but he would do the same thing. We got the impression that she would wander around the village seeking a place to stay and the baby probably got passed around a lot. The mother also had a bad cough. The best chance for the baby to survive was to give it up. You could see the distress in the mother’s eyes. She wanted so badly to stay with her baby but she also wanted to give her baby a better life. Mrs. Waid had her cut the black cord off the baby, give her a bath and dress her in the new dress we brought. As we were about to leave the mother was overcome with emotion and started to cry. We had her come with us back to the van, carrying the baby over the bamboo bridge, on the rickshaw van, and on the boat. When we got to the car we made the exchange quickly and drove away so we would not make a scene.

Jewel and her mother

The baby at first sat there stunned not really knowing what just happened. About five minutes down the road she started to cry, then she started to scream. She looked terrified and you couldn’t blame her. She cried herself to sleep. Mrs. Maid had me name her. I had two names in mind. Lilly, after one of my favorite bible verses in Luke 12 or Jewel, off my nickname Jules. Mrs. Waid liked Jewel better. So she is precious Jewel. As she slept I got to hold her. She woke up in my arms and just calmly looked around. She was content at the moment.

We were on our way to Dhaka to drop Candy and Ruth off because they were flying out in the morning. However, it took longer to get Jewel than we expected. So we decided to spend the night in Dhaka then travel to Banglahope in the morning. To get to Dhaka we crossed the Gangue River on a ferry. Jewel tried some mango juice and loved it. Then we got stuck in bad traffic. When we got to Dhaka it was already dark, good thing we weren’t going all the way to Banglahope. Ponwell took me to get the other SM’s and my money exchanged (it’s a better rate in Dhaka). Then we took a real rickshaw to the shopping mall to get Ruth a map. Because of a holiday most of the shops were closed. We ended up finding an atlas that look pretty neat. Then we walked to the Dental clinic where we were spending the night. It was so crowded! I stayed right on Ponwell’s heel. He kept turning around in a slight panic saying, “Where are you?!”. “Right behind you.” I would say back. I was not going to let him out of my sight.

We got back to the clinic and Mrs. Waid handed me Jewel. She had been crying. I took her into the other room and sang to her. There was a mirror in the room and as I sang I would play peekaboo with the mirror. She loved it! I even got her to giggle, the cutest giggle I ever heard. Then we fed her rice and dal. Yummy! That night she formed an attachment to Candy and when Candy put her down to go to bed she screamed. It was like she was getting abandoned all over again. She cried and cried, but once the light was turned off she was silent, cuddled up to Mrs. Waid and slept. She slept through the entire night.

Candy and Ruth left around 4:30am for the airport; Mrs. Waid, Joseph, Jewel and I left around 6:00am for home, and Ponwell was staying in Dhaka for some meetings. As soon as Jewel got into the car she started to cry. Mrs. Waid gave her to me and I had her face the window so she could look out. She stopped crying. This baby loves to observe. She is constantly looking around, dissecting every detail from scenery to a piece of cloth. She didn’t cry the whole way home in the car. I couldn’t help but notice she wants to be independent. Every time I would feed her by the bottle she would push my hands off because she wanted to do it herself. However, she couldn’t lift it. When she realized she needed help or she wouldn’t get any food, she grabbed my hand and put it on the bottle. For a baby who can’t talk she can communicate fairly well. By the end of the trip Mrs. Waid and I got to her to smile and even laugh. As we pulled into Banglahope I kissed her head and softly said, “Welcome home Jewel.”