Before I begin, let me preface this post with an apology for the lack of pictures. I'm going to pass the blame to my internet connection which, for the last few days has been less than cooperative. You get internet here in the same way that an antenna for a TV gets a signal. So even though I've discovered that cupping my hands around the internet receiver box while standing next to a window gives me a great signal, I don't have the patience to wait for my pictures to upload. But I promise, as soon as the internet gets its act together, the pics are going up!
March has been the busiest month so far. And it has been the busiest month by a long shot. From March 1st we have been going, going, going. I think that nearly every day we have had something going on, and off days like today are starting to feel awesome.
We kicked off March with our “Bengali Jones” kids camp just to the north of Dhaka. When you get out of the city you notice that yes, there is such a thing as silence. Who would have guessed? We’ve been preparing for this camp since the first week that Catherine and I got here and finally being able to see the finished product was extremely rewarding.
As a group, the Engage SA team was in charge of all of the games and activities and every session during the camp. Thinking about camp as a whole and all that needed to be done was a bit overwhelming at times, but everybody did an awesome job getting their parts done and when the time came, we were all prepared. The camp itself was from Thursday the 1st through Saturday the 3rd. We had one Thursday night session, two Friday sessions, and one Saturday session. Crammed between them were a whole lot of games and other activities. It was go, go, go, non-stop all the time.
As exhausting as a camp is, I really had a great time with all of the kids and the other Engagers. I think that we were able to make a good impact on the lives of the kids that came. And I’ll tell you what, the food at camp made a good impact on me. Okay, okay, I know what you’re thinking: “He got sick.” But no! The food there was actually delicious! I’ve gotta say, I’m a fan of Bengali food. Rice with chicken curry, dal, and cooked and seasoned vegetables... yeah baby! Just remember, right hand only! Man, I’m getting hungry just writing this. Time to change subjects.
I got to speak at the Friday morning session, talking to the kids about jealousy. I think that it went pretty good! I even got a nice picture of them making their jealous/angry faces at me (There was going to be a picture here, but now it looks like you'll just have to use your imagination)! This camp was an international camp so most of the kids are expatriates living in Bangladesh.
Since we put so much work into this camp, we are actually going to do it three more times before the end of the semester in cities throughout Bangladesh. But these camps will be for a Bengali crowd rather than an international one. Should be interesting, I’m excited!
Once we got back from camp we were all pretty shot, but after one day of rest we were back at it! This time we were cleaning up and painting the rooms on the floor of a building that we would be using for a women’s gathering. We worked on that for a few days and got it all wrapped up by the end of the week.
On Friday the 9th we had a team fly in from Mississippi to help us out at Uttam’s Place to get it all painted and looking nice. Even though we had to cancel one day of work due to some political protests, we were able to get all the painting done in only a couple days. Once we had gotten Uttam’s Place painted, the team helped us to prepare for the women’s gathering, called Reflections of a Queen.
Along with the team, we got the finishing touches done on the rooms for ROQ and by last Thursday we were set to go for the big event. ROQ itself was a two day event that Cassie and the girls ran last Friday and Saturday. Since it was a women’s event, Joe and I were the behind the scenes guys, in charge of keeping the foot baths stocked with warm water and making sure that we did the dishes. The girls were able to do a great job making every woman coming through ROQ feel very special and valued, so big props to all the girls for their hard work.
On Sunday we leave on a two week trip to Nepal. We will be trekking through the Himalayas for a week, and we’ll be in Kathmandu for the other week. I am super excited to be going. One of the things that I miss most from home is the mountains. Dhaka - and most of Bangladesh for that matter - is very flat, so the Himalayas are going to be a nice break from flatness. I’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures and videos and put them up on the blog as soon as I can.
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