Bangladesh

Bangladesh is a small country that borders both India to the East and West and Burma (Myanmar) to the south east as well as the Bay of the Bengal in the south. There is an estimated 160 million people living there in a country the size of Iowa. The state of Iowa has about 3 million people and the ENTIRE united states has about 300 million so as you can see there are a lot of people packed into a very small space. We were staying up in the NW on the India border, where the land consisted mostly of flat fields with crops of rice, sugar cane, eucalyptus trees, banana trees and mustard plants.

It took us about 40 hours of traveling to get to Bangla Hope and just one of our 3 flights alone was 16 hours long and every minute was worth it when we got there.

After arriving in Dhaka (Bangladesh's capital) we stood in line to
go through immigration for over an hour and then discovered that as a group 9 of our bags were missing. Each one of us brought as many medical supplies or clothing items for the orphanage as possible with our 2 bag per person limit. Nojah and I were able to pack all of our stuff and more into one bag so we took 3 extras which luckily all made it to the airport. Unfortunately most of the missing bags were much needed medical items. One of our team members lost her passport in Dubai as well and so her and a few others stayed behind to deal with the US embassy that next morning as well as the case of the missing luggage. The rest of us packed up all the remaining luggage and piled 9 people into a 7-8 person van for our 8 hour journey to Haziapur. The driver and our interpreter insisted that Nojah sit up front between them because he was the smallest, but as small tears started to form in his eyes I realized this wouldn't be good so he squished in the back with me as another couple kindly offered to make the switch.

Moments after getting out on the crowded roads I was very thankful he was in the back with me. Our family has had some pretty crazy bus rides in the past but I believe this one exceeded them all. I have never seen SO many people on the road at one time and come so close to hitting multiple large trucks and buses head on in my life. Everyone honks multiple times flashing their lights when it's dark out and pass each other at all times despite traffic, visibility, or blind corners. I didn't believe it until I was there but you can actually fit 2 or 3 rickshaws, multiple random people, dogs, goats and cows walking along side the road, 2 buses and one little van all across a small stretch of road at one time without anyone getting killed.

We shared the road with this gentleman and his pets. He appeared a bit lopsided but fared well.

They do have both paved and dirt roads but both are equally poor quality with potholes to swerve around at high rates of speed to add to the fun. Despite the craziness, the drivers are good. I learned that usually only men drive and they can't start driving until they are about 20. I was just surprised they actually had a rule. Had I tried to drive in those circumstances I would have curled up in a ball in the drivers seat and not gotten anywhere or be dead within 10 minutes and I consider myself a pretty good driver. I guess it's all in what you know. There must be an art to it. Either way, glad to be home safe. In all honesty as well we laughed most of the time and joked about the crazy driving. It was a pretty laid back experience, after all what can you do in a situation like that?

Typical side of the road scene (a less congested one anyway) If I could direct your attention to the dog please. We were only in the country 10 days but this was the ONLY type of dog we saw there and MANY of them. It came in different colors and some with more mange then others but clearly the same genetics.

I wish I could have gotten some better pictures but I had to finally tell myself to put down the camera and just soak it all in while I was there. If these pictures are not enough for your viewing pleasure, then may I suggest you join the next mission trip and experience the smells, people, noise, cultural differences and poverty of this country yourself. I actually highly recommend it. :-)

Anyone who has traveled probably realizes that those noises, smells, and the people are what make the experience and the memories you take home with you and 90% of what one experiences while traveling cannot be accurately described to those back at home. So much of it seems indescribable. When I travel in 3rd world countries I am in awe of how hard people work for so little and yet how happy they seem. The people of Bangladesh were happy, not just those in the orphanage but as a whole. I saw many beautiful toothless smiles and crazy smiles with teeth full of betel nut, however at the time it couldn't have been any sweeter or more contagious. I have to say I truly fell in love.

While walking around the small village of Haziapur where the orphanage is, we were welcomed into homes and followed around by both adults and children as we explored their village and daily life. Most lived in mud huts or in small sheet metal one room homes. Most were very clean (they have great coconut handmade brooms I wish I could have at home) without toys scattered or excesses of junk lying around like you may find here in the states. They grew what they ate and they hand made what they had. While wandering around we saw people making baskets, cooking meals, fishing, grinding and boiling rice, stacking hay, making dung sticks for fire wood, as well as families working out in the fields. The climate is cold there right now, probably 50 degree's but the humidity that accompanies it chills you to the bone. Most kids were bundled well but looked like they wore the same clothing day in and day out and I just hope they had blankets for the cold nights. The people at the orphanage said that the next month would be much colder.

Cooking Breakfast

They used bamboo shavings and some sort of straw (maybe from the rice?) to make their baskets.

1st is cutting the rice from the fields then it goes through the foot pedaled grinder and then all the rice is collected off of the ground and laid out to dry and then boiled before they package it in bags and either sell it or eat it.

Dung sticks :-) There are lots of cows and goats roaming around the village pooping where ever so they take their baskets collect the dung and then form it around small sticks of wood for firewood. I think I had mentioned in my other post about Tuli's mom dieing of Tetanus from doing this.

Fishing. They would come back with big fish and tiny fish to sell or feed to there families.

This man is shaving wood for a basket I believe.

By the end of our walk I didn't have enough hands for all the beautiful children. They were so sweet with those contagious smiles I talked about earlier.

There is a lot of sadness and suffering in Bangladesh despite their smiles and generosity, as it is one of the poorest countries in the world. The one thing that was most upsetting to me is how women are viewed as worthless in much of the country. Baby girls are dreaded by both women and men. Women dread baby girls because of fear their husbands will leave them if they don't have boys. I believe 88-90% are Muslim and the rest Hindu with a small maybe 0.5-1% being Christian. Families have to pay something like $1500 to marry off a woman so they are often not wanted. A lot of little girls are killed or deserted at some point during their life. Women who can't bear children are left and have a hard time re-marrying if they are able at all. Men often times have multiple wives and favor those who produce little boys. Coming from a culture that values women it was a bit hard to suck up. A lot of what I saw reminded me of the tale in a book I read called A Thousand Splendid Suns ( A must read). The average life expectancy of the bangali's is somewhere around 60 if I remember correctly and live a life of hard labor. Most get very poor medical care if any, so it was nice to be able to take the time to at least listen to their complaints and concerns and help when we could. Despite all of their hardships I have to say that this is a group of people who have the means to survive. They know how to use the earth and what has been provided to them. I wish I could say the same about us at times. I felt very blessed to be able to spend much of our time with bangali's who spoke both Bangla and English and their willingness to share their culture with us while we were there. I have over 500 pictures and wish I could share them all as well as the stories but I have got to get some sleep. It was a truly incredible experience and if you ever get the opportunity to do something similar I suggest you take it!