I made it to Bangladesh!!

Hello from Bangladesh!! We finally made it!

Our flight from Hong Kong to Bangladesh was very interesting. Since the airline we were going to fly to Dhaka only has 2 flights a week from Hong Kong, we were put on a flight with the Bengali national airline. There were about 50 people on the flight (and it was a very large plane!)...so at least we got to sleep on the flight. Though there were other Americans on the plane, my boss and I were the only ones aboard who were not of Bengali descent...let's just say my height and skin color truly make me stand out. Alot of the passengers were very curious why we wanted to go to Bangladesh, it was wonderful to be able to tell them that we were going to help with the Cyclone Relief.

We arrived in Bangladesh at 2:30 AM and were greeted by our host. It was raining when we arrived. We drove directly to our hostel in Dhaka City. On the drive, my heart was just opened to the need of these people...this country is definitely one of the world's poorest. The city is chaotically beautiful...extremely crowded, polluted, loud and hot...but the people are beautiful and wonderful. The country is predominately Muslim...only about 1% Christian...so there is great need there also.

On Tuesday we were able to spend time with the team from APU and fellowship in our host families home. (The team had just arrived from India the day before) We spent the day getting supplies for our trip down south and trying to recover from jet lag. Our host family and all the people we have meet from World Vision and local churches have been incredibly hospitable. We are always invited in for tea and biscuits (still so much English influence here) and conversation.

On Wednesday we had a 6 hour drive down to Barisol. Driving here is an adventure! One of the most interesting parts of our journey was a 20 minute ferry ride across a river. We had to stay in our vans because it was not safe for us to get out. It was incredibly hot in the van, but it was very memorable!

On Thursday we drove about an hour to the village we are going to be building the homes in. (We are staying in the city during our time here instead of the village) We got to meet 3 of the 10 families...thank the Lord for World Vision and all they do! The village we are working in was not completely destroyed (it is about 40 kilometers from the coast), but there was a lot of damage to roofs (completely gone) and walls (trees falling). There has been absolutely no relief in this village (or area) due to the lack of "severity" of their circumstances. The families we met truly are the least of the "least of these." One of the families is living out of their little kitchen area of their home, the dad has gastric cancer and cannot work, and one of their three children is mute. Another family is composed of 1 woman who has no one to take care of her...she literally has nothing! The villagers were very leary of us at first (we are probably the first Americans they have met) but by the end, the little boys of the village were showing off by jumping off trees into the river and the women were trying to keep us girls out of the heat by welcoming us into the shade with them. There is at least one young woman in the village who speaks English very well, so we are praying that God will use us to be able to minister to her and to others through her interpretation. God truly has prepared this village of Bhanderia for this team and this time!

Fridays are the day off here (due to the country being Muslim...that is their holy day) and some of the staff that we need to begin have been delayed in other parts of the country (the World Vision staff is not getting paid to help with this project...it is all volunteer for them to be assisting us...and we could not do it without them because they are our go between between the government and villages...like I said we are so very thankful for them!) So we went to a "pond" that used to be part of a King's home. I have never experienced heat and humidity like yesterday! It was incredible! In the evening we were invited to meet with the pastor and some of the deacons of the Barisal Baptist Church. They are partnering with us in building the homes by sending four of their college students to work alongside of us...we really are getting to partner with the global Church! These four guys have become inseperable from the team! Their English is wonderful and we are able to share life with them here in Bangladesh. After visiting the church we were able to also visit the home of one of the World Vision staff. We all crammed into their humble home and enjoyed laughter and some ice cream...quite the treat on a really hot day.

Today we are spending time as a team to prepare for the work ahead. (The team has spent 4 weeks in Calcutta, India and these four days have really served them as a time to rest and debrief before they spend 5 more weeks in ministry...they will not get any days off until they fly home).

Tomorrow (Sunday) we should begin work on the homes! My boss and I will stay until Wednesday morning and then head back to Dhaka so we can make contacts with some strategic people for further ministry here in the future...then I fly out Thursday night.

I spend most of my days intentionally hanging out with the students and being in utter disbelief that God is using our tiny Relief Effort to really do huge things 1/2 way around the world. This still seems like a dream and I do not really know if I will ever fully grasp why God decided to use me (and this project)...but He has and I am so very thankful that I get the chance to witness it taking place. I have also had the amazing opportunity to build some great relationships with our APU students and am looking forward to continuing to invest in them when we are all back at APU.

So...I think that is it! I am healthy and so blessed! I hope all is well at home!

Love you and miss you!

Stuck in Hong Kong!

Things don't always go as planned...that is what I continue to learn on this trip!

My flight was delayed 2 hours from LAX which was not a huge deal until they informed us that we were going to have to make an unplanned fuel stop in Korea due to massive headwinds...so that took over an hour....needless to say by the time we got to Hong Kong (11:30 pm) we had missed our connecting flight to Dhaka.

The airline put us up in hotel and informed us that our flight (on a completely different airline) would not be leaving until the next day at 7 pm. Which meant we had a whole day in Hong Kong. We (my boss and I) decided to enjoy our time here and do a little site seeing. So today we took a train to one of the islands and went to Victoria Peak on this oldschool cable car (wish I coud attach pictures, but I can't download anything right now).

We rushed back to make sure we got checked in for our flight and then we were informed that our flight would not be leaving until 11:30 pm...so they checked us back into our hotel for the evening. We just checked out of the hotel and finally got our real boarding passes to hopefully get on a plane to Bangladesh. Our biggest concern at this point is that our luggage gets there...our luggage spent the night at the airport instead of with us...hmmmm we will see if it gets there.

So yep that is it for now...I will try and update more when I get to Bangladesh. But so far we have heard that the plan is for us to head down to southern Bangladesh on Wednesday to start some relief work.

Hope you all are doing well!

Blessings from China!

Leaving for Bangladesh Tomorrow

I'm packed, ready and I really can't believe I am going to Bangladesh in just a few hours!

I have no idea what to expect! Seriously! All I know is that I am flying from LAX to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Dhaka (the capital of Bangladesh)...from there all is unknown.

I am nervous...it has been a long time since I have headed half-way around the world and not had a clue as to what to expect when I arrived. But at the same time I am so excited!

So just in case your wondering why I am going to Bangladesh (I know, I know...everyone still thinks I am going to Thailand tomorrow because that is where I always go)...well, this year I was the Graduate Assistant in the Office of World Missions at Azusa Pacific University. Somehow they thought I would be the best candidate to work on developing a brand new program called Global Relief. The goal of this program is to provide for humanitarian aid needs globally by engaging the APU community and working alongside the Global Church.

A student at APU grew up in Bangladesh and his parents still live and work there (for a prominent non-profit that I probably shouldn't publish here just in case random officials read this!!...no joke!!). Well, when Cyclone Sidr hit in November this student and I had a conversation and the idea came up that we could do some sort of relief effort for the victims. This idea turned into a full-fledged semester long, campus wide fundraising campaign to build houses for those who no longer had one.

Throughout the semester we had almost every student life office on campus get involved (which is amazing!) and we raised over $6,000 (or approximately 10 houses) for the victims of Cyclone Sidr. The amount is not what I had hoped for, but I know it is just the beginning of a program that has the ability to change lives.

So what am I doing in Bangladesh? That is the question even I am asking...but I will have the answer very very soon (oh in about 48 hours when I arrive in this new foreign land). For sure we know that the supplies are on their way from Dhaka to the relief effort site...that was probably one of the most amazing emails I got...to know that the money was actually going to work on the other side of the world. While in Bangladesh we are more than likely going down to the relief site (with a team from APU...students that have been overseas for over a month) and hopefully getting to help do some construction. We are also more than likely going to do just about anything we are asked to do (which is very exciting) and meeting lots of people and sharing the TRUE reason we are there...to show some LOVE!!!

So yep, that's it! I will try and update you from Bangladesh and post some pictures...but just not too sure if I will even be able to get anywhere near somewhere that has internet access. But I will for sure post stuff when I get home!

The Washer & Dryer Saga

So, I am starting this blog and the first thing I am going to write about is my washer and dryer...how sad is that? Anyway, my hope is that through this blog all the people I know can stay updated about my life as I experience it.

So the saga of the washer and dryer...

Let me preface this by saying that I promise I have done my laundry in the last three weeks (I just had to go to my parents house to do it!)

So four weeks ago we had a note posted on our door by the maintance people of our apartment complex, which is now in the hands of the school I attend (I am going to try and keep their name out of it because I work for them!), that our water was going to be shut off for two days the following week. Inconvient yes, but okay, at least we had some warning. The next day we had another note posted on our door that during a two week period there would be people entering our apartment to do some repairs required by the city. No big deal right? They had come in to do repairs before.

Well, the next Monday morning at 8 am there is a knock at our door. My roommate answered it and a contractor walks into our apartment and begins to tell us about how they need to take the washer and dryer out of our apartment, knock a giant hole in our laundry room wall, rip out all the shelving, and redo a bunch of plumbing. All of this was news to us! He told us that if we wanted to make some phone calls and try to stop the whole process we were free to, so we asked him to wait while we tried to figure out what was going on.

My roommate made some calls and asked very nicely if this could wait about 20 days until we moved out of the apartment (we have to leave because all the undergrad students are going to be living here next year). But, every office she called told us they had no control over the situation and there was nothing we could do about it. So we cleaned all of our cleaning supplies out of the laundry room and moved them to the living room (super convient) and in came the workers! By Monday afternoon we had a 4 foot wide by 3 foot high hole in our wall (we could see the adjacent apartment....thank goodness no one is living there right now) and a washer and dryer out on our balcony.

That night it rained on our washer and dryer. I honestly didn't think much about it...but just wait the rain will defintely come into play later!

So Tuesday and Wednesday we didn't have running water from 8 in the morning until 5 at night and men were in and out of our apartment with all sorts of equipment. The best part was one of my roommates (Monica) was getting ready to leave for the entire summer on a mission trip and she really needed to do some laundry, but she couldn't! By Friday there was still a big hole in our wall, that was nicely covered up by a piece of plywood. Over the weekend no work was done (obviously) so I took home ALL my laundry to my parents and did as much as I could there.

On Monday they re-drywalled the wall. Tuesday when I came home for lunch a man was in my apartment just looking at the laundry room. He promised me they would paint and have it finished by Wednesday. On Wednesday nobody came to work in our apartment. Thursday...nothing. Friday morning, my other roommate Alayna, calls some high up and they promise her our washer and dryer will be installed by that evening. Promises, promises! I came home late Friday night and our washer and dryer were still out on the balcony...go figure!

Monday morning I went to work and by the time I got home the washer and dryer were back in the laundry room!!! I was so excited!!! So I go to put my first load of laundry in and what do you know...there are all sorts of little flowers from the tree that hangs over our balcony inside the washer, the washer and dryer no longer fit correctly in the the laundry room (so the door to the room doesn't open all the way) AND there is now rust inside the washer! So I try and clean it all out. The flowers came out no problem, but the rust...not coming off.

On Tuesday Alayna called somebody and they said it was impossible for rust to be inside our washer and they would come and check it out first thing on Wednesday. Well, it is Wednesday and I haven't seen anyone come or go in my apartment and last time I checked there is still rust in my washer.

So needless to say I haven't been able to do laundry in my own home for 2 1/2 weeks! Ahhhh!!! I hope this story brings all of you a laugh, because seriously the more I think about it the funnier it gets. Maybe by the time I move out...oh in about 7 days...I will finally be able to use the washer and dryer!

The Amazing Basketball Season!!

Tonight was the last game for the intramural league I am playing in at APU...all I can say is that I am glad it is over! It was a lot of fun to get to play on a regular basis, but my team of old ladies (grad students) couldn’t keep up with girls who actually play on the school’s team...go figure!
Tonight we lost really, really, really badly...but I made a girl fall flat on her face (which is pretty cool!...but sort of mean!). In fact, the whole season we lost pretty bad...I think the closest we ever got to winning was being down by 8 points at the end of one game. We even lost a game to a team that only had 4 players...have I mentioned that we suck!!

We actually did win one game though...I probably just shouldn’t mention that it was by forfiet!
Well I bid farwell to intramural basketball at APU...unfortunately I won’t be able to play next year because I will have a class on Monday nights...oh well!

A 1/2 Marathon

February 3, 2008

Sometime after midnight- It starts to rain
3 AM- I wake up, too excited to sleep
5 AM- My alarm finally goes off
6 AM- I leave my house...it is still raining!
6:45 AM- Get out of my car (it is pouring down rain) to stand in line to get on a bus that goes to the starting line.
7:00 AM- I am soaked! Monica, CK, Melanie and ANNA arrive, and we continue to wait for the bus in the rain.
7:40 AM- We finally get on a bus. I am wet and cold, but super excited.
7:55 AM- We arrive at the race; pray & line up for our start.
8:02 AM- We cross the starting line! (It is still raining!)
Mile 1- CK and I try to break through all the people who are walking the course.
Mile 2- I try to set my pace.
Mile 3- See one of my high school teachers and a friend.
Mile 3.5- Hill! (It really wasn't that bad, I just thought the course was flat)
Mile 4- Downhill (nice) And it's still raining and really windy.
Mile 5- The rain lets up a little.
Mile 6- The rain and wind pick up; I slow down.
Mile 7 & 8- Were really good!
Mile 9- I can feel the blister forming on my right foot from my wet socks.
Mile 10- Uggg!! I can see the pier (which is about where the finish line is) and I think through walking or jogging the rest of the course. I decide to finish the last 3.1 miles jogging...because I want to say I "ran" the whole thing. (Why I am so competitive??).
Mile 11- 2.1 miles to go. And oh yeah...it was still raining.
Mile 12- I almost started walking...until some old man (who was walking and had started before me) talked to me and he told me it really wasn't that far to the finish line...and I had to run.
Mile 13- The adrenaline kicks in and I picked up the pace.
Mile 13.1- I FINISHED!!! In 2:50:36...not too bad for my 1st time. I was soaking wet and cold, but still moving (well sort of)

Intramural Basketball & 1/2 Marathons

What was I thinking?!?!?!

The 1/2 marathon is this Sunday...only 5 more days! I really can't believe it. In the last few months, I have gone from running 6-8 miles a week to running 6-8 miles each time I go. I am really looking forward to this Sunday...running with some great friends and raising money for a great cause (Bangladesh!!).

Intramural Basketball is another story! Some classmates and I (all grad students) decided to be on a team together (all the other teams are made up of college students). We had our first game tonight...it was...alright considering we had never practiced, we only had 6 players, we had never met two of the girls on our team until game time, and the team we played had a coach! I bet you can guess the score!! But honestly...the ref was bad...the other team was fouling us like crazy! But all in all we had fun and hopefully we will get better as the weeks go on! I'll let you know if we win a game!!