Hello everyone!
Looking back through my journal there has been so much that has happened this week. Time has a funny way of passing, some of it was just a few days ago, but it seems like a long time back. I know you had camp meeting last week, and I thought of you all there. I was sad to miss it, but if I had to trade it for something, it would have been my week here. I'll start with the children's ward because that is where I worked. Most of what I saw was bronchitis, pneumonia, or diarrhea. One of the patients who was there the first day died later in the week during the night. It was sad and sobering for me when I got back in the next day. There have been 2 or 3 babies that have died since I came, and it just makes me realize how short life can be. My heart goes out to the families, they wait nine months for their child and then they only get a few days or weeks with him or her. I don't think I can imagine how difficult that must be for them.
On Wednesday of this week we got the most rain since I've been here. It poured most of the day, and all over the country it was flooding. Even here in Bogra, which doesn't flood as often, people were fishing in the streets! I was at the hospital that morning and I was enjoying watching it come down and fill the courtyard 5 inches deep. One of the nurses I was with told me that her house was flooded too, and then it gave me a totally different perspective on the rain. It can mean a lot of hard work for some of the people here when it rains so hard. Later that evening the Alberts and I drove out to see how the country side looked after the rain. In a lot of places where the rice fields had been it was just a wide flat pond. There were groups of people fishing by the road, which is elevated. We stopped a few times to get out and look, which I really enjoyed. Once we got home I went the the prayer meeting and one of the songs was "Dhonobad, Dhonobad" meaning thank you, thank you. That's how the chorus goes, and as it's the only one I can sing part of, they sang it so I could join in. It was really nice that they thought of me.
On Friday we went to Khanjanpur again, and while they Mr. Dewan did most of his paperwork, some of us went to Parharpur. It was an 8th century Buddhist monestery, the oldest one south of the Hymalayas. It was incredible to see. I think though that I enjoyed the drive out to it almost more than the place itself. We turned off of the main road down a smaller country road. As we drove I felt a sense of wonder that here I was, on the other side of the world, driving down a dusty road climbing in and out of potholes, watching the jute and sugar cane fields slip by, feeling almost carsick because of the bumps and turns, but then coming round a bend and seeing mud houses, cows and jute drying along the walls, under the open blue sky with giant white clouds. The country side was beautiful, and I was so thankful that God had let me come this far to see it all.
Also on Friday on the way to K. I got to see elephants! The first one I didn't see until we were almost up to it, and then as we drove by a truck drove in between us and it, so I didnt' get to see much of it. My first thought was, "Wow, I didn't just see an elephant walking down the road, did I?" About half an hour later we saw another one, and this time I got a much better view. They like to stop the elephant in the middle of the road and won't let you drive by until you pay them a little money. So we got stopped and I was glad! I could have reached out to touch it as it walked on by us. Mr. Dewan said in the seven years he has been going that way, this was only the second time he's been stopped. Most of the elephants are down in the south, so i was very happy that it happened while I was here!
Sunday we went to a church about an hour and a half away in Santahar. It was a small one, maybe only 25 people in all, and we sat on the floor. I enjoyed meeting them and worshipping with them. Maybe it seems obvious, but it was cool to realize that we were both serving the same Lord and were brothers and sisters in Christ. Someday in heaven I'll meet them again and we will be able to understand each other much better! Coming home we got stopped for a while as a truck ahead of us broke down, and it gave me time to watch a group of boys play soccer in the mud and then jump in the water to swim.
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