The sounds, smells, and commotion of this new country was something that made me snap out of my exhaustion and feel alive once again. Robby, the Bangla Hope treasurer, met us at the door and helped us load our luggage into a van. Then we piled into a second van and headed for the former Adventist dental clinic in the heart of Dhaka. I have been on some wild car rides in my past, but let me tell you, nothing came close to this one. Lots of swerving from left to right, honking horns, speeding right up to a bus, on the opposite side of the road, and then a quick turn back into the lane just in the nick of time. I give the drivers around here a lot of respect. Now that I've been here for awhile, I’m not at all worried, it’s just how they get places. Traffic accidents are one of the top leading causes of death in Bangladesh due to the heavily populated areas. Lots of the land is rural which means even more people will be in the cities causing more traffic. Bangladesh has a population of 164.7 million people and is geographically about the same size as the state of New York. The next morning I awoke to many sounds of the city. Birds chirping, people talking, and lots of different horns honking. While getting ready, I smelled the most amazing aromas coming from the kitchen and was excited to see and eat my first Bangladesh meal. I went to the deck to watch the daily bustle of people and then was able to go up on the rooftop, which was even more amazing. The van ride to the orphanage took about 9 hours with lots of things, people, and places every way you look. We crossed what the Banglai people like to say, “the longest bridge in the world” which isn’t true, but could be close because it was fairly long. We stopped a few times to get a bite to eat and gas. Around 4 pm we made it to my new home. The guard opened the gate for the two vans and then I saw them, ALL the children and staff in a moon shaped circle waiting and excited to greet us. We stepped out of the van and right away they sang us their welcome song and then handed us each a bouquet of flowers.
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I’m safe! don’t worry!
It has been a crazy first two weeks since I left the States. Every morning and night I wake up hoping I’ll start to write, but then the day goes by too quickly. Now that I have a routine starting to form, I have made the time. The night before I left the States, I hadn’t even packed any of my bags. I stayed up until about 2 am and then finished when I woke up that morning. My parents took me to Tri-Cities, WA where I met with the director of Bangla Hope, (who stays every 6 months in Bangladesh), the founders, and a few of the office staff. Then we headed for Seattle and stayed at a hotel to catch our early flight to Singapore. We got to the airport and met up with another student missionary (SM) who was traveling with the director and me. We successfully got all 36 bags, things for the nearby villages, orphanage, and building projects, checked in and through security with a few minutes to spare before our flight boarded. I love to fly which is good because our flight was 16 hours long. We landed in Singapore in the early evening and had about two hours before our flight took off for Dhaka. We went to the gate it said on the screen, but then was sent to a different one across the airport. We walked around for a bit, looking at the beautiful Singapore gardens, then went through security. About 20 mins later the announcer said that the plane landed late and would be at a different gate. We all got up and went through security a second time. We boarded for our four hour flight and made it to Dhaka at about 1 am. Once we got through customs, we exchanged some money and then went to go get our 36 bags. Putting all the bags on our 5 carts was like piecing a tedious puzzle together. I went first, pushing one cart and then running back to get the other one and the other two the same way. Getting to the front door is quite a challenge, first because sometimes the guards want to check what you have inside your bags with the machines, and second because there were piles of people pushing and shoving their way through the small opening. I couldn’t keep running back to grab the second cart, but I was able to push my way through with the first without any scanning. The other two however had two carts each they had to push through. I felt bad, but I couldn’t leave the one sitting there in front of the door. Once we all made it through, we walked onto the open ground of Bangladesh for the first time, thanking Jesus for the safe journey through this first part. Within this past month I have been able to finally get my visa, which took quite a lot of work. I wasn't sure if there would be enough time before I left, but why do I worry because God always comes through. I will be leaving the states soon. It's becoming more and more real. I have had one amazing summer and it has taught me a lot about myself and preparing me for this next year.
I started just a week and a half ago with my “weeder” job and have already been pulling those long-rooted, thorny, fast-growing spiders for over 40 hours. That's a lot of weeds. I usually pack a lunch, but today was running a bit late so I went to WWU's gas station for a fresh smoothie and some nuts. I didn’t have my debit card on me but had my student ID, which I never use to buy stuff, but knew I could pay with it for this one time. I went up to the cashier's counter and swiped my card, the cashier went to tell one of the workers about the smoothie while I opened my little nut pouch and proceed to eat it’s contents. A minute or so later the cashier asked me to come back to the front because my card didn't' work. I swiped again, feeling very awkward because I had already eaten about half of the nut pouch, and unfortunately didn’t work once again. The guy behind me in line looked at me and at the cashier and said that he got me. I didn’t know what to say, I just looked at him feeling even more awkward and said wow, thank you so much. After he paid and went to go fill up his soda cup I went and asked his name and what he did for work. I once again thanked him and walked out of the gas station feeling overwhelming blessed because that little kindness wasn’t just a little, it was huge. It made me want to be better, do better, love better. I needed that reminder to help me be less selfish, to appreciate the little things, and to know that there are so many loving people in this world. That no matter where you are, you can make a difference, sometimes the smaller ones are in fact the most heart opening out there.
One of my jobs this summer is working at Walla Walla University on the grounds crew as a “weeder,” not the kind you smoke, just to clarify. I wanted to do something that would give me time to think and process this upcoming year. My boss is kind and lets his employees listen to stuff while we work, which makes the time go by quicker. I know I've said that I am not good at grammar, words, and especially spelling, but I also have never really liked to read, which totally makes sense given my history with English. Anyway, I have always loved the thought that one day I will really get into the book reading thing. I love the idea of all the new things I could learn, grow, and take with me in life. My brother has always had tons of books. I remember while growing up he would shove his face in for hours. Give me 5 minutes and I wouldn’t even know what I just read on the last page. About two years ago my brother gave me around 15 books as a birthday present, all which sounded amazing. I read one, the best book ever, “Love Does” by Bob Goff. This book is a must read. I have also started on about three others in the past year. I've only one or two chapters into each of them and haven't been able to finish. I went to Australia this last spring break to visit one of my friends. I took one of the books I had started, from my brother's precious gift collection, and was determined to finish it as I had almost 72 hours of travel time, plenty for me to finish an average size book. But, oh no I didn’t touch it the whole time. Before I left, my friend saw that I had the book her friend had recommended to her and I just let her have it, sorry Niq. I knew that she would actually read it and get something out of it, or it would go back home to me with dust starting to rust the inked pages. Well all this background information leads me to the point that I have successfully listened to, not read, two whole books in only four days! That's a record! I really wanted to listen to books that would help me prepare for this exciting adventure, books that inspire, learning how to work in different environments, looking at situations in different ways etc., and I have already learned a great deal from these two books: David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell and The Birth Order Book; Why you are the way you are by Dr. Kevin Leman. If you have any audiobook or podcasts suggestions for this upcoming adventure I would love to hear them. Please comment down below.
After school was out for the year, it has hit me that in just a few short months, I will be on a plane heading to a new country, alone, for a full year. I still have a lot to do: buying my plane tickets, visa, packing, getting all my personal things squared away, listening/reading to podcasts and audiobooks about how to teach, how to be effective, and about Bangladesh itself, and getting some piano content for the kids prepared and ready. Each day that goes by, I am getting more and more excited and nervous of what's yet to come.
Another project I am excited to be helping with is taking better pictures of the kids for sponsoring a child as well as starting up an Instagram page. I want to get the word out about the orphanage in any kind of way possible. There are a lot more things I will be doing as well, but these are just a few I currently know about.
I can’t believe it has already been a month since I decided to go out as a student missionary (SM) to Bangladesh for this next school year. Since I said yes to the calling God has placed on my heart, I have done a ton of paperwork, feeling as though I am signing my life away. I am the only SM that is going from Walla Walla University (WWU). Originally, I wasn't going to be able to go due to me being the only one from my school, but there are two other SM’s from Southern Adventist University that are going too, and once again the doors have been unlocked.
It’s odd that I am starting this blog of sharing my life, I have tried lots of times to keep one of those journals, but once I do a single entry I stop; either I “have” to write detailed sections of everything I did in that day or not at all. Plus I am the worst at grammar and even worse at spelling, I couldn’t even spell my name for the longest time. Yet, I know that this experience I am about to embark on I will want to have a collection of writings to remember these times when my memory is fading away. My dad is sitting next to me working on the page itself, bless his heart, and said, “you just need to start now.” So, I’m starting, I don’t have the most amazing words, funny, creative, or captivating ways of making people want to sit and read for hours, but it’s me and that's okay. I can’t promise that I will post once or even bi-weekly, but I will try my best to give you new and updated content. So here goes….
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~ Kate ~Writing about my student mission experience in Bangladesh. Archives
February 2021
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