The Day Riley Fell Into the Sewer

The boys had off school an extra day this past weekend so we thought it would be a great time to take them to Mymensingh. They haven't been able to spend that much time there since we moved to Dhaka and were very excited about going and visiting all their old favorite spots. So Thursday morning we were out the door by 5:30 a.m. to catch the bus. We got there in time for Jensen's favorite breakfast - baji (fried vegetables), eggs and chapatis, followed by a cup of cha. It was a work day for Austin so I hung out with the boys. They had a blast on the rooftop of the office, pretending to be Indiana Jones. They found bits of bamboo, and old bicycle tire and other odds and ends and had all the equipment they needed. When it got too hot outside, we went inside and played some games. Riley took a motorcycle ride with his Dad and another designer to a nearby project, which made him very happy! The morning passed quickly and we were fed a delicious lunch of rice, lentils, chicken and lots of veggies. We spent the afternoon visiting a couple of projects. While the women sat outside in the courtyard at Sacred Mark and worked on stirring up a small batch of soap and getting fibers ready for packaging (above), the boys played soccer with a beach ball and provided live entertainment.


They were so happy to be outside and run on a small patch of grass and be barefoot! So when it was time to go, they lined up to have their feet washed at the outside faucet.


Riley wasn't convinced that his feet needed to be washed or that anyone should help him do it. I was humbled by the fact that this woman was so willing to wash the dirt off my sons' feet. I simply told them it was time to go and to wash up but she ran over and helped each one of them. In a culture where feet are a "dirty" part of the body and there is a special ritual you go through if you accidentally touch some one's feet and to really shame someone you show them the bottom of your foot etc., it's humbling to have someone wash your feet. Another interesting aspect of feet here is to show respect to elders and to invoke a blessing of another, you stoop down and touch their feet. Living here has helped me understand Peter's horror at having his beloved Teacher stoop down to wash his feet (as told in the Injil Sharif) and the impact of that event, that we are now to wash each other's feet. It makes me want to write another blog about abolishing status and the need to serve those around us instead of expecting them to serve me because of who I am. No, as the Greatest Teacher said, the one who wants to be the greatest needs to be the servant of all. I will leave it at that, for now.


From there we went to the Training Center and had a fun time interacting with a group of women, singing songs, playing with a chubby little baby. The boys were a little shy at first, maybe because they were in front of a room full of women, maybe because the baby didn't have a diaper on but they soon gathered around him and were talking to him. They were grossed out by the fact that he was drooling and slobbering and were amazed when I told them that they had each done the same thing when they were little! All too soon it was time to go. We said our good byes and went down to the vehicle. Riley, being the independent fellow that he is, did not listen to the instructions his father was giving him and ended up falling into an open sewer. We were so thankful it wasn't deep - he only went in up to his waist, if that. His Dad grabbed him out and held him in the air a moment as we recovered from the shock. Poor kid, hanging there, dripping black goo, the hole gurgling a bit as if it was recovering too. We realized his sandals had been sucked off but were just happy to have our boys back, dripping though he was. So I took him upstairs again, dripping black goo the whole way. At the top, one of the women took him from me and hurried into the bathroom to start washing it off. It was a bit frightening for him, to be surrounded by strangers while I went to ask Austin for a bag to put the dirty clothes in. The women wanted to help and scrubbed him down and another one was washing out his clothes, still another one was reaching into the sewer to try to find the lost sandals. We told them its okay, we'll just buy another pair, but they kept trying. She reached in nearly to her armpit and eventually found both of them. Meanwhile Riley was cleaned and wrapped in a towel and given back to me. He wasn't hurt, just shook up a bit and sad that his sandals were missing so he was quite happy to hear they had been found. Back at our "old house" I rubbed disinfectant over his legs and feet and gave him a hot shower and soaked his sandals overnight in disinfectant, just to be sure.

Here is a closer look at the hole he fell into.

I've been thinking about this - that there are some of us who are too proud and independent to accept help from others. Then there are some of us who are too proud and expect people to serve us. I think both are wrong and are as offensive to our Creator as the black goo pictured above. We were meant to be in community, to be willing to put our hands in black goo for each other, not to triumph over another or be better than another.

A lot more happened over the weekend, a lot of things to humble me and make me aware of how much I have... but this concludes the adventures of the day Riley fell into the sewer.