Craziness Happens

We are still in the middle of our travels and have been gone from home for over a week now. Here is Jensen, letting loose of some pent up energy after sitting in the van for a long time. He has been struggling with motion sickness, so we were relieved that the last trip went better and he didn't seem to be bothered as much.

We are currently spending a few days with Austin's parents and having a great time. Austin is having stomach trouble after eating a spicy snack from a vendor on the ferry - I won't give you the details. So we are sort of unwinding from our long road trips. I had Shaheen, their helper, check my hair for lice. She gave my head a good going over but didn't find any - relief! It was a bonding experience though, and we had a fun time chatting.

It has been nearly 2 months since we have been able to go to an English Church service, which is why we are spending a couple extra days in town. So I am really looking forward to tomorrow! (The weekend here is Friday and Saturday.) We plan to head home early Saturday morning by train. It will be good to be in our own place again, yet this whole trip of trips has been such a good experience for the whole family and I am so grateful.

Our Trip South, Conclusion

At the end of the day, after drinking 4 green coconuts, eating as much mis'ti (sweets) and other snacks, my stomach was beginning to get a strange feeling. Yet I was so touched by the hospitality and generosity of those we had come to see. Why is it that those who have the least so often give the most? I have seen hospitality given out of duty, but today I saw it given out of such joy and love.


There are baskets being formed, stars being shaped...


...paper being made ( I don't have time to go into that whole process, but talk about turning trash into treasure, water "weeds" into beautiful paper!). There are hungry stomachs being filled, there is dignity being restored, there are lives being changed.

I was surprised at how happy I felt at the end of the day. I am an introvert and am usually exhausted after interacting with so many people. Yet I truly felt like I'd been given a boost. Not that I wasn't tired at all, but my soul had been fed by the joy of these women and by the beauty of the flowers and rice fields, echoed by the beauty of the handicrafts and the women who make them. I am more convinced than ever that we each can and should play a role in restoring dignity to the poor. Most of the projects named Ten Thousand Villages as one of their biggest buyers. You may not be able to travel the world and see the process from the grassroots level, yet, when you buy fairly traded items, you are making a difference for someone.

Our Trip South, part 3

Everywhere we went, we were presented flowers and refreshments. Here is Pruitt's first green coconut. He wasn't too sure about it and, in the end, decided that it wasn't the thing for him. Austin and I each drank 4 of them till the day was over!


One of our favorite stops was at Keya Palm, where they work strictly with palm leaves. Here one of the ladies is showing Austin how to weave the prepared strands into a star.


After the leaves are dried, they are torn into large strips. The women sit outdoors at these little tables and run the strips through a 3 part blade, making 3 equal strips. These are then washed and dried and some are boiled in huge vats of dye to make colored strips. The vats are heated by discarded strips of leaves. These women have mastered the art of dyeing. I didn't see any measuring instruments or "recipes", yet there seemed to be consistency in the coloring. As I walked around, there were many more women cutting and lots of strips drying in the sun.

The manager of the project told us more about it's history and how it has made such a difference in the lives of the women. They can eat 3 meals a day now and send their children to school, among other things.


Here are some of the nearly-finished products, drying in the sun, along with tiffin boxes the women brought their lunches in. The whole place was so peaceful. There was a large garden in the front, with ripening eggplants, young tomato and pepper plants. Beautiful flowers were planted here and there. There were several buildings and sheds, but most of the women preferred to work outside. There was a pond on one side where they washed the palm strips. Everywhere there was lots of laughter and chatter to be heard.

Our Trip South, part 2

Monday, after a hearty breakfast of parotas (fried flat bread), veggies and eggs, we were ready to visit more projects. We were first taken to see a large group of women knitting hemp bath mitts. We asked to see how they make the hemp twine, so they took us around the back to this clearing in front of several houses and some women came out and gave us a demonstration. After cleaning the fibers on a comb, one of them squatted down in front of this hand made machine and began spinning, while 2 others slowly fed the fibers onto it and walked backwards as the string got longer and longer. It was amazing - I wish you could have seen it. The above photo doesn't show the process very well, but I wanted you to get a feel for where these women work. There are 4 of them who work together to make the twine, in their front "yards". What better work atmosphere could you have!


I was fascinated by this shed between 2 of the houses. The vegetables hanging down are called "Lau" and are anywhere from 1 to 2 feet long. They eat the leaves as well as the gourds.


Before we walked back to the main part, they gave Jensen and Pruitt each a wad of hemp fiber. Jensen was intrigued and kept trying to create something out of his.


Here are some of the women, knitting together. Some were sitting outside as well. A few of them laid aside their work and had lots of questions for us. They simply loved the boys and thought I must have really good health to have had 3 boys! It didn't take them long to come to the conclusion that Pruitt was the peaceful one and the other 2 were the ornery ones. We had a lively conversation before being called away for some refreshments. As we were leaving, one of them gave some little tree ornaments and bracelets made from hemp to the boys.


Here are the nearly finished products, drying in the sun. These bath mitts are being made for The Body Shop, UK, which is their biggest buyer. Each woman can knit 2 mitts on an average day.

As we walked away, I thought to myself, "I so believe in this." Fair Trade is important and it does make a difference in the producers' lives. More to come...

Our Trip South

Sunday morning we took off for Aguljhara, a rural area in Barisal. Here is the MCC office and guest house where we stayed. We had such a lovely time visiting different projects. These projects have "graduated" from MCC ( if I understand correctly; it is still confusing to me so I won't try to explain it to you) and are able to stand on their own as businesses. There is a large area beside the guest house where women were weaving baskets. They also took us to a nearby sister project where more baskets were being woven.


It was fascinating to watch. How these women sit on the floor all day and weave such beautiful pieces of art out of natural fibers is beyond me. They are working on a large order at the moment and asked the women to work late. They served them rice and alu bhorta ( thick mashed potatoes with mustard oil, onions and chilies) the first evening. It seemed like a couple of our co-workers, who were there as well, were pushing for a bit more for them because when one of the women was asked what they were going to eat the next night, she had a big smile and said they were having fish and vegetables with their rice.


We were presented with flowers at every project we visited. The boys weren't too sure about these garlands but they wore them long enough to have their photo taken. They were, however, pleased to be served sweets and chanachur.


Here are more baskets drying in the sun, before being shipped away.

A Trip to the Hill Country, part 2

Here is one of the many houses we saw as we walked about the area. The simplicity of life here is amazing. One of our walks took us to the river where there is normally a water fall. During this season it would better be described as a water trickle. The kids did find a pooled area to splash in, till we discovered it was where the locals came to get water and we were stirring it up quite a bit. They were also worried that the kids might slip and fall. We left, not knowing if we had offended them, or if they were simply worried for our safety.

The Hill Tracts are home to many different tribal groups. This is a Tripura woman. We found the tribal people to be a friendly and gentle people.


Here is a little boy that Austin came across on one of his trips.

All in all, we had a great time away, and no one was very eager to get on the night bus back to Dhaka. We left at 8 p.m. and arrived at our stop in Dhaka at 4:15 this morning. Needless to say, we were all exhausted and so grateful to be able to crash at Austin's parents place again. We all got some real sleep and have spent the day with them, eating, sleeping, laughing and playing, trying not to think about our next trip, which begins tomorrow morning. This time, a co-worker from Mymensingh, is taking our family to visit MCC's projects in the south. So if you check back in a few days, we should have some more photos from yet another part of this small yet amazing country of Bangladesh.

A Trip to the Hill Country, part 1

Our team just returned from a trip to the Hill Tracts in southern Bangladesh, near the Myanmar border. For us, the trip started at 5:15 a.m. on Tuesday, when we left our house in Mymensingh, to catch the first bus to Dhaka. Here is Austin, holding Riley, as Riley's seat held our luggage. It took 4 hours till we got to Austin's parents place, where we hung out for the day. Then we caught another bus at 11 p.m., this time with all the expatriates on our team, and began the long haul south. It was filled with many stops, honks, close calls and little sleep. The children slept well, which made things more bearable. Around 7 a.m. we foreigners had to all get off and sign many papers at the check point. There has been some trouble in the area and they want to make sure that everyone who goes in also comes out again. We finally got to the resort and enjoyed a lovely breakfast and a view of the hills. After living in flat country, it was very refreshing.

The boys enjoyed the freedom of being outdoors and explored the many paths. They soon made friends with the dog, who they named Speedy.


The highlight for them was a hike to the river, mostly down, down, down. Since it is the dry season, the water was shallow enough for most of them to walk all the way across.

Our guide told us it was market day and we saw many boats coming through, often with a pile of cabbages on them.

Everywhere we went, we had to have a guide as well as 3 armed police. I don't think we were under any real danger, but as it was government policy, we went along with it. Here you can see one of them, as the boat is taking us upriver after our swim. From there we caught a jeep to take us back up to the resort, rightly named Hillside Resort.