10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3

            Six months sounded like a long time. Now it’s down to those last moments you cherish for everything they’re worth. I would like to share with you some of my memories from my last 10 days at BanglaHope.

Day 10: Blessed with an awesome thunderstorm. Danny was helping me do some coloring for Grammy when the rain finally poured down accompanying the thunder and lightning. Of course we HAD to take a break and go run, spin, and dance in the rain J Later, all the foreigners planted their own coconut tree the freedom fighter donated for Gohara village school. At Shati’s last dinner of chipattis, chips, hummice, and salsa, Grammy got me hooked on salsa juice…it’s strangely addicting J

The audience. They find even planting trees attractive

Day 9: Caleb and Kakoli were my lap buddies in church…I’m going to miss my funky monkey and mommy SO much L Then we each grabbed some kids and went on our last walk through the villages, saw the silly quilt lady Grammy gave a thimble to, and played my last game of 5 crowns with popcorn and smoothies at the Waids house.

Beautiful stitchery with a painful finger before Grammy brought her the thimble!

Day 8: Splendid art class with supplies amazing people sent Lisa, then each 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd grader got to make their own sugar cookie, decorate it, and of course later consume it J Then at chapel in Grammy’s house that night, all 37 of them were given gum to chew-a huge treat! Ever heard 37 people all smacking their gum in a little room? It’s….noticable!

Marissa and Mitali making cookies

Day 7: Invited to a meal with all the foreigners (about 5 of us went)at some important guy’s house and saw the girls from a girls school he started-He just wanted the girls to see us and be motivated to study so they could be like us some day? I think it’s great girls can be motivated to do good in school by just staring at us-stare away kids!

Day 6:Ponuel learned the entire ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ on his violin. Melody’s water ballon toss turned into an EPIC waterfight, running back and forth to the bathroom with buckets of water for these kids that were having a blast with their first waterfighting experience! J Then closed the last mid-week prayer meeting with a prayer in Bangla, hehe J

Oh Danny. the drencher has been drenched :)

Waterballon toss

Day 5: Farewell program…Beautiful dance with candles and red saris by Banni, Suma, Helen, Minuti, Joya, and Shagormoni, poem from Crissy, 3^rd grade dance, and a special dance from Tisha. These kids are not only cute, but talented too J Litton encouraged us go to out with dancing instead of tears, which I thought about doing until Danny started crying on my lap. These kids make it so painful to think about leaving L

Farewell dance

Day 4: Last day of classes, taught my 1^st graders(favorite class EVER) ‘Heads up 7 up’, except it was more like, ‘Wake up 3 up’ because there’s only 12 of them in the class, and they don’t know what 7 up is. The kids are already crying when I went to say goodnight to them, and I’m not even leaving yet. How am I going to pull myself away? When Kakoli told me she was going to cry when I left, I told her, “ You don’t have to be so sad. If you love Jesus, I will see you again in heaven.” To which she replied, “No, first you come to Bangladesh. Bangladesh is heaven.”

Day 3: Broke the record with TWENTY GIRLS on Mr. Puffin today! We took all the big girls to town to get their very own little buckets and soap because at 8 years old here, it’s time to start doing some of your own laundry J  saw our 2-toothed pharmacy guy that sang to us, took more girls through the fish market of muttering men to the disgusting squat, and of course we all got ice cream. Whenever we go out, there’s always curious crowds gathering and someone’s bound to ask, ‘Madame, where is your country?’ Really, they’re just wanting you to say America, so I usually tell them I’m from Bangladesh or the U.S. (which most of them don’t know is the same as America).  But this gets monotonous, so I’ve started responding ‘oosa’(like USA sounded out as a word), and they ask again ‘America?’  again I repeat ‘oosa’. They’re confused. On this particular occassion, another man in the crowd that had gathered around me and the girls offered an explanation (in Bangla), ‘Maybe it’s a new country.’ The guy’s curiosity isn’t satisfied and again he asks, ‘Oh, so Canada?’ I respond with the obvious ‘no’ after which that other guy repeats, ‘No! It must be a new country!’ Hehe J We returned from our shopping adventure a squishedly putting back to Bangla Hope without anyone falling off!

Girls getting their buckets and soap

That evening at vespers, I just soaked in every last precious moment with Brooke and Danny singing on my lap. After telling the kids goodnight I took a violin up to our roof and was playing in the breeze, and after I stopped playing, letting the wind carry the vibrations off the strings into the distance through the cool night air. In just two days I must also stop playing with the kids and carry only my treasured memories with me through the air far into the distance across the ocean.