Beauty through the Śānti
From my vantage point atop the roof, I look up into the violet sky, now smudged with orange, and then stare in awe at the vast fields of rice enveloped in a soft blanket of fog before me. Behind me, the security guard sweeps the entrance as he rubs his eyes, exhausted from the long hours through the night he has been awake. As the little town beside the orphanage slowly begins to wake up, I observe drowsy villagers going about their morning chores, still prisoners of the morning haze. I glance at the roof adjacent to the one I am sitting on and watch as the birds sing their morning songs against the backdrop of clotheslines displaying vibrant colors, offsetting the green canopy background behind them. At last, the sun cautiously peeks out from the clouds and pulls itself up. As it gains more confidence, it waves goodbye to the clouds that had so graciously announced its entrance and is now standing by itself, a bright orange ball declaring supremacy of the land below. The fog, fully aware of the sun's power to overtake it, begins to retreat to the horizon, where it will stay hidden until nightfall. I close my eyes. It is quiet.
view of the sunrise from the roof
During my second week here, I had the unfortunate experience of coming down with Pink Eye. Pink Eye is a highly contagious viral infection and had been spreading around campus before I even arrived at Bangla Hope. While I managed to avoid it for nearly a week, my body finally succumbed to the infection, and to take necessary precautions, I was quarantined for a few days. The silence of my apartment was a drastic change from the constant noise I had been experiencing from playing with the kids during my days here. While having a red itchy eye was unpleasant, my pink eye experience turned out to be a blessing because, for the first time since I arrived in Bangladesh, I got the chance to slow down and breathe. I spent my few days in quarantine reading, journaling, and doing lots of thinking. For the first time, I noticed the more minor details on the Bangla Hope campus that had previously gotten overlooked due to the excitement of being at a new place so far from home. For example, I began to take note of the village next door, visible through the window in my apartment.Contrasting with the constant noise and activity from within the orphanage gates, the town is serene, with the only movement coming from the occasional shifting of the cows lying on the ground next to the giant hay pile that looms over the rusted tin-roofed houses. Additionally I began to wake up early and climb up on the roof to watch the sunrise which has been an incredible way to start each morning.
It has been a while since I have been able to write because my computer charger stopped working, but Katherine let me use her computer so I could write this blog. Below are some highlights of events that have happened in the last couple of weeks :)
TEACHING DEBUT: Last week, after I recovered from pink eye, I got assigned a couple of classes to teach at the elementary school here on campus. I am currently teaching 3rd and 5th grade English as well as tutoring math and English to 7th and 8th graders in the afternoons. I literally had no idea what I was doing when I first started teaching because I have never taught before, so it has been a significant learning experience, to say the least. English comes naturally when you've grown up speaking it, but it is a whole other story trying to explain to kids why we say things the way we do. It has also been so interesting to observe the cultural differences within the classrooms. The kids are very respectful; they seem to view education as a gift and are eager to learn as much as possible. Each morning when I walk into the classroom, the entire class stands up and says in unison, "Good Morning Sarah!!" and it brings a smile to my face. Today in my 5th-grade class, we finished our lesson early, so I taught them the game "Simon Says," and the kids loved it. They thought the game was absolutely hilarious and wanted to play it over and over again.
CLOTHES: The traditional wear for women in Bangladesh is either a saree or salwar and kameez. A saree is one piece of fabric wrapped around to make a dress, while a salwar and kameez include both pants, a dress, and a scarf. The staff at the orphanage prefer that the student missionaries wear traditional clothing and so a few weeks ago, Katherine and I went to the marketplace to pick out fabric for our new clothes. The fabric store was so interesting and different from anything I've experienced. They have chairs you sit on, and the store employees display an assortment of various fabrics in front of you on a stage. If you like a fabric option, they set it aside and keep bringing you others until you are satisfied with your purchases. After we bought our materials, we took them to the local tailor, who took our measurements so that he could sew them into our desired clothing.
SPORTS: One of my favorite activities so far has been playing sports with the kids. Soccer is a prevalent sport in Bangladesh, and so most of the kids spend their afternoons running barefoot on the field, playing it for hours. The guys here even formed a team, designed their own jerseys at a shop in the local marketplace, and played a soccer game against a nearby school. Before we left, all the kids took pictures of the team in their jerseys, wished them good luck, and gave them all sorts of encouragement. Then we all crammed into a bus and drove about an hour to a nearby school. It was so much fun to watch them play. Although we were across the world from the US, I thought it was interesting how there were still similarities between sports games, such as the after-game banter of chatting about players' stats and complaining about how "the refs were biased."
Another game that we've been playing frequently is volleyball. I was so happy when I learned that the kids had a volleyball net set up. Most of the kids aren't very familiar with volleyball and choose not to play. However, Jonathan, one of the other student missionaries here, as well as some of the older guys, enjoy the game, and so we have spent most of our evenings playing it.
Yesterday I taught the kids American football. We didn't have a football, so we played with a volleyball which was actually pretty fun. It took the kids a while to grasp the rules of the game. At first, when they'd catch the ball, they'd immediately chuck it to another teammate. Or they didn't understand which direction to run, so if their path was blocked in running to the touchdown zone, they'd turn around and start sprinting in the other direction. However, after multiple explanations of how the game was supposed to be played, they got the hang of it and ended up really enjoying it. The kids thought it was so funny the way you hike the ball, so instead of calling it American football, they gave it their own name of "hike hike"!
NO WATER: The water and lights of the apartment Katherine and I are in frequently turn off for no reason, but last night the water pump actually broke. So being left without water, Katherine and I ended up showering in one of the staff's houses and then had to haul a giant bucket of water from a faucet across campus to our room so that we could have filtered water. The bucket was heavy, and water splashed all over our pants as we tried to heave it across campus. Watching from the roof, the girls thought it was hilarious to watch us struggle and, using our trek from the faucet to our apartment as their nightly source of entertainment, made fun of Katherine and me the entire time. Thankfully the water turned back on the following day, yet if there's one major thing I've learned so far in Bangladesh, it's to expect the unexpected. Sometimes I'll be in the shower, and the lights will turn off. Other times I'll be on a phone call with someone, and I'll just be randomly kicked off the wi-fi. And while I'd usually be frustrated over the inconsistency of everything here, I've just learned to chill and go with the flow because that's the only thing I can do.
EVENING HANGOUTS: One of my favorite parts of my day is in the evening when all the younger kids go to bed. At 8:30 each night, we do good night hugs, and then the little ones are sent to bed while the older ones are allowed to stay up and hang out. The roofs on the buildings are a popular social location for the kids at Bangla Hope and have pretty tall barriers around them, so you don't have to worry about falling off. On top of the guys' dorm roof, there's a ladder leading to an even higher point, and this is our favorite spot to hang out and talk because of the fantastic view. Last Friday night, instead of hanging out on the roof, we hung out in Katherine's and my apartment. Somehow one of the guys opened our toiletry drawer and found lotion, which I’m pretty sure most of them had never experienced before. Before we could do anything, all of the guys were putting lotion on their hands, perplexed by how it could make their skin so soft. Then they found my bath and body works hand sanitizer, and of course, they all wanted to sample the scents. It was only a matter of time before they pulled out my flat iron, and all of them wanted their hair straightened. They were blown away by how hot the flat iron made their head feel, so they insisted that they hold tissues between their forehead and hair to prevent the heat from fully reaching their head. It was a lot of fun.
From the highest of heights to the depths of the sea
Creations revealing Your majesty
From the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring
Every creature unique in the song that it sings
All exclaiming
Indescribable, uncontainable
You placed the stars in the sky
And You know them by name
You are amazing, God
Every time I climb up on the roof and look out over the landscape, I'm blown away by God's goodness manifested through nature's beauty. The word that consistently comes to my mind when staring into the night sky scattered with stars or watching the sun rise over the rice fields in the morning is "indescribable." Each stroke of landscape points to the ultimate Creator and is evidence of His majesty.
These past few weeks, I've prioritized spending some time each day in silence because sometimes the high energy reflected from the kids seems to be too much to handle. I'm so grateful that I have the opportunity to have quiet times where I don't have the stresses of everyday life on my mind because when I would spend time in solitude during the school year, in the back of my mind, I would constantly be thinking about an upcoming test or my tasks I needed to get done for the day. However, being here in Bangladesh, I've had time to stop and genuinely reflect on my life, and it's unbelievable how much you can learn just from silence. A new Bangla word that I have learned from the kids is śānti, peace. As I wrote in my last blog, there is beauty through the pāgalā (crazy) here in Bangladesh and I truly enjoy being a part of the daily craziness that the kids bring.Yet, recently I have discovered the beauty in the śānti (peace) and I am so thankful that I get to be here to experience that as well.
Here are some more pics !!
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