Monday, January 19, 2015

Visting Rajshahi

We are currently living in Dhaka, the biggest city in Bangladesh.  It is roughly in the middle of the country.  Our friends, John and Jan Thorpe, living in a city called Rajshahi, which is several hours west of us.  Before Christmas, we went for a visit and had a wonderful time.

"Auntie Jan", as she is known in the Desh, runs a school for the slum children in her area.  We got to visit and play with the kids and it was so much fun!

 The hokey pokey is a great way to learn English!
 Duck-duck-goose has a different name in Bangla, but is just as fun.

We also visited a local silk factory.  We got to see the process of making silk all the way from the hatching of silk worms to the finished fabric.  It really is amazing that this fancy fabric is made by WORMS.
 This is Auntie Jan admiring some workers' painting.  They are using hot wax to make the designs.

 The big machine behind these guys is rolling up the tiny threads (the white rolls behind their heads).

 Some of the silk starts out a bright yellow-orange color, like the roll to Mary's right.

Just across the street from the factory is this old, neglected shrine.  Mary loved playing inside!  Just to the left of this picture there was a nice little pond where Mary skipped a rock for the first time.

We had such a fun time with John and Jan and can't wait to go visit again!

Belated Christmas pictures...

We had a great time finding ways to celebrate Christmas in Bangladesh.  Jack made a Christmas tree and Santa's sleigh full of presents out of Legos...



 This is Annie's pre-K class doing a Christmas play called "A Star is Born".  She made an awfully cute sheep.


Mom and Dad's language school did a Christmas program, too.  This is Mr. Herman playing a shepherd.

Jack was a narrator, Mary played a townsman's wife, and Will played a broker in "A Christmas Carol".  They were wonderful!  It was a super busy season, but full of fun and good experiences.

We also got to maintain some Christmas traditions like decorating a Christmas tree, making Christmas cookies, and finding stockings full of goodies on Christmas morning.




We missed being with friends and family, but it was nice to have a simple Christmas and really remember the point of all our celebrations:  God came to earth to rescue us from sin and death and offer us joy and freedom in relationship with Him.  That is what we want the world to know!