January 12, 2014
I am in Nazipur at last!! It seems like I’ve been traveling here for the past several months and I finally arrived. I’m so happy to be here, because in a way it’s a mini miracle that we were able to charter a bus. With blockade going on and all that, the bus drivers were a little unsure about entrusting their precious buses to the raging northern populous.
Thursday night I was on pins and needles. If we couldn’t get a bus that night we’d probably have to stay in Dhaka for another week. We would know by 6 at night and when 8 rolled around they were saying the bus would not take us and chances are we had another week of Dhaka ahead of us.
I struggled with immediate depression. I began to feel cheated. Here I was in Bangladesh for a whole week already and I hadn’t seen any of my friends yet. Another week in Dhaka looked huge to me.
Then, while I was struggling with accepting this week, Arnold got a call saying Bony found a bus that would take us for a lot of money(really way too much, but hey! They’d go!!). I began to desperately pray that this might work out. 11 O’clock found us jerking our way through the Dhaka streets on a huge bus. It was a very tired but extremely happy Jody that bounced into Nazipur Friday morning.
It has been a busy few days of cleaning and meeting friends, but they’ve been good days. It’s good to be here again. To hear the door rattling and to see a friend standing at the doorstep with a big grin, or being trailed by shy dark-eyed children, or to have your old students mob you. It’s even good to lie in my bed and here the buses rattle and roar by in the early morning or our neighbors loud T.V. blaring late into the night. I begin teaching Tuesday or Wednesday. At this moment everything looks rosy.
I thank God that he led me here and that he brought so many wonderful people into my life here. That through all this, he has changed me and made me a little more like him. That I can serve him in this way. I’m just happy to be here. Just happy to be living for a tiny space of time with these wonderful Bangla people. Thank you Jesus!
January 16, 2014
Teaching has begun. I started yesterday. It’s the same school as last year and a few of the same students. It’s so different coming back to a school that you’d taught at before versus teaching at a new school. The students are so excited about us being there and ready to invite us to their houses. Last year they were hesitant, unsure what we would do or be like and probably frightened we wouldn’t appreciate them or their house. This year, after one day of teaching, I’ve already been invited to several houses.
My students actually learned last year! Sometimes I wondered if they picked anything up, because the attendance was so sketchy. Either they learned a lot more English, or I learned how to teach better, but either way things are going great!!! I have bright, respectful students. They are so eager to learn and just as excited about getting to know me as I am about getting to know them. If things continue as they started I’m looking at a wonderful three months.
Sometimes I sit back and look at my life and can’t help but feel overwhelmed by everything that God has blessed me with. I’m here and it is so good. I know not everyone would consider being here an overwhelming blessing, but living here makes me feel so incredibly blessed and loved. Not just by what I have at home, but just the ability and opportunity of sharing God’s love.
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