Back in Bangladesh!

We left the USA via Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. on 4 Aug. Pastor Tim, once again and his trusty Ford Excursion took all 6 of us, plus 10 pieces of luggage, 5 carry-on and my Mom to the Airport. We had no trouble with check in or security and our flight left pretty much on time (7 hours). On the 5th we arrived in London and had a 5 hour lay-over. We had fish and chips for the boys and boarded the 11 hour flight for Dhaka in the afternoon. Once again, no problems- thank you Lord, usually something happens in London, Heathrow Airport. We arrived in Dhaka at 7 a.m. on the 6^th of Aug.

It was hot and humid when we left Pennsylvania but the boys all agreed that it was hotter and more humid in Bangladesh. The boys had a week to get over jet lag until school started. However, I had a meeting at 10 a.m. that first morning. Then on the second morning Kajal, the new Country Director that is replacing me, my boss Mathew George and I left for a 6 hour ride to northeast BD to visit three projects over two days. It is always amazing and rewarding to see the children at the projects. We had an excellent time visiting the children and project staff. One of the projects is in the town of Sylhet and the other two are in the middle of tea gardens. On the drive up to Sylhet we saw lots of water, about 66% of the country is under water right now but the flooding is not bad in Sylhet or in the part of Dhaka where we live.

There is plenty of water throughout BD but the major flooding is in the west and southwest. We have seven Compassion Projects effective. We are providing emergency relief of foodstuff and medicines/water purification tablets to all the children families.

The picture of the boys is from the first day of school, 13 Aug. It was a red-letter summer for Chase (second son), he is now taller than his mother. Charles (#1) is not far behind. However, Chad’s hair is shorter than his mother but not by much! The boys are all to be back at Grace International School. They miss the USA but love the school here. It was especially hard for Chad, Chase and I to come back to Bangladesh after a month in the states. I’m not sure why but it was definitely harder for me. It has to do with my mom, family and the quiet of rural Pennsylvania.

We had a good time on our home leave. We tried to stay close to mom and family in Lewisberry, PA. However, we did take to long trips. One to Cape Cod, Massachusetts and the other to North Carolina. We went to Cape Cod for our friends wedding, Jamin and Bridget. Jamin is the son of my management guru, Jim Alexander. We had never been to the Cape before and it was beautiful. The church they were married in dated from 1719! We even swam at the tip of the cape in cold clear ocean water. On the return we met up with my cousin Wendy’s family to take a two day tour of New York City. It was an adventure to see Empire State building, Time Square, Rockefeller Center, China town, ride on Staten Island Ferry, Ground Zero and walking around lower Manhattan.

In North Carolina, we visited BD friends of our that are on a one-year home leave. It was great to catch up with the Morrison family. They have three boys and two of them are the same ages as Chad and Chase. And by the way they ate Nita’s chicken curry I would say they miss Bangladesh very much!

The other pictures are from my project visits this August, already.