I’m here in Bangladesh. I’ll be here for the next two weeks. Then it will be on to India for about two more weeks. We arrived on Wednesday afternoon. After about 25 hours or so of total travel time with layovers and all we finally got here and I was exhausted. We went to the Bible school for a brief visit and lunch. That was it for me, I was done. We got to the apartment that we are staying in and I slept until dinner time.
Thursday we drove out to the Primary School that is run by Dr. Vijay Balla. It was a ‘sports day’ for the children. We set outside in the hot sun for about three hours watching the kids run and throw a ball and jump rope and other activities. To be honest I was a bit bored just sitting there. I wore a Punjabi today; it is the traditional dress of the Bangladesh women. I felt like I was wearing my pajamas. We had lunch at the school—curry and rice and boiled vegetables. I’m getting use to the curry—good thing since they eat it with every meal.
This evening we went to a small restaurant with Vijay and Aparanjani. We rode there on a rickshaw (a three-wheeled bicycle with a seat on the back). I rode on one when I was in China, but there are more here and less people have their own bicycles. We drove in the car on the way to the school. I have never seen traffic patterns like here before. If you can even call them traffic patterns, people pretty much do whatever they want driving, walking, or on bicycles. I think the only rule is don’t get killed and don’t kill someone else. We saw a bus that was knocked off the side of the road and almost laying on its side going down a steep embankment.
Oh, back to the rickshaw, on the way back Jackie and I were in a rickshaw and Vijay and Aparanjani were in one in front of us. Our driver lost them and went the wrong way. We didn’t have any idea where he was going, and he didn’t speak English, so we couldn’t really communicate with him. Thankfully, I had put my IPhone in my purse and although I can’t use it here, I had the address of our apartment and was able to look it up. The streets are numbered which is another blessing because we were able to just find our street number and get to where we needed to go. A bit of excitement for one night, it was difficult too because it is so dark out there I wasn’t sure where I was.
That is the latest from Bangladesh. We are going to an International Church tomorrow evening. The day of worship here is on Friday’s. Saturday we are going shopping! I’m reading a good book by Henri Nouwen With Open Hands. I’m almost finished it, that is my recommended book for the week.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Chrystal Loves Africa
Well I don’t post blogs as much as I would like to. I have found it more difficult than I thought to find time to update these blogs. Right now I’m in the air—probably somewhere over the Indian Ocean. I took some motion sickness pills, so hopefully I can write for a while without getting sick. It’s an eight-and-a-half hour flight from South Africa to India, where I have an eight hour layover and then another two hour flight to Dhaka Bangladesh. By the time I post this blog, I should be in Dhaka.
I have really enjoyed my time thus far in South Africa. A lot has been going on. If you are on Facebook, you may have seen my sporadic status updates, and pictures that others have posted and tagged me. I’m a little slow about adding pictures and stuff. The last few weeks we have been learning and I have come to love South Africa and the people.
The past week or so we spent traveling around Durban and Zululand. We visited some of the local churches in those areas and met so many wonderful people. They opened their homes to us and allowed us to come in and stay with them and become a part of their families. It was one of the most rewarding experiences ever. We stayed busy and would loved to have had more time with the people and staying with their families. You really come back with a different perspective when you stay in the homes with the indigenous people, rather than staying in hotels.
Darah and I arrived two days later than the rest of our team to Durban. On the morning that we were to leave, Darah became ill and I stayed behind with her for a few days and then we traveled by bus the eight hours to Durban. We were greeted at the bus station by some of our team members and then taken to the church where we met the family that we would stay with for two nights. Durban is a highly Indian population and the family that we stayed with was Indian. Unlike some of the other team members we did not have to eat a lot of curry. Althia, the daughter of the family we were staying with loved to cook southern food—better than the stuff I eat in Georgia.
We had church with the Indian people, and then one of the women worked at U-Shaka Sea World and was able to get all of us on the team complimentary passes to the park. It was the best aquarium that I have ever been to. We enjoyed our time in Durban and getting to know the people, sadly it was over quickly and we were on our way to Zululand.
We arrived on Wednesday evening, just in time to get changed and get to church. The service was held in a tent outside the church building. The church has grown so rapidly that the building is no longer big enough to hold all of the people. There are plans to build a new church down the street from the existing church. The church has bought property but is now praying for funds to build the new facility that will hold 3000 people. The old church building is going to be used as a school. The vision of the church is there and we were able to see the plans and the new site.
The Zulu people are very open and welcoming to us, they are not always sure what to do with white people, but they are very hospitable and loving. We had an exciting time and some good fun. Six of us girls stayed with a woman—Fiki. On Friday night before we went to church she was braiding some of the girls hair and used string in mine. I’ll post a picture for you to see. It looked like I had snakes coming out of my head. We all laughed—I didn’t wear it to church like that. Fiki is a high school teacher and her students one at a time kept stopping by her house to say ‘hi.’ They really wanted to see the ‘white girls’ getting braids.
From that part of Zululand we traveled to another area. We decided to leave a day early and spent only a night there. We had two church services while we were there, one on Saturday night as soon as we arrived and another on Sunday morning. Darah and I stayed with another woman. We joked with everyone that we stayed in a four-star bread and breakfast that night. We had a nice room with two queen beds and a full bath to ourselves. Then for breakfast our host stuffed us like elephants. The people are so willing to open their homes to visitors and sacrifice for us.
The Zulus and the Durban people don’t have a lot, but they are willing to give you the best of what they had. It was a wonderful learning experience and heart-warming to see the hospitality and kindness of so many people.
We arrived back to Krugersdorp on Sunday night, and had all day Monday to do laundry and pack for our next adventure and cultural experience. So now we each are off to different destinations. I’m with Jackie and we will be spending the next four weeks in Bangladesh and India. We’ll be experiencing and learning about the cultures there and meeting all the people. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and visit different areas.
Blessings,
Chrystal
I have really enjoyed my time thus far in South Africa. A lot has been going on. If you are on Facebook, you may have seen my sporadic status updates, and pictures that others have posted and tagged me. I’m a little slow about adding pictures and stuff. The last few weeks we have been learning and I have come to love South Africa and the people.
The past week or so we spent traveling around Durban and Zululand. We visited some of the local churches in those areas and met so many wonderful people. They opened their homes to us and allowed us to come in and stay with them and become a part of their families. It was one of the most rewarding experiences ever. We stayed busy and would loved to have had more time with the people and staying with their families. You really come back with a different perspective when you stay in the homes with the indigenous people, rather than staying in hotels.
Darah and I arrived two days later than the rest of our team to Durban. On the morning that we were to leave, Darah became ill and I stayed behind with her for a few days and then we traveled by bus the eight hours to Durban. We were greeted at the bus station by some of our team members and then taken to the church where we met the family that we would stay with for two nights. Durban is a highly Indian population and the family that we stayed with was Indian. Unlike some of the other team members we did not have to eat a lot of curry. Althia, the daughter of the family we were staying with loved to cook southern food—better than the stuff I eat in Georgia.
We had church with the Indian people, and then one of the women worked at U-Shaka Sea World and was able to get all of us on the team complimentary passes to the park. It was the best aquarium that I have ever been to. We enjoyed our time in Durban and getting to know the people, sadly it was over quickly and we were on our way to Zululand.
We arrived on Wednesday evening, just in time to get changed and get to church. The service was held in a tent outside the church building. The church has grown so rapidly that the building is no longer big enough to hold all of the people. There are plans to build a new church down the street from the existing church. The church has bought property but is now praying for funds to build the new facility that will hold 3000 people. The old church building is going to be used as a school. The vision of the church is there and we were able to see the plans and the new site.
The Zulu people are very open and welcoming to us, they are not always sure what to do with white people, but they are very hospitable and loving. We had an exciting time and some good fun. Six of us girls stayed with a woman—Fiki. On Friday night before we went to church she was braiding some of the girls hair and used string in mine. I’ll post a picture for you to see. It looked like I had snakes coming out of my head. We all laughed—I didn’t wear it to church like that. Fiki is a high school teacher and her students one at a time kept stopping by her house to say ‘hi.’ They really wanted to see the ‘white girls’ getting braids.
From that part of Zululand we traveled to another area. We decided to leave a day early and spent only a night there. We had two church services while we were there, one on Saturday night as soon as we arrived and another on Sunday morning. Darah and I stayed with another woman. We joked with everyone that we stayed in a four-star bread and breakfast that night. We had a nice room with two queen beds and a full bath to ourselves. Then for breakfast our host stuffed us like elephants. The people are so willing to open their homes to visitors and sacrifice for us.
The Zulus and the Durban people don’t have a lot, but they are willing to give you the best of what they had. It was a wonderful learning experience and heart-warming to see the hospitality and kindness of so many people.
We arrived back to Krugersdorp on Sunday night, and had all day Monday to do laundry and pack for our next adventure and cultural experience. So now we each are off to different destinations. I’m with Jackie and we will be spending the next four weeks in Bangladesh and India. We’ll be experiencing and learning about the cultures there and meeting all the people. Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and visit different areas.
Blessings,
Chrystal
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Week One in Review
I’m trying to make this at least a weekly update. If I have time I will get to it a little more often. I can’t believe that a week has already gone by since I left Baltimore. So here is a recap of the past week for everyone.
On Wednesday I felt great—just a little tired but otherwise good. On Thursday morning I woke up early throwing up. That continued through the day, until they took me to the doctor. I had some sort of gastro-intestinitis thing going on. So the doctor gave me a shot and some medicine and I started feeling better by that night. Praise God it didn’t get worse and the doctor is a local that the Arthur’s have known for years—since they were missionaries here, and he didn’t charge anything for seeing him.
By Friday, I was feeling better and able to eat a little and get some fluids down. We had our second day of orientation. (The first I missed because I was sick). Our first assignment was to go into town and take fifteen pictures holding the camera at our waist or in front of us without focusing it or looking through the lens. It was a fun project. We drove the van into town and spent about thirty minutes walking around taking random pictures.
When we arrived back in the classroom, we loaded our pictures onto the computer and talked about what we had captured and learned. I put some of the pictures I took on facebook, here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=372030&id=833070175&l=009baa33ac Later on Friday we went to the mall and to see the movie “Invictus,” it was an excellent movie about Nelson Mandela and the Rugby World Cup and the uniting of South Africa. The people here say that it is a very accurate portrayal of what occurred in South Africa after Mandela became president. That was about all that happened on Friday. On Saturday we went to the mall for a few hours, and then came back to relax a little.
On Sunday we went to Heritage PH Church. It was a lot like churches in the US. Brother Joe Arthur, one of the leaders here with us spoke and shared some more missionary stories. I have enjoyed listening to all the missionary stories so far and I know that there will be a lot more over the next several weeks. After church we went to the Turner’s home for a brai (I have no idea how to spell that, basically it was a cookout). Ha ha, how many times have I been to a cookout in January! We had some good food there and enjoyed getting to know everyone and some more missionaries.
That has been the past week in review. Today we started our first day of classes with Dr. Dalton. It was a pretty easy day; we talked about cultures, and missions and the books we are reading. Then we got some more information on our field assignments. I’m excited about traveling around here in South Africa and then in February I will be going to Bangladesh for four weeks.
I’m going to try and update this a little more often if I have time to. It’s a lot more communication that I have ever had before when I left the country. Oh, I finished reading Francis Chan’s Forgotten God the other day, a great book about how we (Christians) have forgotten about the Holy Spirit. I recommend it, you may already know a lot of what he says, but it is a good reminder at least it was for me.
That’s all for now—Chrystal
On Wednesday I felt great—just a little tired but otherwise good. On Thursday morning I woke up early throwing up. That continued through the day, until they took me to the doctor. I had some sort of gastro-intestinitis thing going on. So the doctor gave me a shot and some medicine and I started feeling better by that night. Praise God it didn’t get worse and the doctor is a local that the Arthur’s have known for years—since they were missionaries here, and he didn’t charge anything for seeing him.
By Friday, I was feeling better and able to eat a little and get some fluids down. We had our second day of orientation. (The first I missed because I was sick). Our first assignment was to go into town and take fifteen pictures holding the camera at our waist or in front of us without focusing it or looking through the lens. It was a fun project. We drove the van into town and spent about thirty minutes walking around taking random pictures.
When we arrived back in the classroom, we loaded our pictures onto the computer and talked about what we had captured and learned. I put some of the pictures I took on facebook, here is the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=372030&id=833070175&l=009baa33ac Later on Friday we went to the mall and to see the movie “Invictus,” it was an excellent movie about Nelson Mandela and the Rugby World Cup and the uniting of South Africa. The people here say that it is a very accurate portrayal of what occurred in South Africa after Mandela became president. That was about all that happened on Friday. On Saturday we went to the mall for a few hours, and then came back to relax a little.
On Sunday we went to Heritage PH Church. It was a lot like churches in the US. Brother Joe Arthur, one of the leaders here with us spoke and shared some more missionary stories. I have enjoyed listening to all the missionary stories so far and I know that there will be a lot more over the next several weeks. After church we went to the Turner’s home for a brai (I have no idea how to spell that, basically it was a cookout). Ha ha, how many times have I been to a cookout in January! We had some good food there and enjoyed getting to know everyone and some more missionaries.
That has been the past week in review. Today we started our first day of classes with Dr. Dalton. It was a pretty easy day; we talked about cultures, and missions and the books we are reading. Then we got some more information on our field assignments. I’m excited about traveling around here in South Africa and then in February I will be going to Bangladesh for four weeks.
I’m going to try and update this a little more often if I have time to. It’s a lot more communication that I have ever had before when I left the country. Oh, I finished reading Francis Chan’s Forgotten God the other day, a great book about how we (Christians) have forgotten about the Holy Spirit. I recommend it, you may already know a lot of what he says, but it is a good reminder at least it was for me.
That’s all for now—Chrystal
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
South Africa...Day One
I'm finally in South Africa, the flight here was pretty uneventful--and long. About 17 hours total trip time. The flight actually landed almost an hour ahead of schedule. There wasn't too much turbulance and the food wasn't too bad either. I didn't sleep much though and the couple in front of me put like perfume and aftershave or something on halfway through the flight. I thought I was gonna puke on them. Other than that the flight was pretty smooth.
Today is my first full day here in South Africa. I got up at 4:00 am this morning (because I volunteered to drive with Larissa to the airport). It's only about 11:30 am now, but if I can stay up I know I will sleep all night tonight and get on a schedule. We got a little lost driving back from the airport this morning. We just ended up on the other side of the city--it only took us about 45 extra minutes to get back. We got to see some other stuff we may not have seen otherwise, so it was all good.
Tomorrow and Friday we will have an orientation, and then this weekend we will have a cultural experience (I'm not sure what that is yet), and Sunday we will go to church. Monday will start our classes, so I'm looking forward to that.
That's about it for now, more to follow later.
Chrystal
Today is my first full day here in South Africa. I got up at 4:00 am this morning (because I volunteered to drive with Larissa to the airport). It's only about 11:30 am now, but if I can stay up I know I will sleep all night tonight and get on a schedule. We got a little lost driving back from the airport this morning. We just ended up on the other side of the city--it only took us about 45 extra minutes to get back. We got to see some other stuff we may not have seen otherwise, so it was all good.
Tomorrow and Friday we will have an orientation, and then this weekend we will have a cultural experience (I'm not sure what that is yet), and Sunday we will go to church. Monday will start our classes, so I'm looking forward to that.
That's about it for now, more to follow later.
Chrystal
Thursday, December 24, 2009
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