March is Here
Monday, March 1, 2010
It hasn't been all that busy since last I updated my blog.
February saw the visit of a group of people involved with Canadian Food Grains Bank. It is the organization that funds a majority of the Monga Project. It also funds me (through MCC, but I am actually part of the project budget). One man had never been out of Canada and had only been on a plane once in his life, and they did HOMESTAYS in the village!! We were counting one day, while we were driving between farmer visits, how many “firsts” he had had on the trip thus far. They were many. I was really impressed with how well the group did. Perhaps sometime I am too worried about offending people that I hold back a little too much, and that is what I took from the group visit. It was nice.
On the 13th Iris- the SALTer that we inherited due to visa constrictions in India- arrived and Ben and I went down to Dhaka to greet her. It was also Ben's birthday so there was a joint welcome/birthday dinner held at Austin and Marita's. The next day Robin convinced me to stay in Dhaka and leave on the 15th. That night (the 14th) we (Robin, Ben, Iris, Phil and I) went to Barbeque Tonight for kebabs and naan. It was YUMMY! Then the girls and Ben watched Phantom of the Opera!!! Magic. Ben must watch it again though b/c he fell asleep. No one can figure out exactly how he fell asleep though, as we sort of made the movie a sing-along and were quite loud. Oh yes, while in Dhaka Mokhles and I went to visit Milk Vita (a milk co-operative) in another one of our networking/market acquisition attempts. I think we hit the jackpot with this one. (Background: Right now there are about 2000 cows either given by MCC or birthed by a given animal. Soon this amount of production will saturate the market in the area, as it is a remote area with only one milk collection place. To avoid farmers getting ripped off because there is no market, Mokhles and I have been visiting different milk purchasers and trying to get them to visit the area to asses it for future possibilities.) It already has a collection point 20km southwest of Dimla, so they sort of know the area. Also, they give their farmers a good amount of benefits and we could purchase semen from them. It seems to be a win-win if we can get them to set up a milk collection point in Dimla. I really hope it works out.
Ok, later that week I went to visit some MCC projects in Birampur, Dinajpur District. We work with some Catholic missions up there. It all athibashi (indigenous) persons so there are pig projects! It was nice to get out and see other projects. We spent the night in one of the missions and the next morning I attended the morning mass. I didn't understand much, if any, but it was calming and the acoustics rang beautifully. That day was good, but involved much riding on motorcycles. Here starts the story. So, the first day we had taken motorcycles from the bus stand to the mission which took maybe 20 min. I was riding on the back of Rahim's bike and thought it would be appropriate to ride side saddle- an activity that scares me a lot. Rahim is a good driver however and it was alright. The rest of the day we rode van-gari (flat-bed bikes) around for visits so it wasn't bad. The next day I got to ride with Monir, who is a bit younger. He put both foot pedals down for me, so I took that as a sign that he was ok with me riding straddled. I thought this would be much more comfortable, but the comfort was diminished by the fact that I was trying my best not to touch him. So, I ended up spending 45min on a bike leaning slightly back, bar digging into my bum and legs trying not to touch the person in front of me. Wow! It was not comfortable. Despite all that, it was a breathtaking ride on a gorgeous day. (Oh mind you, these bikes were only 80cc.) However, when we got to the village to visit, it was found that the bike that Nate and Shyam were on only had one foot peddle in the rear. So on the way to the next place, I was back to sitting side saddle again. I found out later that one of the shocks on this bike was broken and on the bumpy roads we were on, disaster loomed. So, here is was on the back of an 80cc bike with broken shocks sitting side saddle. The roads were tiny dirt roads not short on bumps and holes. I nearly fell off 3 times when we swerved around a bump or hit a hole. I was literally praying over and over, “Please God don't let me die, please God don't let me die!” You know your in bad shape when God answers you prayer by causing the bike you are riding on to fall apart while you are riding on it. I have never been so happy to have a breakdown in my life!!! In the end Nate and I rode on the mechanically sound bike and Shyam and Monir the other. That day we spent over 40km on those tiny bikes. When we finally got to the bus, I didn't want to sit down. My bum hurt that bad! The whole 2.5 hour bus ride was spent in pain. It mad me grumpy!
Well, I got home from those visits just in time to take a shower and then the Millers were there for dinner. Maria (my baburchi- house help) had already cooked dinner and had everything sitting on the table. I avoided sitting. The Millers came from Dhaka for the weekend. Marita stayed at my house and the boys stayed at the “bari” (comment on this blog if you don't know what the bari is). The next day, Iris came from Mymensingh and we all spent the day at the bari making a brick oven. I did masonry! It was fun, but it dried out my hands like no other. Also, while cleaning things up for the night, I sliced my hand on some wire mesh. It is ok now but it hurt something fierce for that night and the next day. At Bible group the next day I had Karin (Daniel's mom, a doctor) look at it. She said we did a good job pushing it together and then gave me a prescription for some antibiotics just in case. In the end I couldn't find the right drugs at a near-by pharmacy and by the time I was near a big pharmacy I figured I didn't need them. It looks good now and only hurts when I forget its there and hit it or lean on it.
The Monga Project was on the news on the 22nd. While they were shooting I tried my darnedest to stay out of the shots, but I was in it still. Ugg for me, but yea for my farmers and the project as a whole. I am still working on the UTS training video and some easy feed calculations for cattle. That is a process. I am also trying to put together a motivational event in the form of an agricultural fair. I am really excited but it is big and I am having trouble starting.
Next month I will go to Cambodia with the MCC expats. We are having a spiritual retreat and then I am spending a weeks vacation there.
Would appreciate prayers for discernment on what I should do after my term is up here. I have applied to 2 grad schools, but also wouldn't mind staying around home and working for a while. We shall see.
Peace
Jodi
It hasn't been all that busy since last I updated my blog.
February saw the visit of a group of people involved with Canadian Food Grains Bank. It is the organization that funds a majority of the Monga Project. It also funds me (through MCC, but I am actually part of the project budget). One man had never been out of Canada and had only been on a plane once in his life, and they did HOMESTAYS in the village!! We were counting one day, while we were driving between farmer visits, how many “firsts” he had had on the trip thus far. They were many. I was really impressed with how well the group did. Perhaps sometime I am too worried about offending people that I hold back a little too much, and that is what I took from the group visit. It was nice.
On the 13th Iris- the SALTer that we inherited due to visa constrictions in India- arrived and Ben and I went down to Dhaka to greet her. It was also Ben's birthday so there was a joint welcome/birthday dinner held at Austin and Marita's. The next day Robin convinced me to stay in Dhaka and leave on the 15th. That night (the 14th) we (Robin, Ben, Iris, Phil and I) went to Barbeque Tonight for kebabs and naan. It was YUMMY! Then the girls and Ben watched Phantom of the Opera!!! Magic. Ben must watch it again though b/c he fell asleep. No one can figure out exactly how he fell asleep though, as we sort of made the movie a sing-along and were quite loud. Oh yes, while in Dhaka Mokhles and I went to visit Milk Vita (a milk co-operative) in another one of our networking/market acquisition attempts. I think we hit the jackpot with this one. (Background: Right now there are about 2000 cows either given by MCC or birthed by a given animal. Soon this amount of production will saturate the market in the area, as it is a remote area with only one milk collection place. To avoid farmers getting ripped off because there is no market, Mokhles and I have been visiting different milk purchasers and trying to get them to visit the area to asses it for future possibilities.) It already has a collection point 20km southwest of Dimla, so they sort of know the area. Also, they give their farmers a good amount of benefits and we could purchase semen from them. It seems to be a win-win if we can get them to set up a milk collection point in Dimla. I really hope it works out.
Ok, later that week I went to visit some MCC projects in Birampur, Dinajpur District. We work with some Catholic missions up there. It all athibashi (indigenous) persons so there are pig projects! It was nice to get out and see other projects. We spent the night in one of the missions and the next morning I attended the morning mass. I didn't understand much, if any, but it was calming and the acoustics rang beautifully. That day was good, but involved much riding on motorcycles. Here starts the story. So, the first day we had taken motorcycles from the bus stand to the mission which took maybe 20 min. I was riding on the back of Rahim's bike and thought it would be appropriate to ride side saddle- an activity that scares me a lot. Rahim is a good driver however and it was alright. The rest of the day we rode van-gari (flat-bed bikes) around for visits so it wasn't bad. The next day I got to ride with Monir, who is a bit younger. He put both foot pedals down for me, so I took that as a sign that he was ok with me riding straddled. I thought this would be much more comfortable, but the comfort was diminished by the fact that I was trying my best not to touch him. So, I ended up spending 45min on a bike leaning slightly back, bar digging into my bum and legs trying not to touch the person in front of me. Wow! It was not comfortable. Despite all that, it was a breathtaking ride on a gorgeous day. (Oh mind you, these bikes were only 80cc.) However, when we got to the village to visit, it was found that the bike that Nate and Shyam were on only had one foot peddle in the rear. So on the way to the next place, I was back to sitting side saddle again. I found out later that one of the shocks on this bike was broken and on the bumpy roads we were on, disaster loomed. So, here is was on the back of an 80cc bike with broken shocks sitting side saddle. The roads were tiny dirt roads not short on bumps and holes. I nearly fell off 3 times when we swerved around a bump or hit a hole. I was literally praying over and over, “Please God don't let me die, please God don't let me die!” You know your in bad shape when God answers you prayer by causing the bike you are riding on to fall apart while you are riding on it. I have never been so happy to have a breakdown in my life!!! In the end Nate and I rode on the mechanically sound bike and Shyam and Monir the other. That day we spent over 40km on those tiny bikes. When we finally got to the bus, I didn't want to sit down. My bum hurt that bad! The whole 2.5 hour bus ride was spent in pain. It mad me grumpy!
Well, I got home from those visits just in time to take a shower and then the Millers were there for dinner. Maria (my baburchi- house help) had already cooked dinner and had everything sitting on the table. I avoided sitting. The Millers came from Dhaka for the weekend. Marita stayed at my house and the boys stayed at the “bari” (comment on this blog if you don't know what the bari is). The next day, Iris came from Mymensingh and we all spent the day at the bari making a brick oven. I did masonry! It was fun, but it dried out my hands like no other. Also, while cleaning things up for the night, I sliced my hand on some wire mesh. It is ok now but it hurt something fierce for that night and the next day. At Bible group the next day I had Karin (Daniel's mom, a doctor) look at it. She said we did a good job pushing it together and then gave me a prescription for some antibiotics just in case. In the end I couldn't find the right drugs at a near-by pharmacy and by the time I was near a big pharmacy I figured I didn't need them. It looks good now and only hurts when I forget its there and hit it or lean on it.
The Monga Project was on the news on the 22nd. While they were shooting I tried my darnedest to stay out of the shots, but I was in it still. Ugg for me, but yea for my farmers and the project as a whole. I am still working on the UTS training video and some easy feed calculations for cattle. That is a process. I am also trying to put together a motivational event in the form of an agricultural fair. I am really excited but it is big and I am having trouble starting.
Next month I will go to Cambodia with the MCC expats. We are having a spiritual retreat and then I am spending a weeks vacation there.
Would appreciate prayers for discernment on what I should do after my term is up here. I have applied to 2 grad schools, but also wouldn't mind staying around home and working for a while. We shall see.
Peace
Jodi
posted by Jodi Crossgrove at
10:58 PM
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