Jellyfish
April 4, 2010
Happy Easter!!! I love Easter! It is my favorite holiday. I like the meaning of it. It's perfect. This morning I went to an Easter Sunrise Service at the parliament building. It is put on by all the churches in Dhaka and just about every Christian in Dhaka goes. It was all in Bangla, but I still understood most of it. The songs were also printed in a bulletin so I read them slowly when possible. The police were also there with riot gear just in case any fundamentalist group came to try and prove some point or something. I got back only yesterday from a 2 week trip to Cambodia.
While in Cambodia we had a week of spiritual retreat by the sea in the south of Cambodia (Siahnoukville). Andy and Lana Miller are service workers there that do area program coordination stuff (This is not how they explained it but is my oversimplification.) They met us at the airport and we went straight to the beach. It is a 4 hour drive and about half way our bus broke down. We had to wait another 2 hours for a new bus to come and pick us up. No one really complained, as we live in Bangladesh we are used to such happenings. (For Example: When driving in to Dhaka before the Cambodia trip my bus blew a tire; we fixed it and went on our way. Then we sideswiped another bus an knocked of it's side mirror. We had to stop for a skirmish about that. However, the skirmish of flying fists was not enough and the other bus decided to ram us from behind and throw a wrench/spanner through our rear windshield, more fists; cops arrive and all is better.) Anyway, our hotel was nice and the beach was a short walk. In the mornings we had worship and then sessions. Our sessions were about self and personalities. Andy and Lana did a GREAT job planning these! They were really helpful, but also kind of difficult. Its hard to introspect and then share it with others. One comment was,
“I thought we were just going to be reading and relaxing on the beach; this is hard!” It was hard but good. In the afternoons we had free time for relaxing and whatnot. I did a little swimming in the ocean, ocean kayaking, snorkeling, frisbee, sandcastling, and reading/chillaxing.
After the ocean stay we went back to Phnom Penh (capitol of Cambodia) and did some shopping, eating and meeting of the MCC Cambodia staffs. From there I took some vacation time and went to the temples at Angkor with some others from MCC-Bang. It was really nice. One day we went around some of the temples on bike. Minus the first 5 km- the part of the journey where my tire got low and then completely blew out- it was a great day! The temples are ruins from thousands of years ago and are spread over a 15 or so kilometer radius. (I'll have pictures on facebook soon.)
After that we were back in Phnom Penh for one more day. We visited a place called Toul Sleng. It is a detention facility cum museum documenting some of the genocidal atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime (Rouge standing for communist red.) from 1975 to 1979. It was very sad to see. I feel however more disconnected nothingness than anything else and that scares me a little. It most likely has to do with a combination of events of violence- common shock if you are familiar with that term- witnessed over the years (particularly in the last four). I still don't like the reaction.
Anyway, I am back now and sitting around typing this in the absence of electricity. It has been out for a few hours now. Let me finish up by reviewing other events of the month.
Purchased semen tanks for Monga project, networked with persons in charge of getting us semen, and began set up of the 3 new centers. Also, I worked on designing a good and simple record keeping system. I hope it gets utilized.
The circus was in Bogra and we went to that. It was cute.
More Bible studies
Networking with milk buyers (its still not going so well.)
Thats it really.
Peace
Jodi
Happy Easter!!! I love Easter! It is my favorite holiday. I like the meaning of it. It's perfect. This morning I went to an Easter Sunrise Service at the parliament building. It is put on by all the churches in Dhaka and just about every Christian in Dhaka goes. It was all in Bangla, but I still understood most of it. The songs were also printed in a bulletin so I read them slowly when possible. The police were also there with riot gear just in case any fundamentalist group came to try and prove some point or something. I got back only yesterday from a 2 week trip to Cambodia.
While in Cambodia we had a week of spiritual retreat by the sea in the south of Cambodia (Siahnoukville). Andy and Lana Miller are service workers there that do area program coordination stuff (This is not how they explained it but is my oversimplification.) They met us at the airport and we went straight to the beach. It is a 4 hour drive and about half way our bus broke down. We had to wait another 2 hours for a new bus to come and pick us up. No one really complained, as we live in Bangladesh we are used to such happenings. (For Example: When driving in to Dhaka before the Cambodia trip my bus blew a tire; we fixed it and went on our way. Then we sideswiped another bus an knocked of it's side mirror. We had to stop for a skirmish about that. However, the skirmish of flying fists was not enough and the other bus decided to ram us from behind and throw a wrench/spanner through our rear windshield, more fists; cops arrive and all is better.) Anyway, our hotel was nice and the beach was a short walk. In the mornings we had worship and then sessions. Our sessions were about self and personalities. Andy and Lana did a GREAT job planning these! They were really helpful, but also kind of difficult. Its hard to introspect and then share it with others. One comment was,
“I thought we were just going to be reading and relaxing on the beach; this is hard!” It was hard but good. In the afternoons we had free time for relaxing and whatnot. I did a little swimming in the ocean, ocean kayaking, snorkeling, frisbee, sandcastling, and reading/chillaxing.
After the ocean stay we went back to Phnom Penh (capitol of Cambodia) and did some shopping, eating and meeting of the MCC Cambodia staffs. From there I took some vacation time and went to the temples at Angkor with some others from MCC-Bang. It was really nice. One day we went around some of the temples on bike. Minus the first 5 km- the part of the journey where my tire got low and then completely blew out- it was a great day! The temples are ruins from thousands of years ago and are spread over a 15 or so kilometer radius. (I'll have pictures on facebook soon.)
After that we were back in Phnom Penh for one more day. We visited a place called Toul Sleng. It is a detention facility cum museum documenting some of the genocidal atrocities of the Khmer Rouge regime (Rouge standing for communist red.) from 1975 to 1979. It was very sad to see. I feel however more disconnected nothingness than anything else and that scares me a little. It most likely has to do with a combination of events of violence- common shock if you are familiar with that term- witnessed over the years (particularly in the last four). I still don't like the reaction.
Anyway, I am back now and sitting around typing this in the absence of electricity. It has been out for a few hours now. Let me finish up by reviewing other events of the month.
Purchased semen tanks for Monga project, networked with persons in charge of getting us semen, and began set up of the 3 new centers. Also, I worked on designing a good and simple record keeping system. I hope it gets utilized.
The circus was in Bogra and we went to that. It was cute.
More Bible studies
Networking with milk buyers (its still not going so well.)
Thats it really.
Peace
Jodi
posted by Jodi Crossgrove at
2:25 AM
1 Comments:
"Common Shock" stinks doesn't it. The good thing is that when your life-pattern changes, you will probably revisit some of the experiences and have the sort of reaction that you would "prefer".
The REALLY good thing is that when you get home you will be a much better person with life experiences that most people can only dream of - and THAT is what God will go on using.
Glad Cambodia was good - every blessings,
Nigel & Rachel
By
NK, at 11:17 AM
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