Not a grain of rice

I think I was so estatic when I realised I hadn't had a grain of rice for 3 days after the first ecclesial lunch on arrival, that I decided my Bangladesh blog would be named in the occasions' honour!!

Let's get some context first.
The weather was warm to very cold most days, so we really had to rug up in the evenings.
The first morning after arrival Sarah and I enjoyed the luxury of hot water coming from a shower nozzle, as opposed to the bucket baths we endure every morning in Hyderabad. Makes such a difference to the morning! And the pressure. We also didn't have to worry about only using one bucket of water. You might think this is silly but my hair actually looked like real hair again for the first time in months.
I realised I hadn't had a proper pressurised shower since before October!!
The mission workers of Bangladesh also are rewarded by the luxury of having a proper cook, who cooks vegetable soup every day for lunch. It was definitely a welcome break. He also sets the table for breakfast, and doesn't even allow you to cook your own toast. This did become a little annoying after a while! But the best part about the whole deal was that he went home in the evenings and allowed us to get into the kitchen and cook up fun things like pancakes and apple crumble!
It seemed like such a luxury, as we don't have an oven we can use in Hyderabad, and the last time we cooked sweets was back in Kolkata early December! Really made the week. When I found apple's that had some flavour, and cadbury's imported from the Uk, we were totally set. Oh, I can't forget to mention the caramelised Banana that Sarah whipped up one night.
One night our friend Pinto cooked up a regular feast. (ps at this point you need to know that he'd been ordered by Ben not to cook him ANY curries). Roast chicken, potatoes etc, WITH GRAVY. IT was incredible. He made me try a new vegetable. In Bangladesh they cook unripe papaya for main meal, and dish up ripe papaya for dessert. It has quite a good flavour, with the texture of pumkin.
There were a load of mosquito's at the mission flat, and they drove me bizerk (sp?) we had this tennis bat catcher, which was quite fun to use. When I was first introduced to it, it made me shudder every time it went off, by the end of our stay I was addicted to it.
The flat has a desktop set up in a study, so it's possible to contact ppl on skype, which was very cool when we were available during the daytime for the first time ever. Was lovely to call my family and some friends and be able to hear some of their voices.

We were at the Bangladesh airport the same time as Ben Bowen, so we caught a C.N.G. back to the flat with him which was handy, cause Ken Easson was in the middle of a contact class when we arrived on Friday morning. I arrived at the same time as Prince, and it was nice to be recognised and greeted in such a friendly manner in a city you've never travelled to before.
It was such an early morning flight we rested until the meeting began in the afternoon.
Before the meeting began I was able to meet with Uttam, and King Kong, and meet his wife and two gorgeous, if not naughty children, see Bappy, and Prince. They were all very lovely and we felt very warmly welcomed from the minute of our arrival.
That afternoon we stepped out and had a tour and induction round the block of the flat.
The week was filled with many free mornings with people dropping in and out of the flat to talk to, visits in the mornings to the Indian Embassy, and then every evening we went out to visit contacts and give classes.
For those of you who have been there I'll mention the names.
We were able to get to the Mirpor SS and contacts class with Bro Joseph, Shar/va SS with Daniel and Trina, 2 Bada classes, one with an interested family, and the other visiting Ronnie's family, and doing a class there for all interested contacts. Uttam and Shima also attended that class.
Brother Jewel invited us to his house for dinner one night and it was lovely to spend some time with him and to meet his brother. They treated us to such a lovely meal. I was amazed at the luxury of some of the cooking. The meals were gourmet at most of the houses we visited and they all provided us with dinner. Often giving us soup as starters and then a curry to follow. This is the reason that I was able to go 3 days without rice, as some of the meals provided consisted of french toast and vegetables.
I also got invited back on Friday night to meet his wife and his son. I went to his sister in Law's and enjoyed and amazing dinner. Only on arrival I realised that I was gatecrashing their 2nd wedding anniversary dinner. (jewel had mentioned casually that they'll give me something to eat we'll stay for 10 mins and then go to the airport!) It was one of those where you want to try everything cause it tastes so good, but you really can't fit it all in! We had fish curry, cauliflower, a sweet egg curry, and the rice was cooked in a semi Biryani style.
After the classes we would get back and enjoy a game of mose, while enjoying the amazing flavours of extra desserts and the incredible English cadbury flavours.

The visa saga was quite the saga, with the Indian Embassy not allowing me to apply for an Indian visa on a 'Bangladeshi landing permit' while the Bangladeshi officials assured me that it was their custom and it was fine. So I only ended up with a 1 month visa for coming back to India. So many trips to the Embassy later, I was quite frustrated. Who knows what God's plan is for me? But I feel that I can be useful here in India at the moment, and I'm thinking about heading out of India again to try somewhere else. I'm not certain yet, and have about 2 weeks to make a decision. I need your prayers.
Also our flight from Bangladesh on Friday night was cancelled, so we managed to be present for nearly the whole of the truth camp and help out with the ss for that. We planned for 7 members, ss age, and ended up teaching 3 12/13 year olds, and making Elijah's ravens with them out of paper plates. They didn't seem to mind. We made them as well and had a lot of fun:-) You never know what you're going to end up doing next in these crazy places.

Bangladeshi's like using the word 'something'.
On Valentine's day we were walking past a flower stall and a man tried to sell us red roses. Sarah said 'does it smell' and leant in to check it out! The man said 'something'. She smelt and made a funny face and also said 'something'. Something can be used to describe a lot, or nothing at all.
Like at SS we asked Bappy's brother if he understood our English. His reply 'something I understand, something I don't!

Sarah's accent is quite amusing on this side of the world. People find it very difficult to understand her confusion with the pronounciated of 'i's' and 'e's' in the opposite places. For instance Bappy repeated her 'git cold' sentence back to her and asked her if that really was a word.

The most stimulating part of the week for me was being at a family's contact class and taking the lady aside into another room (as she wasn't answering any of the questions in her husbands presence) with Nipun and doing a semi informal interview / fill in the answers she didn't know. I came away just feeling so excited. But then, that's what happens when you have a whole evening to try and cover the bible starting with God, His plan and purpose and heading onto promises and Kingdom on earth. We just didn't have enough time there. They have so many people wanting to learn, and every night of the week is taken except one to teach contacts the truth.
It's definitely an area that is very fruitful at the moment. Please keep the preaching work there in your prayers.