A couple days ago I was told two missionaries were coming for a couple of weeks. Shathi said two boys were coming with the Waid's back from Dhaka. I was so confused. I could not figure out who in the world could be coming! Sitting down to breakfast yesterday morning I heard the screen door open and turning around I found Devin McCan and Logan Carter standing in our cafeteria in Bangladesh. This world is so small! Before coming here, I had never met Logan before and had only met Devin a few times at the weekly Walla Walla "Family Dinner." They are here for 12 days taking videos of the children and surrounding village to make a promo video for Bangla Hope to use on 3ABN. Bangla Hope is just one of their many stops on their journey through Asia making videos for various Adventist organizations. Having two Americans here, much less Walla Wallaians, is a treat for sure.
Along with having the surprise of Logan and Devin here yesterday I was finally allowed to go into Hili! Bani, Logan, Devin, and I all piled onto the back of "Mr. Puffin-toot" (affectionately named by Kelsey) which is a platform with wheels connected to a motorcycle. This was great fun as we passed village children running beside us trying to give us high-fives and once we reached Hili, driving so close to those bus's can be quite exhilirating on such a small vehicle. Our driver let us off at the market place where us three white college students struggled to keep up with Bani as she quickly wove her way through the maze of shops and stalls. We definitely didn't want to lose her in that place!
Finding a textile shop full of clothing fabric, Bani told us to sit and immediately some men started pulling out 3 piece salwar camis packages of fabric with all kinds of designs and colors! At the first shop I found a turquoise salwar camis and the boys found lungis for themselves. Salwar, I learned is the pants part of the outfit and the camis is the shirt/dress and the orna is the scarf. A lungi is a skirt-type piece of fabric sewed like a tube traditionally worn by men. You step into the middle of the tube and tie it around your waiste.
Looking for clothes with all of their fabric in the many shops that afternoon was a bit overwhelming, but definitely a good experience. I felt bad dragging Logan and Devin through all the shops and my slow decision-making trying to find designs and colors of camis' I liked. For girls, finding clothes is quite the process. First, you have to find fabric with designs and colors you like. Then, you take it to a tailor for him to make it to your size, but even then you have to decide how long the pants, sleeves, and dress are and what kind of neck line design you want cut into it. Do you want an elastic or string waiste band? Do you want cuffs? Oh my, in America, if you are a consumer of commercial clothing merchandise, you are limited by the store and their options. The shirts and pants are already made and all you have to do is pick out your size. ALthough, I do like how my clothes here are made just to fit me.
All in all, shopping in Hili was quite the experience. A lot of people stared at us white kids, but when three white kids are in the heart of Asia I can't really blame them for doing so. We are a rare species around here. We had great fun saying that we were all Canadian when shop owners would ask where we were from. It was better to say that especially with all of the Islamic unrest recently against Americans and it's true, we are all citizens of Cananda.
Updates:
-I filled out an application for my visa in hopes of getting a 3 month extension on it, so I can stay the whole 6 months. I'm praying it goes through.
-The weather is cooling down! I laughed when I walked outside one morning to find all the girls with their pants on undeneath their dresses. It was a perfectly sunny day, but they were cold... hehe.
-Taking a trip to Nepal on Wednesday for 8 days. My current visa requires me to leave the country every 30 days.
I'm sure it's a terrible thing to have to go travel someone new every 30 days!!
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