Why has no one posted about CRP??

For over a week now we all have been working at CRP (Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed). This organization is massive and self sustaining compound that focuses on all aspects of disabilities. The center has a pediatrics unit which has both indoor and outdoor therapy and physical and occupational therapy. Loren has been working in this unit working with the physical therapist and helping with research and writing proposals. Adam has been working taking information from this unit and compiling data to make graphs and information for the past year. He also is developing a new program to evaluate pediatric patients progress as they pass through. There is also a 120 spinal injury patients that are tetra and paraplegic patients in 8 wards. Natalie has been working in the nursing station helping take care of patients along with other student nurses who study at the school located on premise. Along with the nursing school they also have physical therapy and speech and language therapy schools where students can perform clinical classes on the premise. There is also occupational and physical therapy for the patients who stay at CRP and out patients who can come for day therapy. There are also hostels for patients who live far away, or for families who have family members with in the nursing wards. Are you beginning to see a pattern?? They have everything!!! More areas: Metal workshop where they make there own wheelchairs which can last in the terrain, programs to teach patients new trades they can perform after their injuries, such as a wood shop and a newly bought and jerry-rigged motor rickshaw for a paraplegic man.

The most amazing part is that all of this has started by one lady Valerie Taylor who moved to Bangladesh 40 years ago with the plan to stay for 4 months and has ended up living here for the last 40 years starting and running this center.

Mandy and myself have had the pleasure of having the best job here – working in the school which integrates mainstream students and disabled children. We have both been working in some of the disabled kids classes and group therapy. There are 38 student from the age of 5 – 22, all having different levels of Cerebral Palsy except one, who has extreme limb birth defects It is amazing to see what these students are able to do in their classes since being here. One kid that I have gotten close to is Pordiff who has been at the school longer than any other kid there. When he first came he could not speak, sit up, or anything beside lay on his stomach. He now is in class 4, can walk on his own, speak and spell in Bengali and English and communicate by speaking and spelling words in a communication book they set up for him. He is always smiling, and his joy is so infectious. This week he has been super excited because we will be playing soccer and loves to jam on the air guitar. All of the kids here are incredible, Mandy and I are blown away everyday with how smart, loving, driven, funny and full of life these kids are. It has truly been a blessing to spend time with them.

A typical day at the school for us… What I did today…

Went to the youngest students class and worked for the first part of class with a boy on writing ABC’s. He did great writing and we also worked on speaking, due to speech problems. He wanted to keep going over and over the ABC’s and was very persistent to do well. The teachers are also amazing with the teaching and love that they pour into these kids everyday. The other part of class we did fine motor therapy with learning to tear paper and speech therapy with saying different sounds, blowing air and other activities and games. In the afternoon after lunch we have group physical therapy doing everything from singing to walking with braces, stairs for the kids who can, and other forms of physical therapy, speech therapy, basic life skills, games and playing. Mandy has been able to do horseback riding with some of the kids as well.

It has been incredible being able to be with these kids everyday. Its crazy that we did not expect at all to be with kids on this trip and Mandy and I have been able to be with kids the whole time. God is so good! I leave the school everyday with such a full heart. These kids motivate me, teach me, and everyday blow me away.

Other activities over the past week; Bengali Wedding, Ordination for some priests we met at Missionaries of Charity, Our first real monsoon rain – praise God, people were really concerned that there was no rain.

Thursday we leave for Bogra a city in Northern Bangladesh or go work at another organization. We are all excited to be able to see some of the countryside and work with people in villages.

Much Love

Josh – and yes I’m still in my lungi.

The Musings of a guy in a Lungi

First of all, youre probably wondering what a Lungi is. Its a skirt-like tube of fabric that the men here in Bangladesh wear by wrapping it around you. It's very comfortable in the heat here and the locals sometimes refer to it as clothes with a built in air conditioning.

As Loren mentioned yesterday was our last day at Missionaries of Charity Home of Compassion in Tejgaon, and we will have two more days at the Shishu Bhavan Home. Both the homes have been described to you so I am sure you are somwhat familiar with them. In both of the homes I was able to work with the children all with differing levels and intensities of physical and mental disablities. Being with these children has been such a filling and wonderful experience which in only two weeks has been so rewarding and full of love.

In my experience with different missions and volunteer projects I have had oppurtunities to work with children with different disablities, but none have come to comparison with the involvement I have had with these kids, and the lasting impact they have had on my life. The paradox of missions is that we go to give and serve, yet we recieve so much from the people that we meet.

In my previous contact with people who have disablities, there seemed to always be a disconnect with me being able to become close to or build any relationship with them. However, these past two weeks I have realized how much I have been missing. Each of these children have been so wonderful, unique and so special to be with. Through playing, feeding, physical thearpy, and helping the sisters and other workers I have seen the beauty and simplicity of the love of Christ. It is amazing how by just holding a childs hand, singing to them, or praying over them how your heart jumps with love. My heart fills with joy for a couple seconds every time that one of these children look over and smile at me realizing that I am there to be with them; or the smiles and laughter of a child as you help them make an attempt to walk. One of my especially favorite times of the day has been sitting down with a childs head in my lap and feeding them, as some of the children have to lay flat on their backs due to digestion and spinal deformities. The food is rice based so we ball up little scoops of rice with our fingers and then we place it in there mouths. I'm sure all you mothers know though that feeding is never that easy. You find that each kid etst differently, some are super easy to feed, some need encouragment where I would say Cow Bhat Cow, meaning eat rice eat! Some are just having too much fun and you just have to find times to feed inbetween the laughing. Food time is always a good time.

I realized that what was keeping me so distant before was that I always had pity on people with abdormalities and handicaps, and it was that pity that kept me at a distance and mabye even fearful. However, the pity I should have been having was on myself for not having the reckless love, uncontrolable joy beyond circumstances, trueness to self and unending affection that I have seen in each and everyone of the children at these homes. When I look into the eyes and smiles of these children I see the eyes and smiles of our Creator God.

My prayer is that I will learn to be like these, the children of love, and allow it to transform my life to have faith like a child.

Blessings,
Josh Rodgers

On To CRP

Family and Friends,

Today was our last day at the Missionaries of Charity Home of Compassion and at the Bottomley orphan school. It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone, and it affirmed in our minds just how strong of relationships we had built in such a short time of two weeks. When we initially got to Missionaries of Charity, I have to say that I was a little disappointed that there was not too much medical need besides dressing the occasional wound on the men's side. However, the children there were bored to tears, along with the adults, so we would spend most of our time playing with everyone. This seemed somewhat unproductive to me, being one of those task-oriented types of people that thinks they have to be accomplishing a specific task to feel like I'm making a difference. However, I had some sense knocked into me when we were told by several local volunteers that would drop by and all of the sisters that these poor kids never had anybody come visit them to play and give them a childhood of any sort, and they were so happy that we would come all the way from the United States just to comfort and play with some poor Bengali kids. After handing out some of the jerseys that were donated by APU's Night of Champions program, taking some pictures, and saying our goodbyes, I did indeed feel quite accomplished. I should have known from last year that God had the tendency to take my expectations and turn them upside-down. I've recieved many lessons of going along with whatever is put in front of me, and this surprise should not have been a surprise at all.

I feel that the toughest part of our day was after this, when we went to the Bottomley school and saw our students for the last time. After two weeks of being with these kids, I would walk into the school's gate with the rest of the team, and my class would no longer be waiting patiently at their seats for me to walk into the pseudo-classroom/hallway that I taught them english in. They were all piled up against each other at the gate to the room, waving and smiling at the sight of us. Adam's students were doing the same thing, as both of our class areas were visible by the main gate. When I went to them, they all passed up these notes they had written out of their notebooks in english (in cursive and quite legible, I might add. First graders!) before I had time to write up the ABC's on the blackboard as was my daily routine. I read them all before beginning, and was blown away with the realization of how much my short time at this place had meant to all of these children. Then I started hearing a whisper among the kids, "Jackson... Jackson..." the one and only boy in my class, as this school of orphans was made up of primarily girls, was the only one in the class still sitting in his seat, bawling his eyes out. I told him, almost positive that he didn't know what I was saying, that today should be a happy time and a celebration, because he had become a part of my life and today I would leave and bring him with me in my memory. He came up to the front and grabbed my hand, and didn't let go for almost the remainder of the time I had at the school.

To be uplifting, we spent the whole day playing instead of learning english. Where I would normally write up english words on the board and have them repeat them back to me, I wrote up on the board, "Today is my last day, so instead lets play!" They read it, rejoiced, then ran onto the field knowing what came next: my Bengali adapted version of duck duck goose, cow cow tiger. After some games, running to all the other classes being taught by my teammates to cause some disruption and fun, it was time to wrap it up, take some pictures, and say my goodbyes. "Shesh!" I would tell all of them, meaning finished in Bengali. They would respond with "Na!" and pull on me and give me flowers and ask when I was coming back. Jackson was crying again, and the other kids were being respectful, but kept on letting me know that he was weeping, as if trying to break my heart. When our entire team reassembled and said thank you and goodbye to the Sisters that had allowed us the privelige of working with their students we made our way through the crowd of school children who adorned us with gifts back to our van. When we were all piled in, I saw that Jackson had made his way up to the front of the crowd, reached out for me and I met him with my hand. As the door closed, he groped at the windows and searched through the tinted window for where I was inside the car.

To add to the longest post ever, when we got back to YWCA, our hotel, completely by chance our friend Apollo from last year was sitting in the lobby, waiting on his mother who had come to visit. Apollo was part of the four students from the town of Barisal in southern Bangladesh who had gone with us to the village every day to help build houses for those affected by Cyclone Sidr. Of all the times he had chosen to come up to Dhaka, of all the hotels he could have chosen, of all the times we could have been in Bangladesh, he was sitting in the one-couch lobby of YWCA. In a country of nearly 50 million people in a space the size of arizona, we ran into one of the maybe 20 people we knew in the country. Needless to say, we spent the night in excitement and caught up on what had been happening in each others' lives over the past year. Only Natalie and I had met him before, having been in Bangladesh last year, but we introduced the new team and he even agreed to come along with us on some of our ministry days.

With that, I will conclude this massive post, and give my teammates time to give their experiences. Take care everyone, and your prayers continue to keep us in God's grace.

In Him,

Loren Colson

Mother Teresa's Shishu Bhavan

Dear Loved Ones,

Our team has been making much of our King! monday to thursday mornings we serve at one of 8 mother teresa homes where there are 40 recovering women, 20 recovering men, and approximately 10 children some of which are handicapped. The love the sisters pour into the patients is a wonderful example for our team, that we are very glad to share. So far I have taken many blood pressures, educated the sister on Hep. B vaccines, and had many a moving conversation. Especially with a woman named Nomita. When she was young she was one of the most beautiful girls in her village, and when she was 14 years old a 40 year old man was making passes at her, she refused him due to his age and out of spite he threw acid in her face. As a result she has lost her eyes and is very badly burned, I learned that it is common for men to make such threats to young women and if they are caught the penalty is 2-3 years in prison. This man was never caught. However she excelled in the blind school and has received her masters, traveled to 4 countries, and teaches classes for other blind students. Life is hard sometimes for her, and she does not like recalling such harsh memories but praise the lord! i was able to share with her that she breathes for a purpose, and that I believe that God can turn something bad into something wonderful and that her life was a testimony to that. She became emotional but also responded in gratitude and agreement.

friday and saturday of this week we went to Shishu Bhavan which is the main ministry site for the Sisters in Bangladesh collectively. It began as a place for raped women to give birth after the revolution from Pakistan, and it still functions as such today including women who have had premarital sex and wish to save face and continue a life. In this culture pre-marital sex can ruin your life, and women who become pregnant out of wedlock are rejected from theri families and become beggars with their infants. Mother Teresa's welcomesthese women to stay for the duration of their labor, and during that time they take care of the orphaned infants and children, then later on when they give birth they can plae their child up for adoption of stay with their child until establishing themselves elsewhere. There are approximately 10 pregnant women, 6 babies under 3 months and 3 under 4 years. There are 3 boys who are approximatley 5 and are little terrors haha demanding attention every moment, but they are also very sweet. In addition to these other services the home tends to 20 handicapped children who are all very precious.

God is teaching our team marvelous things, and I am so thankful to be continuing his kingdom in a foreign land. He strenghtens us and gives us all we need to finish the race he has assigned for us.

Blessing s,

Natalie Hardister

We Made It!

Friends and Family,

We have all arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh safely and soundly. Our team left LAX at approximately 11:30, as there were weather issues in San Francisco and our flight was delayed. Because of this, be barely made our flight from San Fran to Hong Kong, and we had to be escorted to the plane. In Hong Kong, we met up with Adam Trowbridge, our fifth teammate, who had already been in China for three weeks prior doing a summer study abroad program. With the entire team assembled, we flew to Dhaka and arrived at approximately 12:30 AM, were picked up by Mr. David Anwar and his colleague Raphael, and went to the YWCA, which is where we are currently staying. We met up with APU professor and associate vice president of internationalization Matthew Browning, whom we had the pleasure of being around our team for a couple days, and leaving today. We are excited about the opportunities ahead of us, and are so thankful to our hosts the Anwars for treating us so well.

We spent the first day going to the Missionaries of Charity home here in Dhaka and speaking with the Sisters about what work there may be for us there. We have decided on a 8-12 schedule, after which we head to a school accross the street that is also run by an order of nuns to teach english, answer questions about the United States, and play with the students. We then return to YWCA for lunch, then head back to meet with the students in groups, one of us taking 1st and 2nd grade, another 3rd and 4th, and so on to 9th and 10th grades. We are still figuring out what we are going to do with this time, as we weren't planning on teaching and do not have lesson plans, but the team has been very flexible in taking on whatever opportunity comes our way.

We have also visited our second site while Matt was here to check out what we will be doing, the Center for the Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (CRP). This is an incredible place/compound on the outskirts of Dhaka that sees several paralyzed patients from around Bangladesh. If anyone wants to visit their website, it's www.crp-bangladesh.org. We met one of its founders, an English lady who originally joined the peace-corp british equivalent and only wanted 15 months, but has ended up staying in Bangladesh for forty years, starting out with four walls and building CRP into the large project it is today.

Our access to internet is somewhat limited;while they have a computer with internet at the YWCA, there is only one, and it is for the hotel's use as well. We appreciate all of you who have supported us in this trip and in our lives, and owe it to everyone to keep you as updated as possible, though I am not yet sure what this is going to look like. I speak for the entire team when I say that we are excited and that everyone back in the States is greatly missed, and while we aren't able to share every story of our experience on the blog, we are surely taking pictures, journaling, and creating memories that we cannot wait to share.
In Him,
Loren Colson