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