Epic New Experiences

I had an experience two days ago, that was entirely new to me, and completely unexpected.  Our contact rented a van and told us we were going to visit a village about 2 hours away to do some home visits, cool.  As we were on the way, we thought we were going to die numerous times, as our driver was ridiculous.  Driving here in Bangladesh is the worse driving I have ever experienced.  I’ve been in 3^rd world countries before, but I’ve never had driving like this.  Quite honestly, about the only rule is to not hit anyone.  We were seriously talking about making sure we have emergency contact numbers on us, and reviewing who needed to be contacted in the case of an accident or emergency.  The further we drove, the worse the road conditions got, and the more and more car sick we were all feeling.  The drivers all play chicken with each other and have to pass anyone in front of them.  We were head on with a few different buses a couple of times, and different people in the van would yell out “Jesus” or some other exclamation, as we all held on for dear life.

During the craziness of the ride, we found out that we were the first white people to ever go into this village.  What the?!  This was so cool!  I’ve never been to a place where white people had never been.  We finally made it to the village and were all more than happy to get out.  Upon our arrival, a man that our translator knew welcomed us to come and sit under his house.  (Their houses are all up on poles and they have a little sitting area underneath.)  Right away people from the surrounding houses started gathering and watching to see what was going on.  Another man ran and got some coconuts and chopped off the ends of them with a machete, giving us each one to drink from.  Again, so cool!

After finishing our coconut water, they led us through the village in the direction of some very loud music.  As we got closer, we see this open-air tent thing with decorations all over it, and a live band playing some super lively/fun music.  They told us to enter and got chairs for us to sit in.  We found out it was a celebration for 4 young men who were going to shave their heads and become Buddhist monks the next morning.  Ok, so we’re sitting in this random Buddhist celebration.  Then the translator comes up to us and says we are to share some action songs and a drama.  So they stopped what they were doing, and my team got up and did a drama, some worship songs, and some kids action songs.  The whole village was there for this celebration, and now everything had stopped to hear what we had to share.  Crazy.  That would never happen in the States- that a whole program would be stopped because some visitors came.

So after doing the songs & drama, and explaining what they were, and about God’s love for the people, they had us go back to the house where we originally were and the Buddhist celebration continued.  At the house, we sat around and chatted with each other, asking questions about the people through our translator.  Then they told us we were going to lunch in another house.  It was incredibly hot and humid, and all of us were sweating.  For some reason, even though it’s really hot, people still go into their houses, where it’s even hotter, to eat.   So we took off our shoes and enter into this little shack.  Before us was a table that was low to the ground filled with tons of food.  This was a feast before us, and probably the food for the family for the next week or so.  Incredible.  We all had bowls of rice, there was chicken & fish in different curry sauces, and hard-boiled/fried eggs for each of us.  We prayed for the food, and prayed not to get sick, and dug right in, eating with our hands, as is the style here.  The food tasted delicious.  Then to top it off, the host grabbed a hand-fan and literally stood over us and fanned us.  Amazing.  I was so humbled by how incredibly hospitable this man was, and how he was doing everything he could to make us comfortable and serve us. 

The meal was amazing, though a little awkward at times.   As I said, they eat with their hands here in this part of the world.  Well, with one hand- the right hand.  It’s a little difficult eating rice w/dahl covering it, and tear apart chicken with one hand.  The women who made the meal were all standing in the doorway, smiling and talking to each other, laughing at times.  Slightly awkward to eat with a bunch of people just staring at you.  Children from the village would also randomly slip their heads in the doorway to see what we were doing.  They started talking to our translator and making motions like they were eating.  It was clear they were talking about how we were eating.  The translator told us it was hard for them to use silverware, and they were commenting on how it was hard for us to eat with our hands.  It was just a time to laugh at yourself and realize we’re all students, learning as we go.

After the meal, the host provided water and soap for us to pass around to wash our hands with.  This man was a Buddhist man, and his family was also Buddhist, yet this family displayed more qualities of Jesus than many Christians do.  He sacrificially provided food for us, had his wife and family cook for us for hours, welcomed us into his home, stood above us to fan us, went and bought 7Up for us (I think because we weren’t drinking the water), and then washed our hands for us.  We are complete strangers to him.  Such a servant and so hospitable!  He taught me a lesson on hospitality.

Once we left his house, the family ate some lunch and we hung out outside until they were done.  Then they invited us to come see their garden, and for some reason were all about us seeing the garden.  So we walked out to the garden and various children from the village followed, along with the man and his family.  We walked into this beautiful green orchard full of various fruit trees- lychee, mango, jack fruit, and who knows what else.  There were random cows grazing all over and we ended up just stopping in the middle of the orchard for some reason.  Then they asked us to do some more action songs, because the women had all missed it since they were cooking for us.  So we brought out the guitar, did some worship songs, and some action songs.  They had no idea what we were saying, but clapped and joined in the motions.  When we had finished, one man said if we’d play the guitar again, he’d dance.  Ok.  So Carleen started playing and he got up to dance.  His dancing turned into him grabbing others from my team to join him and we ended up having this random dance party full of laughter in the middle of the orchard.  So strange, yet cool at the same time.

Our time in the village came to an end, and after many pictures, taken by both us and them on their cell phones (yes they had cell phones), we entered the death trap of a van to again go on the perilous journey back home.  Completely unexpected day, but so cool.  The first white people to the village, to proclaim the Good News and sing songs in the middle of a Buddhist Celebration, drinking from coconuts, eating amazing food with a family, and then singing and dancing in an orchard.  What is this crazy life I’m living?  How did I get to be so blessed to be a part of all this?  Amazing.