So... Bangladesh

We have had little to no access to internet while moving around Bangladesh, which Ashley mentioned in her post, so I'm not sure how many more updates there are going to be. Ashley explained most of our time in Barisal with our contacts at World Vision and the boys from the Baptist Missionary Church that helped us out. Chiraphone named this group of guys "The Posse," and the name stuck. While there were several workers helping to raise the ten houses that APU had donated money to fund, we definately did our fair share of sweating as well. In fact, I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life. Mr. Kabir, the engineer in charge, would have us do manual labor tasks that didn't require too much construction skill, as our knowledge of Bangladeshi village house construction was and is somewhat limited. For example, a few days work was spend by myself and others simply moving dirt off the foundation to bring it down about six inches and level it out. To make it even more interesting, we didn't have any shovels or other equipment that would have made the job easy, but instead there were hoe-like tools with shorter handles. it was either that or using a metal plate as a shovel and doing the doggy digging technique. This took up the most time out of any task we were given, and while we were doing this, the workers were busy putting up the skeletons of the other houses. The first day was very hot, and the rest of the time was supposed to be monsoon, but we were blessed with perfect, cool weather the entire time we worked. We got all ten done surprisingly fast, as we started on about the 18th and were finished by the 23rd. That's an average of two houses per day. Obviously a certain someone upstairs wanted to see His work get done and those houses built before we went on our merry way to Rishilpi.

Now Rishilpi is a very interesting place with a very interesting story. It was founded by an Italian man named Enzo, who was a Catholic priest and wanted to help out the community of Satkhira and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church of Bangladesh told him that he could only help the converts and not the other underpriveliged people. However, Bangladesh is a conservative Muslim country, especially in rural areas like the one that Rishilpi is based in. Therefore, Enzo had it as a priority to help the people without requiring that they convert, and for that he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church of Bangladesh. Because of this, Rishilpi is now a secular organization that helps the untouchables, or "Rishi" of the community to be pulled out of their poverty and turned into skilled craftsmen, or "Shilpi," by creating a sustainable line of work for them. It is truly a great thing that is going on here, and we have found that they don't even need much help from us to be in operation, so we do the best we can to help out in whatever small way. I have been working with the shoemakers, but I don't have time to explain it right now, so maybe if I get another chance I can go into more detail. For now, keep us in our prayers, and we are thinking much about the people we care about in the States as we draw close to the end of our trip.