THREE months?!!

Hindu temple

I can hardly believe it when I look at the calendar: I have been in Bangladesh almost THREE months!  It has flown by.  I think back to when I was praying about and planning my time here and everyone kept asking how long I would stay.  When I replied with “six months” most people felt that was a very long time.  “Why not three months?” they would ask.    I felt that three months would not be long enough and I was correct.  I can’t even imagine leaving or preparing to leave this week.  I feel I am finally in my groove and things are so good. 

Work is challenging as always.  Each day presents another interesting patient and I get to “flex my OB/GYN muscle” so to speak, helping to make tough decisions.  Eclampsia season is definitely in full swing now and I’m sad to report has just this week claimed the lives of two young mothers at our hospital.  Most of the cases recover without any long term sequelae but sometimes they come to us too far along in the process and the damage cannot be reversed.  This tragedy is, at least somewhat, offset by the many healthy new lives we help bring in to the world every day. 

Baby lambs

Spiritually, I am feeling amazing.  This community is like a long cool drink of water after a tough workout.  I feel so refreshed and encouraged here, which has a lot to do with why I am so happy.  It’s a little bit like the process of falling in love.  The last few days we had a conference with a guest speaker and he spoke about the first 2 and last 2 chapters of the Bible.  I love dreaming about and trying to picture the new heaven and the new earth.  It makes me so excited about the future!

I have been to the next town over to visit the “sights”.  Dinajpur has a Hindu temple (Kantanagar) that was built between 1704-1752.  It is covered in teracotta plaques depicting different scenes.  It was nice to travel by car about 1.5hrs each way

at my new house

house balcony view

to see more of the countryside and remember what it’s like to be in a car! I also moved from the guesthouse, which was more like a hotel, to one of the houses.  I am sharing the apartment (“flat”) with Rebecca and Sian.  Rebecca is the anesthetist from Wales and Sian is another short term OB/GYN from the UK.  They will both leave me soon: Sian later this month and Rebecca next month.  Then, I will be without roommates in this 3 bedroom apartment for the last 6 weeks of my time here, but it will be ok.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and for reading my notes. 

Please pray for my continued growth, both professionally and spiritually while I am here.  My sister is also coming to visit soon!  Please pray for safe travels.  We will be traveling in the country and visiting Nepal while she is here. 

Angela