Gerri and I leave for Bangladesh in ten days. We have a lot to do to get ready. Of course, there are the clothes. One of my favorite parts of traveling in Asia is all the fun clothes we get to wear! This is a photo of some of our saris.
And the cultural orientation. We sat yesterday morning for a few hours with our three lady students from Bangladesh, asking questions about cultural dos and don'ts. Who knew that our American "thumbs up" sign should NEVER be given in Bangladesh? It's good we found out ahead of time.
And the messages. We plan to give four talks in our short women's conferences in the three cities. So we talked with the ladies about the needs of Bangla Christian women, and what should be included in our talks. It was very helpful.
And the visas. We applied for our visas several days ago at the Bangladesh Embassy in Manila. We have been frustrated by the amount of red tape, additional documents, and more and more requirements. It seems we have submitted everything now, so now we are just praying that the visas will be granted in time.
Back to the clothes. Like in most of South Asia, Bangla women wear both the salwar kameez and the sari. The salwar, which is a long dress-like top worn over loose pants, is so comfortable. I have several of them and I love wearing them. The sari is another story. I also have several of them, and I hate wearing them. It's complicated to put it on and precarious to keep it on! So during our cultural orientation yesterday we decided that on Monday, which is PIM class day, Gerri and I will wear our saris for the whole day. For practice.
Although they rarely wear saris in the Philippines, the Bangla ladies will wear theirs too, I think mostly to encourage us. Then the Nepali and Pakistani and Indian ladies agreed to join us too. So Monday is sari day at PIM. Watch for more photos.
Please pray for us, that we will prepare well, and listen to the voice of our Shepherd as He guides us in our preparation.
And the cultural orientation. We sat yesterday morning for a few hours with our three lady students from Bangladesh, asking questions about cultural dos and don'ts. Who knew that our American "thumbs up" sign should NEVER be given in Bangladesh? It's good we found out ahead of time.
And the messages. We plan to give four talks in our short women's conferences in the three cities. So we talked with the ladies about the needs of Bangla Christian women, and what should be included in our talks. It was very helpful.
And the visas. We applied for our visas several days ago at the Bangladesh Embassy in Manila. We have been frustrated by the amount of red tape, additional documents, and more and more requirements. It seems we have submitted everything now, so now we are just praying that the visas will be granted in time.
Back to the clothes. Like in most of South Asia, Bangla women wear both the salwar kameez and the sari. The salwar, which is a long dress-like top worn over loose pants, is so comfortable. I have several of them and I love wearing them. The sari is another story. I also have several of them, and I hate wearing them. It's complicated to put it on and precarious to keep it on! So during our cultural orientation yesterday we decided that on Monday, which is PIM class day, Gerri and I will wear our saris for the whole day. For practice.
Although they rarely wear saris in the Philippines, the Bangla ladies will wear theirs too, I think mostly to encourage us. Then the Nepali and Pakistani and Indian ladies agreed to join us too. So Monday is sari day at PIM. Watch for more photos.
Please pray for us, that we will prepare well, and listen to the voice of our Shepherd as He guides us in our preparation.
1 comment:
Am praying re: the visas....and thanks for sharing about the clothes! So fun to see that side of your planning.
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