Planting season

It is the time of the year when; no, it is one of the times of the year when the farmers are busy planting their fields.
The country undergoes a transformation from dirt brown to light green. It is fascinating to watch both the change and the labour that goes into this, the most important activity done in Bangladesh.
The farmers provide food for everybody. If the rice crop is good, everybody eats. If it isn't, many go hungry.
In this photo the life giving water is lead to a field far away. (There are more photos if you click on the one shown.) Over the next couple of months we will watch as the rice grows, the colours darken and then when the rice ripens we will watch as it brightens into yellow and harvest. Then there will be another planting season in April or May.
I hope to be able to show you the fruit of this labour.

Good news and bad news

The good news is that the present head of the government has expressed 'embarrassment' at misconduct in her own ranks.

Another news item is that 50,000 cases filed against members of a certain political party and 70,000 against another will be reviewed. This will be done because the filing of the cases or their verdicts might have been politically motivated. (The Daily Star, Tuesday, 27 January 2009.)

The good news is that if you belong to the first political party there is a political likelihood that you will get away with it. The bad news is that if you belong to the other you probably won’t.

The challenge for the present government is to prove the fear of the bad news wrong; a little more 'embarrassment' will go a long ways towards showing that the good news is that there is justice for all.

Please, Most Honourable, rise to the occasion; and to the rest, please pray.

It's the time of the year when

the countryside is transformed from this

by men like these

to the green and beautiful place we know as Bangladesh.

At my door today

I didn't know until today, but Chappo, like Bimol, had arrived yesterday afternoon. They both come from 'my' village and are neighbours, but they had not travelled together. They both wanted to see a doctor and came via the only person they know at LAMB - me.
Bimol stayed at my house and we spent the evening together talking about his family and my recent visit there with friends from Denmark. He shared about his concern for his children; their education and the engagement of his oldest daughter. We talked out and he went to bed while I was still preparing today's lessons at my laptop.
Chappo stayed on the veranda in front of the under-fives clinic. Because she is a woman she couldn't have stayed at my house anyway so perhaps it didn't matter that I hadn't seen her. We couldn't have talked much anyway; her village Bangla is a challenge, to say the least, for me to understand.
Chappo has come almost every month for several years now. She has a chronic illness that requires her to take medicine every day. A former missionary pays for her medicine and travel every month. (400-500 Taka; GB£ 4-5, US$ 6-7 or DKr 30-40) This has made a tremendous difference in her life. The first time she came, Chappo looked much older than her 50 or so years.
Bimol didn't stay for lunch as his back pain didn't require much other than pain killers and the compulsory worm medicine we seem to give all patients at LAMB - I don't think they are related. He wanted to get home as soon as possible.
Chappo came to the school to find me after she had seen a medical assistant. There was something not quite right with her heart sound and a senior doctor had been called upon to see her. Chappo understood as little or less about what the medical assistant had said as I did of her Bangla; she did understand enough to be afraid.
I was able to find a staff member in the out patient department who made sure Chappo got seen and reassured her as best he could.
The doctor took Chappo off of the medicine that so changed her life after her first visit to LAMB; perhaps the abnormality of the heart rhythm is a side effect of the medicine. Before she left on her four-hour return journey, Chappo came to the school and thanked me for the help I had given her over the years - her gratitude is hereby passed on to the former missionary who has paid for the treatment.
She didn't need my advice, she just needed someone to listen to her fear and encourage her hope in God. Then she left on her own.
Chappo is facing the realities of death - please pray for her. I know there are millions like her, but Chappo was the one who came to my door today.

Thank you Md Ahmed

After almost two years under a caretaker government led by Md Fakhrudin Ahmed Bangladesh today has a democratically elected parliament. The enormity of the achievement is hard to overstate. There is a world of difference between what would have been and the democratic elections that took place on 29 December 2008. Md Ahmed and his team of advisors have diligently worked to bring to justice the corrupt and to ensure free and fair elections for a country so proud of the freedom it gained in 1971.
I don't think any two year period in the history of Bangladesh has done more for democracy and freedom; many corrupt politicians have been brought to court; unjust systems have been changed; transparency in politics has been improved; new voters previously excluded because of cast or creed have been allowed to vote and today a democratically elected government was sworn in.
All of these changes have been accomplished by the diligent work and uncompromising effort of the Chief Advisor and his caretaker government since 11 January 2007. It has been possible only because Md Ahmed had the support of the armed forces and of the grate majority of people in Bangladesh.
There is reason for praise, there is reason for hope.
Thank God for Md Ahmed and pray for the newly elected Government.