Mango Drinks

I am one of the youngest MCC service workers at this orientation, which was evident during our group devotional time discussing Ephesians 2. My group members brought out some observations and ideas that I had not considered or even heard of before. During our morning break we met with the Communications department of MCC. We had cake and learned how we will interact with them in order to educate through the media. The morning session was on gender issues as these issues trancend all cultures. I'm sure this is something I will have to work out in Bangladesh since it is a Muslim country. I usually eat with adults, but today I had lunch with two families with a combined total of 4 children under the age of 2.5 - it was quite an experience. Our long afternoon session was on anti-racism with Damascus road consultants. Though I had never participated in the anti-racism training, Damascus road had been at Bluffton for several years. In the three hours that we had, we mainly discovered how systemic racism is, and that systemic changes are needed for any difference to be made. The leader, Conrad, had a son who was jailed for a crime he didn't commit. A witness in the case came forward and admitted that she had been lying and that he was innocent. Before he could be released he was murdered in prison five years after being convicted. Conrad said that he had also been jailed for a crime he didn't commit, and that there are many other like him. After dinner we all went to the MCC resource center where we met a delightful man who was formerly from India. He made us a drink of mangoes, and it sort of reminded me of sin-to in Vietnam. This man had visited Bangladesh, so he told me fun stories and tried to teach me some Bangla. We all did service work at the center, and I got to go through Health Kits that had been donated and check them to make sure they had enough toothpaste and soap. Though we didn't spend alot of time working, we did see alot of recycling. Everything from t-shirts to cardboard is reused/recycled. It was amazing to see how they used their resources so wisely. We all came back to the Welcoming Place and I spent the remainder of the evening chatting with my fellow service workers.