Cambridge, Leeches, and Chinese

Taize had a British girl named Catherine visiting for one week. She is around my age and is a medical student at Cambridge, which I had just visited in March. Catherine had been in India for several months with Taize before her brief trip to Bangladesh. Since we are both girls we naturally spent a good amount of time together. I got up early several times this week and had breakfast with Brother Frank and Catherine and Patrick and Richard. On Wednesday some children from one of Taize's village schools came to Taize. There were about 40-50 children - some had walked there without shoes - and one teacher holding a rather large paddle. Catherine and I watched the kids as they sang songs and then they gave us special handshakes. Catherine and I also spent some evenings playing Uno and eating flat bread, spicy meat, and tea.

Yesterday after morning prayer, the Taize boys decided to go fishing and I went along. We took a boat acrossed the Bramaputra to the island in the middle of the river. Several weeks ago I had a boat ride around the island, but now the far side of the river does not have enough water for a boat to pass through. The entire river is unusually low for this time of year. We walked acrossed the island to the other side of the river that usually has water, but now is a small trickle with ponds here and there. There was a ton of the mud and several of the boys started rolling in the mud and were covered from head to toe in mud. Then they all jumped in the water and started catching fish with their bare hands. Some of the boys were rather good at catching fish this way. They caught alot of fish, which we had for dinner that night. I did not submerge myself in the water, but waded in a still, small pond with clear water. One of the boys told me to get out of the still water, because it had some kind of animal in it. I didn't know if I should believe him, but I eventually I got out of the water and started walking. Later I looked down at my mud-covered leg and saw a spot of blood. A leech had bitten me just like the boy had said. I never saw the leech, but I remember being terrified to read about them as a child. From now on I will stay away from the nice clear still water. I would not allow Patrick to speculate about what was in the river coming from India. People bathe in it, wash their animals, and dump "things" in it.

Also on Friday Jerry and Ethel came to Mymensingh and had lunch with Patrick and I at the China Green. Chinese food was a welcome change, but we still could not avoid having rice. The restaurant was really nice, approved by a very skeptical Bangla teacher Ms. Nath. (Even she calls them before she goes to make sure that everything is clean.) Then we all went to La Bambo for coffee. Ethel was very excited to have coffee as she hasn't had any since she got to Bangladesh. Jerry and Ethel were grateful to be out of the village for a bit. Their daily routine includes four hours of Bangla and a 5:30 a.m. walk to avoid being stared at. Apparently this early hour does not prevent the stares. They also report toads in the house and the electricity going on and off six times in an evening. This is what I have to look forward to, though I believe Jerry will solve the toad problem by repairing a hole in the door.