Review of Bangladesh visit - Teachers' Christian Fellowship

(For about nine years, Ian and Jill Cochrane have been working in Bangladesh training teachers. Recently a number of TCF members joined them for their latest adventure. Here is an edited version of their first report.)

We have arrived safely in Bangladesh, after a stopover in Bangkok and thanks to Rebecca, Thai Airlines, our 18 cases of check in luggage amounting to 300 kg was all approved to go. We brought half a school library, lots of visual aids, school jumpers from Greenwich Primary School, and, of course, lots of baby bonnets. Thanks to Mick Faber, Lion donated 20 laptops for the teachers to use for their lesson notes.

Having spent one night in the capital, Dhaka, we then took nine hours by train to Parbatipur, the nearest town. We are staying in the newly [almost] finished Women's Refuge which will open after we leave. Our accommodation cost helped finish the Refuge.

We began work the day after we arrived. The welcome by the school children and the teachers brought tears to our eyes. Teacher training starts at 8.30 am and finishes at 4.55 pm, five days a week. Our day starts at 5.45 am when we go walking for 30 minutes. It's the only cool time in the day. The humidity is 99%, but the temperature only in the 30's. By 8 pm, most of us are showing our age with tiredness. Most of us are sleeping well. It hasn't taken long to get used to shaving and showering with cold water. The cold showers are actually quite refreshing.

Give thanks for our safe travel and arrival, the keen trainers and teachers, our excellent accommodation and that we all survive safely.

Pray that we will be open to all that God wants us to be and do, that we will serve the teachers well by our training, for continued good health and safety, for our energy levels and that we will continue to work well as a team in our tiredness.

More to come.

Ian and Jill