Farewell

Please pray for Prodip as he pursues another career. Yesterday he told me he had received a better opportunity and wanted to leave LAMB. Today he submitted his resignation letter and left.

It seems that opportunities are small windows in time that close as suddenly as they open. We live on the look-out, ready to jump through to the hope of a better tomorrow.

Pray that Prodip will find what he is looking for.

Christmas celebration 2008

If you want to see photos from the Christmas celebration at LAMB School. Just click here.

The real world and cheap grace

I liked the blog particle board and cheap grace by Alan Kaiser, a shorttermer who has been at LAMB School for almost a year by now. I could comment on how well it addresses two of the issues that face people from the more affluent world who come to Bangladesh and are relevant for all but would rather you read it for yourself.

Christmas celebration 2008

Tomorrow is the last day of school. We are celebrating Christmas and the achievements of the past semester with various performances. The children have been working hard, thou I think some of the teachers have been working harder. The teachers have been working hard, but not all of them as hard as the one in the picture here. The one in the picture here isn't really a donkey, but we all feel pretty heavy laden as we keep up our teaching, correct exam papers and prepare for the celebration tomorrow. Thank you for your prayers.


As these photos indicate the show isn't entirely traditional - I don't know if you can spot the difference. It is fun watching the children grow in their ability to plan and perform in many ways. It is a challenge to ensure that the variety of cultural standards are adhered to, and that important norms aren't broken. Fortunately God has given us good gifts of quality staff at the school. As the year draws to an end at the school we give thanks for all God's gifts.

Class photos

We have taken class photos of all the grades at LAMB School. They are available at the end of a click on the photo on the right.

The things we do to our children...

The tests are on and the clock is ticking. Please pray that the children
will learn to take tests, do well and know that they are loved all the same.

An early end

It is the last day before exam week and it seems like we are ready for it. In this photo some of us are at the local 'doughnut' shop. We finish early this year - there is a government 'request' to do so, but for us it is the realities of children not being likely to return after Eid on 9 December; and the need to finish classes before the elections that are scheduled for 18 December.

Every winter someone will set up shop outside the gate to serve these local cakes called pithas. There are two varieties here; steam cooked rice with molasses melts and dry fried plain. There is also a choice of toppings; molasses and spices. Later there will be another variety, deep fried with coconut. The steam fried one is 'healthy' because it doesn't have oil and the deep fried because it doesn't have sugar. I will probably try to get one of each for a balanced diet.

One benefit of a long Christmas holidays is that there will be more time for the painters to work through both school buildings. They are due to start this Saturday morning and we hope they will be able to finish before we start back up again in January. The challenges will be to juggle Eid holidays for the painters, Christmas holidays for the teachers and elections for all. Many will have to travel to their ancestral village for their vote to count.

Nativity Lutheran Church

We have just had a group of eight visitors of whom about half were from Nativity Lutheran Church in Minnapolis. It is always encouraging linking up with people all over the world and to know that people are praying for us.
In the photo grades five and six are handing over a thank you poster from all the teachers and students at the school to the visitors.

Pollination

Alan Kaiser was preparing to teach about pollination when he found this moth in a flower.
It was so busy with its probing that it let him bring it to my office where I spent a good half hour watching it probing all over the flower to suck up all the nectar that its long proboscis could find.
You could see the pollen on its head and wonder at the beauty of how God has planned for flowers to spring from the need of a moth to eat.

Cultural Show

The afternoon - and the celebration ended with a cultural show in which all areas of the project, and then some, entertained with deep and not-so-deep creative reflections on what LAMB is and does. It was great fund, embarrassing, long-winded, hilarious but never boring - just the way it usually is.
(Credit goes to Rusho, G5, for this photo.)

Speeches

Many of the people in this picture gave speeches to honour God and the
people of LAMB.

Anniversary rally after morning prayers

Every good celebration starts with prayer and then a rally...

Anniversary Celebrations Begin

LAMB Hospital is celebrating its 25th Anniversary tomorrow. Preparations are under way. All possible combinations of people at LAMB are getting ready for the day. These photos were taken at about 6:30 pm today, Thursday; Food is being cooked; outside the gate there are more people than usual and groups arrive all the time; what you can't see is the music from all the groups of people who are practising songs, dances and dramas for tomorrow.

The first storm

The weather has taken a turn for the worse. This morning one of the students complained that she was cold. It must have been too long since we gave her new clothes; what she was wearing wasn’t sufficient – especially if she also hadn’t had enough breakfast to fuel the fire.

It is time we buy clothes for those of our students who will need them this winter. Last year we didn’t get the clothes until after winter, and then they had already suffered. Perhaps we can get the clothes to the poor before the cold gets to them this winter.

 

 

25 Years Anniversary LAMB Hospital

LAMB Hospital will celebrate its 25th anniversary on 7 November 2008. Please visit our website today, tomorrow and the day after to see the special pages dedicated to the event.
The hospital was officially opened on 3 October 1983 but since that was a government holiday in Bangladesh the celebration was rescheduled for 7 November.

Picture Quiz

Try taking a picture quiz about LAMB and Bangladesh. Click on the map of Bangladesh in the right column. You can enter your answer by commenting under each picture.

Back in school

We are ready to start school again after two weeks of holidays for the Muslim holiday, Eid and the Hindu holiday, Durga Puja. They are both the most important holidays each in their own religion so it has been a little like double Christmas.

On Sunday the children come back. We start by celebrating the October Birthdays - there are many of them. We have the tradition at the school, that we celebrate all the students and teachers whose birthday are in a month on the first Sunday of that month. This Sunday is the first school Sunday in October so we are getting ready by preparing birthday cards, snacks, a devotion that both four and sixteen year old children will understand and perhaps a couple of games with all the kids. With 96 children in the school there are always lots to celebrate.

During the coming weeks our two new teachers; Prodip and Cornelius will start teaching. It will be a steep learning curve for them, and hard work for several of the rest of us.
We will also prepare for exams in the last week of November and our Christmas celebration in the first week of December.
Other tasks and challenges are work on promoting teachers into leadership of our Primary and Upper sections and into specialising in various subject areas.
One teacher is in need of a new visa - urgently; we praise God for our Personnel department and the staff at our Dhaka office who do the hard work of getting the paperwork done.
We also welcome Ken Ford-Powell and his family to Bangladesh. We hope Ken will get a work permit and visa so that he can start working at LAMB School next year after language training in Dhaka.

Over the holidays some of us went on a trip to Dhaka. One of the places we went was the Martyrs' Memorial at Savar. That is where the picture is from. It was good to remember the people who suffered and died for the independence of Bangladesh. Pray that the people here will be free indeed.

Home visit

Today I had the privilege of visiting Setara, one of the children in Grade 4. I couldn’t find her house at first, and could hardly believe my eyes when I saw their new house. What a joy to see that they now have four rooms – well prepared for when Setara’s older brother brings home a wife – he is almost fourteen so there is plenty of time before that happens, there was a proper toilet and the courtyard has plenty of room for their two cows and the calf which Setara told me had been born just this Friday.

It was very encouraging to know that Setara now lives in a good house. Setara’s father, Motaleb, had the flue but her mother, Jahanara, got the ‘tea-pot’ boiling and soon had a snack ready for me.

Investigating Water

Aunty Popy and Pre-school are learning about floating and splashing water - I think the context was Noah.

Eliel Murmu

Just a quick note to inform you that our teacher, Eliel Murmu, has passed his HSC exams (Grade 12). We praise God for this and for the opportunities it opens up for Eliel. It does mean we will lose Eliel when he goes to university and it is always with mixed feelings we say goodbye.
Eliel started at LAMB School in 1997 in Grade 3. After Grade 5 he went to a local school to finish his primary education. Last year Eliel worked at the school during the fall semester until he took time off to study for his exams. While waiting for his results Eliel has been helping out at the school, teaching Science and other subjects.
Please pray with us for Eliel as he pursues God's will for his future.

Teacher interviews

More than 100 people applied for the vacancies at LAMB school. This is the first time we have had this many applications and it is an answer to prayer. We have invited eight of these for interviews on Thursday, 4 September 2008. Please pray for wisdom to choose the right teacher for the job.
Our needs at the moment are for someone to teach Biology, Chemistry, Physics and possibly History and English. Thank you for praying with us.

Answer to prayer

This school year started Sunday, but our first teacher’s meeting was, for me, a good beginning to a new year. This is because a teacher suggested that we sing before our traditional Bible reading.

I say this is a good beginning, because it shows that the teacher’s are taking initiative and helping shape what the school is like and this in a way that brings us closer to God. That is answer to prayer.

First day of exams, first day in the new building

Mollika doesn't seem to be sweating over her exam, perhaps it is because she enjoys the new facilities we have.
We are very thankful to both God, and all the people He used to make this building possible. While we start using the facilities, the workers weed out the little flaws and oversights that inevitably show up once you start using such a big building.
Thank you for your prayers.

Concert

Dhaka Children's Chorus and Gemma Snowdon School of Dance performed at the American International School in Dhaka to raise funds for a music hall at LAMB School.
LAMB School wishes to thank all the children, musicians and especially Gemma Snowdon and Dawne Warkentin for a fantastic performance and for considering us when designating proceeds from the concert.

Answered prayers

Thank you God, thank you all who prayed.

Today God showed us more of the picture of who will be teaching at LAMB School next year. As I wrote a few days ago, I felt we had a crisis. Now I feel God has shown us how He has met our needs for teachers for three out of six subjects. Praise God for His faithfulness and continue to pray about the need for someone to teach sciences in grade nine.

Also see the picture of a nearly completed new science building. We can not paint until after the rainy season because the plaster won’t be dry before then so there are only two more things to be done in the picture here. There are a couple of more things on the ground and the top floors too, but it is getting very close to being finished.

God provides

In the past God has been faithful in providing for our needs at the school. Please pray with us about the need for teachers to teach grades nine from August this year.

We have just had one teacher resign. Before that it felt like a challenge to fill the teacher needs for our O Level classes; now, to be honest, it feels like a crisis.

Please pray for the children who are going into grade nine, that their needs will be met; then pray that He will send us the teachers we need.

Give thanks for the teachers we have, and for those preparing to come; one from England and one from the US we interview potential teachers on 29 May 2008 here at LAMB.

In the past God has always provided for the needs of our students and I am confident He will continue to do so in the future.

The last brick

Mofizul laid the last brick today. He is the man behind Moni in the picture. Moni and her two colleagues, Mary and Bashonti are the ones who have carried the bricks, cement and sand for every part of the construction. On only a few occasions, such as when each floor and the roof were poured, have others helped out.  

Hanna Torèn

Another farewell Thursday. Hanna Torèn’s last day at LAMB School. We are grateful for the many shorttermers who come through LAMB and whose energy and enthusiasm make life colourful and rich. We wish Hanna blessings as she travels around Bangladesh for a while and as she returns to Sweden and to Bible school in the fall.

Poverty

I was getting upset with the fact that he hadn’t come. Twice, I had sent a message to him about his daughter’s absence. She hasn’t been to school for over a month and we would like to know whether we can count on her being in the class. There is a long waiting list and no need to leave her place empty. In my letter I made it clear that we would take her name of our register from 1 June if he didn’t come.

Soon after New Year he had lost his job – something about not being trustworthy with money – I am sure he deserved it; loosing the job that is.

Now he looked sick and I am glad his clothes covered his ribs so I couldn’t see how thin he was. In a matter-of-fact manner he told me that he had had jaundice and there was nobody else to bring his five year old daughter to school. What he shared was only what I asked. He was getting treatment from the local ‘kobiraj’ (Homeopath if you are kind, quack if you not) and was getting better, he felt. His daughter didn’t want to come to school, because others had food and she had none. The family consists of the man in my office, his daughter – a student, her mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Now the family has no permanent income. They eat once a day and he doesn’t have money to go to Dinajpur to get insulin for his diabetes.

He did deserve loosing his job. I think he had hoped someone would intervene so that he would get it back, but he would have been tempted to take money again, and there are too many others who can do the work and need the job, perhaps as badly as he.

We talked about how he might pay school fees; he was very realistic about his lack of ability to do so. I gave him the form we use to apply for stipends. No land, no income, five mouths to feed, it looks bleak. He got justice when he was fired, what can we give him now. I would have been so much easier had I never met them; as it is his daughter is a student at my school and I can scarcely deny that I know she probably goes hungry again tonight.

God, have mercy on us.

Saber and Naser

It is always difficult to say goodbye and not less so when you have spent several years together. Saber and Naser are moving to Dhaka and we will miss them at the school. In the picture grade 4 is behind them. We will pray for them as they settle in to a new apartment, a new school and with new friends in Dhaka.

Checkpoint tests

While the pupils in grade eight are taking tests that will show how ready they are to begin studying for their O Levels (Grade Ten Exams) there is time for the pupils in grade seven to do other tasks during some of the lessons they otherwise share. For the most part they study towards the targets they have set, but today there was time to take photos for a presentation to be used at a fund-raising concert in Dhaka in May.
Please pray for the eight grades as they do their tests, for fund raising and for the seventh graders as they use they get a little more individual attention while grade eight is away.
Pray also for the two teachers, Lucky and Bani, who are taking their own exams during this week and the next.

Breakthrough in construction

We are happy to announce a major breakthrough in the construction work at LAMB School.
This weekend, so as to not disturb classes, the workers have broken through the wall between the two school buildings and are putting in a door so that we can easily go from one building to the other.

Early to rise

When the flag won't go up, we call maintenance and in a few minutes they rise to the occasion and up goes our flag.
I didn't even make it out to get a photo until they were on their way down again.

Helen Patuck and Protik Mondal in the Big Fight

At the farewell for Helen Patuck there were several competitions. Here Protik and Helen are competing on who is the strongest…

Dear God

When Helen Patuck, an English shorttermer, was asked to cover a writing class in grade 5 and 6 she asked them to write letters to God. It is not an uncommon topic but the letters are often profound. I will publish some on this blog and hope you take time to enjoy and ponder at the depth of thought the children reveal. I have changed names but those who know us might still recognise the people in the letters.

 

 

Dear God,

 

How are you? You know that I am fine. But a little stuffy.

I have a few questions. What are you doing in heaven? Why is grass green? Why did you put poisonous creatures on Earth? Why did you create animals that kill and eat other things? Why do we die? And why should we die if we are little? or in 8^th Grade? Like Gita died. Now my friend Atul has only two people in his family only Atul and his mother. Maybe because it is your will. When will I die? When will everyone die? When will there be no more BANGLADESH? Thank you for dieing for me and thank you for staying beside me. This I beg you please make me die when I’m old. And please keep my grandfather and grandmother safe. And please heal the man uncle Tom and his brother broke. They broke his bone when they were little. And now he can’t walk properly. And please keep everyone safe from any danger and please keep the people who died in the cyclone, plead keep their families safe.

 

Lots of love, Profullo

 

 

Finishing touch

Fitting glass, tiles on work benches and a sunshade are some of the last
tasks when we don't count the floors that have to be poured and the doors
and frames that are still to be supplied. We had hoped to be ready by Bangla
New Year on Monday, 14 April, but it will probably be another few days.
Painting won't be done until after the rainy season. The specialists say we
need to wait.

25 Years at LAMB

We celebrate Priyanka (G7) and Ashish (G5) Saha's mother who arrived in
Bangladesh on 25 March 1983.

He Lives

Students and teachers at LAMB School wish you all a blessed Easter. May you
know freedom from sin, life everlasting and joy that lasts.
The artwork was done by a student in grade 6.

New LAMB Website

LAMB Integrated Rural Health & Development Project is proud to present our new and improved webpage at www.lambproject.org. There are still patches to be made and errors to correct, but we are ready for everybody to have a look. Please take a tour of all that is LAMB.

On top of the school

Some of the teachers on a tour of the new science building pose for a picture on the roof.

 

At the moment the workers are putting up the last few bricks and ready to start putting in window frames on the second floor. Then all there is left will be to plaster the walls, pour the floors and put in light fixtures. Some things will be late, but that is probably all right.

 

We don’t expect to be able to paint until the end of the rainy season as Berger paint experts tell us the cement has to cure for at least two months. The rainy season is due in June, but before then the humidity will go up in the nineties and stay there until September or October. It looks new now, and it will look new again once painted, so the only problem is for the electrician who doesn’t want to put in the fittings until everything has been painted.

Going to town on a van-gari

Preschool, Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 went on a study. They saw life
in Parbatipur town and in a village near LAMB.

Town house

Village house

Village walk

We finished by walking through beautiful green fields.

Experimenting

Grade 2 is experimenting with different materials. How absorbent are they?

Masai Houses

Prottoyee, Majba and Mouri are showing of the Masai house grade 1 built in Social Science.

Sharing with a patient

Athena, Aumita, Suborna and Tithi visiting a burn patient to be friends.