Letters From Jahr & Jess in the Desh

  • *BABU UPDATE* Emmanuel: God with us in reverence, joy, and unrest

    UPDATE ON BABU Thank you all for your prayers, kind words, and financial support. We are very happy to say that Babu’s rickshaw fund has been fulfilled and surpassed which will help fill in some gaps for the days he was unable to work. If you still wish to provide additional support, please reach out.…

    jahr

  • Scenes from Childhood: A Letter in Four Movements

    (This letter was originally written in Oct-Nov but never distributed) Of Foreign Lands and Peoples If you are on this email list or know about this newsletter you already know I lived in Bangladesh as a child. It has been my fun fact when introducing myself here for the last 7 months. Whether meeting Salvationists…

    jahr

  • The Office (Bangla version)

    As we entered the 5th hour of what should have been a 2 hour journey by normal Bangladesh standards (or 50 mins by  Canadian standards), we finally stopped for a washroom break. We journeyed from shop to shop asking if we could use their toilet. Finally a restaurant in the basement of the local masjid…

    jahr

  • Ami Aam Pochondo Kori

    Nomoshkar shobai, amar naam Jessica. Ami Canada theke-esechi. Ami amar shami shonge dui maash age Bangladesh-e eshechi… Amra Bangla shikchi. Ami aam pochondo kori. Ami dud cha pochondo kori. Ami shudhu ektu Bangla-e bolte pari, tai ekhon English-e kotha bolbo. Jessica has kicked off many events introducing herself with some variation of these sentences since…

    jahr

  • How’s it going?

    Jessica and I have been in Bangladesh for over a month and what a month-and-a-half it has been! The most frequent question we’re asked is, “how’s it going?”, and though innocent in proposition, it is perhaps the hardest question to answer. So with this first letter I want to explore it with you. At any…

    jahr

  • Arriving in Dhaka

    After over 20 hours of travel from Toronto, we arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday April 16, minutes before midnight. The airport was eerily empty and quiet, not like the bustling Pearson we left. We got through immigration and retrieved our luggage without any issues, and found our way to the exit to meet Lt.-Col. Elizabeth…

    jess

  • Farewell Toronto

    To put this farewell into writing definitely does not do it justice… and yet I will try. Many of my closest friends were very surprised to hear I was leaving Toronto. Not because they thought of me as a homebody, but because I grew to love this city. I could talk your ear off about…

    jahr

  • M.T.I. … miss you

    The next step to leaving for Bangladesh, after moving out of our apartment and leaving our jobs in Canada, was pre-field training. We attended Mission Training International (MTI) in Palmer Lake, Colorado, and couldn’t be more thankful for the entire experience. The program was thoroughly designed, intense, personal, and beneficial. Not only did I feel…

    jahr

  • Farewell Casa Bella

    We had until February 28 to move out of our apartment on Isabella St. Thanks to a little ‘loophole’ in the RTA we were able to provide our landlords with just one month’s notice and save on rent.  I really regret not packing sooner than we did. We didn’t realize how much stuff we had…

    jess