It’s 5:10 AM on Friday (Istanbul Standard Time) and the FH Bloggers are all cozied up in the Istanbul airport, enjoying our 9 hour layover in this place that is a bridge between where we have been and where we are going. Surfing the internet, sipping on lattes, indulging in crossaints and hazelnut spread. {Did you know that Turkey is the world’s biggest exporters of hazelnuts? Well, now you do.}
We had a great trip. Maybe one of the best trips of this kind I have experienced? This team was committed to not just observing Bangladesh but leaving an impact on it. I hope you can decipher from their posts how well they loved the people in Bangladesh. Our hosts. The FH staff. The kids they sponsor. The women on the street, in savings groups, at the market, and in the beauty parlor.
I think my two favorite moments of the trip were:
1. Watching Joy play with Fulmoti and her friends. It was hilarious. They played so hard. There was jumping, pushing, cheating, and sweating. A lot of sweating.
And there is something so incredible about watching Bangladeshi kids play Duck, Duck, Goose.
2. Hearing Eti’s story and having her thread our eyebrows. If you aren’t familiar with threading, it’s an ancient method of hair removal originating in the Eastern world.
If you aren’t familiar with Eti, she’s a woman who learned vocational training from Food for the Hungry and was able to use money from her savings group to open up a salon.
Our time with her was priceless.
Girls being girls. Laughing, celebrating beauty, and swapping stories.
I really hope you have taken the time to read some of the posts, but I know I can it be hard to jump around the internet so I’m going to make it easy on you. Start with these, my favorite posts from each blogger.
Logan Wolfram’s “A Mother’s Heart”
Joy Eggerich’s “This is Dignity”
Lauren Dubinsky’s “What It Was Like To Meet My Sponsored Child”
What was your favorite post from the FH Bloggers trip to Bangladesh?
Please note: I reserve the right to delete comments that are offensive or off-topic.