I am forced to question this as I see so many of them laying in the street or foot paths... or crying in their mothers' arms as they beg for food... ...

The other day I was walking down Gulshan Avenue (a "major" street here in Dhaka), and children who could not have been more than 3 or 4 years old, just barely old enough to speak, came stumbling towards me with their hands out yelling at me "Madam! Bhakshish!".... which means money in English...

I couldn't really believe it.... children so young.... running in ragged clothes towards me, taught to beg from such a young age.... what do we teach our children of that age? When is it that we start telling them that "they can be anything if they would only put their minds to it?".... or when is it after that that we start asking them "what they want to be when they grow up?".... What does a child in Dhaka get asked?

What opportunity do they have? What are their hopes? What are their dreams? I wish I could understand but I cannot.

I was raised in a wonderful home, with parents who have taught me that I can do anything if I work at it...that I could go to University and take any courses I wanted in any subject and they would be a support and encouragement to me... such big dreams I had... and still do. Even here... but I cannot comprehend those of the children... or those lost in the mothers...

I look at the Rickshaw drivers and wonder if that was their dream... or if somewhere in their mind they are wishing that they could be more like the person who is paying them to peddle their bikes around the city.... if they ever dreamed that life could be different for them...

I was forced to go to scripture and prayer for an answer to this, and I do not think that we are supposed to completely understand God in His ways (Isaiah 55:9 - look it up!!), nor do I question His purpose for our lives...

God states that we are not supposed to have our eyes set on the things of this world.... but on the things above in heaven. (Col 3:1-4)....

I think often in this life we forget that we can't take any of it with us.... that the reason I look at these children and want "more" for them is because I have forgotten what it is like to have less...to not put worth and value and joy in the things that will pass... I will not likely understand what it is like to be a child growing up here, nor will they know what it is like to grow up in the infamous West, the world of opportunity that we present it as...

As I am here in Dhaka City, a metropolis of poverty, I am faced with the question of what exactly I plan on taking away from this experience, and how I am supposed to compose thoughts about these children in the street... I am not sure if I can really pull that together for you, as I feel like it is beyond my current understanding, yet I am changed by it.

More reflections later on, thank you for reading and for your prayers everyone, they are much needed in this challenging place...

In Christ's love,

Corinne

(Psalm 29:11)