Reading Amanda's blog about Rosina on the World Vision Website and all the comments about Fordousy brings a smile to my face. We all met Fordousy & the children the first time we arrived at the hotel. Prior to arriving in Bangladesh, we had been instructed not to give money to the beggars. My heart went out to them though and I really wanted to help them somehow. But we just shook their hands and greeted them whenever they came running up to us. A day or two into our stay, several of us WV volunteers decided to do some shopping and wanted to check out some of the stores directly across the street from our hotel. We probably stood in front of the hotel for a good 10 or 15 minutes trying to figure out how we were going to get to the other side of the street. The traffic in Bangladesh, and particularly Chittagong, is very chaotic to say the least. There are really no driving rules and definitely no crosswalks. Traffic lights are few and far between. We watched as several locals darted across the street, putting their trust in the drivers that they would stop, or at least slow down enough not to hit them. We realized that the only way to cross was to just step out into the traffic in faith.
Fordousy must have been watching us the whole time because all of a sudden she was beside us, stepping out into oncoming traffic, one had stretched out to the traffic to stop them, and the other hand motioning us to follow her. She became our guardian angel and personal crossing guard! After we had all safely crossed to the other side, I hired her on the spot! Whenever we needed to get across the street, she was there waiting, ready to escort us.
Even though we didn't speak the same language, I could tell by the huge smile on her face and the sparkle in her eyes, how proud she was that she was earning money instead of begging for it. For us it was just pocket change, but for her it was hope for the future.
