"...like drinking from a fire hose."

So was the description Mark gave when talking about the day's events.

Today was...intense. We visited Notre Dame College, widely considered the best college in Bangladesh. College here is something of a misnomer; it's more like senior high school, and people go to university to get their degree. Several of the students at Notre Dame College will go on to the seminary.

As will be the case with every community we visit, the hospitality was overwhelming. We were met with leis and a song and dance from a group of young girls, and were fed better than any of us deserved to be. We played basketball with the school's team, and were beaten in a close 38-36 round; I was particularly proud of my 50% shooting accuracy. We were there for about 10 hours after we went to Mass at the older Christian neighborhood in Dhaka; there are parts of this city, however brief, where it shows how beautiful it must have been in younger times.

We saw so many sights that I would not care to see again. Beggars on the street came up to our car with sickly women and asked us for money. Later, we found out that they are "professional beggars" hired, in a sense, by corrupt gang members who force them to turn over whatever they "earn" on the street. A crippled boy made his way across the street on his hands and rear end because his leg bones were fused together. The illness and poverty in this country, coupled with the sheer numbers, is staggering and awful to witness, and makes one's actions feel so futile.

Hopefully, some day, what we do here will shed some light on that for those more fortunate. That's our goal, I suppose. But it was a rough day toward realizing that goal.

See you in four days.