Sat. June 21

 Served coffee cake and scrambled eggs breakfast yet before Lonnie left with the field secretaries to meet Jared halfway back to Dhaka.

Sounded like they had an interesting trip back to Dhaka .. upon spotting a Gypsy camp, Carl wanted to see if they had a cobra or a monkey. They ended up checking with another Gypsy group also, with no luck.

I rested while Maddie worked on a belated Father’s Day project.

Then the girls played dress up with the ornas… Muslim ladies parading through the house at intervals. Which reminds me, often after Annslie’s shower and I put the towel over her head and wrap her up, She says “lady”. It took me a bit, the 1st time she said it, to figure out that she felt like I was dressing her up like a Muslim lady😅

Later in the afternoon Lonnie went on a practice drive with the motorcycle.

Fri. Day of worship

 Lonnie get dim and ruti for breakfast.

Sun. School at 9:00 but we had a gathering of boys at the gate by 8:30 hollering “brother!”

The group size was double what it’s been with 20 children, ages 4-14. One of the grandma’s of 3? of the children came and sat in for awhile. And right at the very last 2 more children showed up, little girl and boy. We got them each a picture to color and they got busy, but we did hang out there a little while extra after the other children had left, while these last 2 finished up their picture. Carl left to have tea with another (native) man, that works for an NGO group, that showed up. This last little girl that showed up, when she was finished coloring her picture, came and shook each of our hands, very politely! just the sweetest, mannerly, not too shy girl🥰

Carl and Kobid left to go for a visit.

Judith found a recipe in the Bangla Khabar cookbook for spiced tea. So we relaxed with cups of cha and a round of Qwirkle.

When Carl got back, he wanted to take us out for a meal, so we went into Khulna to the Grand Placid Hotel. Sondra remarked that she felt like Alice in the Wonderland stepping into this place! A different class than the streets we’d just stepped off of!

https://maps.app.goo.gl/1qBgzSZmShiAMYiW7 Vegetable rolls, beef sizzling, rice, garlic naan with a bit of fresh cilantro on top. After our meal they brought these little packets that had fennel seed, tiny bits of dates, etc. for after dinner breath freshener.. Judith says they have referred to this mix as birdseed😜 it was our 1st experience with it! 

Back home in time for 4:00 church service.

Liton had gone to Dhaka. It was just Shamir, Kobid, the local attendee, and Byan(the older Australian) beyond our group, until our neighbor lady that lives behind our house showed up (she is the lady that has cooked for our group when there has been a revival or fellowship gathering here in the past, is what we have been told.) After church she invited us to come to her house. So us ladies decided to follow her back to her house while the men continued their discussions. Toby (our dog) had escaped out of our gate when we were leaving, and he was waiting for us when we got out of church. So he trotted right along with us. But with each dog we encountered along the way there was a snarl! 🐕 🤨 Then when we got to this lady’s house, he immediately was in hot pursuit of her chickens! Which brought their dog alive and more dog fight! We finally decided we would never be able to stay and headed back with Toby dog fighting with each dog on the way back home😤. We were very hot and sweaty and Annslie was pretty tore up about Toby🥵 The men had all gathered on our porch so we went in and cut up the mangos our neighbor has given us and served them with cups of water.

Later after our guests left, we popped popcorn, and pulled out the Skor cake (minus the Skor 😉), Judith ran upstairs and pulled out beef jerky😋 and pkgs of cashews and almonds from her stash and we relaxed and enjoyed our last evening of being together and tried not to think about them leaving the next day. Jaira wondered, “Why can’t they just stay another week?” …We thoroughly enjoyed their visit!

Thurs. June 19

 The men worked on trying to figure out why our battery back up doesn’t work… No success yet😏

After lunch, Lewis brought his wife and 7 yr old daughter over for a visit.

In the evening, we went to Shanto’s for supper. We all sat around on their concrete floor and were served by Pinky and Sotti. Dhal with pcs of chicken that we ate with little rounds of fry bread that they call ruti. And then a small whole fried fish(minus the head) lots of tiny bones to navigate but it had a very delicious flavor, not fishy! 

Wed. June 18

Baby that lost its mother at birth was brought by to receive formula. Carl and Judith, Chris and Sondra, and Jaira also went with the caretaker to buy a bottle.

Dipdi made us chicken curry, rice, vegetable stir-fry, and dhal for lunch.

Scheduled visits here at our house with each of the members. In the evening, Shanto brought his whole family over. Otherwise the men had most of their visits out on our front porch sitting in a circle on plastic chairs, Kobid interpreting. 

Throughout the next couple of days there was lots of rain, power outages, food prep/cleanup, visiting, and games of Qwirkle. Got in a couple walks in the village.

Tues. June 17 field secretaries arrive 🤗

 In the morning, Dipdi informed me that there is pork meat in Batiaghata. So Lonnie took Tulshi with him to have him show him where exactly. Come to find out, s supposedly they butcher and have pork meat at this location every Tues.!! That is Very exciting news!! Lonnie only bought a 1kg chunk to try it out and see what we think of it..

 After lunch, Lonnie met Doyle 1/2 way from Gopalgonj and brought the 2 field secretaries to our house. Carl and Judith Giesbrecht (Princeton,CA) are going off and they are initiating Chris and Sondra Koehn from New Plymouth ID. Carl being Lonnie’s 1st cousin is a benefit we are enjoying, we have looked forward to this visit😊

The men went out to grill and us ladies cut up fruit while we visited.

After supper, as the jet lag was wanting to overcome our visitors, but they wanted to hold out a little longer so as to not start their night too early. Us ladies and Jaira played a round of Qwirkle...something that didn’t take too much brain power.

Sun. *June 15 Father’s Day

 Made Lonnie’s favorite breakfast… cornbread and gravy… thanks to fellow missionary wife that said she had enough cornmeal to share🤗… cornmeal is not available here.

Lonnie replaced a couple more puck(inset) lights. These Bengalis groove out on colored lightbulbs… red, green, blue, purple,..🙃 but it’s just not the atmosphere us Americans are looking for😏..

Then took the girls with him in to Khulna to finally pick up this replacement mirror that he had cut! Plus a few more groceries for me. I worked on laundry and altering a dress. 

Later got the van vacuumed

Roast beef sandwich lunch. Maddie thought that was the best food she’d had in a long time😅

Rhidoy and Pinky came over to give Lonnie a motorcycle driving lesson. So while Rhidoy and Lonnie were gone, Pinky and I sat on front porch and visited, thanks to Google translate.

*4 months in BD, 1 month at our Khulna post

Sat. June 14

 Woke up feeling So much better than yesterday!! Was able to get back in the kitchen and cook up a good meal for my family again🤗 Waffles with schmogus(German carry over from Lonnie’s family.. homemade pudding sauce made with waffle batter😋) fried eggs and sausage-i-fied beef patties. 

Went in to Khulna to get glucose test results and thought to pick up this mirror that we’ve been waiting to get finished, stopped by a streetside vendor that had some good lookin pineapple and other fruit.

Got some extra tidying and arranging done and sat at the sewing machine a bit.

Tulshi(our guard/yardman) went to the roof top and cleaned the water tank.