Sun Aug 16

 Fellow Gopalgonj missionaries arrive back in Dhaka, in the wee hours of the morning, after their furlough back home in Canada. Welcome back Doyle and Krystal Barkman, Amaryllis, Raf, Jonas, and Edward!!🤗

Here in Khulna, we’d invited Shantos and Michael for breakfast. Served them cornbread and sausage gravy, boiled eggs, and fruit platter. They ate the different, American food bravely! Discovered they liked it and all had extra helpings😊 Espondant commented that he was so surprised that just 2 pcs of cornbread(with gravy) had Filled him up!😅 We sang a song around the table and Miss Christina and the girls went up to school. The rest of us enjoyed relaxed visiting awhile yet. 9:00 rolled around, Espondant says, “Don’t let Antoor hear, cause he’ll give me such a hard time! But I’m s’pose to be going to school today and I don’t want to!” He also wanted to go with the men to Khulna to the printing office where they spent a few hours going over the details for the Bangali version of Pilgrim’s Progress. Antoor went out to paw thru our recycle bin for treasures😉 Shotti went in to the bathroom, but decided once again, that she couldn’t navigate our western toilet and went outside to use the guard’s squat pot🙃 That was just good Soul Food having them all here. Looking back now as I write this, I believe we have been lonesome, even tho we have hardly recognized it! Because, we are happy here, we love It and are not sitting over here wishing we were at home!

In the afternoon, after Lonnie dropped the men back off at Shantos, a truck was blocking the road home, so he went to Chakrakhali to look up King Kor. He had rickshaw van driver (Dipti’s husband who knew where he lived) take him to King Kor’s home. Only King Kor’s mom was home. So Lonnie had Uttam take him to school where King Kor was staying late helping get ready for a class picnic. The folks there at school thought King Kor should go with Lonnie back to his house. King Kor says, “My mom is gonna be So happy!!” She served some really good tea and then was working on making her masala on her stone while Lonnie and King Kor visited. 

Sat. Aug 15

 Weekly Khulna City shopping trip

Lunch at Grand Placid

Safe & Save, Day-7, at the veggie Market the Big Boss was suffering from Dengue(mosquito borne illness). That market is always an experience, something I don’t always feel mentally prepared for, but ready or not, we always come away with enough veggies and fruits to last us most of the week. And now, when the man carries my purchases out to the van, he visits Gentry out there and holds him a bit. Gentry’s not usually ready to get back in the van with us🙃

When we got back home Lonnie went over to Shanto’s for the eve. Bro. Michael from Rajshahi was there wanting to discuss funding for his Pilgrim’s Progress that he translated into Bangla.

Fri Aug 14

☀️ It was nice to go to Choygoria Sun. School with no question about rain🤗 round 10 boys and girls there today

On to Chakrakhali Sunday School where there was room to gather in the shed again. Afterwards, Chaity was just frying up the little pita balls made of palm fruit and molasses. So we stayed while she made several batches They were really good, hot out of the frying wok😋 we took some out to the men visiting in the shed..

Thurs Aug 13

 In the evening, we went to Bisho road for fuska, chotputi, and falladus 

Wed Aug 12

One of those days when the thoughts have a strong downward spiral, nobody can do anything right, and the “house” is falling down around about us. I’d had a big disappointment this week and maybe some after party blues hanging on with nothing to look forward to..

 Dipti did not come due to sickness… and today is the day she normally makes us a Bangla lunch… my counter is Full of dirty dishes… and now I need to figure out what’s for lunch yet in my terrible frame of mind… there is no ground beef in the house due to missing that item on my grocery day in Dhaka… I have 1 package of Frozen chicken in the freezer…. I had planned to have Dipti fry fish, Lonnie had forgot to get it yesterday and now Tulshi thought our best possibility of a nice fish would be all the way at Gollamari which we were planning to go get until we found out Dipti wasn’t coming. I haven’t fried fish Bangali style yet but I sure could’ve tried🤔 but instead I got the chicken out to thaw..

I shared my mental situation with Lonnie, he offered understanding words and a couple things I could try then took Annslie with him as he had a business errand in Khulna City. 

I got Gentry down for his morning nap

Mixed up a batch of bread

Messaged a couple people

Got inspired to try making a couple Bangla dishes that I haven’t made yet

And thanks be to God, I was eventually able to shake the thought pattern and emotions of the morning🤍

Annslie down for her nap

Singing with the girls after their Music Class

I had a cold coffee waiting in the fridge for Maddie after school and she was able to get the Pile of dishes washed in a much more timely manner than her normal

Video called with Mom so she could see Gentry as he seems to be changing looks again. He is So close to walking independently! He now only needs one hand to be held and nearly runs as he gets around

Lonnie worked all afternoon again putting plexiglass on the stair railing to make it safe for little people.

Mango smoothies, pickles, and popcorn in the evening.

Tues Aug 11

 Maddie’s latest inspiration has been a fairy garden. She’s been getting up early and going out before breakfast working in the dirt under our Huge sago palm. 

After lunch, the littles and I went with Lonnie to get a couple more pieces of plexiglass. Stopped by Shwapno for a few groceries and the vegetable and fruit market.

In the evening, while Miss Christina made supper, Jaira the littles and I walked with Lonnie to Neconjo where he played Carrom with the local villagers. The children and I hung out at the new bridge for awhile visiting with passers by, a school girl who didn’t have anything else pressing either, and the dokander’s little girl who’s just a year older than Annslie.

Sun Aug 9 Aleigha leaves

 Miss Aleigha offered to make breakfast one more time yet. Baked oatmeal, mangoes, and eggs that were fried perfectly☺️

The girls each got a math lesson in and then at 1st recess we got in the car and headed to Gopalgonj.  🎶 On the way over Miss Aleigha says, “Let’s sing “Standing Tall” one more time!” 💛   Brian’s had come down from Dhaka and had church there. They picked up Kacchi Dine and met us at Doyle’s house.

Brian had brought Doyle’s car keys thinking their house key would be on the same ring. But no, not the case and Lonnie hadn’t brought his key because we hadn’t even originally planned to go to Doyle’s. The men tried several different things trying to get into the house, but finally gave up and joined us ladies in the garage. Day guard, John, got the generator going so we could have a fan and we sat in a circle and enjoyed Kacchi Dine takeout.

After lunch, the men put a ladder up, climbed to the rooftop, and put the hose over the edge, creating a waterfall for the toddlers and babies to play in on the sidewalk below. 💦 🪣  💦 🚛 💦 

The teachers and Jaira walked to a dhokan for cold drinks for everybody

And all too soon it was time to part ways and head home.

With sad, heavy hearts we drove home. We had been looking forward to having Miss Aleigha with us for about a month and it got terminated at just over a week when other plans were made for her. I can just hear my dad telling me,“There you go thinking again.” So that tells us it’s been lifelong for me that I don’t handle disappointment very well😏

Lonnie said, “It Feels like summer vacation is officially over now.” I wanted to plan a fun little outing for something to look forward to, but that didn’t fly…