Fri. March 13 Jaira turns 10 🎂

 This day was packed to the brim! One of those days when the 4:00 service comes around and one wonders, can I actually do this? But, we push forward thru the rest of the evening.

Christina’s turn to make breakfast. Baked oatmeal and sausage patties. I fixed the table up a bit with table cloth, bamboo(paper)plates and bowls, fun paper juice cups, printed napkins, and made a bouquet with our hot pink bougainvilleas.

And off to the 1st S.S.

The 2nd S.S. At Chakrakhali. Was a planned Picnic. Something they’ve been wanting to do for awhile and got the details nailed last Fri. Told us we didn’t need to bring pictures to color since they were expecting 50 children. It was 100 Taka to attend. We don’t really know why the entry fee unless it was to keep the numbers down. But Dipti was asking me about the Picnic yesterday saying her younger son, Turjo, would like to attend, but it was 100 Taka! (we did give her Taka for the occasion which got a Very Happy reception!)

On the ride over, we found out about Christina’s ear ache she’s been having so we stopped at a pharmacy dokan only to find out it was for animals. Lonnie dropped us off at S.S. and he and Kobid took Christina to a couple more pharmacy dokans to get something for her ailment. Ear infection was confirmed and they gave her a bagful… antibiotic, ear drops, vitamin C tablets😅 etc,..

Meanwhile at the Picnic, the lady of the house, (Kobid calls her Body which is a general term for Brother’s sister. Btw, actual names here are incredibly hard to learn! Ladies for sure, seem to be rarely called by their given name. Didi, Sister, Khaki (aunt), Bodi, etc. !! so when I ask Kobid what their actual name is, he pretty much never knows.. I did ask her what her name was then but I cannot remember it🤦🏼‍♀️ so I’ll just call her Bodi for this entry. People don’t know or ask what my name is either. Oh yes, meanwhile at the Picnic, Bodi asks if I would like to put on one of her saris 🥻? I agreed, so we went in to her bedroom and she proceeded to outfit me in an ankle length black thin cotton skirt, skin tight cotton bodice that buttoned up the front with small shirt buttons. And then with the L o n g piece of cotton fabric with a black and yellow small print check design she began the meticulous wrapping process. At the waist were precise folds and a safety pin, then up over the left shoulder with a safety pin holding the final folded fabric in place on the shoulder. She told me to keep the sari. Back out to the front yard, the vet who was waiting for Lonnie to get there( Lonnie always holds their dog for them while medicines or vaccines are given as the man of the house is afraid to) this vet knows some English, and probably just like us trying to speak Bangla, it can be entertaining how the words are used! His comment when I came out wearing a sari, “Exactly! Exactly!” They love to see us white folks in their traditional dress. When Miss Christina got there she agreed to be outfitted in a sari also 🥻. The one pulled out for her was stiffer, shinier and hot pink🤩

The lunch was to be at 1:00 Some of the older S.S. boys had a fire going and were starting with food prep.. I stirred the pot of boiling eggs for Dudjoy (18 yrs old that was doing most of the cooking and overseeing) and then went into the kitchen and helped King Kor and one of his friends peel eggs and cut up potatoes and cucumbers. I’d told somebody that it was Jaira’s birthday so Bodi promptly starts mixing up a cake!🤦🏼‍♀️

Several games were played.. the 1st one was throwing a cricket ball into a bucket.. the preschoolers started, then middle school, then the teenagers. Dudjoy took a break from cooking and was the one standing by the bucket returning the ball to Taritro(13 yrs old) who was overseeing the line. The successful ones all got a prize 🏆 

Then there was Breaking the clay pot with a stick, blind folded. Which, was quite entertaining as the one wielding the stick would sometimes march straight to the people on the sidelines, the people screaming and scrambling away, as someone would guide the batter back into the arena. They would also quietly move the pot after the blind fold was on! Bodi, all sudden passed the phone to me as she needed to go, so there I stood videoing the game..

The day was warming up, the loudspeakers were blaring music… Lonnie would go turn the volume down or switch songs every once awhile🫣 Gentry fell asleep sweating away in his stroller parked directly in front of the loudspeaker (I’m not sure why that’s where he got parked, hopefully his hearing isn’t damaged) 

The humongous pot of curry is cooking. Lonnie helped stir with a l o n g  handled paddle, Very Carefully, as it was full to the brim! One of the ladies was standing there ready to push the pcs of chicken back in whenever they got close to the edge, but Lonnie said she quit reaching when the pcs never went over the edge😉. It was also incredible to watch one of the ladies taking the flat, metal lid, no handle, that fit perfectly over the kettle, off of the boiling pot of curry, Barehanded!! And then there was not a good place to set it right away!

Bodi brought out the cake (no frosting) and it was time to celebrate Jaira’s birthday. Everybody gathered around, 🎶 happy birthday 🎶, and then it was time for the ceremonial cake cutting. Jaira was not impressed about being there center of attention, and expected to perform the not familiar Bangali tradition of cake cutting and feeding. She grudgingly obliged.. Bodi gifted her with a very glitzy hair clip..

Time for musical chairs for the ladies.. 

By this time, 1:00 has come and gone! We are still waiting for lunch! Lonnie finally told them, the latest we can stay is 3:30, to get to our church service in time.  It was probably 3:30 tho when they finally seated everybody. Us white folks and Kobid at a table with chairs and the other 50 or so people on a huge tarp on the ground. Oh and by the way, the chicken curry had the whole chicken in it, Jaira was pretty sure everything but the feathers. Thankfully they didn’t put a chicken foot on our plates! 

I went inside to the bedroom to take care of Gentry, There was a small group of girls on the bed playing something on a phone. Bodi came in with a tremendous headache to lay on the bed. One of the other ladies came in and fed her a plate of food. Just like they would feed their small children… mushed the curry or lentils into the rice, formed it into a nice sized ball and pushed it into Bodi’s mouth with her thumb.

Nee-tie hurried us home. No time for showers but Lonnie did change into his Punjabi (long traditional shirt for special occasions) per Kobid’s encouragement since I was wearing a sari. And off to church. We were a bit late. And they were singing the 1st song already when we walked in. Annslie slept thru the service!!!(since she’d missed her nap) Probably the 1st time since she was an infant! (She’s still a handful during church😏.)

After church, we invited everybody in for cake and icecream yet

And then, Finally, there was a chance to shower! Bliss.. and change out of the yards of fabric sari!

Thurs. Mar. 12

 Some days there’s just too big of a pile up of things that aren’t “right”. Lonnie remembered what one of his friends back home said once…”1-2 household appliances out of order/needing attention, I can handle. But, when it’s 3! needing my attention… it’s too much.”

This morning, 2 of the Things glaring us in the face were the fuel shortage in the country and being able to get away from the house in our van, due to the new bridge project’s detour continually sloughing off into the deep ravine making the road too narrow to be passible by gari(car). Our current route away from the house with the van is thru the village which adds 20-30 min and is barely passable with the path being very narrow and one never knows what and when will be oncoming traffic. Plus, once the rains start, going thru the village will no longer be an option. In the past, we have parked our van on the other side of the new bridge project, but with the country wide fuel shortage that doesn’t seem wise.. considering fuel siphoning being a possible too great of temptation..

It was decided to go on a fuel hunt today.. we checked our normal gas station, “next fuel shipment, Sunday afternoon.” 

We met Kobid Bhay(Brother) at New Mkt. Stopped at the bank to check on progress of legal work for Christina’s visa and went to check another gas station for fuel. I don’t remember if it was this one or the next station, Kobid had a discussion with the station personnel and got back in with 2 more stations that were recommended. We pulled up to the next station, no line. Experience says, that’s not a promising sign. But when asked if he had octane he gives the common side head jerk meaning, Yes!!!👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Can you give us a full tank? Another head jerk.“anytime you need, come”🤗🤗 Whew! What a sigh of relief! A stressor relieved🤍🤍Kobid says the station owner is a very wealthy man, etc,etc..

Tues. Mar. 3 Taritro’s Bday Party

 I forgot to write about our 1st native birthday party that we were privileged to attend!

The home where we have our 2nd Sunday School in Chakrakhali. Their one and only son, Taritro, turned 13 yrs old and we were invited for supper and the evening. 

Culture here, begins with dessert. 2 round layer cakes today. One was white confetti made by his mom with a big T drawn in the frosting on the top and the other was a chocolate layer cake made and decorated professionally by a friend.

Oh, and to put you into the setting.. we walk in from the road on a brick footpath shaded by jungly growth on both sides, we sit on hard plastic chairs in a dirt yard swept clean, in front of their concrete home.

So, we gather around the small cake table for pictures and  🎶 Happy Birthday 🎶 and then the traditional cake cutting. The birthday boy with maybe his mom guiding his hand to cut a small pc of cake. They feed each other pcs. of cake and maybe a close friend or 2. Then everybody gets a small pc of cake.

Then supper is served on flimsy plastic plates… rice, dhal, and curry.

After supper a musical instrument combo.. small tabletop piano with accordion on the back (I s’pose there’s a specific name for the instrument, maybe I’ll learn it yet.. ) and tabletop drums were bought out. Taritro’s mom is a music teacher so one of the guests this evening was a 7 yr old student of hers. She played and sang a song for us and one of the little boys also played and sang one. They asked us if we had a song to contribute. We quickly pulled one up on our phones and commenced to sing but about the same time a gathering next door was really cranking up and what they had going on drowned ours out… so much so that we could hardly visit.. I kept hearing the word “America” so I asked Kobid what was going on!? He explained the neighboring gathering being one that all religions come together. There was a women expounding.. and that was the 1st we heard of Trump being associated with the overthrowing of Iran’s leader… 

Taritro and his friends were busy preparing for a kebab BBQ. They were putting the 1st skewers of chicken over the fire at 10:00 so no we would not stay.. besides they’d already served us supper.. 

Journal catch up Feb 28-Mar. 11

 Sat eve Lonnie was not feeling well and spent the night with a flu bug

Jaira got a touch of it also

Our washing machine has been giving us fits! We babysit it All day to get one load washed! 

After trying different things and many trips up the stairs to get it going after throwing a code again..

Thurs. Mar. 5 Lonnie went into Khulna City and bought a new washing machine. He found one, same make as what we’ve been using but 12 kg capacity instead of 10 kg.. that sounded great to me!

Fri. Mar. 6 stayed home from S.S.’s with Gentry. He has come down with a terrible junky cough again and just seemed pretty miserable… not sleeping well at night..

After 4:00 service Kobid and Shomid came in for snack and Carrom.

Sat. Mar. 7 Tulshi wondered if the car was full of fuel. Said people are not being able to find fuel..

So on our trip into Khulna we stopped at the gas station 1st, expecting to get in a long line if what Tulshi said was true.. no line, no Octane!😳 We had just under 1/2 a tank, so went grocery shopping, stocking up extra so we could go a little longer before coming into town for supplies again!

Talking with the missionaries from Dhaka and Gopalgonj…fuel shortage and rationing there also.

Wed. Mar. 11  Lonnie had eye camp in Koyra, 3 hrs south near the Shundorbans.

Fri. Feb 27

 Stayed home from S.S.’s with Maddie, as she wasn’t feeling well..

Cajun Chicken Pasta lunch

After our 4:00 church service, Kobid Brother came in and started playing a game of Carrom until inspiration hit to go look up Louis’s who haven’t been showing up recently. Kobid gave them a call and yes, that would be fine.. and thus commenced another very Bangali experience..

Louis’s live in Khulna City in a Catholic community… Louis, his daughter Lisa, and 1 of Lisa’s friends, met us out by the street where we parked and led us down the alley to their home.. a low income, 3rd world situation, and quite hard to explain. A concrete housing community and when we walked thru Louis’s gate 

the 1st thing was his easy bike(his occupation as a driver) parked 

and then right there was a hand pump for their well water,

And then their shared kitchen. There was even a table there with one end against the wall and a bench along another wall from the corner. Right in the middle there somewhere you could look up and see the stars in the night sky but roof covering most of the area… the “kitchen”… very small, very scarce supplies, dirt floor, a double mud oven(so she can cook her rice and curry at the same time👍🏼) btw, she says she made the mud ovens herself☺️. There was a counter top gas 2 burner but fuel is expensive… Purnima sat on a low stool and was busy cooking.. Bangla noodles, chips ..she had dried potato slices in the sun and now she was deep frying them for homemade chips which she served with her homemade salsa.. This lady loves to preserve food and she pulled many different delicacies out for us…dried mango bars that she’d mashed mango spread it out in the the sun to dry…We could still see the print of the basket on one side😉.. and then she cut it into strips.. another was her “specialty” pickled crab apple with chili for a strong sour/spicy experience with a tough stringy/mushy texture that’s just too much for these Americans🤦🏼‍♀️ one of those instances where we really compliment on the more palette pleasing dishes!.. and then she asks point blank if we like the pickle and here have some pickle and we try to politely tell her that we really enjoy her strawberry infused prune dish and point out how Annslie is Really enjoying those mango bars, and your chips and salsa are Quite fine!🙃

“Coffee”  was served, single serve packages of instant coffee/creamer/sugar that you add to hot water. “Coffee”  is considered uptown, but Lonnie always chooses hot tea if it’s an option😉

So, I mentioned, there was a table but that is not where you serve guests..?.. and to continue the tour of their abode…

There were several rooms off of this kitchen and down a little hall where there was a wash room at the end. Each of these rooms is a home.. Louis’s married daughter Rosy and husband + 1yr old claim one room(They were away this evening).. We congregated in Louis’s room which is unlike most, in that it has a couple pcs of furniture as he is also a carpenter and built the living room set at the mission house also. Which makes me wonder, where he does that? And is that a thing of the past? Anyway, the girls all sat on their bed. Their fridge was in there also, which is a common place for such here. The other rooms are a bit shared also, as in, Rosy’s room is where Purnima’s treadle sewing machine is (she sews her and Lisa’s clothes/kameeze sets) and another room that a “brother” claims, is where Lisa would pull toys out of. Purnima(Louis’s wife) is also very talented in making quite designed rugs and quilts. She showed us several. One had an elephant design😊

The chickens were put in for the night already and what a surprise! They were right inside in a lower cabinet that made up one wall of the kitchen!😅 5 hens and a rooster weren’t making a sound 🐓 

After visiting them, we realized what a trek they have to come to church. It was a good 30 min drive and they come by easybike which would take longer..

Thurs Feb 26 Khulna 🚙💨 & miracle📦

 Fellow missionary Doyle’s birthday so Lonnie helped me put a little extra effort into breakfast… frying the crepes….Whipped cream, fresh strawberries, and fried crumbled sausage.

Worked on getting our bedding and bath towels all thru the wash and hung out, the ice chest loaded and van packed. We had airport UniMart to hit yet to pick up a stockpile of those amazing tortilla chips and big bags of American flavored Lay’s potato chips😋

We ended up at that UniMart during the same time as Doyle’s and had a sandwich lunch with them down at the 2nd Cup/Cinnabon.

Loaded to. the. hilt. we had an uneventful trip back down to Khulna.

Upon arriving back at Feda Palace🏡, Tulshi informed us we had a package waiting to be picked up!!! So, Lonnie went with Tulshi to the P.O. man’s house to receive the package. The P.O. got broke into awhile back, is the way I have it, so he takes the mail to his house here in the village.. 

Talk about a most amazing feeling!!! We truly felt like it was a miracle box! A birthday box from my mom🤍 and 6 other family and friends💛 Our 1st mail since arriving over a year ago! Very special!!

When mom told me she had sent a box, I had just groaned because I didn’t ever expect to see it and I wanted to So badly!! I had to fight feelings of it wanting to ruin my day because I had no hope about it. We know of one letter that we never saw and a wedding invite that was returned to sender.. But it looks like a box can reach us🫶🏼 AND our friends at Gopalgonj have told us, that we can use their address for anybody wanting to send envelopes!🥰 just put in care of:

Doyle Barkman

Po Box 10

8100 District Gopalgonj, 

Gopalgonj, Bangladesh

Their P.O. man knows them well and has been Very Reliable!! They receive birthday and Christmas cards, birth and wedding announcements etc. in 10-14 days!! 

Maybe we’ll get there with our P.O. man yet too..?..

Anyway, A Thankyou, from the bottom of our hearts for those that contributed to the box and to Mom. It means so much! As I write this, we have been enjoying Dove and Lindor chocolates for 2 weeks now and one bag got put away to pull out at a later date😉 The little boy has a fun, crackly book to play with, birthday cards and letters from family and friends on the other side of the world grace the top of our bookshelf, etc..

Wed Feb 25 🎂

 The other men left for the day to do an eye camp. Lonnie stayed home, since it was my birthday, Bless his heart❣️ That was definitely a sacrifice! And I told him he didn’t need to do that!… The big girls stayed at the guesthouse with Krystal and her children and we took the littles with us. Lonnie took me for a pedicure and manicure. 1hr, 3 ladies, less than $10 USD!?! 

Stopped back by the house, then struck out for Sha-var, where Rhidoy and Pinky are living currently. Rhidoy is from Khulna, oldest son of our members Shanto and Shotti. Rhidoy needed work, so his mom’s relatives up here found him a job on the outskirts of Dhaka…. quality control at a garment factory. When you see, “made in Bangladesh” on clothing just know, it’s very possible that some poor villager was given hope, by moving to the City and getting a job at a garment factory 🫶🏼. A very nice visit😊 Rhidoy’s are living in a nice apt building, in the country.. definitely nicer than their village home, tile floors/walls, indoor bathroom,.. and it’s the 1st time, as a married couple, they are out from under his father’s roof, kind of hard for the American mind to grasp. And I think they are enjoying it! Rhidoy works nights so he let Pinky have a kitty 🐈‍⬛ to keep her company. And let me tell you, Pinky is quite the little lady! She got the kitten when it was just a few weeks old and in 2 weeks time she had that kitten potty trained to use the washroom!!?!😅 she had her kitty, his name is Leo, trained better than our 2 yr old🤦🏼‍♀️ Annslie was just loving playing with Leo till she she got a little much for him and then they put him out in the little enclosed veranda. He started yowling to be let back in so Rhidoy went out and gave him a little pop and he quieted right down! Pinky has added little touches to the 4 walls to make it homey. Even curtains on the windows that maybe Lisa had given Rhidoy before he was married when he’d been helping remodel the Pink City houses in Dhaka.. is how I’m remembering the story. Anyway, Pinky is a very neat and tidy housekeeper.. Rhidoy says when he gets something out she makes sure he puts it back in its proper place😉 She has just a t.i.n.y. little kitchen area with a small sink and a counter top burner, But she cooked us up a very nice afternoon snack! Battered and fried egg plant with a homemade dipping sauce, peyagi (deep fat fried onion patties), and homemade peanut brittle😌 Pinky has made friends of her neighbors there🤍

Something Rhidoy commented on, was how for years he always hoped a missionary would come with a boy his age!… Well now, that he’s married, his dream has finally come true! The Dhaka brother, Brian is about his same age🤩

  We went on a little walk yet, meeting up with Rhidoy’s cousin. And then headed back to Pink City later than we were wanting to, getting caught in Iftar traffic (Muslims stopping on the highway to break their fast of the day)

Back at the guesthouse, the girls had supper with Doyle’s. The men were back from a big day at eye camp. Recuperating.. Lonnie said he’d take me and the family out for a “birthday coffee” at North End yet. Spur of the moment, we decided to stop by Brian’s and see if the teachers wanted to go with us. Which of course they did😉 Their crew had already mentioned North End at their supper table, so Brian’s and Chris’s met us there also🥰 

Fun little gifts from my Bangladesh family.. a lucky bamboo plant, a jute throw pillow, and a basket💛