Sat. June 20

 Last day of Fellowship 

To CSS for dim, paratha, and dhal breakfast

9:00 service

11:00 Cha break but our service only lasted till 10:30 and some of us were really “needing” cha, Now!😅 so we went to the dining hall and they were already preparing and were glad to serve us early ☕️ 😌

Members mtg: round the table sharing. This is where our smaller group was really nice as we went around the table sharing our hearts. It was a special time. Bro. Kobid had a full weekend of interpreting but it makes such a difference if both nationalities get more of what’s shared and not as much guessing at what each is probably saying at times.

Dhaka brother made a phone call last night to make sure the man on the other end of the line was aware of what all was going on this weekend😉 and so our brother Shamir, who’s been tied to his work schedule, showed up for lunch.

One last meal together, which these natives consider the grand finale and make it a little extra special. They’d wanted beef curry but the establishment has a policy against beef and pork to accommodate all possible guests ..Muslim or Hindu. So it was mutton curry with rice, Shobji, “salad”, Coke, and doy (yogurt). Truly one of those weekends where one never actually gets hungry before there’s another meal to sit down to or cha to partake in.

One or so of the native brethren had the desire to walk down to the Rupsha river yet with whoever wanted to. So we did that. It is a nice wide river with lots of big boats And there was a lovely breeze blowing, making it quite pleasant. 

And then it was over, and we parted ways again.

Lonnie had to go clean the clinic for an upcoming mtg. He met 3 of our single brethren Kobir, Liton, and Ripon on his way over there. When they heard what he was headed to do, they said they would come help! What a blessing🤍

The Bud 👶🏼 is officially 8 mo old now. He is chubbing up again after his rounds of being sick. He is down to about 6 dirty diapers a day and 2 at night, about 1/2 of what it was at his worst. But now we can see that he currently has 3 more teeth on top all pushing at the same time😩 which makes for a miserable baby, terrible nights, flaming red bottom, survival mode for Mom and Dad🫩

His fine light brown hair has a reddish hue and is getting long enough in the back that it’s got a few hints of curls

He crawls, but he would just as soon cruise on 2 feet! He pulls himself up all the time, pushing anything he can manage to push… rocking chair, coffee table, footstool, dining room chair,…Loves to go outside! His hair is quickly wet with sweat, but that doesn’t bother him if he’s entertained. He is not a quiet boy, makes lots of sounds. Gets So many bumps and bangs, hitting the hard tile floor on his head Way too often for my liking😣 he’s our squishy, lovable, chubba bubba that we all love dearly, but gladly pass him on to the next person after taking care of him for awhile😉

Fri. June 19

Lonnie made the grocery run for the day with Shanto at 6:??

 8:00 Breakfast at CSS

We rolled in about a half hour late with everybody standing around waiting on us🤦🏼‍♀️

A Bangla breakfast of kichuri(rice and lentil mix) boiled egg,

9:00 assembly time in the conference room. A normal Bangla church service with singing, opening and a message. 

Side note: both the conference room and dining hall have A.C. 👍🏼👍🏼

Another note on the attendees: only a fraction of the members showed up this year😏 3 households have seriously ailing family members, a couple have work schedules that are quite binding, etc. But we did have a few guests with Miriam from Dhaka, Shanto’s employee’s family (a younger couple with 2 young girls-6 yrs and 2? Yrs., and Eric a young man who hung out with Antoor(Shanto’s 18 yr old son). Eric’s teenage sister was around for the meals(my understanding is that their parent (s) were the cooks..?.) Eric’s sister reminded me So much of my oldest sister’s boro meye(oldest dau.) a dark haired, brown skinned version with such similar looks and mannerisms🥰

11:00 tea time. Back at the dining hall, which is in the same building but a short walk outside, we were served hot tea and “biscuits” (little boughten cookies).

Kaylee and I also took this time to go to the Sisters room to have them help us put our Sari🥻 on. They had helped the teachers put theirs on at breakfast.

Members mtg till 1:00 lunch.

Rice, curry, and  “salad”(cucumber slices, lime wedges, chunks of red onion, whole hot peppers 🌶️)

Afternoon break… the missionaries went back to the house to put the littles down for naps.

Back at CSS for 4:00 tea and biscuits

As we started gathering for the evening service there was all sudden some racket and commotion coming from the A.C. up on the wall.. And What Do You Know?!!? It’s a snake!! Wriggling around up in there getting descaled. The grounds men were notified and they came in with their clubs😅 It took a bit to extricate but then we were able to continue with our service

7:30 supper.. another delicious meal… Rice, fish (pongas) curry that was absolutely delightful, Dal, and “salad”.

Back at the house, we enjoyed another late night visiting with our fellows

Thurs June 18 Fellowship guests arrive

 Lonnie had some errands in town. I sent a small list with him. He ended up driving Shanto around rounding up supplies for the chefs at CSS to make the meals for our group. A little different experience than food committee shopping back home. The Day of the event.. going to one dhokan to order the cooking firewood, the market by Gallimari bridge for all the food supplies… fish, chicken, mutton, rice, lentils, vegetables, all the spices,etc…

Dipti cleaned

We had fun making a Welcome Back Miss Christina banner as she has spent 2 1/2 wks of summer vacation with Brian’s and Miss Aleigha in Dhaka.

Also, anticipation of guests, is always a good incentive to get some needed tidying done.

The van load from Dhaka arrived a couple hrs before supper time at the CSS meeting place. They had brought the 2 Dhaka Sisters and the clinic nurse Miriam with them. On the way down, they stopped by Gopalgonj, as Miss Aleigha wanted to check the P.O. She had a pc of mail and Lo, and Behold! Surprise!! An envelope for me also!!!! Our Very 1st envelope to make it to us💛💛💛💛 … a birth announcement of our newest nephew in the Frase family🥰 So fun and enthusing!! It made my day!! Miss Aleigha said again, that they get mail all the time… so, you’re welcome to to use our neighboring missionary’s address at Gopalgonj to send to us if you get inspired💫

P.O. Box 10

800 District Gopalgonj 

Gopalgonj, Bangladesh

7:30 supper at CSS https://maps.app.goo.gl/pWcg45DMdKewCHsi7?g_st=ic 

It was raining so we were thankful for their covered parking area😌 enough umbrellas were brought forth to keep everybody mostly dry as we all trooped to the office where we needed to sign in. Then to a waiting area till everybody arrived for supper.. At 8:00, we decided we’d just go have supper with those that had showed up, so back out in the rain to make our way to the dining hall. A welcoming aroma met us as we stepped inside. Carefully set tables with China plates and actual drinking glasses. A yummy Bangla meal of chicken curry, rice, and shobji(vegetables). 

The Dhaka Sisters and Miriam stayed on the premises with the other native members for the night. 

Our fellow missionaries came back to our house with us. The teachers and my big girls sat around the table and wrote many Who, What, When, Where, Why stories with much laughter and enjoyment. I mixed up a batch of Choc Chip cookies that we enjoyed fresh out of the oven with cups of milk☺️ the men played carrom and the evening got late as we enjoyed each other’s company😌

Wed June 17 back to Khulna home 🚙 💨

 The normal packing out routine with keeping the washing machine going, cleaning out the fridge, and loading the van.

🛣️ 4 hrs later, Tulshi🧔🏾‍♂️and Toby🐕‍🦺 welcomed us back to Feda Palace.

The report was that the power had been off most of the day. Oh, yes, we are back in the village. 

It did come back on, got the water filter changed that had turned black during our absence, and the laundry going, in preparation for Fellowship weekend.

Tues June 16

 Throughout this week there was maintenance to be tended to. In the middle of the night, the water heater rusted through and quite a puddle was happening. Another day the reverse osmosis line had sprung a leak and was spraying away. Rickshaw driver friend Syed Ali came by every day bringing bananas for the girls, taking Lonnie out for cha, washing the van, sweeping the cobwebs from the car port ceiling, scrubbing the slippery mildew from the drive and it’s greenness from the concrete perimeter wall, sweeping the yard, etc. He’s a village-y character but has a way of adding a sparkle to our days in the city.💙

Today, Lonnie wanted to look up a hydroponic supplier he’d found online. It was a dry run(on a rainy day;) 

Next stop, North End, for lunch and coffee bean restock. We opted to go to the location where they do all the roasting. They were roasting today:) So that was fun to observe the pristine environment through the plate glass wall  https://maps.app.goo.gl/ojiLWv1QFT8j1sSz9?g_st=ic We can almost forget we’re on the other side of the world in this setting. ☕️ 😌

We hit the “airport” UniMart yet

Back at the house, while Annslie napped, Lonnie went to Dumni to look up his friend Habib. Hard times have hit them but also a happy time as the birth of their next child is getting quite near after a recent late term miscarriage, their 1st child is autistic..

When he got back, we met Brian’s and the teachers at Herfy’s for supper. Then they all came over for the rest of the evening. We served Basil seed drinks in little cha glasses. These Basil seed drinks were quite a bit different from what Naton served us last year😅 these were apple and mango flavored and chilled! Made all the difference in the world🙃

 Then Brian tuned in to his friend’s funeral back home. A very sad death, a 42 yr old father in a truck accident. After the opening by Brian’s uncle Ron (former BD missionary) they went home to finish listening. It was getting late, as it does when listening to services from the other side of the world..

Mon June 15 US Embassy appt

 The big girls stayed in Pink City with Kaylee and the teachers

 Appt time 10:15

We thought we’d given ourselves plenty of time but….

Let’s say, my respect for the man stationed in Dhaka that deals with the government officials on a much more regular basis, just went up a notch or 2 after our morning. 

These folks/system can be plain impossible!! Very frustrating!! 

For starters, last time we’d come we were told, “you have to have an appt before you can park in their gated, guarded parking lot.”

Well, here we come today with our scheduled appt and attempt to turn in to park. But, “Oh no, that parking is only for officials!” So we drive around a bit and everywhere there is “No Parking” and we are waved on. So we finally decided that Lonnie will drop Annslie, Gentry, and I off and I’ll try to get in while he endeavors to find a place to park as we do Not want to miss this appt! I got to the outdoor registration and they started asking me for all sorts when Lonnie had said they told him all we needed was our passports and our appt email, I believe. Well, Lonnie had the email on his phone and I knew he was probably having some levels of stress trying to find parking so I wasn’t too eager to call him and have him share that with me. I pointed out Gentry’s name and appt time on their paper but then they wanted his government birth certificate Not the hospital birth certificate! I told them that’s what we’re here today for!!😡 if I was a foul language using person this would’ve definitely been where I’d have used it🫣

They did let me in finally😌 I hadn’t gotten too far into the depths of the facility when I was told I had to leave my phone in a lock box! I can’t do that! I don’t feel up to what’s ahead of me by myself and the 2 littles and I don’t know how it’s going for Lonnie and if they’re letting him in etc. But. I put my phone in the box and taking the key, I pushed the littles in the stroller down the next concrete corridor… winding around thru the place asking where to go next, till we came to a room full of people. And that’s where Lonnie caught up with me. Wow. Was. I. Ever. Glad. To. See. Him. 

We were escorted to the far end of the room, past many observing eyes, to an area that had a picture of Trump hanging on the wall. I took note of how quiet the place was with all those people in there! I’m guessing, somewhere over a hundred people.. But then in our smaller area there were a few babies and a couple of children which naturally helped ease the frigid quietness. We didn’t have to wait long to get called the 1st time to go give the paperwork we’d brought along. And then we had a little longer wait till we could go have our interview that would start the passport process. During that time I observed an 8? yr old girl telling her dad something about Trump, pronouncing it with the r rolled😅 Can you do that;)

The man doing our interview was such a breath of fresh air…soft spoken, fluent English, and such a kind demeanor, it helped put me at ease a bit. He wanted to know why we didn’t have family photos. He asked a lot of questions since he didn’t have photos to verify. He easily accepted Lonnie’s answers and replies.🤍 

Wow. Was that ever freeing to have that appt over with! 

Back out at the curb I waited with the littles while Lonnie went to get the van. We bought a bag of popcorn and “chips” from somebody walking past.

Back to Pink City to get the girls. Then to Gulshan 2 Chef’s Table and UniMart. https://maps.app.goo.gl/uwcTXz9N9ZvuoqDC9?g_st=ic

At Wok Way we got our favorite ginger teas, fried rice, Kung Pão chicken. Lonnie went to a different vendor to get his plate of sushi. We all enjoyed his sushi also

I went down to UniMart to start shopping while Lonnie and the children hit the frozen yogurt yet.

Supper at Brian’s

Kaylee and Miss Aleigha spent the evening teaching Maddie and Jaira how to embroider💗 

I watched the children. Annslie and 4 yr Bennett, who is Downs, played very nicely at times and it was sweet to watch, although at other times Annslie thinks she’s the police and ends up sitting on a chair for an extended amount of time..

Sun June 14 test results and shopping

 In the afternoon we went to get Gentry’s test results. And then get in with the pediatrician to get them read. I stayed out in the van with the children while Lonnie went in. He had to wait an hour to see the Dr and then get in the pharmacy line for the prescription. The results: nothing was detected. So continue with probiotics and zinc and watch his diet closely, introducing new foods one at a time. I’m still detecting blood in every diaper but it feels like the tide has turned and incrementally he is improving.

We went on to do our Jamuna Park Mall supper and shopping. 

Takeout: one of the few places we’ve found so far that has hamburgers we can enjoy https://maps.app.goo.gl/oRow9sqeHNnSmPkG8?g_st=ic

 Kid’s Paradise for an umbrella stroller and 1st pair of shoes for the boy. https://maps.app.goo.gl/WcNDhMm8UceEmnch6?g_st=ic 

Mr. D.I.Y. Such a fun store that has many small practical/fun things for nice low prices👍🏼 https://maps.app.goo.gl/gh7zaQaxhQ8aVUX79?g_st=ic

Wholesale Club: that lovely place where we find a few imported products that have a way of adding sparkle to life https://maps.app.goo.gl/oRow9sqeHNnSmPkG8?g_st=ic 

Back at the house later that evening, the big girls and I listened to Miss Shana’s wedding in Scenic Ridge, OH.