Thurs Sep 3

Lonnie took Annslie and walked to Neeconjo for eggs. I mixed up flan in preparation for a special day tomorrow. 

Baked chicken fingers, Mac n cheese, and baked beans for lunch

 A downpour came thru this afternoon dropping the temp beautifully! When we left at 4:15 for Lewis’s 5:00 Doctrine class, the van thermometer showed 26* C(78.8*F.)! We haven’t seen that all summer! The traffic at Gollamari bridge was quite backed up (it’s a real bottleneck there but they have made good progress on the big new bridge.. it’s a point of observation and comment every week when we go drove by) so we were 10 min late. Shortly after we arrived, the power left. So we were reading the lesson and scripture references by flashlight, just like last week. Purnima served us crunchy green amra wedges seasoned most delectably with lemon juice, salt, a bit of sugar, and a touch of hot pepper🤤

The days are shortening noticeably, It was already dark at 6:30 when we were driving back thru the city! We stopped for a few kg of meeshti balls for a special treat for our S.S. students and Lonnie’s friends tomorrow. Then picked up a little snack of pudi… a little round, crispy, flaky, fried street food with just a sprinkle of yumminess inside. Another stop by the fruit and veggie market. The girls ate all the mandarins while they were waiting for us in the van so we stopped again at another fruit and veggie market and bought more along with bananas we’d forgotten to get at the last stop.

Wed. Sep. 2

 Lonnie did more book work with answering Tulshi’s door bell calls in between… patients at the gate, etc

I cut out a dress

Dipti made a fabulous Bangla meal for us of fried pongas fish, rice, lentils, and vegetable stir fry🤤

In the afternoon, Lonnie spent more time at the computer and I got my dress all “serged”(zigzag stitch) and the blouse put together only to find out I’d cut my 2 pc sleeve out with one half being the wrong side! And not big enough fabric scraps to cut another one out😩 hopefully I can find the fabric again at Boro Bazaar🤞🏼

Tues Sep. 1

 And September is here! 

A rainy day

Tulshi went for meat for us.. 2 pongas fish, 3 chickens, and whatever pork he could get a hold of. 

Lonnie discovered additional, outside activity when he opened the book work on the computer, so spent a few hours digging into that with his fellow missionaries and they were able to sign out a “foreign” party.

And the rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning fish, washing meat, and cutting the chickens up for the freezer with enough time to go to the nearby dokan for time with the locals. And back in time for supper made by Miss Christina

My day was laundry, getting the online H&H printed for easier read by everybody, mending, tidying, taking care of littles, putting meals on the table, doing a timed word search with Maddie after supper,..

Mon Aug 31

 Made a batch of bread with a couple loaves being cinn swirl.

Chicken taco lunch

Had good singing with the girls after Jaira’s music class.

 Lonnie donned his work clothes and spent a good share of the day at the neighboring dokan repairing our grill lid “that was used too much when it was new“..The dokander had seen Lonnie’s knife sharpening system and had some knives that could use it so Lonnie told him he’d pay for his repair job by sharpening the knives😉

Maddie and I got the calligraphy books out after supper and had fun doodling and practicing

Sun Aug 30

It’s been a family effort getting Gentry to walk independently, cheering him on as he walks back and forth between 2 people with much clapping and cheering at each trip across the room🤎

 This morning while I was working on lunch, Lonnie was watching the 2 littles. The Carrom board has been balanced on the top of 3 wooden dining room chairs for the past year but this morning while Gentry was playing below he must’ve bumped the chairs just wrong and that heavy beast of a Carrom board came crashing to the floor, chairs upended, Gentry underneath😱 Miraculously, when the board was lifted off of him the only damage we could see was a very pinched ear, the girls came down from their classroom to see what the clatter and bang was all about. The sturdy Carrom board showed no signs of it’s mishap😳 But there was no questions asked, Lonnie put the Carrom board away and swept up all the sawdust that had been knocked out of the bug holes. 

Dipti reports that her daughter in law’s mother is now in the hosp. with Dengue😣 Ive heard of too many cases now! And the crazy thing is, we don’t even hardly see mosquitoes! It seems like they are so much less than last year! Like, I’ve seen maybe 2 here at the house in the last week or 2 and 2 at Lewis’s when we were there last Wed.!?!

Sat. Aug 29

Annslie gave her standard answer to the question, “what do You want for breakfast?” I mixed up oatmeal pancakes.

Got 2 loads of laundry thru but otherwise enjoyed a relaxed morning with the family 

Dipti came today since she’d taken Thurs off. Had her do some extra scrubbing in the bathrooms

She was done with her work the same time as we were ready to go into Khulna for our weekly shopping trip, so we gave her a ride to Chakrakhali.

To Grand Placid for lunch. A very relaxed, good experience. Maddie had brought her book along so she read while Annslie played in the play area. Jaira brought her embroidery along. There were a lot of tables set and ready with food waiting. I hoped we’d get to see the crowd of Bangalis that they were prepared for… sometimes this hotel is hosting a wedding and it’s always interesting to see everybody all dressed up etc., and sure enough the crowd did arrive, but it looked like a minister’s and deacon’s area mtg all but the tie 👔 and as I’ve never actually attended an above mentioned mtg I can only imagine that this crowd was a Lot quieter without the dull roar of conversation😉 a crowd of finely dressed men in their suit coats with nice haircuts and beards… I had the desire to find out what their occasion was but didn’t feel like that would be my place and it was not a shared desire🙃… Steaming platters of rice were brought out and they made short work of the food before them and were gone again before we made our exit..

Shwapno, bank, Safe & Save, Day-7, and the fruit and veggie market where Lonnie took care of the list of veggies and I got the fruit.. last of the season mangoes, a small yellow watermelon to try, cantaloupe, pineapple, apples, bananas,…

Annslie and the Bud were both sleeping when we got home and were transferred to their beds making for a calm, peaceful evening enjoyed by the rest of us after Maddie and I with a bit of help from Jaira made short work of washing and getting All the fruit and veggies into the fridge.

Fri. Aug 28

After Miss Christina’s yummy iaplots(version of crepes) breakfast. We went to Choygoria Sun. School. There was a nice little crowd of about 25 boys and girls, a couple moms, and then a couple old grandmas wanting to see the eye doctor. 

On to Chakrakhali Sun. School, about 7 big boys, Nee-tie(the rickshaw van driver), and the man of the house, Rajib (42 yrs old with salt and pepper hair that’s getting to be more salt than pepper and is like another grandpa to Gentry) always is ready and waiting to watch Gentry during S.S. After S.S. they wanted us to come to their garden, which surrounds their fish pond behind their house, and they picked cucumbers and a papaya for us to take home💛

Rickshaw van ride back to the house where Jaira and Miss Christina helped with lunch prep while Maddie washed up the breakfast dishes

Ham that had been made using tender quick, liquid smoke, brown sugar, and local pork 

3:00 is the scheduled time for doctrine class with Lewis and Purnima but they are always 15-20 min early which makes for a very short afternoon for us.. we enjoy cold tea as we have study the lesson of the afternoon. 

4:00 service

On the way home, one of my friends beckoned to me from inside her house so I went in to see what she had in mind. She was sitting on the bed with her sleeping 15 month baby boy. She says he’s sick with Dengue (mosquito born illness) fevers, shaking,….. she had about 5 medicines for him there and she’d come from Dhaka to be with her family while he got better. It was only a month or 2 ago that it was her husband that was so sick and in the hosp with this illness😏

Lewis is always right on it with getting back to the house and getting his easy bike out the gate. And Kobir and Liton like to catch a ride with him. Shanto needed something so they were hanging around a bit and we invited them in for no bake cookies and leftover ham that we pulled out of the fridge. Pork is expensive in this country and a special meat for those that aren’t Muslim. So the ham was thoroughly enjoyed, Especially the fatty pcs!!😌 

I was glad to see Lonnie walk in the door, after going to the pharmacy dokan with some people that showed up at our gate, as Shanto was asking a question that I felt like I could explain with scripture but didn’t feel like it was my place to point these scriptures out to my brother in the faith..