Thurs Oct 1

 The weeks are f l y i n g by! How can it be Thurs already again!? And now it’s October 😌

I thought I’d write a little about Annslie today.. she’s 3 1/2 and ever the chatty one, never lacking! We never know what she’s gonna come up with next!?! For the last few months her fear is “The kings are coming!”😳 We were completely stumped.. who are the kings and why is she afraid of them? So we quizzed her and come to find out… they are from the Bible stories of Daniel and the lion’s den, baby Moses and his basket boat, and when Jesus was a baby boy.!. 🫣 I started reading Two Little Girls From Yesteryear for awhile giving her little mind some new, less dramatic, stories to think about. She quickly learned to love Karen and Debra and  the life lessons they learned. She begs everyday to sit with her dad and learn Bangla on the Ling app. She is always sure she can do whatever the big sisters are doing…play their games, paint, etc. She Loves to help in the kitchen, or “help” Dipti and Tulshi, she loves to “take care of” Gentry.. always up for entertaining him, Loves her dolls..Not strange to see her taking care of 3 of them at a time.. trying to bring them to the table with her.. informing us of the need to be quiet.. her baby is sleeping!  She’s figured out how to run the copier and copies off her own pictures that she doesn’t have the attention span to finish coloring🙃. One day we found out she’d figured out how to get on the computer and open up the screen to draw and paint on. Otherwise we are working on obedience, not talking back, living peaceably with her siblings,….

This morning Lonnie took the glider rocking chair back in for the 2nd time in its 1st year for repairs. The bearings are its weak point. Lonnie asked them to just go ahead and replace them all while they were at it, but they wouldn’t do it saying they were good . So Lonnie told them he wanted to buy several (so he could replace them when they went bad and wouldn’t have to haul the whole chair back into town) he picked up fruit and veggies for me on his way home.

Jaira went with to pick up the chair after school, but lo and behold, the repair job was not the speedy job it had been last time😳 they sat for 15-20 min before somebody went to check on its status, only to be told they have to send to their manufacturer🤔 🚩

7:00 at Shanto’s for Espondant’s 16th birthday 🥳 Rhidoy and Pinky are back from Dhaka for the occasion. So good to have them around again🫶🏼 Pinky’s parents, sister and baby were there for supper also. Shanto’s currently have a Full house with housing his employees from Rajshahi.. 6 men that take up residence in what used to be the church house. They’ve been with him for over a month now. Shotti fed them supper also. Shotti’s parents have moved in also as her mom’s health is poorly😳 so if you can even imagine a metal building with a concrete floor. A small kitchen, a bedroom that doubles as their dining/living room and on the other side of the wall they have brought Shanto and Shotti’s bed in for the parents to use, Shanto and Shotti are sleeping on the floor at the foot of the bed while Rhidoy and Pinky are visiting, and thru a curtain doorway is the 2  teenage boys’ beds😶

 and then we go back to our very comfy, spacious home, with all the conveniences,.. life just isn’t fair..

Wed Sep 30

Got started grinding for sausage and then the power went off so put it all back in the fridge till after lunch

Dipti made egg curry and fried chicken

Finished making sausage

And went upstairs to help with the music class singing

Tues Sep 29

 Today was meat day with Lonnie washing the bone chips and hog bristles off the pcs of pork and washing and cutting up a couple chickens for the week. Found out we had plenty of pork stockpiled.. enough for a batch of sausage plus.. got some in ham brine, made a recipe of chalupa for the freezer, and some for pulled pork. 

Had Dipti make us some sweetened fried coconut. It’s like candy🤤

Mon Sep 28 Tala Outpost

 The girls stayed home for multiple reasons.. #1 being it was a school day and we have a couple rounds of guests coming in the upcoming months so our school days need to continue #2 being Jaira is still on the mend with her rash and another that hasn’t been feeling well with stomach troubles..

The road to Tala was SOOO bad! It is normal end of rainy season deterioration. We were glad to get out after 2 hrs of serious bumping.  

At Bro Harun and Sis Joyanti’s it was a relaxed atmosphere. None of their children are living at home currently. And we only had our 2 youngest along. Joyanti’s dad was there a bit when we 1st got there and then Harun’s brother’s wife came by and visited with Joyanti and I in the cooking shack for a little while. Gentry ran around in the Sunday School room where the men visited on grass mats on the dirt floor. I went out to the cooking shack with Joyanti, sat on a low, wooden stool, on the dirt floor to watch her prepare lunch. She had a huge bowl of finely cut vegetables.. potatoes, papaya, eggplant, and was working on a bag of tiny crab. She’d grab a live crab out of the bag, slice the legs off each side with a couple passes past the blade of her foot knife and throw it into a bowl. The next process was to pop the outer top shell off making sure the bright yellow goop and the little black glob went into the meat pile also😳 The “under” shell was left intact. Then she worked on the seasonings and spices. She gave me a pile of quite small garlic bulbs to peel. Then it was time to get that fire started. She used an assortment of pcs of wood, dried jute or some kind of long stemmed grass, and dried manure cakes. Lighting the dried grass stem and putting it down the hole of her mud oven. The crab went into the vegetable mixture and she got it cooking while she started cutting up the potatoes and chicken for curry. In the meantime, Annslie was busy running here and there going to the barn where 4 cows were tied and a baby calf stayed close to it’s mother and to her delight, would Moo back at her🤗 then out to the front of the buildings to talk to the geese, then following a chicken behind the house, and in between, finding excuses to pump water at their fun water pump.

I’d brought along iced tea that we served after lunch. The 7th Day Adventist preacher that showed up got to try some too. And then 3 young boys came for Sun. School. Only 1 was brave enough at 1st to have the iced tea but before they left the 2nd boy tried some also. The boy that wasn’t shy came and talked to Gentry in his stroller and gave him many kisses till the preacher told him not to touch him with his mouth. It was really sweet, although I had no idea if there was sickness around. A few songs(with the visiting preacher taking the lead in starting them), prayer, story posters of David and Goliath, a picture to color with the story in Bangla on the back. The boys and preacher left. 2 young girls showed up so they were given the Sun School picture to color while we had our own little service with Harun having the opening and Lonnie sharing his thoughts. Gentry fell asleep in his stroller during the service. A couple more girls showed up yet and settled in to coloring with the others. It got later than normal with the Sun school children trickling in. They were all given cups of iced tea and water bottle stickers. It was 4:00 before we finally pulled out and hit the bumpy road home😵‍💫 

Heated up leftover Belizean chicken n rice for supper

Sun Sep 27

 Lonnie called Nee-tie to take him by rickshaw van to the clinic, picking up his friend that runs the repair dokhan next door to help clean up the vandalism.

Tulshi was sick today

After Dipti got the morning cleaning done, she made coconut milk for my Belizean stewed chicken, rice and peas lunch.

The power was off All day, 8-5. Lonnie said he saw that they had a crew trimming trees along the power line. It’s still definitely summer and no power means no A.C. After school I made Piña coladas and then we walked down the way to see if they were frying dim chop tonight. They had one, but wait. She would be frying more. So we hung out and visited with everybody while Annslie ate her favorite little cup of chick peas. Those chick peas she always wants but they are really spicy and she can never eat all that’s in the tiny cup. Then we walked out to the levee where a lady’s husband is suffering from Dengue. Lonnie knew the family and said he would visit them since the wife was at our gate asking for medical funding and the major medical budget is maxed out for the next couple months. They brought out 3 plastic chairs. And the 12? Yr old girl helped the sick man out of the hut and up to their levee yard. Lonnie asked if he could pray with the man. And then he gave the wife a little Taka and the man gave Lonnie a long hug.

Sat Sep 26

 Lonnie, Jaira, and Annslie walked to the pharmacy dhokan to see if they could get some help for Jaira’s rash. We enjoyed a leisure morning. I got the last seams finished on a dress I’ve been working on all week😊

3:00, after Annslie’s nap, we went in to Khulna. Jaira put her afternoon medicine in a little ziplock bag to take along for after her meal. Said she felt like Grandma Frase😉. But she’s already feeling better with not being so itchy even tho the rash hasn’t waned

Mambo’s for a late lunch/early supper. Where Lonnie also met the printer that’s doing the calendars(that we give out) this year and recovered our hymnals and Bibles from church… BUT! He got the Hymnal covers on the Bibles and the Bible covers on the hymnals😩

Day 7 where the cashier asked me how much longer we will be here. Our acquaintances seem to be guessing our halfway mark has come and gone.?.

Shwapnos, ATM that was down, so we had to use only whatever cash we had left at the fruit and veggie market.

Fri Sep 25

 Jaira has had an itchy rash this week that has slowly spread. Starting on her torso, then to her arms, neck head, …. Entire body from head to toe. She stayed home from Choygoria S.S. with me while the Bud napped. Then we got the Bud out of bed and went to Chakrakhali S.S. It was nice to see some of the younger children back today. Seemed like it had been quite while with just a handful of the older boys. Dudjoy was feeling tired and achy all over he said because he’d given blood..?.. When Lonnie finished the story of David and Goliath. Nee-tie(van driver) says he didn’t see the picture of David’s stone hitting Goliath! And sure enough! Lonnie Had missed that picture card when he was telling the story😅 

Lewis’s didn’t come for class at 3:00 so we had a nice, long afternoon. 

Jaira was out right after lunch for a few hours after trying a different Benadryl that was not non-drowsy.

Maddie and I worked upstairs taking care of laundry from yesterday and a table that’s been a hotspot/catch all.

4:00 service

Some of Shanto’s Muslim family from his birthplace were in church. The one lady was really friendly and knew lots of previous missionaries.. has a little boy Annslie’s age that had fun playing with Shania back in the day and mentioned how previous Brandi liked to make chocolatey things, etc 

We invited everybody down after church. Shanto told Lonnie, “sure.. for 15-20 min.” Lonnie says, “Hě, 15-20 min/1-2 hours OK😉” We had popcorn and mango smoothies. And an hour or 2 later, Shanto winks at Lonnie and says, “Time is up!” But the crew didn’t seem to be in a hurry, and once we got outside, tried learning how to ripstick.

Shanto’s invited us for Espondant’s birthday on Oct. 1. Rhidoy and Pinky from Dhaka, plan to be there also🤗

The girls tell us that Miss Christina says she’s never had dim chop. So we all take a walk up to the T to see if they’re making dim chop tonight. They’re not, but say, come back tomorrow and sold us peyag patties instead.