Thurs Aug 27

 I got a load of laundry in

 Lonnie took Shanto with him and spent all morning picking up the 1,000 Pilgrim’s Progress books from the printing shop.

Dipti did not come today 

I had a time of it trying to get lunch on for everybody while keeping my toddler out of trouble and my baby happy🤯

In the evening, Topu, Nodi, and Attoy came by wanting to go on a walk with the girls. Annslie went along also and I went upstairs and got some mending done. The girls reported that Tulshi had called Topu when it started getting dark and told her it was time to bring them home🤎 

The power went out bout the same time the girls got back and so I had them go thru the showers and we heated up leftovers when the power came back on

Wed Aug 26

 Lonnie washed the pork we’d got yesterday and then got all the pork and fat cut and ground. I seasoned it and got all the bags into the freezer once he’d got it ground the 2nd time and a lb measured into each bag… a joint effort with Lonnie doing most of it🤎

A local pastor (from Mullican Mor) came by for Gospel Tracts

Dipti cooked lunch for us and then was back after lunch with a pharmacy receipt she’s was needing paid for.

We went upstairs to help with the singing after Maddie’s music class..

5:00 doctrine class at Lewis and Purnima’s. She served a couple fried items afterwards, one was a patty made with crab etc. and the other was a Bangla vegetable sliced thin and battered. Then little bowls of Bangla noodles. 

On the way home, we stopped by the tailor to pick up the girls’ kameeze sets and a pair of (kameeze) pants for me and by the fruit market for bananas and a pineapple.

Tues Aug 25 14 years Mr❤️Mrs Koehn

💭 Reminiscing… 4 yrs ago, we were celebrating our 10th anniversary in a quaint cabin in the Smokies with our 2 school age daughters..  4 short years later, we have been blessed with 2 more littles and a term in Bangladesh!?! One just Truly can never guess what kind of turns life will take next! 

The day was full…Mom sent us Happy Anniversary message and more.. after singing with the girls upstairs to get them started with their school day, I got the laundry started, Lonnie took the littles out for a walk and got a new basketball backboard ordered, I listened to 1 of my sister in law’s WhatsApp messages🫂 and later another sister in law sent a lovely message💛, then went into the kitchen to start lunch prep, mixed up a double batch of tortillas, Dipti showed up about that time and I enjoyed visiting with her while she washed dishes and I cut up chicken for fajitas and other lunch prep.. 

Tulshi went for pork meat for us. 

Miss Christina offered to stay home with the children if we would want to go out for the evening. bless her heart💝 We had decided we wouldn’t take the littles out because Annslie has been battling what looks like maybe Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus according to online diagnosing🙃and Gentry has been miserable and fussy.. is it just his teething again or is he coming down with what Annslie has.?. We said we would reconsider tho with her offer.

Lonnie fried the tortillas for me while I got the rest of lunch on

Tulshi washed the van

Halfway thru lunch, Tulshi rings the bell, alerting Lonnie to somebody at the gate needing to talk to him. One of Lonnie’s friends (Pastor Robin, that we supply with Gospel Tracts) has brought another momma with baby that wants to be on our milk program.. Lonnie told this pastor last time (within this last week), “No more babies! We’ve reached our current quota!” But he seems to be turning deaf ears… Lonnie wanted to handle the situation kindly…. Ended up gifting them one box and letting them know they would not be able to participate in our program.

Lonnie worked on his latest brainchild, making his own Bible story picture cards with the story in Bangla on the back and laminating them. 

I hung the laundry out on the roof! A sign that the rains are lessening! All summer/monsoon season we’re back to drying the clothes inside. It still rains at least once every day but we’re having long enough dry times of the day now that we can hang at least 1 load out on the roof… it dries so much faster in the sun and breeze and it gives me a chance to spend a bit of time outside while accomplishing household chores at the same time😊

Lonnie and I decided to just take Gentry out with us for the evening. In the end, we left Gentry and took Annslie as she was so tore up about us leaving…

We stopped by the tailor to pick up the girl’s new kameeze sets that were s’pose to be yesterday.. he told us, “tomorrow”.

Then looked up Boss Tailors, that missionaries in the past have used for getting shirts sewn. 

And on to supper at Mambos. We were able to sit at a little table by the big plate glass windows overlooking the city. We enjoyed getting something other than our normal burgers from the menu complete with house special mushroom appetizer and brownie sundaes for dessert. Annslie behaved very well and Lonnie and I were able to enjoy the evening visiting as the lights and signs became bright spots beyond the windows of our supper table with the darkness of night blanketing everything else.. We walked down to MiniSo to get little Thankyou gifts for Miss Christina and the girls for staying home with the Bud.  On the way home, we stopped when I spotted an American style broom in a roadside dokan. Stopping again at the dhokan in Neeconjo for eggs.

At the house, Gentry was already bathed and ready for bed💙 The girls told us all about their fun evening making little sandwiches, veggies and dip, fruit and dip, etc and fixing the low glass topped table upstairs in their room up for their little tea party supper🥰

Sun Aug 23

 I spent the morning in the kitchen making 30 minute buns, apple pie bars, macaroni salad, baked beans, and baked sausage patties for burgers. Lonnie took care of the littles.

And Doyle’s came for lunch after their church service in Gopalganj 🤩 It is So good to have them back around! We thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon catching up, the children playing, having Miss Aleigha around again washing dishes, doing some laminating for her classroom, going on a walk with Miss Christina, coaching Maddie on her embroidery,…

Sat Aug 22

 Weekly shopping in Khulna City

Day-7, Safe n Save, Dominos pizza which took Waaay longer than normal because of a group of men ahead of us and only 1 employee taking orders and making the pizza!😳🤔, fruit n veggie market Lonnie took my list and got the veggies… the friendly minti came out to hold Gentry, then took him into the veggie market where Lonnie was, so I got out and bought the fruit. Shwapnos yet cause I was still looking for milk and yogurt-successful🤗

Fri Aug 21

 At Choygoria Sun. School, we had 2 mommas and a grandma with a 3 mo. old show up in addition to the children. The mother and grandma of the 3 mo were there asking for milk from our program after Sun. School was over. The milk program is for babies with cleft lip and/or palette but we get lots of mommas  coming to us wanting to be on the program with the reason being “the mom does not have any milk”… as was what we were told again this morning, but I had sat in the back with her while the children were coloring their pictures and personally witnessed her nursing her baby! The baby had spit up a bit after for proof of nourishment and then fell asleep contented. The baby is fat! So why is she asking to be on the milk program!?! Then they come out with it that the baby has not had a bowl movement for a week, which is their concern. I felt like I could relate with the “Mom worry”… “Is my baby ok?” So Lonnie suggested we step over to the pharmacy dokan and just get a quick check to put this momma’s worry at bay. The “doctor” was told the symptom, he did a quick listen to the baby with a stethoscope and prescribed a “syrup” for the baby and a vitamin for the momma. Lonnie wanted to do a listen to the baby’s tummy also which he said sounded great and he also discovered the baby passing gas so was quite sure the baby was gonna be just fine😅 told the Dr he’d be back by to pay the bill but we needed to go now to the next S.S. I’ll just quickly add here that when Lonnie went back to pay, the Dr said he’d done an eye check(like Pat and Lonnie used to do on their sheep and goats🙃) and he could see she was quite anemic also so he’d prescribed a whole list of vitamins etc for the momma then but wanted to pass it before Lonnie before sending those with them.

Gentry fell asleep on the rickshaw van ride over to Chakrakhali. I wanted to go lay him down inside the house but then I actually didn’t want to just leave him lying on the bed unattended lest he wake and fall off so I was kinda stuck in there for the duration. Which was not all bad as they had the A.C. going😅. Chaity was in there finishing up getting her Sari on, fixing her hair, lotioning her face, and putting her red Hindu “married” stripe on her forehead and the red dot sticker between her eyebrows. Then she sat on the bed with me and continued to visit. When she heard we only have 1 1/2 years left, she got all sad, saying she is already missing us! She loves us,…etc and I share the same sentiments😢 that’s the hard part about spending 3 years on the other side of the world… making friendships and then who knows if or when we’ll see each other again?! But, our lives are richer because of.

4:00 service

Shanto was sick so none of his family was there.. BUT surprise of all surprises!! Bro Shamir was there!!! Along with the other 2 single brethren and James one of Lonnie’s pastor friends that’s going thru a really tough time. And the beggar man showed up also which he hasn’t in awhile because he’s been feeling better.. Because, he’s been taking his medicine that he hasn’t always been willing to take!!

We invited James and the 3 brethren in after church for cold tea and snacks.. chanachud, watermelon, and choc. no bake cookies. James didnt stay long. Kobir was planning to go with us to another Hindu after death feast of another Chakrakhali Sun. School boy (grandmother). But the other men were staying longer than usual, Shamir hasn’t come around all summer and said he was hungry for fellowship! Annslie brought out her fishing game and a rousing game ensued with Jaira and the 3 brethren playing. There was much laughter and fish flying out of the pukar (pond) as they all tried to catch the most. Looked more like 15 yr old boys not 40+ yr olds 😂 But it was good to see them having such a great time!

We finally asked Liton and Shamir if they’d like to go with us to the after death feast. They answered in the affirmative so we caught a rickshaw van ride over to same location as the last after death feast we’d attended at the Chakrakhali school. The food was superior to the previous event.. shrimp curry and a delicious dhal that was not too thin.. But so many people! they had us wait  in a room with a TV going in it. It didnt take long of that and I migrated back out where I could observe the people as we waited for a table. And almost before we were done eating there was a line of people waiting standing behind us ready to take our places. Dudjoy escorted us back out to the road and we said we’d visit the Joy’s(S.S. boy who's grandmother the event was for) home another time… we felt like we’d had a full enough day already..

Thurs Aug 20 The Bud👶🏼 is 10 months

Gentry 

cut his 8th tooth this week

Is all boy.. loves to drive the little John Deere combine, still has big hands in comparison to what his sisters ever had, loves to be outside, 

Waves bye bye, claps, and is able to crawl but hardly does because he thinks he needs to walk but still wants some assistance… begs/insists all the time for someday to hold just one hand and walk/run with him, Tulshi spends parts of most days taking a turn with him outside too.

Round face with dark eyes and light brown hair, smiley with dimples

 In the afternoon, Lonnie grilled chicken for me and we had some for supper