Thurs. Feb 19

 After lunch Miss Christina and the big girls went with Lonnie to the bank. Miss Christina’s visitor’s visa is up and also the month of grace is just around the corner. In Dhaka, Brian has been working with the legal documents for these teachers but not getting very far… they told him now, “If these girls have a bank account,….” So, thus the trip into town this afternoon.

Wed Feb 18 a Shundorban day trip

 Shundorban translates to beautiful forest.. it is the largest mangrove forest, just an hour drive + hour boat ride away. https://maps.app.goo.gl/Jitrkvm8xZNwVU5QA?g_st=ic  

In Mongla, we met Doyle’s from Gopalgonj, at Hotel Pashur. They were able to show us the learned way of going on this excursion, as it was our 1st time. We ate our packed lunch on the boat ride down. Just a hint of cool on the breezy boat ride.. pretty much perfect weather for the day ☀️ 

When we arrived, our boat captain took anything we’d brought along, to a secure place, as the monkeys are quite the thieves. We armed ourselves with sticks to keep monkeys at bay but we actually didn’t see so many. A very nice elevated walk, since this area floods, through the jungle. A couple of towers to climb for a bird’s eye view. After a couple hours of walking and  getting quite warm, we were back at the dock. Just as we got settled onto our boat. A whole crowd of older school age children finished their Shundorban tour, and quickly gathered on the dock to get pictures of the boat load of white skinned people. It’s quite hard to keep a good attitude in those kind of situations but finally just try to pretend we are royalty instead of rare zoo animals🤦🏼‍♀️ We ended up taking an extra little excursion down a waterway into the depths of the forest after a guard in uniform with gun in hand plus another just good lookin Bangali😂took up residence on the front of the boat. The guard was on board because not just anybody is actually allowed down that waterway.. and the other Bangali? Ami jani na(I don’t know)

Anyways, this little extra excursion turned out to be about the most exciting part of the day! We saw several crocodiles in their natural habitat and came upon one especially Large one on the bank . The guess was that he was at least 12 feet long! A very ominous creature😳 And What do you know!???!!! They decide this huge croc needs to move and so the boat is headed to the bank! I am sitting on pins and needles feeling like this is a very unwise decision. The bank is bumped and I’m trying to figure out what my options are if the croc decides to come aboard or attacks🤯 The 🐊 slides into the water and swims away from the boat.. Huge sigh of relief!.. We have survived to tell the story! Come to find out the extra Bangali onboard is a nature reporter and has millions of followers! And he was now able to add more exciting video clips🙃

After dropping our extra passengers off at the Shundorban park dock we headed out for mainland. This Pashur River, that is just up from the Bay of Bengal, is quite large and we came past 1 especially massive ocean going vessel🚢 . 

Back at Hotel Pashur, we parted ways with our fellow missionaries, after bathroom break and delving into the leftover bars, fruit,… from lunch.

Sat. Feb. 14 Happy Valentines 💌

 A year ago, we just about missed this day. Traveling over the time zones we had an 8 hour Valentine’s Day spent in the Doha, Qatar airport with Lonnie sleeping as much of that as was possible🙃

Today, I had the breakfast table fixed up with my black orna(like a table runner) and candles 🕯️. Crepes with sausage, homemade marshmallow cream(since whipping cream powder is currently unavailable locally), strawberry pie filling, and syrups.

We went into Khulna and had a nice dinner at the Grand Placid Hotel

Fri. Feb 13 1 yr ago..

 … we left American soil behind. We have been thinking much of those last days… they are etched in our memory.

Today, is Worship Day

At the 2nd S.S. in Chakrakhali. Our Sunday school boy that’s been in the hosp. with kidney failure, seizures, etc came with his Mom. He’s feeling better but not great. His mom is So grateful for the monetary help from CSI. she wants us to come to her house after S.S. next Fri.(This boy is an only child..9-10 yrs old? And his parents plan to take him to India for better medical treatment when the government situation settles down… they are a village family.. the dad runs a pan(Bangali form of “chew”/tobacco) dokan.

Tonight the girls and I sat down and cut out pink, white, red, and black heart shapes. We wrote things we love about each person in this household on them. Punched a hole and strung them with jute string from the shelf over the coffee and tea bar.

Thurs. Feb 12 Election Day

 We stayed at home today to avoid any possible ruckus. The last few days the military has been enforcing a no crowd mandate. Even out in the village here Lonnie went to play Carrom in the evening. The owner of the dokan didn’t even want them to play, but consented. As they were playing tho, all sudden she pulled the cord to the lights and said, “Everybody out!” Coming down the road was a couple rigs full of military men. There is also a no motorcycle ban on but it doesn’t appear to be enforced.?.

Several parties were campaigning and each party has its own symbol for those that are illiterate. One party’s symbol is 🌾 another party’s a black horse, another ⚖️

BMP won the election 🌾 

Tues. Feb. 10 Miss Christina turns 21🥳

 I had fun putting a little extra into the day. Hanging a birthday banner, fixing the breakfast table up with a tablecloth, new candle and wood bead garland on the centerpiece tray, pretty plates and made strawberry meringue clouds and fried sausage patties.

A normal school day

Lonnie got brick ordered and is working on laying brick along the side and back of the house where it’s muddy in rainy season and everyday when the water tank on the roof is filled, etc. The rest of us have enjoyed watching the progress and the girls had fun stacking the bricks that had been delivered in one big pile.

In the evening, Lonnie picked up the cake we’d ordered from our night guard Shunil’s daughter in law. She makes custom cakes and I wish you could visit their home… It is a little nicer brick village home with concrete floors, but her kitchen has a dirt floor. In Shunil’s bedroom is where they have a small fridge, a tabletop toaster oven style, and her cake decorating supplies. 

The cake was a round 3 layer choc cake. Very fluffy and light with a light fluffy chocolate filling between the layers… Very delish! It was lightly frosted with a light choc and a thin dark choc over the top drizzled down the sides. Decorated very beautifully with a spray of light choc piped  roses, etc with dark choc hearts, thin chocolate shells, and gold flakes nestled in on one side with accents of pearl and gold beads

Icecream and soft pretzels were also enjoyed at our little birthday party

Sun. Feb. 8

 Lonnie and I went to check out a dentist that had good reviews on Google Maps. The 1st route was taking us on one of the roughest, worse roads we’ve been on here. And before we got very far on it, there was a mud hole spanning the whole road so we turned around and drove across Khulna City to get to the other end of the road called Shipyard Rd. Still a road which required quite slow travel, but it was a neat drive along the River with lots of sawmills And we found it interesting that there was quite a population of goats. After observation, it appeared that the attraction for the goats was all the logs that they could eat the bark from! We found the dentist we were looking for, but one glance and Lonnie said, “I reckon, we’ll just wait till we get back to Dhaka.” We could see people waiting in a small waiting room thru the glass front doors and in the adjoining room thru a door hanging open we could see somebody in the dentist chair. We’d seen enough from our slow drive by..

Little alternative route past the Bangladesh Navy Base

Stopped at Aarongs, as there is a birthday coming right up.