Wed. Jan 28 evening guests

 Lonnie made tortillas 

I made a couple desserts and got supper started

Music class Singing with the girls

Lamar and Megan arrived at 4:30? for supper and the eve. They are a Southern Baptist couple from Huntsville AL that we met at UniMart in Dhaka last month. They have spent their 1st year in Dhaka studying the lang. and are now ready to go to their post. They were asked to come to Khulna, a 1st for their group, and build a team that would cover surrounding towns… Gopalgonj, Jashore, etc. this trip down,  he and his wife worked to secure a place to live while they are here. Lonnie got them together with Kobid and they were very impressed with the help Kobid was to them.

Lamar’s have 2 small children, Jemma 3 yrs old, just 7 1/2 months older than Annslie and they are a pair! Hit it off right from the 1st hello and had a high o’ time the whole evening!🥰 Jemma is a bright little girl with a headful of blonde ringlets…Baylor the little brother is 8 months. A happy, busy little feller who played all evening on the living room floor, army crawling to get around. 

After discada, cooked apples, and hazelnut parfait, the men took the toddlers on a walk into the village, Megan and I visited while we took care of our little boys. A little carrom yet before it was time for them to catch a rickshaw van back to their hotel in Khulna city.We are looking forward to spending more times with them in next couple years.😊

Sat. Jan 24

 To Khulna 1st stop- Artisan (they have a nice bathroom for a toddler needing a potty break) and we went ahead and shopped. Found 2 sweaters for the big girls… Children’s Place brand with the American tag on it also stating the US price $39.95 the Canada price $57.95 and then another tag with the Bangladesh price 695 which is like $6 USD. Then I got to the checkout and found out they were running a 50% sale so ended up only giving about $3 USD for a nice sweater!🤗

A man was asking Lonnie again for medical help so he called Kobid to come meet with them to get more details. The man is a rickshaw driver so he went off on another run while waiting for Kobid’s arrival. The girls and I went into New Mkt to shop while the men were busy. Kobid and Lonnie found us after waiting for awhile and the man never showing up. So then Kobid shopped with us, happily sharing whatever expertise he felt like he had on fabric and shopping. Seeming to thoroughly enjoy helping us shop for kameeze and panjabi(native women’s and men’s clothing).

Oh, yesterday, at the 1st S.S. one of the little boys, 8 yrs old maybe? Noticed and commented that Gentry has dimples just like he does🥰

Fri Jan 23 Day of Worship

 Today is a Hindu festival celebrating/worshipping the goddess of education. Therefore only 5 children showed up at our 1st S.S. And at Chakrakhali we waited around for awhile, visited with the lady of house and then went home. 

Wed Jan 21

 After breakfast, I got Dipti started on lunch, us ladies spent some time with on the roof while laundry was taken care of up there. Then the whole crew of us went for a walk in the village leaving the men at home playing carrom while the babies slept.

Dipti cooked us up a Bangla feast: rice, chicken curry, dim(egg) curry, dhal(lentils), and Shobji(stir fried veggies)

After lunch the company packed up and we all went to the river to spend some time in the sand by the water. The river was fuller than normal with more boats and some bigger cruise boats that were creating some pretty good sized waves. A beautiful afternoon with rice threshing going on across the road and the men got to help a Bangali who drove his vehicle too far into the deep sand. The 3 white men lifted the front of the vehicle while they backed out.

Then it was goodbyes and once more just our little crew that made our way back to a house that felt a little sad and empty. 

We are happy to have our field secretary’s visit to look forward to tho!

Tues Jan 20 overnight guests

 Spent the day getting ready for overnight guests. Bedding washed and line dried, a couple desserts and supper made. Our Dhaka couple brought their visiting family thru. Brian’s brother Tyler Friesen and wife Shayla from Roblin, Manitoba. It was special that they shared them with us😌 and it was fun to make connections. Tyler was in the unit with Al Bergeron from our cong. and Shayla would have been at 2 of the same weddings we attended, one in Ronan, as that was her home cong and one in Mt Pleasant, where she taught…

Sat Jan 17 Dristidan Eye Hosp. 23rd Ann. Celebration

 We left the house at 11:00 to get to the Dristidan Eye Hospital in Bagerhat by 12:00. We were invited for a celebration and lunch along with Doyle’s from Gopalgonj . Doyle’s had vehicle trouble so arrived 45 min later. But we started by gathering in their comfortable conference room… conference table with rolling office chairs all the way around, a nice sitting area with low leather couch and chairs, glass topped coffee table, a bathroom off one corner and a tiny kitchenette off the other corner with a glass sliding door. The little kitchenette was perfect for a servant to prepare cha. 1st fruit plates were brought out with carefully arranged guava, apple slices, mandarin segments, and grapes. Then tea was served in clear glass cup n saucers. 

Next was a tour of the eye hospital where exams and surgeries are done, the wards upstairs where the patients stay over night, the little room where surgery instruments are sterilized, and the kitchen, Very 3rd  world! with the typical mud ovens except these are on a built up to Bangali counter height where they cook huge pots of rice, etc. This is the hospital that our CSI program does eye camps with once a month at different locations and funds the eye care of patients that need it.

At the exam room, they asked if anybody needed an exam.  Jaira and Doyle’s 8 yr. Amaryllis got exams. Jaira came away with an updated prescription for choshma (glasses). We plan to take care of that on our next trip into Dhaka.

Next we were escorted to their little assembly room for the program celebrating 23 years. I believe it was a grandson 12 years old sang a song then it was time for the 2 CSI representatives to give little speeches as we have been working with them from their beginning in 2003. 1st Doyle shared with them in Bangla and then Lonnie started off with “ Ami dukkito. Bangla jani na” (I am sorry. I don’t know Bangla) receiving a round of applause from the crowd 🙃 and then gave his speech in English. Picture taking throughout the ceremony… CSI representatives receiving flower bouquets (red roses, pink gladiolus, and baby’s breath). Then the founder was supposed to cut the cake. But alas, he is an old man with dementia and the crowd got quite the laughs over him🫣 I really felt sorry for him and felt like he was past the point of being the center of attention at a formal ceremony. At one point, he pulls his Muslim prayer hat off so his by sitter can scratch his head for him, and then he needs to spit and tissues are hastily grabbed for but no, he thinks he needs to spit into something so a bucket is brought! Finally with joint effort a cake knife is put into his hand and is guided to perform the ceremonial task and then it was a bit of a fiasco getting him to eat the pc of cake🤦🏼‍♀️ his 8 yr old granddaughter was up there having the giggles over the whole scenario!

Then it was time for lunch. They took our crew up to a private room where they served us a Feast!!

Bottle of water and coke by each place

Rice

A little fried minced beef patty 😋 just bigger than an Oreo

Round slabs of cooked eggplant 

Dim (egg) curry, chicken curry, mutton curry, fish and beef

Came around with a fresh plate, Lime slices/carrot slices with hot peppers

For dessert : meeshti balls and little cups of doy (yogurt)

Now it was time for the rest of the crowd to eat.. they went out back to a “party tent” while we went to the front of the hospital, just inside the main gate and found some sunshine to sit in. The teachers and Maddie played badminton and all the littles had a high o’ time playing in a sand pile and running around the building.

Next on the agenda was a Pita contest in the party tent out back. There were 4 different groups competing. One group all had matching bright yellow sharis☺️ Pitas are a special winter food here. They come in all shapes n sizes.. We asked Kobid and Shomid one time how many different kinds there are. They didn’t know, maybe thousands! Anyway, I gave Jaira the task of counting how many different kinds were here this afternoon. She came up with 75-77!! Some of the shapes for this event were: rose, pumpkin, leaf, eye (since this was taking place at the Eye Hospital)

More Badminton and carrom yet before parting ways

Fri Jan 16 Day of worship

 Gentry and I made it to S.S. this morning 😅🤗 and it was lovely to be able to join the children sitting cross legged on the mats😊(earlier this year going to S.S. here I was largely pg..) there was a nice crowd of children this morning, mostly girls this time!… The majority in the last months has been boys!?…

We got a call saying our 2nd S.S. in Chakrakhali was canceled so we enjoyed a leisure end, letting the children finish coloring their pictures in their own time and handing out a balloon to each as they left.

We also received the exciting news that our fellow mission family in Gopalgonj has decided to stay for another term🤩

We decided to use the rest of the morning to go look up Dipti (our maid) and see about going to her father’s home. She’s been telling me how his health is so poorly. So I’ve been wanting to go visit him as it sounds like his time on this side of eternity is drawing to a close… we took Kobid (our interpreter brother) along with us also. Going by rickshaw van, we arrived at Dipti’s, she was out on her walkway with a couple buckets of water, doing some laundry. I was glad Lonnie could see where she lives(the last time we were here he wasn’t along). Dipti said she was afraid/surprised when she saw us arrive! But yes, she would go with us to her father’s home. 

As we rode along, Dipti and I just behind the rickshawala(driver) Lonnie and Kobid sitting on the back, Miss Christina and the girls on the 2nd van behind us, it’s a Be-u-ti-ful morning in the fresh air and sunshine… this feeling of complete satisfaction washed over me, my heart was full, one of those moments in time where everything just feels right in my little world😌

When we got back out to the main road, we met up with her 2 boys in front of a dokan. My 1st time seeing her younger son😊.. she sent their keys home with her younger son as she had locked everything up when we left. We went down an even more broken up narrow brick path to where Dipti grew up. We walked the last of the way in as the road had broken away into the pukar and was too narrow for a rickshaw van. A large rice straw stack to our right as we made our way into the compound. The buildings were built up with mud and we had to step up 3 rather high dried mud steps to get into the main house where her dad was sitting on what we would think of as a porch area that runs along the front of the house. but that is his “bedroom”. his wood bed with just a thin blanket on it fits perfectly in the one end. Her dad was sitting there at the foot of the bed, his back against the “wall”(just wooden slats)… just skin and bones.. the family was all around as he doesn’t seem to have much time left. It was really neat to meet Dipti’s sister, brother, nieces… 1 niece is expecting her 2nd? child in 2 months and really took a shine to Gentry, holding him, talking to him, making him smile😊 we walked out of the yard so Dipti could point her sister’s house out to us, across the way.. her husband left her some time ago and she survives by working for others as a maid. Before we left, we all gathered around the foot of the father’s bed including the van drivers, Annslie was on the bed also with a one of Dipti’s great nieces playing with balloons as the little girl had just turned 5. We sang several Sunday School songs, gave time for prayer requests.. there were several..

… for Dipti’s husband as he works as a van driver earning a living for his family… the fare is meager.

… for Dipti’s brother’s wife as she has paralysis in her legs/left side.. a beautiful girl but can’t get down out of the house without help as she doesn’t have feeling in her leg

… for the sick father with numbered days..

As we were making our final goodbyes Dipti’s father tells us “God sent you” 🤍 We told him we were happy to come and the most important thing, is to be at peace with God

Back at the main road, we parted ways with Kobid and Dipti there in Chakrakhali. And journeyed the rest of the way home, getting dropped off at our gate.

Made some slaw to go with our pulled pork sandwiches.

Nap time for Annslie 

The big girls cleaned up the kitchen then played outside, climbing a tree and playing in the dirt with some broken pcs of pottery… some things they haven’t grown out of yet😌

And then it was 3:30. Time to get ready for church and Lewis arrived with his whole family, parking his easy bike inside our gate. Finally got to meet his married daughter Rosie (from his previous marriage) and her husband and 1yr old son.

Shunil(our night guard) was standing by our church gate with Shanto and Espondant when we arrived, he must’ve seen us earlier today? He wondered where we’d gone in Chakrakhali. I stayed and visited with him a bit outside there watching a man catching fish by hand there. The harvested rice paddy was full of tiny little fish (onek choto mach) I asked Shunil,” where all the fish come from?” He says, “jani na(I don’t know)” also maybe when it rains God puts them there.?. 

Church was full today and full of distractions🙃 Rahat and his little friends were coming and going and talking/playing right outside til Kobid called ‘em down. The 1yr old and Annslie did their share of distractions also.. At prayer request time, something to take note of, the beggar man did Not get up and plead for help.. recently he went to the doctor and got medicine so he is feeling better but after church he was telling the men how he needed help with therapy so Lonnie proceeded to tell him how he could do his own therapy…

There was a large political gathering on the school grounds there. Onek lok(many people) on rows of red plastic chair. In front, a stage set up with a string of men and the loudspeakers enabling All to be able to hear. Behind, a whole “parking lot” of motorcycles.

Back at the house, Rosie and Purnima came in for the wash room and a drink. Espondant found a rip stick and when everybody else left we visited with Shanto and Espondant on the front porch for a bit yet. Rhidoy got a job in Dhaka, so him and Pinky are up there living in with their cousins and Rhidoy is doing some type of quality control at a garment factory. They are actually in Savar which is just north west of Dhaka.. Shanto shared how Bangali culture is different than American, His oldest son is 26 and brought his wife in to the family home and his next son is 19? And works only 2,3 days a month. So, it is up to Shanto to provide for his family of 6, it is taxing to him especially when work is slow.. thus Rhidoy going to Dhaka for work came about.

After they left, we headed for Bhatiaghata Bazaar to see if we could find a little food. We stepped into a little cafe for a couple plates of little fried snack food that Tulshi introduced to us, something he says, his brother Vishnu really likes. It’s hard to describe and I don’t know the name of it, but it’s a flat fried pastry cut in 2” strips with just a bit of yellow flavorful mash inside that you eat with an orange colored sauce 😅 it’s good 

We walked thru the bazaar a bit getting a few veggies but we just couldn’t stand anywhere for more than a minute as the crowd would start gathering. Right at our elbows, asking if Gentry was tonda(cold), etc… Lonnie was ready to get out of there! Says, when he’s by himself, he just doesn’t get that kind of attention! It’s just easiest for him to shop by himself, but we like to get out and see the things he tells us about too 😏