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.

Thurs Sep 24 clinic break in

Lonnie’s day went a lot different than he had expected!… 

He got a call after breakfast that somebody was trying to break into the clinic. So when he was ready for the day he caught rickshaw van over there(10 min ride) and could see that somebody had tried and was unsuccessful. He went ahead and got the battery backup system out since you could see it from the doorway and is something of value that somebody might be after. 

Later, just as we were finishing lunch, a man on motorcycle came by saying somebody was vandalizing the clinic. 

So Lonnie drove over in the gari thinking he could do a drive by without being recognized.

He did stop to observe and the man came over yelling to him and opened his door then opened the back sliding door and Lonnie took off

He ended up getting the landlord and Kobir for translating. The police was notified. The man was arrested. The locals say he is known for always being “high” on something! Supposedly CSI had helped his mother but it had not been successful or something like that..?.. anyways he was out to destroy today and successfully made a Royal mess! Completely thrashed the clinic and ended up in jail. Can only feel sorry for the man..

And Lonnie spent the rest of the afternoon at the local Batiaghata police station writing up his witness statement, etc

Tues Sep 22

 Made my 1st little batch of applesauce over here. Peeled, cored, cooked, and ran thru the blender. Took note that this was the 1st time Gentry has experienced homemade applesauce. Kind of amazing for an American baby but then we had to remember 💭 that this “American baby” has never experienced America🙃 I had Dipti try some also for a 1st for her… she says, but who knows, it’s possible some missionary lady in the last 20 years has had her try it and she’s forgotten..?..

Mon Sep 21

 Pastor James came by in the evening to visit with Lonnie. Told him of his plans of his job in Dhaka. Then he asked Lonnie how he was doing, so Lonnie shared how God has been working in his life recently. James was quiet for a minute and then says, “That is deep. I am learning.” It will be sad to not have him around as he has reached out to Lonnie quite a bit especially as he has hit hard times.