Sat. Aug 29

Annslie gave her standard answer to the question, “what do You want for breakfast?” I mixed up oatmeal pancakes.

Got 2 loads of laundry thru but otherwise enjoyed a relaxed morning with the family 

Dipti came today since she’d taken Thurs off. Had her do some extra scrubbing in the bathrooms

She was done with her work the same time as we were ready to go into Khulna for our weekly shopping trip, so we gave her a ride to Chakrakhali.

To Grand Placid for lunch. A very relaxed, good experience. Maddie had brought her book along so she read while Annslie played in the play area. Jaira brought her embroidery along. There were a lot of tables set and ready with food waiting. I hoped we’d get to see the crowd of Bangalis that they were prepared for… sometimes this hotel is hosting a wedding and it’s always interesting to see everybody all dressed up etc., and sure enough the crowd did arrive, but it looked like a minister’s and deacon’s area mtg all but the tie 👔 and as I’ve never actually attended an above mentioned mtg I can only imagine that this crowd was a Lot quieter without the dull roar of conversation😉 a crowd of finely dressed men in their suit coats with nice haircuts and beards… I had the desire to find out what their occasion was but didn’t feel like that would be my place and it was not a shared desire🙃… Steaming platters of rice were brought out and they made short work of the food before them and were gone again before we made our exit..

Shwapno, bank, Safe & Save, Day-7, and the fruit and veggie market where Lonnie took care of the list of veggies and I got the fruit.. last of the season mangoes, a small yellow watermelon to try, cantaloupe, pineapple, apples, bananas,…

Annslie and the Bud were both sleeping when we got home and were transferred to their beds making for a calm, peaceful evening enjoyed by the rest of us after Maddie and I with a bit of help from Jaira made short work of washing and getting All the fruit and veggies into the fridge.

Fri. Aug 28

After Miss Christina’s yummy iaplots(version of crepes) breakfast. We went to Choygoria Sun. School. There was a nice little crowd of about 25 boys and girls, a couple moms, and then a couple old grandmas wanting to see the eye doctor. 

On to Chakrakhali Sun. School, about 7 big boys, Nee-tie(the rickshaw van driver), and the man of the house, Rajib (42 yrs old with salt and pepper hair that’s getting to be more salt than pepper and is like another grandpa to Gentry) always is ready and waiting to watch Gentry during S.S. After S.S. they wanted us to come to their garden, which surrounds their fish pond behind their house, and they picked cucumbers and a papaya for us to take home💛

Rickshaw van ride back to the house where Jaira and Miss Christina helped with lunch prep while Maddie washed up the breakfast dishes

Ham that had been made using tender quick, liquid smoke, brown sugar, and local pork 

3:00 is the scheduled time for doctrine class with Lewis and Purnima but they are always 15-20 min early which makes for a very short afternoon for us.. we enjoy cold tea as we have study the lesson of the afternoon. 

4:00 service

On the way home, one of my friends beckoned to me from inside her house so I went in to see what she had in mind. She was sitting on the bed with her sleeping 15 month baby boy. She says he’s sick with Dengue (mosquito born illness) fevers, shaking,….. she had about 5 medicines for him there and she’d come from Dhaka to be with her family while he got better. It was only a month or 2 ago that it was her husband that was so sick and in the hosp with this illness😏

Lewis is always right on it with getting back to the house and getting his easy bike out the gate. And Kobir and Liton like to catch a ride with him. Shanto needed something so they were hanging around a bit and we invited them in for no bake cookies and leftover ham that we pulled out of the fridge. Pork is expensive in this country and a special meat for those that aren’t Muslim. So the ham was thoroughly enjoyed, Especially the fatty pcs!!😌 

I was glad to see Lonnie walk in the door, after going to the pharmacy dokan with some people that showed up at our gate, as Shanto was asking a question that I felt like I could explain with scripture but didn’t feel like it was my place to point these scriptures out to my brother in the faith..

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🤗