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.

Fri. Jan. 30 - Thurs Feb. 5

 What a lovely week😌

Daryl’s wife Brenda kicked right in and took the load of not having my maid coming🫶🏼 (With all the Hindu traditions following a death in the family).. Tues. she showed up tho ☺️ what a welcome sight!!

Our week was full,

Fri. morning Daryl’s got to experience our 2 Sun. Schools 

2:00 a scheduled visit

4:00 church service

Another scheduled visit after church

                             •Saturday •

A trip to Tala to visit Bro Harun and Sis. Joyanti and their 17 yr old dau. Mukta. Bro Kobid went along to interpret when needed. The van was full so the girls and Miss Christina stayed home and had school, also knowing they’d probably want to take a day off yet this week to do something while Daryl’s were with us.

After we got back home we went up to Bissho Rd for chatpoti, fuska, and Brenda introduced us to fallada… an icecream dessert drink would maybe be a good description? A glass of large tapioca (maybe not exactly but something similar) with strawberry ice cream and little bits of dried fruit and nuts sprinkled on top😋 we were impressed!

                                  •Sunday•

Another scheduled visit at 5:00 pm, on the roof. . . Where most of the visits have been taking place with the beautiful weather we’ve been having and a place that offers privacy from the rest of the household, with sunshine as a benefit🌞 

Daryl and Brenda and Lonnie went to Shanto’s for a visit, the rest of the evening.

                                •Monday •

  We spent the evening at our favorite beach by the river.. playing in the sand. 

  Batiaghata Bazaar for street food and to meander thru and see what the market had to offer.

                                 •Tuesday•

No school today, Boro Bazaar, Dominos, Top Ten fabric, and then we stopped for Byriani yet before going home. We’re still parking a little ways from the house, where they’re putting in a new bridge but ran into trouble. Catching rickshaw van and easy bike the last stretch of the way with all our purchases and tired littles and it’s still just a bit chilly on a ride like that in the night air…

Tulshi hadn’t showed up as his health took a turn for the worse after not feeling well for a few days. He ended up in the hosp. for IV fluids after getting dehydrated from too much vomiting🤕

                                •Wednesday •

Tulshi is still on sick leave

Brian’s came down from Dhaka bringing Sister Josna (Sumita was away at a family wedding). This was their 1st trip,(I believe) in their “new” van. It’s another Toyota Noah, dark teal, with side doors that slide like a dream at the touch of a button✨, A.C. vents inside that are still intact😅, and no scratches or dings to speak of💫

Dipti cooked dim (egg)curry and the works for us. Brenda wanted to learn how to make fried cauliflower like she’d just had in Rajshahi at Michael n Monica’s. So her and Dipti made some. It was good, but she said it wasn’t quite like Monica’s.

 Doyle’s also arrived from Gopalgonj bringing Ripon for a 4:00 member’s mtg. Bro Lewis and his wife Purnima, shared how the Lord has been working in their lives. We’re looking forward to starting doctrine classes with them 😌

Brenda stayed home with the children and us 3 momma’s all exited the service before it was over due to the littles we had with us. We pulled out leftover rice and dhal for the children and mommas

After the meeting, everybody came in for spiced cha and strawberry shortcake with ice cream. Badminton was played by a couple men, the teachers, and Josna😊

                              • Thursday •

The rest of the strawberry shortcake and sausage patties for breakfast and Daryl’s loaded up with Brian’s and Josna, back to Dhaka. 

On the detour for the bridge repair. They knocked out more brick wall out so we can go around the project, on the little road they built up for a detour again!🤗🤗🤗🤗 And park the van at the house again!…It just simplifies leaving the house so much!

Thurs Jan 29 cremation and field secretary’s arrival

Tulshi let us know that Dipti’s father died last night around 6:30 and that she wouldn’t be back to work for 13 days! He also told us, today would be a good day for us to go be with Dipti. So Lonnie and I and the littles got on a rickshaw van, with Tulshi giving instructions to the driver. We Thought we were headed to Dipti’s Father’s home but the driver turned down a different road and we just hoped he was taking us to Dipti and decided he must know a different route!? But we soon saw the smoke rising and as we rounded a huge haystack we could see a small crowd, maybe 50,…the cremation grounds. The fire was crackling, Dipti met us and said, “shesh” (it’s finished). She led us to a small pavilion giving the low concrete wall a quick dusting with her hand and we sat with the family a bit. Dipti and her 3 sisters stood in a tight semicircle for us when I asked about her siblings. That was neat to see those 4 grown girls standing next to each other. Their brother was there also. We visited what we could in our limited Bangla while 2 men with long poles tended the fire. Gentry was passed around among the ladies and Annslie was glaring and swatting at each person that tried to pinch her cheek or get her to come to them 😏 When we left, Lonnie slipped some Taka 💴 to Dipti and she helped push our rickshaw van out over the rough path. It made me glad we don’t have to just watch our loved one’s body burn after their life is over💔 

The girls were just heating leftovers up for lunch when we got home.. Lonnie was leaving at 3:00 to go get Daryl’s from Gopalgonj and I was severely missing my maid😳 I had to wash up the dishes, make sure the floors got swept at least, clean the girls’ room for our guests, get laundry hung out on the roof, make supper, plus look after the toddler and baby in just a matter of a few hours🤯 thankfully after school was out the girls and Miss Christina came to my rescue