Sun Sep 6

 Dipti didn’t come in till 11:30 She has her daughter in law’s family at her house as the mother and father have still been so sick with this Dengue. And there was quite a downpour this morning. Seems like the rain that we’ve been getting the last couple days has been arriving in torrential rain, thunder and lightning.

 Shanto and Lonnie took the Church hymnals in to Khulna City to get the covers redone. Lonnie picked up his shirt from the tailor

7:00 at Shanto’s for lucchi. A small tortilla/fry bread type with a sprinkling of black cumin seed in them. Eaten with lentils that had small chicken pcs(with tiny bones😉) in it. And a dessert “bar” made of rice and oat powder that tasted a lot like cream of wheat. Pinky’s sister and baby girl(that’s just 9 days older than Gentry) and mom were there also.

Sat. Sep 5

 After a pancake breakfast

I got a load of laundry thru and hung out on the roof and another one in only to have the power leave after I got it started.

Lonnie got the kitchen fan down for Tulshi to wash and other miscellaneous jobs

The girls got the kitchen cleaned up. Maddie straightened the bookshelf. Jaira took a turn with the Bud outside,…

Round 1:30 we headed in to Khulna. 

I didn’t have a grocery list to speak of so we did fun shopping 🤩 To MiniSo where Lonnie shopped for the perfect sizes of desk organizers and the girls and I shopped gifts. To Artisan for new jammies for Maddie and leggings for the girls for winter and riding bike. Then to Grand Placid for lunch, which takes awhile.. But it’s a relaxed atmosphere with a play area on the other end to entertain the littles while we wait for our food. Shwapnos on the way home yet for a few groceries. Miss Christina and the girls all came in and we enjoyed shopping the toy aisle😁 

Back at home to take care of the laundry and have a relaxed evening

Fri Sep 4 HB to our man, Lonnie Delane🤎

 Miss Christina made biscuits, sausage gravy, and boiled eggs for breakfast 😍. I set the table with extra care, pulling out the fall scented candle from Laura that had been sent in my birthday box earlier this year✨ The girls did a really good job on the cards they made him🥰

A nice little crowd of about 15 children at Choygoria. We are hearing of another S.S. taking place at the same time on Fri. at a nearby location.. Kobid mentioned Chinese, Japanese, and Hill Tract people maybe are the ones conducting.?.. And our rickshaw van driver, Nee-tie, let us know there would be no S.S. at Chakrakhali.. the family is on vacation in Cox’s Bazar. At the end of S.S. Kobid led the children in 🎶“Happy Birthday to Brother Lonnie”🎶 and Lonnie handed out meeshti balls.

Back at the house, Lonnie caught rickshaw van to Neeconjo to treat his (mostly Muslim)friends there, with meeshti balls. He reports that they were ready for a party and one heads off to buy Sprite, another starts inviting the passersby in… Lonnie finally had to ask him.. are these “your friends or my friends?” as he had only bought about 60 originally. 

Beef tenderloin from Dhaka to make our own filet mignon… Lonnie had to grill his own birthday steak…lettuce salad and baked potato for sides, flan for dessert (his choice). At 3:00 Lonnie caught rickshaw van to Chakrakhali for more meeshti balls. 

4:00 service… Pastor James came again and also to our place with everybody after church. Bro Liton had been informed on his rickshaw van ride to church they(the van drivers) had already been treated to mishti balls for Lonnie’s birthday! Kobid laughingly translated for the rest of us later that Liton confessed that it was hurtful to have the van driver tell him that he’d had meeshti ball already from his(Liton’s) very own “Brother” before he(Liton) knew anything about it😅🙃 

Sweet tea, popcorn, apples, and oranges, were served with the meeshti balls and we enjoyed an evening of conversation and discussion.

After they all left, Lonnie went down the road the other direction to treat his mostly Hindu friends. He was a bit more strategic about it tonight after his learning experience this morning.🙃

Thurs Sep 3

Lonnie took Annslie and walked to Neeconjo for eggs. I mixed up flan in preparation for a special day tomorrow. 

Baked chicken fingers, Mac n cheese, and baked beans for lunch

 A downpour came thru this afternoon dropping the temp beautifully! When we left at 4:15 for Lewis’s 5:00 Doctrine class, the van thermometer showed 26* C(78.8*F.)! We haven’t seen that all summer! The traffic at Gollamari bridge was quite backed up (it’s a real bottleneck there but they have made good progress on the big new bridge.. it’s a point of observation and comment every week when we go drove by) so we were 10 min late. Shortly after we arrived, the power left. So we were reading the lesson and scripture references by flashlight, just like last week. Purnima served us crunchy green amra wedges seasoned most delectably with lemon juice, salt, a bit of sugar, and a touch of hot pepper🤤

The days are shortening noticeably, It was already dark at 6:30 when we were driving back thru the city! We stopped for a few kg of meeshti balls for a special treat for our S.S. students and Lonnie’s friends tomorrow. Then picked up a little snack of pudi… a little round, crispy, flaky, fried street food with just a sprinkle of yumminess inside. Another stop by the fruit and veggie market. The girls ate all the mandarins while they were waiting for us in the van so we stopped again at another fruit and veggie market and bought more along with bananas we’d forgotten to get at the last stop.

Wed. Sep. 2

 Lonnie did more book work with answering Tulshi’s door bell calls in between… patients at the gate, etc

I cut out a dress

Dipti made a fabulous Bangla meal for us of fried pongas fish, rice, lentils, and vegetable stir fry🤤

In the afternoon, Lonnie spent more time at the computer and I got my dress all “serged”(zigzag stitch) and the blouse put together only to find out I’d cut my 2 pc sleeve out with one half being the wrong side! And not big enough fabric scraps to cut another one out😩 hopefully I can find the fabric again at Boro Bazaar🤞🏼

Tues Sep. 1

 And September is here! 

A rainy day

Tulshi went for meat for us.. 2 pongas fish, 3 chickens, and whatever pork he could get a hold of. 

Lonnie discovered additional, outside activity when he opened the book work on the computer, so spent a few hours digging into that with his fellow missionaries and they were able to sign out a “foreign” party.

And the rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning fish, washing meat, and cutting the chickens up for the freezer with enough time to go to the nearby dokan for time with the locals. And back in time for supper made by Miss Christina

My day was laundry, getting the online H&H printed for easier read by everybody, mending, tidying, taking care of littles, putting meals on the table, doing a timed word search with Maddie after supper,..

Mon Aug 31

 Made a batch of bread with a couple loaves being cinn swirl.

Chicken taco lunch

Had good singing with the girls after Jaira’s music class.

 Lonnie donned his work clothes and spent a good share of the day at the neighboring dokan repairing our grill lid “that was used too much when it was new“..The dokander had seen Lonnie’s knife sharpening system and had some knives that could use it so Lonnie told him he’d pay for his repair job by sharpening the knives😉

Maddie and I got the calligraphy books out after supper and had fun doodling and practicing