We decided we would just sleep in even if the maid would be showing up. We enjoyed a leisure morning with brunch closer to noon.
Syed Ali washed the van and took Lonnie out for tea
At 4:00, Lonnie and Brian went to meet up and visit with Shurov where he takes a walk everyday.
Later on, the children and I walked out the Pink City gate to get eggs and onions.. chatting with Samuel, one of the guards we know… his baby girl is 4 months old and they have named her now, “Shotti”👶🏽🎀
Our church service was scheduled for 11:00 to give the men a little extra time to rest.
The 3 single brethren had spent night at guesthouse here with us
So I got to make breakfast for them 😊… breakfast burritos, fruit platter, and coffee. We heard for the 2nd time now about how Bangalis do not eat pineapple and milk together as one of the men had put milk in his coffee, so he wouldn’t be able to eat any pineapple… It will make you sick!…Our forefathers have told us. He did end up having some pineapple saying he would report back to me! And I’m thinking, this may not be a fair trial as these men have just been on a grueling journey and are probably not feeling 100% anyway!!
We did tell them about other parts of the world where Piña coladas are a specialty drink and do not have ill effects…
My little dream/wish/hope came true!!!… Shanto and Espondant came up from Rhidoy’s (Rhidoy and Pinky had to work) and the 3 single brethren all stayed for the church service at the clinic! Special 🫶🏼 Shanto had the opening and Ripon had the message.
Brian and Liton made a run to get pizza and Kaylee and I and some of the children walked down to a dhokan for Cokes, cucumbers, and limes. Sumita helped me make sliced cucumber with lime juice and salt.
After lunch, Brian’s took the 3 single brethren to the bus stop and we took Shanto and Espondant to Rhidoy’s apartment bout a 1/2 from Pink City. They live in a Muslim area with a mosque and courtyard right there. Espondant tried to explain that these are a little different branch of Muslims and today was one of their holidays. We came in right past a large water buffalo bull that was tied up with a rope strung thru his nostrils.
Rhidoy’s have a room on the 4th floor that has a t.i.n.y. Kitchen area and a wash room. They have 2 windows to the outside and a ceiling fan.
The eve. turned into an endurance test for me as our family has all been taking turns with a cold virus. Shanto’s family had been having it last week and now it’s our turn… as the evening progressed my throat got more painful till it hurt to even try to talk.. the apartment also continued to get hotter as Pinky worked on making us a full course meal. We did go up to the rooftop several times where there was a nice breeze😌 and the landlady brought us another fan. We had Gentry in only his diaper…
The landlady brought up a bowl of fresh😉 water Buffalo kichuri(rice and lentil mix) from the celebration below in the courtyard. The chunk of meat was very similar to beef roast, nothing bad about it! Except the spiciness of it burned like fire on my sore throat😩 When Shanto asked if I was not feeling well, I told him about my sore throat. He went to his backpack and scrounged up a tiny mauve colored paper bag with clove buds and told me to chew a couple of those! I must not have swallowed soon enough because they just ended up numbing my tongue instead of my throat😏 anyway they said you can make a tea out of clove also or add it to my hot honey lemon water that I’d told them I’d been making at the house..
4 of Rhidoy and Pinky’s colleagues showed up for supper also. They were all single boys about Rhidoy’s age, 26-ish, that worked at the same place. Pinky cut up some huge mangos yet for the last course of supper. The 4 friends took their leave. Leo, Pinky’s cat, was retrieved from the sitter where he had stayed while their apartment was full of guests. Annslie was ecstatic to see Leo, sadly Leo did not share her enthusiasm.. we soon took our leave also. Coming down those rough concrete steps looking out into the night thru arched windows of the stairway, made it feel like I was in Bible times.. the sky was starry, the Muslim mosque and courtyard below, …
As we drove back out the very narrow alley…Courtyard to the right, dingy concrete apartment buildings to the left, we drove thru a lighted arbor tunnel✨
8:00 in the morning found some of us bagging up the supplies and some going to a nearby dokan for dim and ruti. We spent a busy morning bagging up rice, lentils, and potatoes. Once again, we put everything in the bags and got it ready to hand out. We were done at exactly 10:00. But alas the people were not there. By 11:00 most were present. The pastor’s helper had every sit in the church and we had a few words and a prayer. They had handed out tokens to all the participants. It made it very simple to know who was to receive a bag. By calling their names to receive their bag, it was well organized. In thirty minutes we were ready to head for home. It seemed that the Lord had lead us to each of the three places where we had went and showed God’s love.
Here in Dhaka, I made tortillas, loaf bread, and got a couple loads of laundry thru.
Kaylee and the teachers came over for a tacos, rice and beans, and fruit platter supper, as we spent the last evening waiting for the men’s return.
The men got in at 1:00 am
Up at 8:00 to find breakfast and look up contacts that Ripon had made. After many false starts we were able to find a man to take us into a small community that was effected greatly by the much rain and flooding. Many of the homes were made of mud dug from ponds in the area. The walls were 16-18 inches thick but after being soaked by constant rains the foundations started softening, this caused the walls to settle and collapse. Some homes were a wall here and there and some the whole house was destroyed. We made contact with thirty people in that village. We told our contact man to have them all meet us at a certain time. We went to the market and bought rice, lentils, potatoes, and salt to add to our biscuits, vitamins, saline, oil, and tracts. While the supplies were being packaged for us, we went and got a bite to eat. We came back and put the supplies in their separate bags to hand out.
We met at the time appointed and handed out the bags to the people we had made contact with. It was getting on in the afternoon by the time we finished our project. Now what? Head for home or do some searching? With out a contact to point us in the right direction we would need a whole day just to go around and check the different villages in the flood effected areas. Ripon had an area he wanted to go check but no contact. He had been in contact with a Baptist pastor earlier in the day but was not able to meet him. Taking that as an idea, a Baptist church was called in the affected area that Ripon was interested in checking. The pastor answered the phone right away and spoke English very well. He readily agreed to have us come and meet with him at his church.
Another hour and a half of normal Bangladesh travel we found the church. We could see that this was an area that definitely had seen some water!! The road leading into the church had a couple of spots that were nearly not passable. As we got within five minutes of the church we could see people walking out towards us with bags of supplies. We found out that it was the last of fifty people that received supplies provided by the church to which we were going.
We weren’t sure about the road leading in, so we parked and walked the last little way.
We were once again warmly welcomed by the pastor and his accomplices. That’s when we found out about their relief packages. The pastor shared with us about only being able to help fifty families, when the need was so vast. He told us they had been praying about it that morning. We asked him if it was possible to get another seventy-five families together that needed help. He assured us that he could. We told him we would get the supplies around if he would arrange to have the people there by 10:00 the next morning. He agreed. Then we discussed night lodging. We asked him if there was anything in the area. He said no unless we were open to sleeping on the floor in the church where we were having our meeting. We readily accepted, not looking forward to the long drive back to the place we slept the night before.
At that point we headed out to start buying supplies and get some supper. We had the supplies delivered in bulk to the school room near the church.
After supper we made our way back to the church and bedded down on the church floor.
Back in Dhaka that day.. us ladies and children made the brave and independent 20 min drive thru the city to the clinic where Sister Sumita had made us a yummy Bangla lunch.(Josna was not back from her visit to her village home) Then we sat around the table and sang for a half hour or so. On the way home, we stopped by Cinnabon/Carvel for cinn rolls and ice creams.
The men were scheduled to leave at 5:00
The rest of the household slept in. Keeping the curtains drawn and the door locked so Syed Ali didn’t come in before we were ready for the day. He swept the yard, etc and left.
In the evening, Kaylee n boys and teachers walked over and wondered if we wanted to go to Herfy’s with them. The men have Brian’s van so we would be taking ours.. So…. I braved Bangladesh driving for the 1st time in my life and the 1st time going beyond the house behind the wheel since we left America 1 1/2 yrs ago😳
After spicy chicken wraps, chicken nuggets, fries, fruit fizz drinks and ice cream at Herfy’s, we stopped by Apon to do a little shopping.
We made it safely back home! Amazing.
Flooding in the Chattogram district, CDR destination, Google maps location….https://maps.app.goo.gl/xksLZmkjUvyQv3sr5?g_st=ic
Lonnie wrote up a report of their CDR trip:
Santo, Ripon, Kabir, Liton, Spondon, Brian and myself, left shortly after 5:00 am from Pink City. Traveled a few hours and stopped for dim and ruti.
Ripon had a contact, so we scheduled to meet a man in Amirabad. But because of rain he did not meet us but told us where to turn. We traveled down an old brick road. The bricks were past recognition it was more pot hole than not. The holes sizing from 2’ to 10’ across luckily were not too deep. Because the van was loaded with supplies and men it bottomed out at regular intervals. After traveling down this road for almost an hour we met the man and he continued to lead us ever deeper into the hill country.
The road we traveled had an uphill slope to it. It started getting narrower as well. Somewhere, as we traveled, the road became a narrow paved road. The road became very hilly and curvy. The trees were not big, but many, and the understory was thick. We could see different places where someone had cleared large areas. As we neared our destination there were places we could see where the run off had cut large ditches beside the road and a couple of points it had run over the road. At these places the road was almost impassable. With some speed we were able to make it over each of the three points. We made a turn and the road was a nice but narrow brick road. There were a couple of box culverts that stuck up high enough to cause an issue. One we actually got high centered on. The men got out and pushed the van over. The bricks were slippery with slime from the tropical environment. There were a couple of hills that some of the natives got out and walked. They were afraid we wouldn’t make it. It was a little bit like driving on an icy hill. But we made it to within an hours walk of the village. The man we were following, said the road was not passable even with a motorcycle, so we parked and walked from there. It was a slick brick road for a few minutes then changed to a clay trail. It was steep and slippery, it was raining off and on as we walked. It was finally not worth trying to keep the flip flops on. A couple more natives joined us as we walked. As we would top a hill that had been cleared we could look out over the valleys and it was absolutely gorgeous!! The deep green of the bush and the dark sky made a beautiful view. We could look down on the man’s village. It was still a ten minute walk down to the village.
We had a warm welcome by about ten villagers. As we came into their fenced compound and were invited to wash our feet at the village water tank. It was a debate whether or not we went inside a small community house or sat on the porch. We sat on the porch and then decided to go look around the village at flood damage. The water had come up very fast and washed through their community compound. It washed a lot of their fish out of the main pond in the village. It also carried away six cows and covered their new rice plants for three days. We went to the public meeting house and told them we appreciated their hospitality and ready welcome and that we had a gift for them back at the van, if they would send four men to carry it back.
It was growing dark and we had to traverse the slippery clay road back the walk we had come early. It was uneventful except for a few backward glances at the beautiful scenery. As we walked we were told that we were the first foreigners to walk back to this valley. It was quite a feeling to experience what some of the pioneers must experienced! We got back to the van shortly after nightfall and immediately loaded the native villagers down with some oil, powdered milk, and some biscuits.
Now we faced the challenge of retracing our tracks but this time in the dark. Once again with some speed, finesse, and prayer the road was overcome. We only made one wrong turn and after conferring with a native was pointed in the right direction. The road didn’t seem as long without some of the weight in the back of the van. We were able to make a lot better time going back.
We made it back to the main road but had to make the decision on where to spend the night. We checked a few hotels but they didn’t meet our requirements. We finally found one an hour and a half away.
After eating a late supper and bedding down, it was 1:00am. Needless to say we were ready to drop.
Babysat a feverish Bud 👶🏼 thru the night and all day … We did discover the 3rd tooth on the bottom has come thru making a total of 7 currently! 9 months today.
After breakfast and van loaded, we were about 15 min late to our appointed time of 7:30 at Bisho road to pick up Kobid. And on to do Doyles’s clinic day in Gopalgonj. (They are still on furlough back in Canada) The girls and I stayed thru the 1st several patients so they could see what goes on there then we walked to Doyle’s house. Talked to the chickens and swung Annslie while their day guard, John, toted Gentry all over. When their maid Shima arrived and unlocked the door we went in where Annslie found the toys. The bookcase caught the rest of our attentions… keeping us entertained the rest of the morning.
A quick stop for a late biryani lunch before leaving Gopalgonj
On to Dhaka which was uneventful😌
Coming in to Dhaka, Kobid started talking about how terrible Dhaka is. He lived here years ago, or in the outskirts and worked in Dhaka.???.. anyways, he could not appreciate the city life, only seeing skyscrapers and smog, etc…“If I had to live here, I would die! I’ve got to be able to see the sky, and rivers, and green,…”
This is his 1st time coming to Dhaka since the mission and guesthouse have been moved to the gated community of Pink City.
It was a different tune he sang, when we pulled up to Pink City… “Unimaginable! This is like Batiaghata(an area in the country near us in Khulna) Unimaginable.”
We dropped a little girl that had been needing the bathroom for quite a stretch already off at Brian’s and went to the guesthouse to unload the van and make beds. Kaylee, Bless her, invited everybody to have supper at their place💛 The men all gathered for a meeting to discuss the shopping list for their upcoming “CDR” trip. Right after supper, they all went to the market to buy the supplies.
Shanto and his 15 yr old Espondant stayed at Brian’s for the night and the the 3 single brethren, Kobid, Liton, and Ripon, spent the night with us at the guesthouse. We had 2 rooms ready for them, but they opted to all stay in the one little room with 2 beds
Shanto’s have been wanting to exchange meals at each other’s houses, so they invited us for an 8:00 breakfast this morning. A very delicious and filling meal. Paratha(fry bread), eggs (whisked with or without hot peppers and onions) and fried individually in a wok of oil, dhal (lentils), and a shobji mix of potatoes diced small and borboti (green beans). We gifted a platter of fruit for the occasion and then it was topped off with dudh cha!
We didn’t even need lunch😅
Lonnie made a trip into town, taking our rocking chair in for a repair, since it would still be under a 1 yr warranty.
Couple loads of laundry
Dipti came in late, noon, because her new daughter in law’s parents and brother were visiting her
When she was leaving, she told me about the Chakrakhali Sun school boy’s(that has the liver problem that CSI helped earlier this year) father has died!
In the eve, we went back to Khulna to pick the rocking chair up, supper at Mambo’s, picked up just a few items at Safe N Save and Day-7, and then fruit at the market.
Back home, we packed for our trip into Dhaka tomorrow, I got several mending and alterations taken care of, and the big girls Really helped with getting a few hot spots back into organization.
