Sat. 5th Tala outpost

 Left the house at 8:00. Stopped for dim and ruti(scrambled eggs with or without peppers and onions, fry bread, with dhal(lentils) to dip it in) then a 2 hr drive with roads that were not too great, actually quite similar to this other route we accidentally took coming down to Khulna! Always sights to see all along the route, traveling in Bangladesh is not boring! We got to see some pretty neat boats and it’s always of interest to see what all the little shops along the way have going on. It’s better, as passengers, to focus on roadside activity rather than the driver’s job of passing slow moving rickshaws while making sure to be out of the way of oncoming buses kareening our way..!..

As we pulled up to our Brother Aaron and Sister Joy-?-?-‘s place(in a cloud of dust), on the right side of the road was rice fields as far as the eye could see, with a tree row on a far distant horizon. Running along side the road was a canal. A slight breeze kept it from being still and the sun shone hotly… took us back to California days..

We walked down a narrow footpath from the road both sides of the path dropping steeply down to water. The 1st outbuilding we came to was the outhouse, right next to the path. I’m afraid you’re getting the wrong picture of an outhouse in your mind’s eye so let’s do a quick picture! (.. because I’d never had the like be my only bathroom facility before either!).. so, head height walls being made up of an assortment of boards, etc. (Don’t think precision anywhere in this picture) so definitely light of day between the boards, the door only met at the bottom corner and angled back leaving it maybe a foot and a half away at the top. Inside a bucket of water and a squat pot with a roof over the pot area, low enough that an adult could not stand up under the roof. Anyway a person appreciated a “potty guard”.

Next outbuilding was the church house where normally we’d have Sun school, lunch, then church. Today we opted not to bring our interpreter along since we were already riding with Doyle’s making it 11 in the 8 seat minivan. So we visited then were served rice, thinly slivered spicy potatoes and dhal. This taking place on mats on the dirt floor. Aaron’s mother lives with their family there also and their 16? yr old daughter was around too. Their older and younger boy weren’t currently home.

So after a short service of singing together and a scripture and thoughts shared by bro. Aaron we loaded back up and headed back the way we’d come.

We went into Khulna later that evening for supper at the hotel. Ordering naan, Chinese style meat dishes and fried rice. The children played in the play area while we waited for the food to be prepared.(love these play areas!)