Thurs April 3 off to Khulna

 We were shooting to leave by 8:30 but it was 9:20 before we pulled away..

Our GPS said 5+hrs and that should’ve been red flag enough since it should? only be a 4 hr. drive.. anyway when we made an advised turn it gave us huge question marks! After scrutinizing Google maps it appeared like shortly north of Gopalgonj we had been sent on a more westerly route🤦🏼‍♀️ and by the time that we consulted the map it seemed like better time sense to continue than to back track… so we headed on down roads where no other autos were driving… just motorbikes, rickshaws, .. the road narrowed to not much more than the width of our van and just wasn’t a road you could make time on.. we groaned at the thought of 2 hrs of this but then endeavored to bolster our courage with “just look at all the scenery we would’ve missed out on and we maybe would’ve never seen this part of BD otherwise!?”

The road got better and then quite a bit worse for a stretch and in the end it wasn’t a whole 2 hrs of “out in the boonies”

We finally did arrive, making the whole trip without ever stopping👍🏼

Doyle and Krystal and 4 littles from Gopalgonj (1 1/2 hr driving distance) had arrived the night before.

We ate a pb n j to tide us over till supper time since we hadn’t had lunch but was 2:30 already.

It happens to be Doyle’s Rafael’s 5th birthday today so we went to Dominos for pizza. The Best pizza we’ve bought in BD yet!🤩

They showed us the shopping center there in Khulna and we went to the grocery store Safe & Save. Bangladesh does not cease to amaze me. We drive up amongst the most 3rd world conditions and step into a grocery store with 4 levels complete with elevator! That would be the day I frequented a 4 level grocery store back in America! But, for clarification, that is not 4 levels of groceries! And certainly does not have everything that I would be used to cooking with!!! The 2nd level is household and small appliances, 3rd floor is shoes, clothing, 4th floor is not air conditioned-inventory-but most importantly… restroom!

Back at the house we had cake and icecream in honor of Raf turning 5. The cake had been made and decorated by our night guard’s daughter in law Sumitha(sp?) beautifully done in Bengali fashion🫶🏼 made right here in our village! Truly impressive what can come forth from the a 3rd world village.