Thurs, July 24

 One of those days, where not much was accomplished and when Lonnie got home from his walk by 5:00 we had Farmers cereal with milk or yogurt and it was time to get out of the house. Decided to drive down to the river by Batiaghata. There’s a nice sandy beach where you can watch the boats go by. Lo and behold, Rhidoy and Pinky are there! so we hung out with them😊 watched the cows grazing on the marshy riverside,… Rhidoy said they were going to the Bazaar for some food and we were welcome to come along. At the Bazaar the food they were anticipating was not available so we followed them back to their village where Pinky was dropped off at their lane to fetch the mom and brothers… Shanto was not home from work. We got chatpati, which so far is one of my favorite Bangla street foods, makes me think of American stack ups …the base is a type of lentil that looks like a kernel of corn and depending where you get it is the difference of how soupy or stiff the base is, I prefer soupier .. then it has shredded cucumbers and sometimes onion, cilantro, etc topped with thin crispy tortillas crunched over the top😋. We ordered no spice for the girls, little spice for us, and the cook made one extra spicy for Shotti(cause he knows that’s how she likes it😌) They invited us to their house for tea then. Pinky quickly cleaned off the bed… she’d been making Christmas cards (drawing pictures with colored pens on white card stock, no 2 were the same, Rhidoy says she has a sponsor that sells them for her?) While we were there, Shanto got home from work and town… he’d brought treats for the family-little fried patties made from leftover mutton 🤔😏 and then fabric for a kameeze set for Shotti and Pinky, a new hand towel (which is a 4ft? rectangle pc of thin plaid cotton) which he said we’re not gifts, when I asked him, just his responsibility to provide for his family

Wed. July 23 🚌🏥

 Doyle from Gopalgonj arrived early this morning. He and Lonnie needed to leave the house by 5:45 to get to the bus stop and travel to the eye camp location about 2 hrs Southwest at Paikgachha. They went with the Dristidon hosp. staff on their bus. Stopping halfway for dim and ruti breakfast. When they arrived they went to to get tea but the power was out so tea was not available. They set up in a school in 3 different rooms. The people would see the Dristidon Dr. 1st. If they just needed eye drops they were sent to Lonnie and Doyle’s room. If they needed an operation they were sent to a room where their blood pressure and blood sugar were tested. If they passed for operation, they were given a date for it. 200 were seen, 103 came thru Lonnie and Doyle’s room. Doyle says it was the a nice amount of patients, not too many to make it hectic..

Here at the house we had a relaxing morning. Called and told our maid she didn’t need to come, she was gonna cook today but didn’t think that was necessary with Lonnie gone.

Put a load of laundry in

Made Farmer’s Cereal (Down Home Southern Cookin)

Lunch- Baked potato with taco meat and cheese sauce, mango 

Baked a batch of bread

Lonnie was home shortly before 4:00

Tues. July 22 pork day

 Had Tulshi go pick up pork for us. There were told that if we let them know by Sun. they can get a bigger quantity for us so they just sold us as much boneless, skinless as they could and we ended up needing to wash it quite thoroughly to get all the bone chips, stray pig bristles, etc off then proceeded to grind and make 11 lbs of sausage. Still a luxury we aren’t taking for granted yet😌

Haystack lunch minus a few of the luxury items rarely found on this side of the world😉

Lonnie made sure he had everything rounded up for eye camp tomorrow and went for a walk. Found some men loading logs so exerted himself with them a bit,

I sewed

Mon July 21 🐌

 Cut out a dress

The girls brought the pool down from the roof so they could use well water to fill it that was not heated up from sitting in the tank on the roof.

Lonnie went for a walk and came upon a group of middle school age boys. They wondered where Brock had gone (the previous missionary’s 8/9? yr old) and then wanted Lonnie to come with them. They stopped at their houses and came dashing back out changed from their school uniforms into their swimming trunks. Down to the flooded rice field where they commenced to hunt for snails. Lonnie held the white gunny sacks and on the way home as he was carrying these heavy sacks, he overheard 2 men on the roadside questioning, “Bengali or bideshi?” So he hollers, “bideshi!” And did that ever get a laugh! 😂 tickled their funny bone!

Sun. July 20 🇧🇩 🧑🏽‍🍳👨🏽‍🎓

 Power All day😊😊

Lonnie took Jaira and Annslie with him into Khulna to the bank.

I did some mending

Made rice and La Ha, pulled out leftover chicken, dhal, and cabbage salad, and cut up pineapple and grapes. Harun Brother, who came over from Tala, and Kobid Brother were here for a 1:30 lunch. And then the men discussed help for Harun’s mother’s medical needs. 

After they left, I made shortcake with mangos and ice cream.

Lonnie went for a walk. Bout the time he got back Sunil(our night guard) showed up and wondered if we could come visit at his house.

So we followed him down the road to his house where his daughter in law warmly welcomed us. Sunil’s wife has been gone for 14? Yrs. His son and daughter in law live with him. His 8? Yr old grandson hung out in the bedroom, a bit under the weather coughing. This dau-n -l bakes and decorates cakes professionally and they wanted to feed us so they put a small table with plastic chairs around, aimed the fan at us, and brought out cake and “biscuits”, then Bangla noodles -which are appreciated by all of this family, for sure if they make them jhal kom (less spicy). After a bite to eat I asked to see her kitchen, they have recently added on to it in the last yr. The house has concrete floor but the kitchen is dirt floor. It consisted of a table, a food cabinet, several shelves with kitchen essentials, she even has a blender, hand mixer,etc.! In the added on part was her mud oven and she also has a 2-burner gas stove. I commented on her very tidy and clean kitchen. She says,” I love my kitchen, I love my house, I love my family. I am a housewife and I do it with my heart.”💖 next she took us to her father in laws bedroom (which, he is night guard at our place every night except Fri unless we are out of town) this is where she has her small tabletop oven set up, a fridge, cake decorating supplies.. it is also their prayer room. They are Hindu so, a shrine with a lot of little characters, small white flowers strewn around… it is quite a feeling as we are shown this idol worship.. about this time her husband comes home from work-an electrician in the nearby village of Batiaghata. This lady wanted to show me her room yet. So we sat and visited on her bed. She showed me her s t a c k s of clothes neatly folded. She says she mostly wears maxi dresses? but also the traditional shari’s.. I’m a little confused thinking maybe I misunderstood her cause I’ve never seen her wear a dress, always the traditional garb.?. She does some of her own sewing. She proceeded to show me pictures on her phone of cakes she’s decorated and what the occasion. In the meantime we over heard Sunil in the next room having his evening prayer… blowing a trumpet, ringing a bell… Lonnie was ready to go, it was dark by now. Sunil walked us back out to the road. On the way home, Pim(peem) over took us, he speaks quite fluent English, he’s in class 11, headed to college in a month, majoring in arts and history, he often hangs out with our day guard Tulshi, tries to win Annslie but with no luck so far..

Sat. July 19

 Woke with the grateful thought that we’d had a peaceful night/not disrupted by power outages(where we have to go thru the house turning off A.C.s and water heaters after the generator’s turned on ). Alas, before I crawled out of bed even, the power was out again…. AND was off ALL day!! Something we have not had to deal with yet! It usually comes back on after not too long even if it does go off several times in a day.. so I don’t know what’s going on but it definitely got to the “enduring” stage! With temperature real feel of 103* and we weren’t sure, maybe it feels better outside🤔🥵 We sat down for a bite to eat midday… pickles and mangos😅 and decided when Annslie woke from her nap we’d drive somewhere and keep cool with the van A.C.! And in the meantime had a little conversation about missionaries in the past that didn’t have A.C. Ever!!?! And those that didn’t have it in their houses, etc. we know we’re spoiled…

Jaira and Annslie did go up to the roof and start filling the pool but the water was so warm and the sun shining so hotly that they gave up. 

A very relaxed morning😌😌 .. the only one we don’t have the maid coming or church schedule. 

Waffles, schmogus (homemade vanilla pudding made from the waffle batter), boiled eggs, French press coffee and juice.

Then listened to my sister in law, Sherry’s , almost 12 min message!🤗 how lovely

Gave making mango jam a trial run with some fruit pectin I found in the freezer, it had recipe amounts but no instructions and I’m not familiar with using this exact product… But everybody on the other side of the world was in the middle of their night and the WiFi was down so I gave it a whirl and guess we’ll see.

Lonnie worked at the computer on bookwork till the  WiFi quit also and the phone service was non existent too so he went for a walk.

After Annslie woke we piled into the van and A.C. Drove into Khulna and got some yummy pizza at Domino’s and enjoyed their A.C. for awhile 😋🤗

Stopped at the grocery store for a couple items and made our way back home.

And Hallelujah!!! The power was back on👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Tulshi said it came back on around 6:00.

It took a bit to cool the house back down. 

Fri. July 18 Worship Day & new family arrival 🥳

 Current nay(power out)

Children were at the gate by 8:00 this morning hollering to Lonnie when he went out, “Hello brothuh!”

9:00 S.S. 44 children. The power was still out so just an occasional breeze thru the open window. The young boys in the front row giggled and pointed to the sweat dripping off Lonnie’s elbows as he held the picture cards up and told the story of Naaman.

Back at the house the rickshaw van driver and Bro. Kobid were continued to be consulted with as there was some confusion about whether we were going to go have S.S. in Chakrakali this morning for the 1st time. Lonnie was of the understanding that the folks hosting would let us know which Fri they were ready and he had not heard anything so was not planning/not prepared. They got a hold of the folks and were told there were 10 children waiting. So, they decided to go have a short S.S. yet. Lonnie came in to get the left over pictures, a handful of songbooks, etc. and commented that if they say there’s 10 children, there’ll be 20. Which, he was right.. Jaira and Annslie went with. Maddie and I stayed home to wash dishes and make tortillas in preparation for lunch. 

Chicken taco lunch with grapes that Maddie deseeded for us.

 Put Annslie down for a nap.

Cut up mangos for after church.

The power came on just before we left for 4:00 service! This is unusual for the power to be off so long, especially when it’s not raining!🧐 

We very much enjoyed having Shanto’s family in church with us! A 1st for us, due to some native relationship issues. After the service, we invited all of our local church family to our home for “tea”. Shotti and Pinky helped me in the kitchen with Rhidoy hanging out for help with English/Bangla communication😉 I put popcorn in the microwave, that I’d picked up in Dhaka. They had never seen the likes! and asked questions..

Cut up banana bread and put the prepared mango on the table. 

The 5 men visited in the living room. 

Antoor entertained himself with Annslie 

I ended up at the table next to Espondant who proceeded to give me Bangla history after Shotti received a call from her brother? in Gopalgonj since it was their son’s birthday. These relatives have Asian/Oriental/tribal? ancestry… little hard to exactly get the straights of it, but they mentioned slanted eyes and maybe Korean 😅🙃 Therefore, the history inspiration to explain why these folks were in Bangladesh. 

Shotti washed up the dishes. And everybody left.

I made a mango crisp with the leftover mangos and some ice cream “in a bag”(since I didn’t have any ice cream in my freezer currently).

Thurs. July 17 🥒 pickles

 1st of all we are grateful that our fellow Gopalgonj missionaries returned safely home from their extended travels after Fellowship in Raj. As they neared home the road had trees felled to block traffic as they had come upon political protesting.. they were advised to follow some military personnel who guided them around the 3 km line of stopped buses and trucks, which they did and arrived home only an hour later than expected, safe and sound. Their town was trashed and a curfew put in order thru this evening to get things under control..

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/al-attack-ncp-rally-venue-four-killed-violence-grips-gopalganj-3941136

Here at our Khulna home today,

Tried making a 1/2  batch of dill pickles! Something I’ve been hankering after these last 5 months but missing an important ingredient and just finding the time and then cucumbers.. for sure not huge yellow ones..became unavailable locally here. So while in Dhaka, I picked up a bag of nice 3-7” cucumbers and today used the Mrs Wages mix Mom K had sent. I’m so excited🤗 another thing that has fueled this dill pickle hankering is that jars of small yummy looking pickles are readily available! But their taste is always disappointing! They are called gherkins and would be more down the line of a sweet pickle..

Got some chicken marinating that Lonnie grilled for me. Otherwise he worked on book work all day again. 

And made a 4 loaf batch of banana bread.

After lunch we made a run into Khulna for fruits and veggies. Came home with 13 kg of mangos along with the other produce bought…🥭 It’s mango season in Bangladesh! 🥭 🤗 the varieties today were fagli and and barifor? (haven’t quite wrapped my brain around what they are actually saying🧐)

✨ Our new family on the field (Dhaka replacements) arrive in Dhaka tomorrow evening!

Wed. July 16

 Lonnie got dim and paratha for breakfast and then worked ALL day on book work!

I walked to the corner dokan for mishti kumra(sweet pumpkin) We are in monsoon season so one gets to where they think about an umbrella when they leave the house. This morning looked like I would be ok without. And I was, But, I wasn’t home 5 minutes and there was this tremendous clap of thunder and the heavens let loose a downpour. It came up So fast!.. Tulshi was in the middle of washing the van!.. several power outages through out the day..

Later a milk program patient came by, they are worried this baby has problems and want us to help with taking it to the Dr. It’s 4 or 5 months old, last time Lonnie was thinking it looked malnourished and hoping some milk would help matters. They say this baby just lays and drools, doesn’t hold his head good yet, always crosses its ankles…. I would be concerned too! But we told them we can only help with milk😏

 Dipti cooked lunch today. BUT got the curry Way too spicy 🥵 been brainstorming if I can salvage the leftovers🤔

Couple loads of laundry

Annslie woke from her nap Way prematurely and was quite a terror the rest of the afternoon and evening🤯

“Black eyed” peas and sausage over rice supper with chickpeas for a substitute. Cobbler for dessert😋

Tues. July 15 5 months in BD/Back to Khulna

 Annslie did not sleep well and was awake at 3:00 finally went back to sleep somewhere around 5:00. 

Lonnie started the day by cleaning the rooftop areas as several rain showers came and went.

 I caught a few more zzz’s and then did a little cleaning before I made breakfast. 4 loads of laundry and packing the van. We weren’t able to get out of there til noon!

More pb & j sandwiches made on the road home and otherwise uneventful. This route was a long shot better than the route we took up to Raj!! Although a couple hours more driving time it was by far a more peaceful alternative to the rough/nearly impassable roads!!

We hadn’t gotten very far down the road when Annslie announced to us, “My home back there!” Pointing behind her. And then after we’d been back at our Khulna home a few hours, with the groceries put away.. She came down the stairs and headed for the door saying, “Ready to go” .

“Go where?” I asked.

“Home.”

Me:“Dhaka home?”

A: “Dhaka home.”

It was interesting to see how she quickly reverted back to Pink City schedule… the one morning, after her hair was combed, “Go to Shania’s” which hair combing was usually the last thing that happened on a language class morning before going to Shania’s 😅 And as soon as she would hear Sayed Ali’s horn honking, she was climbing out of her chair saying, “Dumni” she was ready to go to Dumni for cha.

Hot dogs and mango for supper. Lonnie found some chicken franks that just aren’t too bad!

Mon. July 14 🫧🛍️🍽️

 We were not sure when the new washing machine was gonna be delivered but eventually left, with Jared and Brianna saying they would unlock for the delivery men.  

UniMart grocery shopping then took the elevator up to the Chefs Table food court. We got cheese pizza at Domino’s and popcorn chicken from Crisp for the girls, I went to Tabaq coffee for a strawberry freezer and then to an oriental cuisine for a cashew chicken n egg fried rice😋 After lunch we had to stop back by Tabaq for strawberry freezers for the girls and caramel froccino for Lonnie plus get our free brownie from the punch card benefits🤩

Back at the house took care of groceries, the new washing machine had been delivered, installed, and sent thru a trial cycle🤗 Sayed Ali showed up and also Habib. Lonnie offered the old washing machine to Sayed Ali, Habib and Lonnie helped him load it onto his auto rickshaw (in Dhaka, that’s what they call an easy bike) 🛺… Btw he has updated/upgraded his rickshaw since we were here last😊 We offered the very worn pak n play to Habib as him and his wife are expecting their 2nd child. Their 7 yr old son is autistic and they are praying for this child to not be and asked for prayers from us also. We had him come in to show him how to set it up. He was very happy with it.

Brianna came over to see my baby purchases and get some visiting in, Layton played his Uno game with the girls and then it was time for supper. so I made Cajun Chicken Pasta, Brianna ran home for carrots and cucumbers and made ranch dip and cut up mango. We will miss these folks as they have bought their tickets home already for Sep. 29! The replacement family arrives in 4 days🤩

Sunday July 13🫧🚙🛍️

 Our van was scheduled to be picked up to get the mirror replaced so we were at the house.

Put a load of laundry in Brianna’s washer.

 5 hrs later the van was returned, they had also washed and cleaned it inside and out!! Which it was very much in need of after our travels!! So grateful😌 The saying that, “ Nothing’s so bad that something good doesn’t come out of it” came true again.. it did also mean that our Dhaka shopping was postponed. But after Annslie woke from her nap, we were on our way. At Jamuna Park mall we shopped for a new washing machine 1st. Then on to Kid’s Paradise to shop for the new baby, that’s expected to arrive in 3 months😊 Found some lovely things! Baby book, silicone bib and place setting set, couple nice blankets, a 3-6 mo. set of pajamas that was not necessarily cheap but too cute to leave there, priced infant car seats, etc. 

Down to Wholesale Club

https://maps.app.goo.gl/hmW9QRBMypyrxQ9j6?g_st=ipc

That I invariably refer to as Costco🙃

Sat. July 12 to Dhaka

 The men met at 7:00 down in the restaurant for a business mtg. Us ladies and children found our way down at our own pace eventually for some breakfast.

Doyle’s headed north from there to visit in Dinajpur and Jared’s and us went to Michael and Monica’s where Josna and Sumita had spent night and Ripon and Kobid were there also. The men gathered in one bedroom that also had a couch and the ladies gathered in another bedroom Monica and a relative lady were working cutting up stuff for and preparing lunch and then Josna took over the foot knife and cut up guava and mango for everybody to snack on. Annslie was very entertained with an attached henhouse that also housed their 2 wk bottle fed kid and hauled the baby goat around when she got a chance.

Jared’s and us headed for Dhaka at noon, making pb&j sandwiches on the road.

Coming into Dhaka we entered the “crunch”  of traffic! It was truly insane! I don’t know if it was especially bad or if we’d just forgotten how these city folks drive, or what!? But the 1st incident, we ended up getting squashed too close to a banister and folding the driver’s side mirror in. Further down the way as we were inching along in Very Tight traffic there was a moment when Lonnie was not watching the passenger side and an ambulance caught the mirror, popping the mirror and back pcs off!😳 If I could’ve gotten out and picked up the pcs we could’ve maybe reattached them but soon the back tire of the ambulance rolled over the mirror pc, crushing it…

 We got to Dhaka 20 min ahead of Jared’s and they keep the guesthouse key, so we ran over to Herfy’s for some supper. 

As we entered the Pink City gates there was Samuel, the young, good looking guard that always greets us with a smile and a salute 🫡 🙂(we found out that his home town is Khulna!) And then there was a screech of brakes and Sayed Ali had spotted us, following us home where he unlocked the gate for us and helped haul our luggage in.

Made beds, started laundry, settled in.. But alas the washing machine gave us fits and would not spin the clothes out! So after trying different cycles and Lonnie taking it apart to see if there was any obvious, simple fix.. So at quarter til 10:00 we commenced wringing each article from the load by hand and hanging it out to dry.. 

Fri July 11 Fellowship

 9:00 service

Cha (tea break)

Member’s mtg, which lasted til 2:00! So us Mommas took the children to the dining hall for lunch before the meeting was over.

After lunch it was break and the missionary children had a one track mind… getting back in that pool at the hotel… the rain had cleared off and the heat had returned in full power! 

4:30 service that us ladies and children didn’t make it back to as toddler naps were still in progress. But we caught easy bike with cab a bit later. Arriving just as the meeting had dispersed.. 

cha 

Doyle’s took Michael’s back to their home there in Rajshahi.. 13 men, women and children stuffed into that mini van👀 

Shanto’s wanted our family to go with the theirs to experience “colored ruti” that is available in this city. So we all walked thru the narrow allies out to the highway where we caught a couple easy bikes with cabs. The colored ruti is made with lentils and makes me think of a large corn tortilla that has a black hue. We chose beef to eat with it over the other option of goose.. they brought a couple small dishes of dips or thick sauces( I think maybe they call these borta 🤔) everything but the colored ruti was Very Spicy!!! But one of the sauces had a very delicious flavor, it was a nice bright green in color and tasted of cilantro, garlic, hot, etc. 😋 On the extreme spice, it was comforting to see Shanto’s family(native Bengalis )coughing and spluttering over the spiciness😜 but they would eat quite a large ratio of the spicy meat and sauce with the ruti whereas us Americans have learned to eat just a dab of the spicy and therefore we could enjoy the flavors… maybe they enjoyed their experience too!? Anyway the whole outing was quite an experience… the insects during our dining… at one point, a dish of sauce was removed from the table due to a small roach taking up residence, and by the end of the meal, Pinky had a few flying insects in her hair, etc and abruptly got up and left the table! It’s kinda interesting to me that she has grown up with all these creatures but reacts in a very animated way to them like many girls do😅 she told me the other day, when she’d come in contact with a gecko or something that she tried to be brave like Annslie!😂 They get such a kick out of Annslie’s attraction and fearlessness of all the bugs, geckos, frogs, etc. Antoor was trying to entice Annslie with some food item, so he told her, “It’s tik-tikki(gecko) flavored!” 🤣 The other week Pinky had to get a picture of Annslie holding a frog 🐸 🙃

Back at the Fellowship location we joined those that were left and had rice and fish curry, etc . Said Goodbye to those that were headed home and caught a ride back to the hotel with Doyle’s.

Thurs July 10 Fellowship

 A very restful night in the softest beds since leaving America 5 months ago 😌. Down to the free breakfast. Not necessarily what you’d find at an American hotel😉 Here you can have rice for breakfast along with your tortillas, eggs, vegetables(cubed potatoes, carrots, green beans), dhal, chicken curry, cooked oatmeal with milk, little doughnuts( like canned biscuit doughnuts that the children all thought was great!) little slices of cake, white and whole wheat bread for toast with butter and jelly, cold cereal dispensers (cornflakes and choco puffs (another favorite of the the children) with milk and honey, mango juice and artificial orange juice. Something for everybody!

The morning service was scheduled for 9:00.

Singing and more inspirations shared, morning and afternoon cha(tea) breaks with snacks… bananas and “biscuits”(serving size cracker packs) or guava slices and cake slices, etc. Lunch and suppers at the dining Hall varied slightly… rice, curried chicken(a little chicken on the bone) patla(thin) dhal, and vegetables. One meal, we got doy (Bangla yogurt) for dessert😋

Break:

The missionaries took the children back to the hotel for naps and a swim in the rooftop pool 🏊🏻 ✨

Wed. July 9 off to Fellowship 🚙 💨

 We have been looking forward to this annual event hosted by the native members of Bangladesh. This year it is taking place in Rajshahi(Raj, “Rog” for short) this city it a beautiful city, 7 hr drive north of us, known for its cleanliness! We hear that It continues to win the award for the cleanest city in Bangladesh✨

We were able to hit the road by 10 til 7:00. And wow. What. A. Trip. It rained the entire 7 hrs😱 save a rare few minutes when we turned the windshield wipers off. Up thru Jashore, Kaligonj, Jenaidah, H o u r s of RoUgH roads and a few especially treacherous, “hold your breath moments”😳 the worst part was a stretch of brick road that was very much deteriorated, deep ruts filled with water. The only possible way thru was to try to straddle the deep, water filled ruts and hope that we would stay on top! When we’re about halfway across a couple trucks meet us. We end up nose to nose with a truck on the only passable spot!?! It ends up plowing past us. Another spot Lonnie makes a “run for it” at a spot where we ended up straddling a high spot and hoped for the best as the rough points of bricks rattled the underside of the van😳 will everything be ok down there? One place we had to also navigate the bumper of a truck that did not have a good success story and was at a very rakish angle on the side of the road. We waited precariously while a trackhoe that was working on the road, knocking the high spots down with his bucket, got out of our way. And another spot when it was mud and the van lost traction, but regained, and we made it across! As Lonnie said, “ Only by the grace of God!” And then we passed a kilometer? of LOADED trucks waiting for road repair to try to make it across!

Right around noon we crossed the Padma Bridge. An impressive bridge and sight of the Russian Nuclear Plant in the town of Ruppur on the other side! Very amazing to all sudden be seeing other white people, blonde hair and blue eyes! 👀 Here we met up with Doyle’s from Gopalganj for lunch at a Russian cafe. The other diners were all Russian. They looked like people from our home countries and we tried talking to them but English or Bangla only got blank looks from them! It felt so strange that we couldn’t communicate with them! 

After a lunch of pepper steak and potatoes we followed Doyle’s. They knew of a place to go down to the river. We soon attracted the local villagers answering all the usual questions of where we’re from and how many children… the river was impressive tho! It was W I D E and on the other side was India!! Before long the rain started again and even with umbrellas we all got soaked🌧️

Another hour or so found us at our destination, Hotel X

https://maps.app.goo.gl/MyFGHuYBdnSGSieD6?g_st=ipc

This country has not ceased to amaze me how you can step from the depths of 3rd world into a modern atmosphere with all the conveniences🤯😍 I hear that they call themselves a “Developing Country”. We did not complain😉 after getting settled in our rooms. We 3 families met down in the restaurant on the ground floor for a little somethin to tide the children over til the 8:00? supper after the evening mtg. Then a 6 min drive over to Caritas Bhaban where the Fellowship took place over the next couple days

https://maps.app.goo.gl/48oUooF5bBkVwfs19?g_st=ipc

1st time meeting some of the members. Bolai & Elizabeth from Kaligonj… this couple looks to be in their 50s at least.. Elizabeth reminds me of many petite built, neatly “put together”, older Mennonite ladies that we have back on the North American continent😌 glasses, and a shari that always looked very neat and becoming…

Then there was Michael and Monica from there in Rajshahi. They have a converted daughter 20? yr old range that’s studying very hard for a nurses degree. Michael has had a change of heart and is a pleasant person to be around…Would have been quite wealthy in the past, but has had some health issues and is currently still trying to mend from a broken leg that they had to do surgery on, getting around on crutches. He speaks English very well and did a good job organizing this Fellowship😊 They also have a younger teenage or preteen dau. named Annamika. 

We gathered in a mtg hall there on the grounds that 1st evening. Did some singing and listened to a couple brethren share inspirations. Walked over to the dining hall for supper. The dining hall building also had a smaller room with a couch and chairs making it a nice place for a smaller group to visit or the children to play at times. Then everybody headed to their places of rest. The native families stayed in the sleeping quarters on the premises. 

Tues. July 8 🚽 🫧🧽

 Laundry

Endeavored to teach my maid how to clean a bathroom to American specs🫣 

Put some of the final touches to my most recent dress..

When Dipti (maid) arrived this morning, one of the girls commented that “she looks different than normal🤔” and then later Maddie exclaims,”Dipti’s wearing a dress!” (It is the type that can be bought here in this country, we might think of it more like a house dress with a gathered yoke over the blouse and otherwise a loose straight dress)… not the traditional Shari, which is a LONG pc of fabric that they wrap around themselves in a precise manner. Sometime during the morning Dipti tells me “I’m thinking of making a dress that matches the dress code” !?! … I’ve been working on my sewing and she has been observing as I cut out and sew… her comment the other day was something to the effect of  “onek kosto koren” (you go to much trouble)! But it must look doable!?.

Mon. July 7 Pork Sausage

 Lonnie picked up dim n ruti(eggs and tortillas) for breakfast.

Then he went to the clinic with Kobid again to clean.

I baked bread and choc chip cookies

 sausage n potato cass. for lunch.

Rain 🌧️ 

Into Khulna. Bought the last electric grinder at Safe n Save, About $30 USD! It’s not boro (large) size but when we gave it a trial run with 2.5 lbs of lean pork we had no complaints! Guess we’ll see what the long term rating is, but we currently have pork sausage🥳😋 A wonderful thing to have a breakfast meat again after almost 1/2 a yr!

Sun July 6 Gopalgonj

 Doyle’s invited us for the day. We left at 8:00, getting to church just after 9:00. There at Gopalgonj they have church on Sunday.. We finally got to meet Kokhon & Beauty and Ripon that we have heard about for years from Flynn’s😊 Kobid was there also, to translate. Enjoyed having a Sunday service and seeing where our Brothers and Sisters meet in Gopalgonj. On the way to Doyle’s after church we stopped to look thru the gate at the previous mission house where Flynn’s would’ve lived back in the day. It has been too many years since it was occupied and dokans have been built along the road in front of it. So Krystal just told us about the nice place it used to be… she would’ve been there as a youth girl when she taught for missionaries..

The dirt/mud road leading up to Doyle’s was treacherous!! It was smoother than last time but narrower and the pukar(ponds) are just a tire slip away😳

We walked in to that glorious after church smell of meat in the crockpot🤗 we cubed potatoes and misti kumra (sweet pumpkin… comparable taste/ texture to sweet potatoes back home). Then sat down in the living room to visit over cups of coffee as it wasn’t quite 11:00 when we got there after church. 7 yr old Amaryllis made the cucumber salad.

 After lunch Doyle helped Lonnie with end of the(Bengali) year, book work.

By the time we wanted to leave at 5:00, it came a downpour 🌧️  but soon slowed and our hour drive home was uneventful with most of the van load quietly sleeping 😴 

Sat. July 5

 Pancake breakfast

Lonnie replaced a couple more colored lightbulbs.

I put a load of laundry in and finished cutting out a dress and sewed it.

Tulshi worked on the project that Lonnie is having him do.. making the drain brick lined between the driveway and the bricked landscaped area. Annslie loves to watch Tulshi work but can be a little much/very much in his “space”. At one point, I was sitting on the porch keeping an eye on her, trying to make sure she wasn’t too bothersome. As he was bending down working in the ditch, she stood right there beside him, patting his head!😆 I decided it was time to find something else to engage her in..

This evening Lonnie was in the village having tea while I was at the sewing machine. The girls were playing hide and seek in the dark in their bedroom. Annslie was suppose to be finding them, so she walks into their room saying “Make a noise!” So they proceed to sing and make other manner of sounds till she found them. She went out while they hid again. And this time when they hollered that they were ready, she hollers back, “Quiet! Readin!” … she’d found a book to look at😂A person just never knows what a 2 yr old will come up with!?! And this one definitely holds her own with her 2 big sisters!😳🙃

Fri. July 4 Worship Day

Sunday School 9:00 

44 boys and girls today

It started raining, Pouring! Soon after everybody got got there. We tried to sing above the roar of the rain on the metal building, the children belted it out🗣️🧒🏾🧒🏾👧🏾🧒🏾👧🏾🗣️  we sang a few extra songs. Then decided to have them color the picture and see if the rain would let off enough to read the story later. Well, it never did. The children hadn’t brought umbrellas, they asked if we had plastic bags so their pictures wouldn’t get wet. Kobid told them they could wait til the rain let up.. but then fights started breaking out so we decided to play “Mother May I” with them, for some order. (….for lack of other instant inspiration… I’m thinking Bible story charades would be better fitting for the occasion, maybe if we ever have another similar scenario…) We taught about 8 of them at a time while the others waited, lined up along the wall. The last round Lonnie did with the class 7 boy from the classroom he frequents. I had them doing push-ups, backward scissor steps, etc. Some Moms had showed up with umbrellas by this time and the rain had slowed so we told them it was Shesh(finished). And they made their departure. This group of children is a very enjoyable crowd. And a highlight of our week😌

Lunch- Poor man’s steak and gravy over rice, vegetable stir fry, pineapple, birthday cake and icecream.

4:00 service.. a little boy from Sunday School joined us as we left the gate. Just as we were finished setting up for church, the Sunday School boy’s grandmother showed up and a also a couple and another man that were looking for a job. They were not interested in staying for church and soon left since we weren’t offering employment. Kobid, Liton, and the beggar showed up. Just as we were all finding a place to sit, the beggar reached out his hand to Lonnie as if he wanted to shake hands. So Lonnie went over there to shake hands and the beggar fell to his feet hanging onto Lonnie’s legs sobbing and pleading for help with treatment for his pain (back pain). This man has been coming around for years! Missionaries in the past have helped him with treatment costs and offered to help with pain meds but he declines the pain meds, says they’re bad for his health… so he asks most every Friday for monetary help… anyways today he just kept sobbing and hanging onto Lonnie till the native brethren got quite stern with him! Telling him this was not appropriate! He can cry to God! And this place is a place of worship! There are 30,000 people like you that need monetary help with medical treatments! They eventually got him to leave. We ended up putting our chairs in a circle since we were so few and proceeded with our service. The beggar came back and joined our circle mostly composed again. He would cry silently at intervals thru the service. The Sunday school boy left after the 1st 2 songs and then the girl that lives nearby with the 1 month old baby, that used to attend Sun. school as a child, showed up. Her name is Bee-ay? She was saying after church, that she came to her parent’s village to have her baby, but her husband works in Dhaka. And she will be going back to Dhaka in 3 months. She is a very pretty sweet lady…

When we got back to our gate, the pastor from a neighboring church was waiting for us. He uses our gospel literature and that’s what he was here for. The beggar man went on his way and then Kobid, Liton, and this pastor came in for spiced tea and popcorn.

Talked to Mom awhile, Cam showed up at Mom’s while we were visiting, so got to hear from him too😊

Lonnie had gone to have tea in the village.

And so ended our 4th of July… no backyard Bbq, fireworks, or red white and blue… But it was good 😌 

Thurs. July 3 🎂

 Maddie turns 11🥳

Lonnie fried crepes. I whipped up some “cream“ and hung up some rose gold happy birthday “streamers” from the curtain rod of our dining room windows. Then went out to gather a bouquet from the yard for the final touches to the breakfast table✨ and lit the flower shaped candles we’d found in Dhaka.

Dipti made lunch. Pork curry n rice, stir fried green beans and carrots, dhal, and jackfruit.

🌧️ Rain

Made a layered chocolate with choc chips cake and whipped “cream” in between. Choc sauce drizzled over the top…

After Annslie went down for her nap, Lonnie helped Maddie get started with her DIY miniature house kit from Hobby Lobby that we’d promised her we’d help her put together when we got to Khulna…

Then he went to hang out at the classroom again.

A lady with 2 mo baby at the gate. 1st of all she showed us a prescription from the Dr for her baby’s skin problem saying she didn’t have money for the medicine. Then she said she didn’t need the medicine, she needed milk for her baby🧐.. her baby was not hair lip or cleft palette so would not qualify for the milk program(although there has been some exceptions to the rules) this baby also did not look malnutritioned... We told her we could help with medicine. So in the end, Lonnie went with them up the road to the pharmacy dokan to pick up and pay for the meds.

Time to light candles and eat cake n icecream😋🥳

Wed July 2 🍕

 In to Khulna to the bank and for groceries. We also ate lunch at Domino’s! A 1st since we moved down here, the experience did not disappoint🤗 They make good food although their menu is definitely not the same as an American Dominos!! https://maps.app.goo.gl/hnxpsS2cNsZ872Y9A?g_st=ipc  Our favorites are the Margherita and the Veggie Mexicana. Their breadsticks and potato wedges are yummy also!

In the eve, Lonnie went to Shanto’s for tea. Rhidoy had invited last night when they left. But I did not feel up to it, so I stayed home with the girls.

The girls played Carom and then went outside after dark and played 2-square.

We got the exciting news tonight that the legal documents for the Dhaka replacement couple and the 2 teachers was able to be picked up today!!🤗🤗🤗 Hallelujah!! Plus our family’s security clearance👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

When Lonnie got back from Shanto’s, he had a bag of snacks that Pinky and Shotti had been making while he was there. Little fried squares of dough, like what they make Shingaras with, Lonnie couldn’t remember what they called this little crunchy snack but it made us think of the German roll kuchen…just in time for 4th of July😊 (but watermelon season is long past here!🤔…)

After everybody went to bed, I did a little prep to make the coming morning a little special, for somebody special 🎂

Tues. July 1 🚲

 Happy July mahsh (month)🤗

Had such a special surprise this morning! So, earlier this yr. one of the Sisters from our cong. back home. put out a challenge/exercise for whoever wanted to participate…To sit down and write things that we like about each Sister and share it with them! This morning was when I received the list that some from my cong. had taken time to write for me! A Real day brightener, for sure!! An amazing feeling of not being forgotten about all the way over here on the other side of the world💝

Cut out a dress and sewed it today. While I was cutting it out and later while I was sewing, Annslie commented several times,”Grandma Frase”. I gathered that the fabric made her think of Grandma💕

In the eve. Rhidoy and Pinky came over again. This time to play Carom(Bengali style). The house here has a board but we didn’t have enough playing pcs, So Rhidoy brought his. And then we didn’t have a stand to put the board on so Rhidoy had the idea to set it up on our wooden dining room chairs which worked very well. We played a couple games and ate popcorn then went out to the shed where we have a bike we’re not currently using. They wanted to borrow it for the next 3 months while him and Pinky take sewing classes in Khulna. It’s 5 days a week and his dad uses the family motorbike to go to his job.