Thurs. Aug.14 🧵🌮 🍉

 Worked on zigzagging the edges of the pcs for the last dress I cut out and also a dress I’ve been wearing that I’d just used pinking shears on and was fraying pretty bad. But the machine started giving me fits😤 Had Lonnie oil it. It sounds much better now but still giving me fits! So, worked on ironing the pcs of fabric we bought yesterday..

Chicken tacos and watermelon 🍉 some tiny watermelons are in season/available now.. so yummy to have again! Nothing says “summer” like cold, sweet, red watermelon🤗

Fri. Aug. 15 Worship Day

 A nice sunny day for a change ☀️ So no question about whether S.S. or not.

Choygaria S.S. here at our church building was 1/2 the amount of children as what’s been normal. Kobid says that’s normal after a skipped week to have less attendance the next week. There were Several new faces in the 20 that were there! I stayed home while the others went on to the next S.S. at Chakrakhali. Don’t feel up to the rickshaw van rides these days…🤔

Got the chicken n potatoes in the oven, picked a flower bouquet from the yard, and put a few extra touches to the table. This is our last Fri. before our teacher arrives and joins our family! Just 5 more days🤗

4:00 service. We got the building swept, chairs set up, lights and fans turned on… Lonnie said, if nobody shows up, we’ll leave in 6 min…4:30. But! The 3 single brethren and the local beggar man did show up then and we had a nice little service. Bro Samir having the opening on “thirsting for the Living water” John 4:10-11 and Lonnie gave some teaching on Matthew 5: 21-22 You are welcomed to join us in prayer for these souls over here.. the devil is just as ruthless on this side of the world. He tempts with jealousy and peer pressure and blinds with pride, causing real rifts in relationships 😏🙏

After the service we took a walk out to the levee. Stopped for cha on our way back. The lady picked us some tiny green persimmons 😝 Annslie enjoyed gnawing on them😅 

Then at the last tea dokan before our place, I stepped inside to say “Hi” to the Mom n Grandma of the chubbiest!! little 3 mo. old baby boy..

Was wonderful to get back home to the A.C.!! 🥵

Wed Aug. 13🧑🏾😊

 To Boro Bazar for more fabric, a couple pcs for each of us. Would like to get a 1st day of school dress sewn for the girls yet.  “warm” lightbulbs and Jaira and I found some string lights also (can’t beat the prices.. comparable to $1 and $2 USD!!),

On Lonnie’s afternoon walk a few S.S. boys followed him a bit. One in particular asked, “Do you have money?”. He soon left them behind. On his way back by, the little feller was back. Again asking if Lonnie had money, holding out his hand, “money, money”. Lonnie told him, “You have to work if you want money.”

“But, I go to school.”

“That’s ok. When you get bigger, you can work for money.”

But, that did not satisfy the boy. So Lonnie told him, “Pick up the trash along the path here and give it to me.” So they walked along, the boy picking up trash and handing it to Lonnie. Two more S.S. boys commenced to help also. 

A passer by asked, “What are you doing?” 

The boy replied, “Jani na.?. (I don’t know)”

So Lonnie explained,”Sundor Bangladesh pori skar” (a few words to say cleaning, to make Bangladesh beautiful).

And then the boys took up the chant, “Sundor Bangladesh!”

One little boy was just pointing to the trash and having the others pick it up, so Lonnie told him, “Only those with trash in their hand got money.”

When they got back to the dokan next to our church building, they put the collected trash by the trash can and Lonnie bought them all a Coke. The shop owner says, “Those are some happy boys!”😊

Lonnie wanted to try his hand at perfecting the tortilla dough. More times than not, we are not 💯 percent happy with the result.. they’re fine, but not the exact perfection we’re looking for..🤔

He also helped me pin in an invisible zipper. They have always been more than my brain can wrap around🤯 I always have to rip one side out and re-pin!!?! …2(brains) are better than one😌🙃

Tues. Aug. 12 Pork Day

 Lonnie went and picked up dim n ruti for breakfast.

Then to pick up the 8 kg of pork we’d ordered Sun. 

Made a 17 lb batch of sausage. So wonderful to have sausage again!  The process took us several hours with 1st washing bone chips off, and cutting out sinew, several door bell interruptions with somebody at the gate or our night guard stopping by with a request, double grind, weighing, and bagging,.. but the process is completely worth it!! We were out for a week and I think I thought about it every day😅

In the eve, we had some things we needed to get over to Shanto’s so we told them we would be stopping by.

Pinky was in the middle of a painting project. So we sat on the concrete floor there and watched her as we visited. It was a long pc of fabric that she was painting a design on for a customer wanting 2 regular sized pillow cases and and one large size. 

Rhidoy showed Annslie the new baby kitties in the corner and she happily bothered them all evening🙃

Mon. Aug. 11 🍪

 Cut out a dress

Dipti made us a chicken curry meal for lunch😋

A load of laundry and Lonnie worked on rigging it up so the water going into the washing machine has a filter. Hopefully it will help with the muddy blotches that can be quite difficult to get back out of “clean” laundry.

Lonnie went for his afternoon walk…”just a horse and cart on Mulberry Street”-Dr. Seuss.

Made several small batches of cookies, each containing PB. Somehow, over here we’ve eaten more peanut butter than ever in our lives before!.. protein like we’d been used to, is a little harder to come by over here…

Lonnie went for cha(tea) and then him and Annslie to the pharmacy dokan with a woman that showed up at the gate needing monetary help with meds..

Sun Aug. 10 a rocking chair

When Dipti came to clean, she checked out the baby bed and it’s softness and wanted to know again how soon till its arrival

 Lonnie made a trip into Khulna in search of a rocking chair. At a street where they have a whole string of furniture stores he stopped and started by going in the 1st one and then the next etc. What is readily available are some mammoth wooden chairs that take up Lots of room and rock so far back that you feel like your going over backwards and are so large that I cannot rest my feet on the floor!?! I do not understand why such a large rocking chair is so popular when as a general rule, the ladies are small here!?! Anyway, by about the 3rd store a man met Lonnie at the door and wanted to help, he said he was driving by on his motorcycle when he saw Lonnie stop up the street. Lonnie showed him a picture of a glider rocking chair like he was looking for. And the reply was, “No, a nice rocking chair like that is not available in Khulna, maybe Dhaka!” But, the man went with him to the rest of the furniture stores on the street and explained to each one, what Lonnie was looking for. “Not available.” Then this helper told Lonnie, “There is 1 more place to check, across the street. I will help you across.” He turned back across the street once they made it to the other side. And Lonnie went in to ask. The man immediately replied, “Yes, we have that chair.” And he took him up to the 3rd floor. It was there alright! Complete with lime green cushions😂 But he showed Lonnie the other fabric color samples and said he could order one and have it here in 15 days. And that is what they did, so we can have a rocking chair to use for our baby #4😌

Laundry… + bedding and the baby clothes that I have.

Annslie got in the pool a bit but the big girls are not very enchanted by it anymore.. possibly a bit spoiled after the Hotel pool swimming.?.

Sat. July 9 💭 👶🏽

 In to Khulna for groceries. Btw, trips into town are not boring! One just never knows what it will be like This time!? Following a CNG with 3 (not small) women that we could see thru the back window and a man on the bench seat facing them(as they have sometimes 2 bench seats facing each in the back). The middle woman was either upset, mental case, or in severe pain!?… we could only surmise.. but the 2 women on either side of her were doing their level best to control her in the tight quarters.. after observing, we deducted that we never wanted to get on the bad side of a Bengali woman… they were no “pansies”! 

Had Lonnie bring the rattan(cane) baby bed down from storage. The baby jinish(things) in this country definitely make their rounds from post to post with the arrival of each new little person on the field😅 I had fun cleaning it, setting it up, and doing some room rearranging 😌

Fri. Aug. 8 🌧️

 Woke up to rain. So there was no group of children at the gate at 8:00. At 9:00 1? boy showed up asking about S.S. Lonnie had already messaged with Kobid about no S.S. due to the rain. 

We had a relaxing morning. Had a nice long phone chat with my big sister.

Cajun Chicken Pasta and pomegranate lunch

Lonnie messaged with the brethren and no church this afternoon, more rain

Played Cover Your Assets while Annslie napped and Finished listening to Lonnie’s Uncle Raymond’s memories

The sun came out, so we decided to go for a walk. Thru the village (attracting a following of S.S. children that eventually stayed behind) out to the levee where there’s always such a lovely little batash(breeze). At the edge of the village there were 2 S.S. girls playing a game in the dirt. They said it was “tin guti” we are not sure what guti is, but tin is 3… 

Back at the T in the road, Lonnie hurried home with the middle dau. to catch the bathroom. Maddie and I bought cucumbers. Then stopped at the last tea dokan before our home, where the sweet young mom that attends church service and S.S. occasionally, is currently living with her parents and grandparents. I recognized her chubbiest little 2 mo.? baby being held by, who I assumed was the baby’s grandmother. So we stopped and sat on the bench with her and endeavored to converse a little. Yes, this is her grand baby. The mom came out soon and offered to make tea for us, which I accepted. I do So need a larger Bangla comprehension and wish I could wrap my brain around their names! … I have gotten 2 of the 40+ S.S. children’s names nailed now😂 Rahat and Oompa, brother and sister 5? and 8? yr old, they stop by our gate occasionally with their mom to say “Hi” and Rahat always sits in the front row at S.S. and gives a thumbs up 👍🏼 whenever he catches your eye.

Popcorn, crackers n cream cheese with cucumber slice and Tony’s seasoning.

And then Lonnie wanted to play a game with the Cover Your Asset cards that he was coming up with in his head.. he also told us about several of the games he’s observed in the village where they make do with playing pcs. One game they play at the classroom is.. everybody has an ink pen. A line is drawn in the middle of the table. To start, everybody flicks their pen and whoever gets it closest to the middle begins and then the aim of the game is to flick everybody else’s pen off the table with yours using different methods.

Another game he has observed, is using several different colored leaves and sticks that they trade till they get a “set“.

Thurs Aug. 7 🏡 🚙 💨

 At breakfast this morning, the Norwegian family that Lonnie ran into the other day showed up also. Was glad to make their acquaintance! A young? couple maybe 30s? The man is 1/2 Bengali with a Norwegian mother. They spoke very fluent English. Have a 3 yr old and 1 yr dau. Ava and Lisa. The man, Raheem, hadn’t been back to Bangladesh for 11 yrs. We asked if they knew any by the last name of Mastre back in Norway and they couldn’t come up with any, only somebody with a similar name of Matre.. They are Christians and attend a Pentecostal church in Norway. They were very easy to visit with, beautiful family. Lonnie and Raheem exchanged numbers. It was kind of interesting, the other day when Lonnie had met them, the mom needed to catch the elevator back upstairs and the little girl was not wanting to go with her back up to the room so she opted to stay with Lonnie til her mom got back!?! Trusting mother and child!

Uneventful trip back to Khulna home. As soon as Annslie recognized we were almost back she threw a fit saying, “other home!” And we got it out of her that she wanted to go to her Pink City home and Shania…. It’s gonna be a sad day when her little friend goes back to KS end of Sep. But, she seemed happy to hang out with Tulshi(guard) once we got to the house. Went and found Toby’s(dog) kettle of rice n eggs and was ready to feed him. Later, as soon as she was done with supper, “Visit Tulshi”.

Got suitcases and Dhaka purchases taken care of, crashed a bit, and made a quick supper of beef sausage gravy over rice and cooked carrots.

Wed. Aug. 6

 To my appt. In the past they have always gotten us right in, but this time we waited a whole solid hour!! All is well and we even got a 3D sneek peak at little mister Koehn!🥰

Caught North End for drinks (their blended coffee drinks, that we love, are called freddos, Jaira and Annslie get hot chocolates) and roast beef sandwiches and back to the Hotel. Another swim in the rooftop pool. This time the sun peaked thru the clouds at times. We even got a little sun-kissed!

The girls and I crashed for awhile in the hotel room then we decided to go check out a park for a place to let the girls play. As soon as we walked out the hotel doors we wondered how this would go, the street was packed with cars and motorcycles, CNGs, and rickshaws! This street had not been like this yet! But, we inched our way out and joined the teeming masses, where are all these people going anyway!?! Well, the traffic never got better and eventually we came to a road that we needed to take that was blocked off. Our options were quite limited and we ended up heading back to the hotel. There we ordered supper, Greek salad, rib eye, pepper steak, and hamburger n fries. Note on the Greek salad.. we’d ordered Caesar salad the other night and really enjoyed it..

 btw, lettuce is not something we eat here. I have seen it for sale, but very small heads. I’ve seen iceberg and leaf on occasion but we’ve had some precaution to even buying it when available due to what it’s been seen growing in..?.. So anyway, when we saw Caesar salad on the menu, we knew we would be ordering that! The picture looked so amazing! The salad that was brought did not look as amazing🙃, like not the bright dark green fluffy lettuce, but the dressing was a good flavor. Although it did not have that nice whang of traditional Caesar dressing, it tasted more like our LaHa dressing! So anyway tonight we tried to order again but it was “Not available”. 

Another quick side note here, that “not available” Is something we have started making a joke of as that has been the reply so many times when ordering something off a menu😂 just because it’s on the menu, does not mean they ever even have it! A little like this hotel’s spa options or the one vendor in Chef’s Table food court that has crème brûlées advertised on their sign but no they never have them🤣

Anyway, back to our Greek salads that we did get for supper… we did ask if they could put the Caesar dressing on the Greek salad for the girls and our waiter said, “I will try”. Bless his heart! In this land, they will not usually stray from their menu and do anything customized. But they did, this time😊👏🏼 they even did a few other changes to it to make it more like their Caesar salad which the girls really appreciated! These “salads“ tonight consisted of medium sized pcs of diced bell peppers and cucumbers with just a sprinkling of not very nice looking lettuce, black and green olives, and feta cheese cubes.

As we have been frequenting this restaurant for breakfasts and dinners we see a lot of the same waiters, etc. the waiter that serves the table where we sit always says “angle” when talking to the girls. It took us a bit to figure out that he was saying “Angel”!… His attempt at English endearment😅! 

Tues. Aug. 5 🛌 🍴 🛍️ 🏊‍♀️

 After a luxurious night in our lovely hotel we went down to the complimentary breakfast buffet. I had personally never experienced such an extensive hotel breakfast. Several cooks were standing ready and cooked us scrambled eggs and omelettes with an array of add ins to choose from. We also enjoyed egg fried rice, noodles, chicken and veg dishes, dhal, wedges of fresh mango and pineapple, pastries, and fruit juices, which were just a sampling of what was offered😂

Out to get some shopping done. 1st to Aarongs, then on to Jamuna Park where the guard at the 1st entrance said they are closed! Today AND tomorrow!😟…due to a recently proclaimed national holiday commemorating the fall of last year’s government. Oh well, hit North End(coffee shop) and Artisans(to shop for little baby boy clothes, it’s So exciting🥰). 

Back at the hotel, we watched 6 different protest groups going by on the street below. They varied in distinction. One group was all wearing white baseball caps. The most spectacular one we heard coming for a bit as they seemed to have a band of sorts, drums and bullhorns along with their chanting etc and the ones in front were wearing oriental style straw hats.

 Lonnie and I tried out the spa. It was fine, bit of a joke, not quite as amazing as the advertisements and actually only offered 1 option from the whole array on the pamphlet😂! Then Lonnie took the girls to the rooftop pool. It was lightly raining but that certainly didn’t deter the girls any!

Supper at the Hotel restaurant

Mon. Aug. 4 🚙 💨 Dhaka

 Lonnie woke me before 3:00 this morning😵 said he couldn’t sleep and wondered if we should just get up and finish getting ready to go. My 30 wk appt is due in Dhaka this week and so we thought we go early and do our shopping the day before my appt so we could get back for church on Fri. Bout that time the power went out. Then it wasn’t too long after Sunil (night guard) turned the generator on, that it died, so Lonnie went out to help get that started again. By time I finished a dress, put breakfast on the table, finished packing, loading the van, etc. it was almost 7:00 when we hit the rd.

1st stop in Dhaka was the “airport” UniMart. Just as we descended the steps from the parking garage we spotted a Menn. lady!!?! Just know, this isn’t KS, MS, etc where this would be normal😜 it didn’t really look like Brianna, and come to find out, it was our new Dhaka family. What a random mtg place😅 our reason for stopping at this particular UniMart was their yummy chicken dogs wrapped in croissant dough. But alas, their machines were having some technical issues and it would be an hr + before they would be ready. We browsed and shopped then went up a few levels to their Chef’s Table food court. We got tacos from a new vendor that were just the best Mexican food we’ve had on this side of the world!🤤 actual corn tortilla street tacos and some fresh squeezed fruit juices from another vendor which paired so perfectly👌🏼 The girls also enjoyed the very nice play area complete with swings! https://maps.app.goo.gl/EAMu7W1auTSBHRFU8?g_st=ipc 

On to finalize our search for a place to lodge while we’re in the city. Our new Dhaka family is here occupying the guest house so this is our 1st experience with finding other lodging. After several tours, we booked at the Golden Tulip. https://maps.app.goo.gl/oTRKZKXNFLUtwdCAA?g_st=ipc

Then on to Pink City/Jared and Brianna’s where they let us have the opportunity of staying with their children while they went out for the evening.. celebrating their 12th anniversary🌹 Lonnie met with a couple of his local friends and went for tea in Dumni. Then Brian and Kaylee + boys (new Dhaka family) came and hung out with us part of the evening😊

Sun. Aug. 3

 Dipti(maid) back today to wash the floors. 

Lonnie made a run to the Boro Bazaar for formula for the milk program and the bank.

Put a couple loads thru the laundry

🗣️ 🎶 While I was upstairs at the sewing machine the girls were in their room and Jaira was belting out Bangla songs. 💭 It was still quite fresh in my mind how when we started singing these songs, especially the Sunday School songs here in Khulna. Wondering how we were ever gonna wrap our brains and tongues around some of these tunes and words when it was so hard to follow with no written music. And then just a different style of singing that had surprise repeats and sudden slurs. And when we were singing The Wise Man and The Foolish Man, they are all sudden chanting in unison instead of singing on the 2nd verse!?!

📞 Daryl called with exciting news, Miss Christina’s(our teacher from Henderson,TN Dan and Rhonda Yoder’s dau.) ticket to come, is finally booked!! Arriving in Dhaka Aug. 20 👏🏼 👏🏼Now we can start the countdown🤩

Sat. Aug. 2

 A wonderful day “back on my feet”🤗 

Started off with a crepe breakfast. Lonnie fried while I got some toppings around… fried/crumbled sausage, cheese sauce, whipped “cream”, mango jam, syrup,..

A load of laundry.

Later baked bread, and got the last of the misti kumra baked and pumpkin muffins made with it.

Roast beef salad wraps for lunch and roast beef sandwiches for supper🙃

Annslie’s current favorite books are the Franklin books (about a turtle and his friends) there’s a small stack of them here that are getting well read😌

Fri Aug 1 Worship Day

 A day of convalescing for me. Was able to get in the kitchen today tho👍🏼 Annslie stayed home with me for the 1st S.S.

There was a misunderstanding and our translator didn’t show up for the 1st S.S. So, no story and the singing wasn’t the best.. the girls reported..

The girls all went along to the 2nd S.S. And Kobid, our interpreter, was there

Roast, mashed potatoes, mango/pomegranate/grape platter lunch

Lonnie went by himself to the 4:00 service. Then he spent the rest of the evening visiting Bro. Liton at his home. Lonnie said when they arrived, Liton’s mom? (He was a little unsure of the exact relations of those at the house that evening.?..) anyways the mom was sitting on the front porch catching fish in her front yard! Now in monsoon season, their yard is covered in a foot? of water, easy fishing👍🏼 and a log to cross over the water with a bamboo pole for a railing to hang onto.

It was bedtime by time he got home

Thurs July 31🤢

 Came down, in the night, with what seems to be the same symptoms Lonnie was experiencing last Fri🤢

Told Dipti she didn’t need to come.

My family really kicked in with dishes, sweeping floors, putting food on the table❣️