Eye camp here in Chakrakhali. Lonnie left at 8:30.
When Annslie has the play dough out while Dipti’s here, she will often sit down and make something too. Today it was a very good model of a mushroom☺️
Shortly before 11:00 all the girls n I took the rickshaw van that I’d had Tulshi call for us. Dipti had just finished cleaning so she jumped on with us also. And we got to witness eye camp for the 1st time😊 We let Dipti get in ahead of the crowd and the girls and I sat behind a table where Lonnie was entering each patient’s info in his laptop with the translating help of Bro. Liton’s “little” brother. Then Bro. Kobid would give the prescribed, recommended eye drops to the patient, explaining the instructions. Bro. Liton was there also assisting as needed, like guiding the old women to the room that they needed to go to next😊 .. when the old ladies just wanted to stand there and smile at the bideshis😉 The Press (newspaper reporters) came by also. Maddie n Jaira ducking under the table whenever the camera would swing their way, determined not to be in their pictures!
When Dipti was done seeing the Dr. and got her eye drops, my girls were definitely done also. I asked Dipti if we could come by and see her home? So we waited with her till her husband came by. He is a rickshaw van driver.. I have been wanting to see where Dipti lives and also see her 2 sons! She seemed a bit nervous about showing us where she lived, but Bengalis are very hospitable as a general rule and hopefully it was also an honor for her.. They have a very small property in the line of homes in the village there.. a cow and a calf, with a straw stack, a goose and a nice number of ducks, a nice small pukar(pond) right close there. I asked to see where she cooked.. a small dirt floor shack, with a food cabinet but otherwise very meagerly stocked, her mud oven on the floor with a stack of twigs ready. I commented “bhalo” and she replied, “bhalo na”(not good) she knows so well the standard we live in but her setting is very typical villager. Her husband came back from the dokan about that time with a 1/2 liter of cold sprite and a package of biscuits so we stepped up into her house. That 1st room is also her and her husband’s bedroom. The wooden bed had a vinyl? cover over it, otherwise just a hard wooden bed😳 we sat on it and also on a plastic chair that she brought in and had biscuits and Sprite. Her home consisted of 2 more rooms, 1 for each son. Her oldest came out to say “Hi” and then disappeared back into his dark bedroom, her other son was at school. They brought a fan out and I saw a lightbulb so they have power, but they never turned any lights on while we were there. The 2 boys’ bedrooms were so dark I couldn’t see in. While we visited there, her husband pulled his rickshaw van in the cow shed and waited. A neighbor and then her dau. also came by and hung out with Dipti’s husband in the cow shed, easily visible and able to talk to thru the slats of the house walls where we were sitting… the neighbors showed up just to be there while the bideshis were there, typical…And then they invited us to come to Their house when we came again😉 Dipti’s husband took us home on his rickshaw van then, never letting us pay for our ride.
Pulled out leftover Dominos pizza and Cajun chicken pasta for some lunch.
Lonnie would be having lunch with the Dristidon eye camp crew.
Lonnie was home by 3:30
There were 450 patients today!
209 stopping by Lonnie’s desk..
I did another small trial batch of tortillas with another recommended recipe.. I’m beginning to think the success of these tortillas also lies in the technique of running this particular press..
Lonnie headed out for his afternoon/evening stroll and his typical destination, “to check on the boys”😉
Pulled out taco meat and the fixings for tacos and had our sweet limes 🍋🟩 that are a bit comparable to an orange.
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