Fri. Dec. 12

 Miss Christina got us started with her yummy coffee cake and scrambled eggs breakfast.

The rest of the crew headed out for the morning of 2 S.S. 

Lunch was chicken breast in the crockpot, mashed potatoes and gravy, and crunchy cabbage salad. Jaira commented that it was the Best “Sun.” lunch I’d made here! Thankfully, she was easy to please today😅

Christina and the girls cleaned up the kitchen then visited on Miss Christina’s veranda.

4:00 service. I attended, but still battling this terrible head cold that I am taking my turn with this week. Shotti wasn’t there due to a headache and Rhidoy had fever 

Maddie was holding Gentry as we walked to church. But after we were all seated, Lewis’s wife tapped her on the shoulder and asked to take him and held him thru the service😌  

Shanto had a very good and thought provoking opening on respect to God,  also bringing out respect of children to their elders and how it’s up to the parents to teach and by example…

It is Hindu wedding season by all appearances.. there are 3 going on around us this week. This means days and nights of music and festivities. So we endeavor to sing our own Christian hymns with the beat of drums and Hindu music going on. The church house windows were closed to try to make it a bit quieter but couldn’t tell that it helped much😏 At one point I couldn’t even get Shanto’s prayer even tho his voice was quite a bit raised to try to talk over all the noise. I was surprised to hear Kobir being able to continue to translate!!?!

By the way, I’m very pleased to finally know Lewis’s wife’s name☺️ She would tell me when I would ask her, again, what her name is but I could never get it to stick beings it is not one that my English speaking brain is accustomed to. And I was getting embarrassed to keep asking her to tell me her name! And these folks, when I would ask them, “What is Lewis’s wife’s name they would say, “I don’t know. We just call her “Didi” which is kind of like auntie or directly translated as elder Christian sister. And something they would use regularly, what I am referred to here as. So, when Kobir replied the same, I asked him, “Do you know what my actual name is??” And he says, “No Sister, I don’t”🫣 and btw we have been in BD for 10 months, a good 5 mo. in Khulna, and spent Lots of time with Kobir! Anyways, Shamir finally came to my rescue and taught me Lewis’s wife’s name by trying to teach it to Maddie. Having her repeat each syllable after him several times Pu • r(rolled) • nee • ma.

After church, Liton spent some time with Lonnie in the lean to just outside our gate…. We took popcorn and hot tea out to them.

… I can’t remember if I’ve wrote about this or not but Lonnie has spent some quality😉hours designing and building a chimnea out of bricks in the front corner of this lean-to. (.. this lean-to has a bench in it and as the cool season came on our day guard, Tulshi closed in the sides by loosely weaving palm fronds in the bamboo framework. This bench is Very used and usually occupied by 1 or several. Anybody, it seems, that needs a place to rest or hang out or friends of our guards..) Anyway, now in the evenings, Tulshi lights a fire in the brick chimnea creating a warm spot for the old men that often gather. One in particular, is an old man that is completely bent over and walks with a cane. This chimnea has gotten a lot of attention from the villagers and the women have shown interest, stopping on their way past to check it out and ask what Lonnie cooks on there? Rice? Ruti? That’s all they know, is a cooking fire..