Tues Sep 15

Lonnie got up early this morning and grilled chicken for me to put in the crockpot for lunch🤎

After the girls were in school, Lonnie and I were visiting out on the porch while watching the littles play. Suddenly Gentry is trying out his 1st solo run down the ramp off the porch, which is about a 2 ft elevation. He did really great till he got to the bottom where he went head over heels with his face receiving the brunt of the meeting with the concrete😫resulting in a skinned nose and forehead.

After supper, *while the girls cleaned up supper, Lonnie and I took the littles, in their strollers, on a walk to Neeconjo for eggs. The dark evening seemed especially hot and still. 

*when we got back, the girls hadn’t got as far as they could’ve on the cleanup. They had taken the opportunity to practice Hindu ululating..

Mon Sep 14

 This morning Lonnie spent some time putting Gentry’s feet under him in a crouching position attempting to teach him how to stand up in the middle of a room

This evening he did it all by himself and continued to do it and enjoy his new capability 🥰 it’s so wonderful to be past the stage of him begging all day for us to hold his hand and walk with him, it was sweet, but very wearying to have him always trying to get a hold of a finger and pull us away from whatever we were doing to go walking around the house Or better yet, outside!

Harun Brother from Tala stopped in this afternoon. His teenage daughter Mukta is doing 3 months of schooling in Khulna. She has been sick with some kind of virus so he was wanting help with her medicine bills.

After supper, follow up School board mtg.

Sun Sep 13 The Bud walks independently 🤗

 Gentry really took off today with independent walking, cruising all over the place from room to room💙… 1 week shy of 11 months.. 

an interesting note… he walks with both hands upraised, as high as they can go, spread eagle 🦅 style everywhere he goes

Dipti’s son Turjo’s scheduled nose surgery

Made a batch of pickles with an imported Mrs Wages mix

Made a double batch of tortillas. Lonnie fried them up putting a spoon of oil on the pan making them just a bit crispy and flaky like the local paratha/fry bread. Ate them with dhal(lentils) for a most delicious supper🤤

Sat Sep 12

 Dipti came in today also since she plans to take off tomorrow for Turjo’s broken nose operation

Got a load of laundry thru and hung out

We went in to Khulna for our weekly outing. Mambo’s was closed so we went to Domino’s Pizza for lunch. Safe N Save, at Day-7 went upstairs to do extra browsing and found 2 dresses that looked like they would work for Annslie , fruit and veggie market, and Shwapnos for milk. 

Fri Sep 11 Day of Worship

At Choygoria S.S. Kobid started off by having the girl, that didn’t have an answer last week to the question of “what she wanted to be when she grew up”, give her answer.. this girl has some little handicaps and comes from a very poor family…today’s additional children answered the question also with one future police in the group, one girl that wants to be a banker and otherwise the popular answer of doctor. On the way past our place  to Chakrakhali we could see a lady with baby waiting at the gate, so we turned around and the rest of us waited while Lonnie took care of the need. Gentry fell asleep on the rickshaw van ride over, as he often does. so I took him right in to the house when we arrived in hopes that he would get a nice little nap in. Chaity’s family had been on a 3 day vacation to Cox’s Bazaar(a15 hr bus ride to the Bay of Bengal) so she shared treats from there with us.. peanuts that were a little bit sweet and had quite a hard coating and then little individual packs of prune mash😉  She gave us little gifts…sea shell key chain and little butterfly clamps for the girls’ hair, she showed us videos of them at the beach..taking horse rides, her brother and her singing a Bangla song about the sea, etc… She called husband her “Black Diamond” as he’d gotten quite dark in the sun🖤💎

We were there an hour… Their son Taritro was supposedly out and about letting the children know we were there. Dudjoy was the only one that showed up. His foot was all bandaged up with a plastic bag over it to keep it clean. So Lonnie told Nee-tie to load everything back up. Lonnie sent us home and he stayed to talk over some of the particulars of the room that CSI plans to rent from the for clinic in the building complex that this family is building on their road frontage.

Dipti came in to work today as she had taken her son Turjo in for his broken nose exam(in preparation for operation)yesterday. The girls were very happy to have her come in and wash up the breakfast and lunch dishes😊 that was a nice surprise for them ✨

Caribbean jerk chicken, fruit and homemade marshmallow crème for dip , fresh squeezed lemonade made from fruit of our tree☺️, and O’Henry bars for dessert

We got the word that Lewis’s cancelled coming at 3:00. 

4:00 service

Both pastors that we supply with gospel literature showed up today. Lonnie’s message brought out how God supplies our needs and shared 2 special examples of answered prayer from his life.

Right after the “amen”, 2 ladies that Lonnie had told to wait till after the service came in asking for financial help for medical needs. It was neat that Shanto was friends with the lady’s father and somebody went fetching him so they could say “hi” again.. So Shanto’s stayed while Lonnie went over the 4 yr old prescription from a Dr in India with the pharmacist.. the lady’s family is in dire straights all the way around.. she is not able to work due to her lung problem, her husband died 4 years ago, her father/father in law? Has suffered a stroke …. So… their food supplies have been Very limited and they will soon have to sale their property, with nowhere to go, at the current direction of their life.. Shanto’s suggested that we could visit their home next Fri and maybe give some basic dry goods… rice, lentils, oil…

Shanto’s came in when we got back to the house. Popcorn, lemonade, fruit and marshmallow crème, and O’ Henry bars. They said they’d never had a fruit dip before but liked it😊 Shanto also mentioned that when it’s time for us to go back to America, it’s Gentry that’s gonna make him Really cry! He loves our little Bud and always holds him/walks with him at church and any other time we’re with them. The feeling is mutual and Gentry always wants to go to Shanto also🤎  Antoor wasn’t able to come this afternoon due to his ongoing back pain😔 so I sent a bag of the snacks I’d served for him.. they also have Shotti’s folks with them now too as their health has taken a turn for the worse…

Thurs Sep 10

 In the evening, Lonnie grilled chicken for our lunch tomorrow. Then we went to Bissho road for chotputi and fuska and picked up some fruit on the way home.

When the power came back on, Lonnie was able to print the pictures to color for Sunday School in the morning

Wed Sep 9 Big News 📰

 Spent time on the phone with my oldest sister Crystal answering questions as she made those monumental data entries on her computer on the other side of the world in California.

And then the most amazing thing!! Tickets were bought!! For her and her 2 daughters and my Mom to come visit us for 2 wks, end of Nov. thru Dec 11🤗🤗🤗🤗 We are over the moon!! We actually have family coming to visit us and this country, people, food, etc.. that we love!🥳🥳💝💝🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽 It is a Very exciting feeling to say the least🥰 later, Lonnie and I were discussing some aspects of guests coming and Annslie’s like, “what’s going on?” So we tried to explain about Grandma, Aunt Crystal, and the cousins coming.. and she’s like “They are coming from America? And going back to America? And they will stay for the night?…. Oh, yes, just like Brian’s do..(Dhaka missionaries😉) I’m thinking this will add a little to her “in America” stories that have been her favorite the last couple months🙃. A bit later, “My family from America is coming😌”

Later I was calmly working at my sewing machine upstairs but had a giddy feeling inside with the excitement of fun planning for family that is actually coming!🥰 I think it will take a bit for this exciting news to actually sink in

Tues Sep 8

 Lonnie made a trip into Khulna to visit Pastor James’s brother in the hosp.

Mon Sep 7

 Dipti was late again this morning but she says Baroti’s parents are feeling enough better that they went home now. 

It worked just fine for me to have the kitchen to myself this morning as I could use my limited counter space for making Bierocks for lunch before Dipti came in to wash dishes and clean floors.

After supper was 1st Mon of the month School Board Mtg

Sun Sep 6

 Dipti didn’t come in till 11:30 She has her daughter in law’s family at her house as the mother and father have still been so sick with this Dengue. And there was quite a downpour this morning. Seems like the rain that we’ve been getting the last couple days has been arriving in torrential rain, thunder and lightning.

 Shanto and Lonnie took the Church hymnals in to Khulna City to get the covers redone. Lonnie picked up his shirt from the tailor

7:00 at Shanto’s for lucchi. A small tortilla/fry bread type with a sprinkling of black cumin seed in them. Eaten with lentils that had small chicken pcs(with tiny bones😉) in it. And a dessert “bar” made of rice and oat powder that tasted a lot like cream of wheat. Pinky’s sister and baby girl(that’s just 9 days older than Gentry) and mom were there also.

Sat. Sep 5

 After a pancake breakfast

I got a load of laundry thru and hung out on the roof and another one in only to have the power leave after I got it started.

Lonnie got the kitchen fan down for Tulshi to wash and other miscellaneous jobs

The girls got the kitchen cleaned up. Maddie straightened the bookshelf. Jaira took a turn with the Bud outside,…

Round 1:30 we headed in to Khulna. 

I didn’t have a grocery list to speak of so we did fun shopping 🤩 To MiniSo where Lonnie shopped for the perfect sizes of desk organizers and the girls and I shopped gifts. To Artisan for new jammies for Maddie and leggings for the girls for winter and riding bike. Then to Grand Placid for lunch, which takes awhile.. But it’s a relaxed atmosphere with a play area on the other end to entertain the littles while we wait for our food. Shwapnos on the way home yet for a few groceries. Miss Christina and the girls all came in and we enjoyed shopping the toy aisle😁 

Back at home to take care of the laundry and have a relaxed evening

Fri Sep 4 HB to our man, Lonnie Delane🤎

 Miss Christina made biscuits, sausage gravy, and boiled eggs for breakfast 😍. I set the table with extra care, pulling out the fall scented candle from Laura that had been sent in my birthday box earlier this year✨ The girls did a really good job on the cards they made him🥰

A nice little crowd of about 15 children at Choygoria. We are hearing of another S.S. taking place at the same time on Fri. at a nearby location.. Kobid mentioned Chinese, Japanese, and Hill Tract people maybe are the ones conducting.?.. And our rickshaw van driver, Nee-tie, let us know there would be no S.S. at Chakrakhali.. the family is on vacation in Cox’s Bazar. Knowing we had plenty of time the children had been asked what they wanted to be when they grew up.. the older 2 girls wanted to be teachers and most of the others wanted to be Drs , which is highly esteemed in this country. At the end of S.S. Kobid led the children in 🎶“Happy Birthday to Brother Lonnie”🎶 and Lonnie handed out meeshti balls.

Back at the house, Lonnie caught rickshaw van to Neeconjo to treat his (mostly Muslim)friends there, with meeshti balls. He reports that they were ready for a party and one heads off to buy Sprite, another starts inviting the passersby in… Lonnie finally had to ask him.. are these “your friends or my friends?” as he had only bought about 60 originally. 

Beef tenderloin from Dhaka to make our own filet mignon… Lonnie had to grill his own birthday steak…lettuce salad and baked potato for sides, flan for dessert (his choice). At 3:00 Lonnie caught rickshaw van to Chakrakhali for more meeshti balls. 

4:00 service… Pastor James came again and also to our place with everybody after church. Bro Liton had been informed on his rickshaw van ride to church they(the van drivers) had already been treated to mishti balls for Lonnie’s birthday! Kobid laughingly translated for the rest of us later that Liton confessed that it was hurtful to have the van driver tell him that he’d had meeshti ball already from his(Liton’s) very own “Brother” before he(Liton) knew anything about it😅🙃 

Sweet tea, popcorn, apples, and oranges, were served with the meeshti balls and we enjoyed an evening of conversation and discussion.

After they all left, Lonnie went down the road the other direction to treat his mostly Hindu friends. He was a bit more strategic about it tonight after his learning experience this morning.🙃

Thurs Sep 3

Lonnie took Annslie and walked to Neeconjo for eggs. I mixed up flan in preparation for a special day tomorrow. 

Baked chicken fingers, Mac n cheese, and baked beans for lunch

 A downpour came thru this afternoon dropping the temp beautifully! When we left at 4:15 for Lewis’s 5:00 Doctrine class, the van thermometer showed 26* C(78.8*F.)! We haven’t seen that all summer! The traffic at Gollamari bridge was quite backed up (it’s a real bottleneck there but they have made good progress on the big new bridge.. it’s a point of observation and comment every week when we go drove by) so we were 10 min late. Shortly after we arrived, the power left. So we were reading the lesson and scripture references by flashlight, just like last week. Purnima served us crunchy green amra wedges seasoned most delectably with lemon juice, salt, a bit of sugar, and a touch of hot pepper🤤

The days are shortening noticeably, It was already dark at 6:30 when we were driving back thru the city! We stopped for a few kg of meeshti balls for a special treat for our S.S. students and Lonnie’s friends tomorrow. Then picked up a little snack of pudi… a little round, crispy, flaky, fried street food with just a sprinkle of yumminess inside. Another stop by the fruit and veggie market. The girls ate all the mandarins while they were waiting for us in the van so we stopped again at another fruit and veggie market and bought more along with bananas we’d forgotten to get at the last stop.

Wed. Sep. 2

 Lonnie did more book work with answering Tulshi’s door bell calls in between… patients at the gate, etc

I cut out a dress

Dipti made a fabulous Bangla meal for us of fried pongas fish, rice, lentils, and vegetable stir fry🤤

In the afternoon, Lonnie spent more time at the computer and I got my dress all “serged”(zigzag stitch) and the blouse put together only to find out I’d cut my 2 pc sleeve out with one half being the wrong side! And not big enough fabric scraps to cut another one out😩 hopefully I can find the fabric again at Boro Bazaar🤞🏼

Tues Sep. 1

 And September is here! 

A rainy day

Tulshi went for meat for us.. 2 pongas fish, 3 chickens, and whatever pork he could get a hold of. 

Lonnie discovered additional, outside activity when he opened the book work on the computer, so spent a few hours digging into that with his fellow missionaries and they were able to sign out a “foreign” party.

And the rest of the afternoon was spent cleaning fish, washing meat, and cutting the chickens up for the freezer with enough time to go to the nearby dokan for time with the locals. And back in time for supper made by Miss Christina

My day was laundry, getting the online H&H printed for easier read by everybody, mending, tidying, taking care of littles, putting meals on the table, doing a timed word search with Maddie after supper,..

Mon Aug 31

 Made a batch of bread with a couple loaves being cinn swirl.

Chicken taco lunch

Had good singing with the girls after Jaira’s music class.

 Lonnie donned his work clothes and spent a good share of the day at the neighboring dokan repairing our grill lid “that was used too much when it was new“..The dokander had seen Lonnie’s knife sharpening system and had some knives that could use it so Lonnie told him he’d pay for his repair job by sharpening the knives😉

Maddie and I got the calligraphy books out after supper and had fun doodling and practicing

Sun Aug 30

It’s been a family effort getting Gentry to walk independently, cheering him on as he walks back and forth between 2 people with much clapping and cheering at each trip across the room🤎

 This morning while I was working on lunch, Lonnie was watching the 2 littles. The Carrom board has been balanced on the top of 3 wooden dining room chairs for the past year but this morning while Gentry was playing below he must’ve bumped the chairs just wrong and that heavy beast of a Carrom board came crashing to the floor, chairs upended, Gentry underneath😱 Miraculously, when the board was lifted off of him the only damage we could see was a very pinched ear, the girls came down from their classroom to see what the clatter and bang was all about. The sturdy Carrom board showed no signs of it’s mishap😳 But there was no questions asked, Lonnie put the Carrom board away and swept up all the sawdust that had been knocked out of the bug holes. 

Dipti reports that her daughter in law’s mother is now in the hosp. with Dengue😣 Ive heard of too many cases now! And the crazy thing is, we don’t even hardly see mosquitoes! It seems like they are so much less than last year! Like, I’ve seen maybe 2 here at the house in the last week or 2 and 2 at Lewis’s when we were there last Wed.!?!

Sat. Aug 29

Annslie gave her standard answer to the question, “what do You want for breakfast?” I mixed up oatmeal pancakes.

Got 2 loads of laundry thru but otherwise enjoyed a relaxed morning with the family 

Dipti came today since she’d taken Thurs off. Had her do some extra scrubbing in the bathrooms

She was done with her work the same time as we were ready to go into Khulna for our weekly shopping trip, so we gave her a ride to Chakrakhali.

To Grand Placid for lunch. A very relaxed, good experience. Maddie had brought her book along so she read while Annslie played in the play area. Jaira brought her embroidery along. There were a lot of tables set and ready with food waiting. I hoped we’d get to see the crowd of Bangalis that they were prepared for… sometimes this hotel is hosting a wedding and it’s always interesting to see everybody all dressed up etc., and sure enough the crowd did arrive, but it looked like a minister’s and deacon’s area mtg all but the tie 👔 and as I’ve never actually attended an above mentioned mtg I can only imagine that this crowd was a Lot quieter without the dull roar of conversation😉 a crowd of finely dressed men in their suit coats with nice haircuts and beards… I had the desire to find out what their occasion was but didn’t feel like that would be my place and it was not a shared desire🙃… Steaming platters of rice were brought out and they made short work of the food before them and were gone again before we made our exit..

Shwapno, bank, Safe & Save, Day-7, and the fruit and veggie market where Lonnie took care of the list of veggies and I got the fruit.. last of the season mangoes, a small yellow watermelon to try, cantaloupe, pineapple, apples, bananas,…

Annslie and the Bud were both sleeping when we got home and were transferred to their beds making for a calm, peaceful evening enjoyed by the rest of us after Maddie and I with a bit of help from Jaira made short work of washing and getting All the fruit and veggies into the fridge.

Fri. Aug 28

After Miss Christina’s yummy iaplots(version of crepes) breakfast. We went to Choygoria Sun. School. There was a nice little crowd of about 25 boys and girls, a couple moms, and then a couple old grandmas wanting to see the eye doctor. 

On to Chakrakhali Sun. School, about 7 big boys, Nee-tie(the rickshaw van driver), and the man of the house, Rajib (42 yrs old with salt and pepper hair that’s getting to be more salt than pepper and is like another grandpa to Gentry) always is ready and waiting to watch Gentry during S.S. After S.S. they wanted us to come to their garden, which surrounds their fish pond behind their house, and they picked cucumbers and a papaya for us to take home💛

Rickshaw van ride back to the house where Jaira and Miss Christina helped with lunch prep while Maddie washed up the breakfast dishes

Ham that had been made using tender quick, liquid smoke, brown sugar, and local pork 

3:00 is the scheduled time for doctrine class with Lewis and Purnima but they are always 15-20 min early which makes for a very short afternoon for us.. we enjoy cold tea as we have study the lesson of the afternoon. 

4:00 service

On the way home, one of my friends beckoned to me from inside her house so I went in to see what she had in mind. She was sitting on the bed with her sleeping 15 month baby boy. She says he’s sick with Dengue (mosquito born illness) fevers, shaking,….. she had about 5 medicines for him there and she’d come from Dhaka to be with her family while he got better. It was only a month or 2 ago that it was her husband that was so sick and in the hosp with this illness😏

Lewis is always right on it with getting back to the house and getting his easy bike out the gate. And Kobir and Liton like to catch a ride with him. Shanto needed something so they were hanging around a bit and we invited them in for no bake cookies and leftover ham that we pulled out of the fridge. Pork is expensive in this country and a special meat for those that aren’t Muslim. So the ham was thoroughly enjoyed, Especially the fatty pcs!!😌 

I was glad to see Lonnie walk in the door, after going to the pharmacy dokan with some people that showed up at our gate, as Shanto was asking a question that I felt like I could explain with scripture but didn’t feel like it was my place to point these scriptures out to my brother in the faith..

Thurs Aug 27

 I got a load of laundry in

 Lonnie took Shanto with him and spent all morning picking up the 1,000 Pilgrim’s Progress books from the printing shop.

Dipti did not come today 

I had a time of it trying to get lunch on for everybody while keeping my toddler out of trouble and my baby happy🤯

In the evening, Topu, Nodi, and Attoy came by wanting to go on a walk with the girls. Annslie went along also and I went upstairs and got some mending done. The girls reported that Tulshi had called Topu when it started getting dark and told her it was time to bring them home🤎 

The power went out bout the same time the girls got back and so I had them go thru the showers and we heated up leftovers when the power came back on