Sat. Aug. 30 👩🏽‍🏫1st Day back to school 🇧🇩

 Breakfast at 7:30 baked oatmeal and sausage patties and rain pouring outside! No worries, we do not even need to leave house😉

It was a new experience to have the teacher in our home for breakfast on the 1st day of school🤩

Told her, “There’s probably nothing quite like knowing exactly what kind of morning your students have before their arrival in the classroom.”😅 and guessed that it surely was quite a bit less stressful, scary to have 1st Day in this setting!

Girls to their classroom by 8:30 quickly rounding up their pencil, eraser, etc.!🙃 I had not managed to get new dresses sewn for them so they wore their kameeze sets which are still very nice! Both girls have reasons of their own why they only wear them on rare occasions🧐 (I think they are darling and would love if they would wear them more often…) 

It was somehow inspiring for me to have the girls back in school! Maybe it was an earlier morning that helped or a combination of an incentive of the Dhaka families spending a couple days with us after the upcoming Gopalgonj occasion!? And who knows, “nesting instinct” might play a part too😆 but anyways, had a productive morning😊 getting to some extra cleaning🧽🧼✨ , working on several loads of laundry… the 1st taking A L L morning with a couple power outages! Lonnie took the time to babysit/train Annslie on this 1st Day back to school…Another big change in her little life…🗣️ “Maddie, Jairie!”😢 ..And she was not allowed to go upstairs..

The rain stopped by 1st recess and they were able to go outside😊

Lunch at noon and recess then back to the classroom for a couple hours. The girls were happy and seemed enthused about the day🤗 after school they all came down and played Cover Your Assets and then went out side to play for awhile. 

When Lonnie got home from his walk shortly after 5:00 , he pulled the carrom board out and him and the girls played til shower time, stopping for a bite to eat.. while I worked on the spare room, tidying and organizing, in preparation for M. Christina to use while we have guests later this week..

Fri. Aug. 29 Day of Worship

 Jaira told me the other day, “I don’t know if I’m more excited about going to S.S. or the 1st day of school starting again!?” She hasn’t always been so enthused about S.S. here, but she loves to sing the songs! We hear them often thru out the days! It seems like we’ve missed quite a few this last month with being gone last week, getting rained out, or being sick.. And I think she was enthused to have Miss Christina along and be there too .?.

Had a nice turnout with nearly 40 children here in Choygoria. We took 2 rickshaw vans to Chakrakhali S.S. It seemed to be a little calmer today.. although there’s always the 11 yr old son of the family that hosts that’s a bit of a cut up, and the quarters are a bit tight so it’s hard for them to stay out of each others space.. Lonnie asked King Kor if he would not have his mobile out during S.S… he respectfully put it back in his pocket💙 bear in mind.. this boy is 17.. a couple of his friends there are 15, etc. (his friends were in full support) we wondered today if maybe the style of S.S. in Chakrakhali should change just a bit..?. Lonnie does tell the Bible story more to their level, pointing out the lesson in it for us and asking them more mature questions… But we do have a handful of young children that also attend there and enjoy coloring the picture, etc,…

Back home, Lonnie got the grill going and put the drumsticks on while the girls and I made mashed taters, cooked carrots, tea, cut up watermelon, and set table.

4:00 service, everybody showed up!! + the beggar man.. Bro. Shomid arrived while Bro. Shanto was having opening. 

After the service, the 3 single brethren had some things to discuss with Lonnie at great length🙏🏼… 

Shanto’s family,  the girls and I walked to the food stand just up the way. Shanto wanted to buy us some little cups of spicy 🌶️ chick peas with bits of diced cucumber on top. Annslie ended up eating most of the cup that Maddie, Jaira, and I were sharing with her. 

Shanto said he had something he wanted to talk to Lonnie about so I told them to just come home with us while we waited till he was available. Made hot tea for everybody and we sat in the living room and visited.. Lonnie got back in not too long.. About the time they were getting up to leave, almost 13 yr old Espondant, brought up the subject of Pacifism, he had big questions about it, Lonnie tried to explain, bringing out historical examples, etc. the rest of the family was ready to go tho, Pinky’s husband Rhidoy had stayed home with her Dad.. Espondant made exclamation when he opened the door and saw how dark it was out already!! .. maybe Lonnie and him will be able to discuss more sometime on the subject that was troubling him. And maybe only a “born again” heart can truly understand what Lonnie told him we often term as Nonresistance..?..🙏🏼

Popcorn and watermelon

Thurs Aug 28

 Got a load of laundry in

Mixed up and shaped hamburger patties according to Neil Brubaker’s recipe. Got homemade buns out of the freezer. Then we headed into Khulna for groceries. Jaira and I took Miss Christina up the 2 next levels of Safe N Save to show her around and what’s there.

Back home, Lonnie got the grill going while the rest of us made macaroni salad, put groceries away, washed up fruit n veggies, and got the table set. We sat down to lunch by 2:30🙃.. I’m thankful Miss Christina doesn’t have blood sugar problems, 🤪so far she has been rolling with our lifestyle without a squeak (to us..?..) She has been in BD a week now! We plan to start school Sat. morning. Not that we will usually have school on Sat. But that will give them a 3 day week before we head to Gopalgonj for a couple days.

As Lonnie was cleaning up the grill, the bottom finally fell out! He’d been thinking it would last a little longer.. But he said, no problem, Tulshi is already on it! He used part of the shiny metal/aluminum? water heater that we recently pulled out and had the grill ready to go again before evening🤗

Lonnie put Annslie down for a nap then left on his walk. 

I got a batch of salsa going

Supper was a fend for yourself/leftovers occasion after a late lunch and as I was still working on salsa.

Eye camp medicine suppliers came by at 8:00 to restock our supply.

Wed Aug 27 Eye Camp Chakrakhali

 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.

Tues Aug 26

 Lonnie and Tulshi went to pick up pork mangsho(meat)

Dipti made us a curry meal for lunch

I got my ironing done

Lonnie went for his walk, and upon being bidden, played a game of carrom.

Miss Christina played outside with the girls in the afternoon, shooting baskets 🏀, etc

I washed, trimmed, cut up meat into small chunks, and then got it all browned and put in the freezer in preparation for the supper I’m responsible for 1st of Sep. A farewell/welcome at Gopalgonj for Jared’s leaving soon and the new workers and teachers on the field.

A light quick supper of watermelon, leftover cucumber salad, and deviled eggs. Then the peanut butter and crackers were pulled out yet too.

Mon. Aug. 25 💞13yrs Mr & Mrs

 Made Lonnie’s favorite breakfast, cornbread, sausage gravy, boiled eggs

Lonnie went into Khulna to buy the teacher desk chair that we singled out last night and check on the rocking chair.. the 15 days that they’d told us are up, but it was not there yet/available for pickup.

I got busy in the kitchen mixing up a batch of sweet roll dough and flan.

Lonnie came home with a bunch of flowers in a clay pitcher with the announcement that he’d brought me something fun to do🥰 He knows I like to arrange bouquets (plus I’m pretty sure a beautifully arranged bouquet was probably not available🙃) 

Put lunch on the table- grilled chicken sand. on fresh baked buns with slaw. Christina cut up the watermelon for me.

Lonnie put Annslie down for her nap and I worked on flower arranging, ended up with 3 bouquets☺️ So fun! (If any man happens to read this and you know your wife likes to arrange bouquets… you just might try this approach once😉)

Oh and Lonnie also came home with 6 clay pots that he’d found for the plants we’d bought for the teacher’s upstairs veranda. We just need to find 2 more bigger ones.. Tulshi is rounding up dirt for the pots and he says he’s getting some “fertilizer”? to mix in with the dirt👍🏼

Christina spent the afternoon working in her classroom again getting ready for school. 

Lonnie went for a walk and stopped for a game of carrom. He said it felt like the tension was high in the village this afternoon also, maybe if we got the local paper we’d have a little insight to what’s up?..?.. while he was at the dokan, a man came dashing in, taking refuge from his wife? that was in a rage.. I thought in this culture, it would usually be the other way around🤔 …?..

Supper was Southwestern Grilled Chicken Pasta (Down Home Southern Cookin’) and flan for dessert. 

Maddie asked Christina to come play 3 square with them and they spent the rest of the evening out there till shower time😊

Sun. Aug. 24

It was fun to see Dipti’s(maid) reaction upon meeting our new teacher😊 “bhalo. Shundor. Shundor dat, Shundor face. Lomba!” (Good. Beautiful. Beautiful teeth, beautiful face. Tall!)”purush bhalolage”…

 After breakfast, the girls and I went for a walk in the village. In the daylight this time😅 Christina could get a little better look-see of the area. 

Lonnie grilled up some white bbq chicken.

After lunch and Annslie’s nap we went into Khulna. Just before crossing the bridge there was an easy bike with about 5 people around it having a physical fight… something we haven’t actually had to witness much of yet, thankfully! We couldn’t help but notice that, in general, the tension seemed heightened tonight in the city🧐 

Shopped for a teacher desk chair for the classroom

Then to the grocery store, Safe N Save. Christina and Jaira came in with me. 

Dominos for a pizza supper