Monday 12/12: No language class today! Jared went to the clinic with Daniel to learn the ropes there. They had a slow morning. Only saw maybe 5 patients. Usually they see 10-30 sometimes up to 60. They thought it was probably because it was “cold”. Layton and I did some housework and then went to Daniels so he could wear off some energy and ride bike. Amber and I got the CSI Christmas supper menu under control and made our shopping list for it. Came back home and practiced writing sentences for our Bangla test tomorrow. Later in the day the men did some more paperwork. It’s a continual effort to keep applying for security clearances and 1 year work visas. All NGOs here have this challenge, not just CSI. When they were done we all went grocery shopping. The traffic was very busy so we had to sit and wait for awhile several times. Definitely more chaotic than Fridays! Saw more Christmas lights… but nothing “christmasy”. Stopped at a clothing store called Artisan. It had really nice men’s and boys clothes. The boys clothes reminded me a lot of Carters just much cheaper like $2-$3 a shirt. Really nice quality. Got some for Layton in the next size up for in a few months. The best thing about the store was that the clothes were all sorted out by size in a STACK! In the markets it’s all one giant jumbo stack all mixed up that you have to dig through. Since it’s “winter” they only had long sleeved shirts for the men and big puffer coats, hoodies, and sweat pants. It’s been getting cool enough now at night that I dug around and found some quilts for our beds. The guard asked Jared how we like these “cold winter months in Bangladesh”. Jared said “kube bhalo!” (Very nice) and the guard just kinda laughed. He probably thought these Bidesi people were crazy for enjoying 70 degree weather.
Tuesday 12/13: Language class… Test went well. It definitely shows what areas we are weak in. Our instructor told us that “the first book is the hardest.” 😂 we will see if that proves to be true. No class until Sunday. We just asked her for one day off and she said “no class until Sunday” that seemed like a long time without class to us, but it seemed like maybe it was convenient for her.
Wednesday 12/14: First thing this morning we got on a rickshaw and went to the hospital to get my sono report and get lab (“blood collection”) and a glucose test done. Getting the sono report was interesting. Told them what we needed at the “report delivery” desk on floor 2 and showed them my name. They went to a long wall full of folders and found the right medical record number and pulled out a folder with my reports in it! At home we would have accessed our patient portal online or the lab would have electronically sent the reports to the dr themselves. Had plenty of time to get people-watching in while we waited… Elderly Muslim men with varying hues of orange in their beards and hair, elderly women wrapped in warm shawls, women wearing bright colored 3 piece kameeze, some kameeze are plain, some with elaborate embroidery, some with glittering sequins… some ladies wearing all black with only their eyes and toes showing, some ladies wearing jeans and blouse but an orna over their blouse and head, pregnant women slowly waddling around holding their bellies and moaning so that all the world knows how miserable they are 😂, lab techs wearing lime green scrubs, ladies mopping and sweeping the floor, balloons hanging all over to celebrate the hospitals 16th anniversary, medical students in white scrubs, techs? wearing purple scrubs. (Seeing all the scrubs makes me feel like I’m amongst “my sort.”) Some people using old Nokia phones, more modern people reading off their tablets. Some men wearing suit coats and slacks others wearing mikassers and traditional Muslim hats, Little girls wearing short dresses with their black hair pulled up into ponies with hair bows… It’s hard to guess how old these children are. Some are so petite and tiny and others are bigger and well filled out. Got a CNG and headed home when we were done. Layton was enthused to be able to ride in a rickshaw and a CNG all in the same day. He thought it was even better than chocolate covered doughnuts! He’s a foodie like his mama! Went to the clinic for lunch! Chicken curry, sobji, bhat and dal. Layton ate and ate. I especially tried to savor the food today as the sisters leave next week for several weeks to go back home to their village over Christmas and New Years. So no Bangla food for awhile! Kelly’s had come into town to pick up some company that’s coming on Friday so they joined us for lunch too! Went home for naps and then went to Daniels for the evening meal and made pretzels and cheese sauce. Was fun being with them and Kelly’s.
Thursday 12/15: This morning all the men and children went to Farmgate to buy ground pork. I enjoyed some quiet alone time at the apartment! Went to Amber’s mid morning and helped her with some things to get ready for the CSI Christmas supper. Later the rest all went to Herfeys for lunch. It’s a really good hamburger place, almost as good as Freddys! We skipped out and stayed home. Layton and I needed naps as we didn’t sleep well the night before. Plus we needed some quiet home togetherness time… We need a lot of that right now. In the afternoon I made a chocolate cake for the Christmas supper tomorrow eve. My boys were drooling at the idea of a chocolate cake.😂 they both had plenty of frosting by the time it was all said and done! They seem to know when I’m baking things and suddenly the kitchen is the place to be😁 Jared went down the street to the barber and got a haircut. They only used a scissors and did a very good job for only $2! I’m glad I get a break from my barber duties for the next 3 years! Layton needs a haircut too but he was nervous about it so going to give him a bit more time to get used to the idea then I’ll go with him. Had supper at Daniels with Kelly’s again. So enjoyable💖
Friday 12/16: Victory Day… celebrating when Bangladesh got their independence from Pakistan in 1971. Woke up at 4:30 am to the usual Muslim prayer call and then at 6:30 am to the sound of cannons firing multiple times. Had church like usual… I really enjoy the services. It’s interesting how we can receive inspiration and have fellowship with our small group just like we did at home. Came home and had a simple lunch… egg drop soup and ham and cheese sandwiches. We were just finishing up when the helicopters and fighter jets started up. We raced to Daniel’s roof to see them better but the smog and fog were so bad we could hear them but not see them. The fog and dust have been really bad the past few days! Supposedly yesterday they had to reroute some flights coming into Dhaka due to poor visibility. Looking forward to the rainy season to settle the dust and Jared’s allergies. Came home and rested awhile before the CSI Christmas supper. Hauled all the food to the clinic in the van. Felt kinda funny driving the van down those narrow alleys to the clinic. Made white BBQ chicken, broccoli and cauliflower salad, French bread, roasted potatoes… chocolate cake, pumpkin roll and then Lanae added some Christmas goodies. They usually don’t make that much food but we were here to help Daniel’s and then Kelly’s decided to come too so there were more eager hands than usual to help. Usually they just order Pizza Hut or pick up chicken and naan. All the CSI workers were there. It’s amazing how many people we depend on to keep us up and going. Our housekeepers were there (Lucky and Sumita) our language teacher (Paninna Didi), Jon who helps us with all the visa and security clearances, our clinic nurse (Miriam) , some community friends, our church members, etc. They are a very jolly bunch. The people here are very eager to get to know us. It makes us feel really welcomed! I wasn’t sure if they would be upset that we were replacing Daniels or how they would feel about it. Supper went over well. Everything got cleaned out!! They even liked the broccoli cauliflower salad. They aren’t used to eating raw vegetables but they were real troopers about eating American food. They all took a piece of every single kind of dessert😂 Sang Christmas songs for quite awhile. They knew them and really gave it their all. It was some spirited lively singing!! Our housekeeper was sitting there with her 2 daughters that she only sees twice a year. I noticed she would stop singing and just sit and look at them. Just broke my mama heart. She could not quit smiling! Meanwhile down the street a group of teenagers were out Christmas caroling. It was super loud and involved drums yelling and dancing in a circle. I noticed the children were gone so went and looked down the street and there they were completely engrossed in the scene and clapping along with the group. Around the clinic area a majority of the people living there would be Christians so that’s why there where carolers out. After everyone left we headed home. Since we drove we had to go around on the street which was quite busy. We decided to take the opportunity and go drive past the parliament and the government buildings to see the lights. Miles and miles of red and green lights. Every building was completely draped in sheets of lights top to bottom no matter how many stories the building was. The parliament was covered in lights too with red lights shining on the top. Lots of red and green for victory day but it felt kinda like Christmas to us Bidesi folk. In front of the Parliment there’s a very wide sidewalk where people like to congregate in the evenings to socialize, usually lots of vendors. It was absolutely packed full of people…. Thousands of them… A sea of bobbing black heads. Truly a once in a lifetime sort of thing to see. We came home exhausted and were asleep in no time. So much to remember and think about.
Saturday 12/17: Kelly’s left this morning with their parents. They stopped in for abit and got all their meat that they had been storing in our freezer. Layton was worried we wouldn’t ever see Kelly’s again. I said “that’s the good thing about living in Dhaka is we get to see them again when they bring their company back in a few weeks to the airport!” I did the usual housework things the rest of the day… Spent the afternoon and evening at home relaxing with my boys💙
Sunday 12/18: Woke up this morning after dreaming that Craig Ratzlaff was calling me asking me to come back to work.😂 Language class… learned how to tell someone to do something, and then some other things with random verbs. Wasn’t too bad… Lots of homework. 19 sentences to write plus a whole page full of translating English to Bangla and then Bangla to English then fill in the missing word in the sentence. So needless to say you can probably guess what we did the rest of the day! The four day break of no class was so nice, felt like my concentration was better today and I could actually comprehend things.
Thanks to all who have sent us their Christmas letters! Been fun to read them all. Guess this blog is my Christmas letter. I enjoy writing and it’s kinda therapeutic to write the days events in the evenings when we are relaxing.
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