Monday 12/5: Language class… what a class… Causative Verbs (to make someone do something) then nominative, possessive and objective pronouns. I couldn’t comprehend it. Even Jared had a hard time with it! After class we hopped onto a rickshaw and went to my drs appointment. At the hospital someone wondered if Jared was French! That’s the 2nd time since we got here someone wondered if he was French?! A guy even tried to talk French to him once. Not sure if his Canadian accent throws them off. To me he doesn’t sound very Canadian but then I’m used to it. All was well with baby, we are thankful. I tried to get them to tell me the gender but no luck! So I guess we will just have to accept that it will be a surprise and pick out 2 names. Any name ideas?? With almost 6 years between babies our name list seems kinda outdated😂 After we got back home Jared went to Daniels since Jon was there to do some paperwork. Spent the evening at home. We tried in vain to do our homework but the brain cells weren’t firing on all pistons so we finally quit and did nothing.
Tuesday 12/6: Language class… how to use “with” in regards to people and objects. You use different words depending on the subject. In the afternoon I took Layton to ride bike at Daniels and I took a walk in the courtyard. It felt so good to take a walk again! Daniels left at 3 to go see Elwoods. It’s a 6 hour bus ride. Elwoods are shutting their post down as the family there that are members moved away. Daniels wanted to go see them before they left. They offered we could go with them but it would mean almost a week of no language class which would drag them out even longer after Daniels leave. We have both field secretaries coming and revivals in February so it feels prudent that we are diligent with continuing on with language class. It doesn’t look like life will slow down anytime soon… possibly moving Elwoods in March and then baby in April. We also thought it would be a good experiment for us to do Tuesday evening singing and the Friday church service by ourselves as a trial run. The Tuesday singing went well! Half of the songs are Christian Hymnal songs so at least we know the tune and then the other half are just the words with no music wrote to them. Had to have one of the sisters help us start a few that we weren’t familiar with. Thankfully they are written in both English and Bangla script. After we got home Layton and I read out of Mrs Piggle Wiggle per our usual routine. A few days ago he didn’t want to brush his teeth so I read him the one about the “Not brushing teeth cure.” I told him that if he didn’t brush his teeth I was pretty sure I could find a Wag (the dog that teaches children how to brush their teeth) in Dhaka. I meant it as a joke but he took it seriously. He’s been religiously brushing his teeth TWICE a day ever since😂 Maybe I should read “the picky eater cure” next!🫣
Wednesday 12/7: This morning when I looked out the window I noticed the guard was wearing long sleeved shirt plus a short sleeve shirt with a scarf wrapped around his head! It’s 75*. A gentleman came to our door a few days ago and was wearing a coat and stocking hat. Language class… mostly review and how to have a conversation with a child. The pronouns are informal when speaking to a child. Plus more words to memorize. Had lunch with the sisters at the clinic. Chicken curry this time. Layton pigged out on the rice and chicken! I was worried they would just be quiet around us since they don’t know us very well but they were quite talkative. The clinic nurse usually eats with us too… Even though we can’t talk about detailed things since we don’t know Bangla very well it helps just to smile and laugh with them. Sometimes I despair and wonder when I will ever be able to just say what I want to them but I always think of what Elwood said that even if we can’t say it all right, our spirit still can shine through! So when we sit and laugh with them that’s how it feels. Our spirits and hearts are connecting. At home the rest of the day to study and do my usual mama things…
Thursday 12/8: Language class.. learned how to say the time… like half past, quarter till, quarter after and then how to say from 3:00 until 4:00… We have a test next week so have plenty to review this weekend. We are almost finished with the first book. 2 more books after this. The 3rd one is written Bangla dialect I believe. Not everyone finishes that one. Guess we will see how close we are getting to Carl’s and Neil’s (field secretaries) coming and revivals. Made my boys meatloaf and roasted potatoes for lunch. They both grinned and were quite pleased. It’s one of their favorite meals! Layton said “this doesn’t even have black beans in it!”😂 He hates black beans to the point of it almost being a phobia that his food might have a bean hidden in it. Meals involve poking one’s food with a fork before cautiously taking the first bite to make sure there’s not any in there. Got caught up on laundry finally. Washing sheets takes up a good share of the line space, so that slows down on keeping the laundry going. I quite enjoy hanging up laundry to dry. It makes the apartment smell so good. An occasional whiff of laundry detergent throughout the house makes everything feel clean!! At home the rest of the day… studying and memorizing.
Friday 12/9: Church this morning. The brother had the opening and Jared had the message. Interesting to me how their thoughts were both on the same topic without them even telling each other before hand what they would share. Was kinda a funny feeling to think that in a 1 1/2 months it will always be just us having the services! It was a bit quieter than usual. Mostly because we couldn’t converse a whole lot in Bangla. After the service the brother wanted to talk with Jared so they stayed in the church room and Layton and I sat in the kitchen and watched one of the sisters cut up her Sobji (vegetables) for lunch. She sat on a low stool and used her foot to hold her knife apparatus. A curved blade with a platform on the bottom. They can cut up vegetables very fast with this. They use it to cut up whole chickens or any thing like that. Hard to explain the contraption! Of course Layton was intrigued and had all kinds of questions for her about it. I tried out some Bangla and was able to fabricate a logical question. I try to think of a question before we go so that I can practice saying it. Today I said “Apni ki khabar ranna korben?” (What food are you cooking?) Not sure if the verbs where the right tense but hey it’s a start… I love sitting there and watching them prepare their food. Sometimes I’ll point at what they are cooking and try to say the names of the vegetables and meat. Or I’ll say “eta ki?” (What’s that?) I hope they know that I am interested even if I can’t talk as good as Amber! After church we went and got the van from Daniels and went to a Mexican place for lunch and then to UniMart. Layton loves going there because there is a large indoor playground right beside the grocery store. I went and got what we needed while him and Jared stayed and played. Spent some time just poking around the store to see what all they have! Found some gluten free pasta and cookies this time. Haven’t been able to find any gluten free flour other than rice flour. They have chocolate and Nutella so I think Jared will survive living here!😂 Pretty proud of my man for how well he navigated the roads!💙 looks (and sounds) like your car horn is your best friend here! We pretty much only drive the van on Fridays otherwise we take rickshaw or CNG or walk. If the men have to go to the auditors office or someplace like that of course they drive but parking is so limited here! It surprises me that there’s not more accommodations for it. Even at the hospital there’s not much room for parking. Looks like it’s mostly a drop off or pick up situation if you do drive a “mini bus.” Someone asked me the other day if it looked like Christmas in Dhaka. Definitely not! The only thing close to Christmas here is that one of the Christian ran apartment complexes has Christmas lights on it. It’s beautiful! Looks like a sheet of lights 5 stories tall. It is becoming obvious that some of our neighbors are very passionate sports fans… as evidenced by their whooping and hollering late at night. (Welcome to apartment life😂) The World Cup is a huge deal here. The markets have Brazil and Argentina flags hanging all over, even the rickshaws have tiny flags tied to their handlebars. They scraped a bunch of political posters off the wall along our street and painted it all up with a Bangladesh and Brazil flag. Tonight appeared to be especially emotionally turbulent as fireworks and the hollering was still going strong at 11:30 pm. Sometimes it was a whoop of happiness and other times not so much.
Saturday 12/8: I spent the morning prepping things for the next week. Made sure Layton had cookies available and made some granola for our breakfasts. Neither of my boys like pancakes or waffles so we pretty much just have eggs and granola or toast and yogurt. Boring I know! Jared went with Daniel to go to a pharmacy where they buy some meds for the clinic. The streets were empty! A political party is holding a rally today somewhere in Dhaka. The next election is 2024. There are already many many posters, signs and huge billboards up in regards to the election. Went to Daniels in the evening to hear about their trip. Sat on the roof for awhile.
Sunday 12/9: Language class… since we are finished with the first book we just did review. I blurted out all my questions and how I just don’t understand all this infinitive and possessive stuff. She patiently answered all my questions so it brought some clarity to my brain! Layton built himself a tent on the veranda… his tools were a twin mattress, a chair to prop up the mattress, several broomsticks for rafters and many pillows and blankets for comfort. He was quite pleased with himself! That kept him entertained for awhile. Just relaxed and studied the rest of the evening.
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