January 16-22, 2023

 Monday 1/16: This morning Jared and I worked feverishly on our final exam. Made good head ways on it. Trevor’s are in Dhaka now for a few days. Their teacher had family that are flying back to the states this afternoon and then Trevor’s parents fly in Wednesday! They were all at Daniel’s this morning for breakfast so after we had worked on our exam awhile we headed over there until Jared needed to head to the clinic. It appears as though company comes between November to February while it’s cool! Thus why so much company has been coming and going through Dhaka recently. Doesn’t sound like April to October is a good time for anything very exciting to happen due to the heat. Lisa likes to tell me horror stories about how bad and miserable the heat will be. Guess we will soon find out! In the afternoon Daniels, us, Nurse Miriam and the sisters went to a museum at the old Dhaka airport. It was the sisters idea that we all go and they were adamant that Jared and I come along too! Old planes and rockets and even some playground equipment for the children to play on. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the outing. We were able to see the completed section of the new metro rail too while we were in that part of Dhaka. After that Daniels and us went to Jon and Paninna’s (our legal man and language teacher) apartment for supper. She made so much food. Beef curry, chicken curry, fried fish, egg curry, rice, and sobji. She was concerned about me eating spice since I’m pregnant so she carefully only scooped out bits of meat and egg for me to eat with the rice. I didn’t tell her I’ve been eating spicy stuff all along. Then after we had eaten until we were full she brought around ice cream and bananas. I was starting to think we would just roll home instead of walk home. Sometimes we are quite ready to be done eating but they keep putting it on your plate. If you say you don’t want anymore they worry “is it too spicy?” So we say “our bellies are full” and that seems to assure them that it was indeed delicious. Us foreigners aren’t used to consuming that large of quantity of rice at once! We came home weary but with happy hearts and full bellies. 

Tuesday 1/16: Language class: reviewed the final exam and then went over the main points of the last two books. My last class… a real relief to me to be done. I will continue to study and review and do flash cards though as much as I have time for. Jared had clinic this morning. He ran it by himself today and was quite pleased with how well it went. He had about 25 patients. The rest of the crew could speak surprisingly good English without Daniel there! Jared doesn’t want to rely on that and hopes to start integrating more Bangla when he converses with them. No singing this evening since we were with them all yesterday. Enjoyed a quiet evening at home. 

Wednesday 1/18: Felt good to sleep in and not wake up and fly around for language class. Made granola for Amber to take on the plane and then took Nicolee and Layton up to the rooftop to play for awhile. Jared and Jon worked on visa paperwork all morning for several of the CSI men and one of the teachers. Had lunch at the clinic with the sisters. They made chicken curry with the usual sides. You can imagine Layton’s delight! He ate two big helpings of the stuff. I’m convinced he’s in a growth spurt. He seems to just stretch out taller but not ever put much meat on his bones. Must be the Ensz in him. For a “dessert” Josna made payesh. A thick cooked rice pudding sweetened with molasses and raisins. Jared thought it tasted similar to his mom’s rice pudding! Nurse Miriam told me it’s a dish made for special occasions since it’s considered a “miSTi” (sweet) I enjoyed visiting with her while waiting for lunch. She told me about some of her nursing adventures when she worked in Saudi Arabia. She wondered what all types of nursing I had done. I told her I had cared for a lot of elderly people. I’m not sure she understood because she said “long term patients?” Here there is no such thing as nursing homes or home health or anything like that for elderly since it is the son’s responsibility to care for the elders. In the evening we had Daniels and our brother Shurov come to our apartment for supper. I didn’t think it was necessary for Amber to be cooking their last evening here. Since we had such a big lunch I made open face sloppy joe sandwiches and sliced apples. Layton and I went to the dokhane and bought some of Daniel’s favorite chips to go with it all. When we sat down to eat Shurov wondered if this was the Last Supper. We had a good time! 

Thursday 1/19: Dropped Daniel’s off at the airport around 1:30. Came back home and let ourselves feel all the hard emotions. We haven’t been emotional or very lonesome since we came but it seemed to catch up with us all of a sudden. Jared said “I didn’t know this would be so hard.” It helped us to think back to how clearly over the past few years we felt God asking us give time. We know we are in the right place at the right time. It’s part of the process, letting them go so we can continue the work here. Jared said our sad feelings will help us better understand how our members feel when they see another missionary leaving. We are thankful for an underlying peace. All the other missionaries said the day they dropped their couple off at the airport was a day they would never forget so it makes us feel better to know that our grief isn’t unusual or strange in anyway! Rather quite normal. 

Yesterday I was reading Frog and Toad to Layton and I came across this conversation. It struck me how accurate it is for Jared and I spreading our wings and settling in now that we are the official Dhaka couple. 

“I wonder if we are brave?” said Frog. 

Frog and Toad looked into the mirror. 

“We look brave,” said Toad. 

“Yes, but are we?” Asked Frog. 

We are feeling small tonight but are thankful Someone is bigger than us. 

Friday 1/19: Had church this morning. Shurov came in and announced  “the beginning of the Jared era!” The laugh helped Jared and I as our emotions were feeling somewhat unsteady. The service went well. Layton kept wondering “when is Nikki coming?” Jared and I just looked at each other and then tried to gently tell him that she wasn’t coming back. I was able to talk to Josna and Sumita a-bit in Bangla so that made me feel good. They were kinda quiet and I didn’t want to bother them too much as I know it was a hard day for them too. After church we did our usual grocery run.  More traffic than usual and UniMart was packed with people! When we got home the guard told us there was some sort of international fair going on so that explained it. A few weeks ago there was a large Muslim conference with 4 million attendees. Traffic was jammed for miles due to the extra people and all the ones walking on the road, beside the road, etc. So now we are making a habit of checking google maps and the news before we head out! Yesterday after we pulled ourselves and our emotions together we decided to just go ahead and move our stuff into Daniel’s apartment. We needed to stay busy. So we threw our clothes and few earthly possessions into the suitcases and hauled them over. Moving like this brings out the minimalist in me. Why does it take so much for us Bidesi folk to survive??  Most of it is clothes, cosmetics and baby things for the next 3 years so at least it’s useful items. The guard helped us get everything up into the apartment. These guards are so pleased to see the new “boss” and his family move in. Made us feel better about being by ourselves with how friendly and welcoming they were. “Call if problem!” they said! You would think “babo” (term of endearment for a child) was theirs as much fuss as they make over him. Whenever we walk in and out of the gate they act like they haven’t seen us for ages!Layton was just a whirlwind once we got things moved over… he was quite worked up about his room getting organized. Things being in disarray greatly bothers him. (Yes I know who he gets it from.🫣) I just let him do it how he wanted it and he did a very good job! He spent the rest of the evening busily getting his toys and things arranged and getting all his many stuffed dogs tucked into the doll bed for the night. It feels good to be in this apartment now and know that we can just settle in for the next 3 years. It is our home.💖 It’s a huge apartment so the three of us just rattle around in it, but the space will be nice when we host the other couples and teachers. It was hard seeing Daniels tell everyone good bye. I heard someone say once that if you leave the mission and you don’t feel any sorrow at leaving then you didn’t invest yourself enough in the work. A good reminder that now this is our life and work and our members and workers are our family. We spent the evening unpacking more and getting things in their proper place. Sumita comes tomorrow to sweep and mop so didn’t want her to walk into a complete mess! Jared and I were both impressed today with the verse, “where is your faith?” It came to both of us that while we are going through a hard adjustment phase right now that God brought us here and He will always be with us. Also the song phrase, “when we’ve reached the end of our hoarded resources… our Father’s full giving has only begun.” We had several prayers together today the three of us and by bedtime we felt more settled and less nervous. I’m sure it’s a feeling that will wax and wane over the next few weeks. We started opening up our happy pills that all our friends gave us when we left home! Think we might do 1-2 a day to ration them all out. I think there are close to 500 of them if I remember right.🥰 Layton’s question of the day was “when beavers chew down trees, do they swallow the bark or spit it out?” Answers are welcome😂

Saturday 1/21: This morning when we woke up we all felt better about life! Something about being on your own makes you feel like you just got here again. But today we are focusing on the positive!! Went to the guesthouse in the morning and brought all our sheets over to our apartment to get them washed. Took care of some other things there. Trevor’s will need to use the guesthouse next week so wanted it taken care of by then. Lucky came and cooked for us this morning. I was able to talk to her about her daughter and then understand what vegetables she wanted me to buy. Jared wanted me to go with him while he ran errands so that was interesting. We stopped and got a freshly slaughtered chicken for Lucky to cook and then he took another boxful of meds and papers to the clinic to take care of. Went by rickshaw as walking long distances makes me waddle!🤪😂 Lunch was really enjoyable with Lucky. She always stays and eats with us. Seems like we know more Bangla than we think cuz we were able to visit. Wasn’t a big conversation but enough to make it feel pleasant. Today I decided to focus on the familiar things. Knowing the sobji dokane man, the hot pink of my potholders from Audrey, the crocheted doily from my mom, the pioneer woman runner from Jared’s mom, having Lucky and Sumita here for the morning, hanging up laundry, loving on my boys… 💙 Jared spent the afternoon working on paperwork to get a visa extension for the three of us since our 3 month visa expires soon. Who knows if and when we will get our 1 year visas. Daniels were only able to get 1 one year visa the whole time they were here! Layton and I bustled around doing many little odd jobs. Had a quiet relaxing evening! 

Sunday 1/21: Jared had to cancel clinic this morning. Was disappointing but he had to go with John to the visa office for our visa extensions. Today was the only day it suited John and if you want to go anything done in even somewhat of a timely manner the mornings are best. Afternoons you will probably sit in traffic most of the time. Jared submitted all our paperwork and got a receipt that shows we paid the fee for an extension. Then if the police come and ask for our papers we just show them that and they are happy! He was happy that he was able to accomplish what he went after. Layton and I spent the morning getting his room straightened up. He had done a great job putting things away but it needed “a mother’s touch.” He was quite pleased with the result. It is truly amazing what all a 5 year boy can squirrel away🫣😂 The rest of the day was uneventful. 

I don’t intend on this blog turning into a place where we share all our personal and private ups and downs in the mission but wanted to share the past few days just because it is our first real “slump!”