July 3 - July 9, 2023

It’s been an eventful week… Doyle and Krystal Barkman and their three children (Amaryllis, Rafael and Jonas) arrived Wednesday morning! We were all so excited to see them. The poor dears had that same overwhelmed exhausted look that we felt like we had when Daniels picked us up!  They’ve been working on getting their days and nights straightened out and are doing really well! We’ve been really enjoying having them over for meals and visiting and getting to know them. Layton is tickled pink to have some more children to play with. Krystal taught in Golpagange 10 years ago so her Bangla is great. I told her I was envious that she had that part of the mission adjustment already under her belt! Doyle will take language class though still with Paninna or George. Having a new couple around makes Jared and I realize that we are more settled here than we think. The things they thought were exciting or unusual are things that we have already started viewing as normal already. It’s been a good feeling! Trevors, Daniels and Kelly’s have done so much to help us settle in and feel comfortable here so now it feels so good to be able to pay it forward and help Doyle’s get settled in. 

Friday afternoon we heard the horns blaring at the metro station behind our house at Farmgate!! Jared and Layton raced up to the roof and saw the tail end of the metro disappearing around the bend. It was the first trial run on this section of rail. It’s to be officially complete and ready for the public by October! We are excited to go on a spin.😃 Then we will be able to whisk from Farmgate clear to Uttara with no jams or traffic worries. Like the Bengalis like to say “Kube bhalo, jam ni!!!” If one doesn’t know what to talk about with a Bengali you can always bring up the traffic and the conversation will always end the same… “onek jam… jam bhalo na.” Or if you say you’ve been somewhere the question is always “jam? Jam ni?” There is also a major highway project that is supposed to be completed as well by next year. Seems like a lot of these projects are suddenly in a hurry and scurry to be completed… Jared wonders if they are trying to be done by the next election in January so the prime minister’s political party can brag about what they have accomplished for Dhaka infrastructure.

The beautiful rain continues every other day or daily. Some mornings will be quite hot and then afternoon rain cools it off. This humidity makes my hair curly!! The city smog is noticeably less. One day Jared noticed the air quality was considered “good” instead of “hazardous.”