August 21-27, 2023

 Well what to say about this past week… life has been real… no sugar coating! Started kindergarten with Layton. It would be impossible for me to do a three days a week all day school day like at home. So every morning when Shania takes her hour long morning nap we work at it until she wakes up. Doing a little bit every day seems to work pretty well thus far. Definitely still working out the kinks… he is left handed so neat penmanship is a challenge for him. I’m really hoping we can find a teacher for him for first grade though. That would be a first in Dhaka to have a teacher though… Everyone that’s been here has had small enough children that they never needed a teacher while they were here. Some days I am rather doubtful about my kindergarten teaching abilities and Jared tells me “if a 18 year old can do it you can too!” I say “a 18 year old isn’t also taking care of a baby, cooking and doing laundry at the same time.”😂 I’ve been having Lucky cook extra food when she comes to cook on Saturdays. That way we have plenty of leftovers for the next day or two so that I don’t have to worry about cooking much on days when we do kindergarten a little longer in the mornings. Layton said “mom, do I have to raise my hand like I did in Sunday school?” I said “do you think we should?” He said he didn’t think it was necessary! Some days the attention span is surprisingly well… other days he would much rather stop and talk about how gears work and how the metro runs off of electricity then count to 100 and say his alphabet. Had to make a rule that we only talk about kindergarten while we are having the class. 🫢 

Our Dhaka brother continues to not attend church. We have invited him to come over to our house and from time to time Jared messages him to see how he is doing. He sometimes doesn’t reply and other times replies days later. Do we keep on? The one time he replied he did wonder why we were having church on Friday again and said he thought our new interpreter was no good. However Josna and Sumita are quite pleased with Natun’s punctual arrival to church and his interpretation skills. (Plus he helps them with their phones!🫢😀)  We are suspicious our brother is jealous of someone else taking over “his” job. We are paying Natun to interpret for us since he isn’t a member and that causes our brother offense. We don’t pay our own members to interpret since then we aren’t sure if church attendance is  from the heart or because of getting payed. Other churches here pay their members to attend and get baptized so that they can boast of great crowds so that’s why we don’t pay our members when they interpret. Obviously if they are hired by CSI like Josna and Sumita that work at the clinic or the kulna brother that interprets at the clinic for Trevor then they get payed. But it’s because they are working directly with and for the clinics… it’s not tied to their church attendance. I’m not sure if that makes sense or not.  

Kelly’s flew out Friday morning! They were so excited to go home. It was so fun to hear what their children were most excited to do when they get back to America!! 🥰 sounds like school is the most anticipated thing! Layton had some tearful moments telling Krista and Thomas good bye but he got over it pretty quick. For sure when he heard that they live in Idaho. He said “Just like Kinsey except in a different town!” We had them all over for one last Pizza party the evening before they left! That evening when Jared was coming home with the pizza from Pizza Hut he saw a bunch of men beating a little boy in front of the mosque. No idea what or why! Causes a sick feeling in the stomach to observe this types of things. 

Shania has really gotten chubby lately! Everyone comments on it and pinches her legs. It’s such a joy to see her so healthy and thriving. She has really started screeching and making a lot fun noises when she’s happy. One day Layton said “mom can’t you tell her to tell a different story? She just says the same thing over and over.”😂 Some mornings it is quite a scramble to see who gets to her first when she wakes up… Jared or Layton! 

Jared has been quite busy with going through all of the receipts and expenses from Golpagange and Kulna for the yearly audit. Makes sure they are all signed appropriately and all areas of the budget are accounted for. They are hoping to try a different accountant this year. He’s also been getting some things ready for Doyle for when they go to Golpagange. Name badge, stamps etc. The day he went to get the stamps made, he arrived where the dokan was supposed to be and here the dokan was flat on the ground. So he will need to find a different dokan. Sounds like Doyle’s plan on staying here another month or so to finish up language class then they will head to Golpagange and settle in for the next three plus years.😀 We have really enjoyed having them in Dhaka with us! 

Clinic was busy as usual this past week. The past two months came up to a total of over 400 patients! 

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes! I sure didn’t expect to hear from so many of my friends since we are across the pond. It was fun talking to you all and hearing news from home. Seems like so much water has went under the bridge in the past almost 10 months! To celebrate my birthday we went to Farmhouse Burger and got our favorites… Burgers and truffle fries (fries with Parmesan cheese on top). Then we ordered shakes! So good… tasted like peanut butter pie. I threw my diet to the wind and ate with abandon. No regrets… I’m only 32 for one year anyway. 

August 14 - August 20, 2023

Monday 8/14: Sumita came to clean this morning. We visited quite abit. She wondered what our house was like in America. I told her it was “choto.” (Small) I told her Layton slept on the couch most of the time and she wondered if we would need a new house since we have two children now instead of one. I said no we would make it work! Jared was busy at clinic. Spent the rest of the afternoon just doing laundry and the usual mom things. It’s so humid now that I have to hang everything under a fan to dry. Doyle’s and us spent awhile up on the roof this evening. Talking and watching the planes fly over. It’s so fun seeing on FlightRadar where they are coming from and where they are going… The guards have started locking the door to the roof around 7, not sure why all of a sudden they are doing it so early! We like to go up later in the evening to see the lights and feel the breeze. Jared is thinking of seeing if they will let us have a key for that door. 

Tuesday 8/15: Clinic was canceled today. It’s National Mourning Day. Sheik Hasina’s (prime minister) father and family was assonated in Danmondi in 1975 on this day. Her and her sister were both away in London visiting at the time of the assignation so they are the only remaining living family members. Dr Elizabeth wanted clinic canceled… Jared tried to convince her to still go ahead and have it but no luck. She didn’t think anyone would come. He spent the morning at home. Had the AC mistri come and look at the AC in our bedroom. It’s more of a heater than an AC. Glad it gave out now when it’s a bit cooler than when it was 115*. We slept quite well last night though with two fans going so maybe we are more acclimated than we think! The mistris thought it was a leak in a radiator hose so they hauled it off to their shop. Jared told them not to spend too much because it is still the original one that Carl put in! Before lunch Jared ended up running to the clinic to tend to some matters with a patient and to give Josna more grocery money. (CSI pays for their food expense since they cook for us and the patients.) In the evening we had singing and then went to Parktown for supper. We walked from the clinic to the restaurant in hopes that the children would wear off some energy and sit nice and it seemed to prove effective. We ordered five plates of fries, one for each child so they could have something to eat while we waited on our main entrees to arrive. The poor waiter looked at us like we were crazy. He said “five?” I think he thought we had gotten our Bangla numbers mixed up. Finally Jared pointed to the word “fries” on the menu and held up five fingers! Oh we laughed… then by the end of the meal every single plate was wiped clean of fries so I wondered what the waiter thought then?😂

Wednesday 8/17: Had lunch at the clinic… Josna made shrimp curry and egg curry. The egg curry was sweet, I love it! Josna’s black eyes just shown when she saw Jared taking three helpings of the shrimp! Then Amaryllis and Rafael both wanted 2nd helpings of rice and that made Josna’s smile even bigger. 🥰 In the afternoon the AC mistri called and wondered if he could bring the AC back? We weren’t expecting it back until next week. They installed it and boy howdy does it work well! It had our bedroom chilled down in no time. 

Thursday 8/17: At noon us and Doyle’s headed out and set forth to have fun on the city. We boarded the metro and rode clear to the end at Uttarra North. We had some problems getting our metro passes to work on the way there, but on the way back they worked fine. Found out we didn’t need one for Jonas, Rafeal and Shania! The cars were pretty packed until almost at Uttarra. We got off and noticed some neat little cha dokans and restaurants along the road there by the metro station. We went and sat in one of the restaurants and all got some cold Cokes. Doyle noticed a sign advertising the Metro Rail Information Centre. We hired two easy bikes to ride on. Layton was so excited because he’s been wanting to ride on an easy bike! They are much more tipsy than a CNG. Uttarra is clear on the very north end of Dhaka so they have easy bikes there. I had to smile because Jared had to sit up front with the driver. He totally dwarfed the small little Bengali man that was driving. Another thing we noticed is how much quieter it is there than in Monipuripara. Fewer apartments, people and vehicles. They have cows and goats in the medians. Got to the information centre and what a pleasant surprise!!!!! It was a clean building with AC in it. And of all things there was a TRASH CAN by the door. I felt like I had stepped into another land. The trash can alone made my day.😂😂 Plus the men working there all spoke English! We watched a short film on the metro rail history and progress. Then they had a metro rail train set set up that was running. The kids loved watching it go around and around! But the best thing of all was they had a real life sized metro car set up that the kids could go play in. You could go up front and see where the conductor sits! Layton was in his element! Figuring out what switches did what. There was a hand held mic hanging by the dash and he said “Amaryllis, this is what you use in a combine!” When we were leaving he said “I had so much fun I just couldn’t help myself!” I was thrilled that he had so much fun. Sometimes my heart just aches that he is cooped up in this apartment and courtyard so much. It’s why we go to kulna and Golpagange so frequently so he can get out and play in the grass and dirt for awhile instead of being cooped up in this concrete jungle. Anyways… the metro wasn’t nearly as full on the way back. We were all able to have a seat instead of standing. We noticed the first car of the metro was for women only!! Got 4 rickshaws for on the way home. On the way there we took CNGs. Got stuck in traffic. Being stuck in traffic in a CNG on a hot day makes one either go insane or get sanctified I’m not sure which!! So we decided rickshaw on the way home would be better because then at least you can feel the breeze as you’re going! 

Friday 8/18: Had church this morning… Beforehand Jared told me “the well is dry.” But he had some inspiring thoughts on “where is our treasure?” Had fun visiting with Natun and the sisters. Natun told me that between Jared, Doyle, and Krystal, I’m the only one that is a thorough bred American.  After church we all packed up and headed to Danmondi. Gulsan was having a large political march so we didn’t step foot over there. Wouldn’t you know it… we stopped at the guesthouse to get Doyle’s and Jared said “this AC isn’t working, what is going on?” Sure enough the van AC was broke AGAIN. Never mind how much money we put into getting it fixed when we were last at Kulna. Jared and I literally look at things and they break here. Very frustrating. Anyways… like Lisa says “only in Bangladesh.” We went to Herfeys for lunch. The kids used the play place to within an inch of its life. Went and found a neat coffee shop called Prezzi! It was really cozy in there. It overlooked the main street so the kids played I spy and counted all the CNGs that they saw! We sat and visited for quite awhile there. Their menu was very American. They had cinnamon rolls, cheesecake, brownies, lots of different kinds of soups and sandwiches and even salads! We noticed they had several kinds of poutine even so we will definitely go back to try that as that’s one of our favorite foods. It’s always so neat to find new places to eat at. The building had a small Artisan on the lower level so I bought some more dresses for Shania. I’ve been looking for drool bibs for her but no luck. They informed me they wouldn’t have socks in stock until November.😂 The little dresses I find her here look just like little mennonite dresses. Maybe abit more lace and trimmings! I have to be careful though because sometimes the dresses have buttons for pretties and they are GLUED on instead of sewn on. She tried to pull them off and right now everything goes in her mouth. So I just take them off right away. Anyways… We headed to UniMart. I might also add that the horn on the van has quit working as well. This makes for a very handicapped van in Dhaka.🫢 But never fear, Doyle and Jared hung their heads out of the van windows and made enough racket and noise to make people well aware that we were coming. It appeared to satisfy the inner little boy in both of them. Got our groceries there, seems like we always somehow leave with a cartful. We made our way back to our apartment with the men loudly “honking” out the windows.😂 When we got home I was holding a sleeping Shania and carrying groceries with my other hand. All of a sudden what should I hear but “didi!!!!! Bossssss!!!!” I had been spotted by the trash lady. She came a running and grabbed the bags and hauled up them up the steps. I was once again instructed to not carry bags and “babo” at the same time.😂 I do like to keep her guessing at what next ridiculous thing I will do while I’m holding my baby. 

Saturday 8/19: The car mechanic came and picked up the van and its grocery list of woes. I really hope nothing else breaks this week. Currently we are flushing two toilets using a bucket. Jared is going to look at them and see what the issue is. Did several large loads of laundry. Sprayed our bed down with bug spray. We keep waking up with chigger bites all over us. They itch worse than mosquitoes. Spent the day getting things ready for tomorrow. Going to start kindergarten with Layton. I know it’s ahead of his class at home, but he needs something to do so figured we would just work at it at a relaxed pace. He’s very enthused!! Doyle’s came over in the evening for dudh cha. 

Sunday 8/20: Jared was busy at clinic today. 30 patients… did kindergarten with Layton until Shania woke up from her morning nap. He needed to go ride bike and get some steam out so called our class quits for the day! He had fun telling Jared the number rhymes when he got home from clinic. The rest of the day was busy with the usual mom things… laundry, making food, etc. The car mechanic brought the van back and it appears as though the AC might actually be working now.🫢

Types of Transportation 🛺

Several have asked what all types of transportation we use in Dhaka. I found these pictures on Google Images and thought I’d write up a post about them all! 

Rickshaw… the most common and what we use the most often. They are best for shorter distances but the rickshaw men will take you long distances if they are in the mood and you pay them well enough! This is what I bumped home from the hospital on 3 days post op from having Shania. Honestly I am quite proud of that little fact.😂

CNG… we take this for longer distances. It’s our least favorite! In the summer when one is in these stuck in a traffic jam.. one is unsure if one is in an Instant Pot or an actual vehicle. They lurch through pot holes like none other. They can weasel their way through traffic like none other though so they are a quick mode of transport if the streets are clear! They have an ear splitting horn that they use freely. 

Easy bike: These aren’t that common in our part of Dhaka. Once you get closer to the edge of the city they become more popular. They are all over in the villages. Trevor says they can be quite tippy and don’t do well with heavy loads. (Read: Big Americans.) They are usually bright colored and quite decked out! 

Vans: These are usually electric and more common in the villages. When we go to Kulna we always ride places on these. Just plop on like you are riding on a tail gate! The ones here in Dhaka are peddle powered and used mostly for hauling heavy loads, usually heaped very high with plastic barrels. The reason there aren’t a lot of the electric powered east bikes and vans here in Dhaka is because the electric grid work isn’t enough to charge them all. 

These rickshaw buses are typically used to carry school children! One day we saw a bunch of boys playing UNO while they were being taken to school! There are so many school in Dhaka. They all wear school uniforms. The blue and white or navy blue and light blue like these children are wearing are very common. Layton asked me if he would go home from school on one of these in Kansas! 

Some call these suicide buses! We haven’t ever utilized this type of transportation. Usually cram packed with men and they barely slow down, people just jump in and out while they are still going. 

Double decker buses… The man in the doorway is the one who collects the fare. Usually more people in them than one thinks is possible. Jared rode one of these one day with Elwood. 

And last but not least… just a regular old humble bus! These drive like max. Saw one that said “king of the road.” That would explain it. When we go to Kulna or Golpagange these buses just swerve around us and lay on the horn. It appears as though they own the road. They drive with great speed, so it is not uncommon to see people vomiting out of the window. When you drive up beside one it’s always good to lay on the horn while you go past otherwise they will just suddenly start pulling into your lane and almost shove you off the road. 

August 7-August 13, 2023

Time has been a blur this past week. Seems like the days just run into each other. I get up get my day going and it’s not long and it’s time to make supper.🫢 Life is good though! Took a day to do laundry and get reorganized after being gone to Fellowship. Singing on Tuesday evening… lunch at the clinic on Wednesday… beef curry and egg curry. Oh it was delicious! A patient’s father was impatiently waiting at the clinic gate for Jared to give him some milk when we got there. Of course the man didn’t think the amount Jared gave him was enough. Apparently this man had come to the clinic earlier in the morning and hounded the sisters all morning. Not sure why they didn’t call Jared and tell him  he was there instead of just have the guy wait until we showed up for lunch. Never saw the sisters so grumpy before. 🫢 Josna was in the kitchen stirring her pots and Sumita was upset when we got there. Her Bangla was fast and clipped, she was so worked up I couldn’t understand a word she was saying. Apparently it was because the guy comes every month and always forgets to bring a bag for the milk so he always has to use one of their bags. After the ordeal was over Miriam said “We are Christian, the Bible says to talk nice not dirty. Boss is good at helping poor people out.” By the time the gentleman left and we had eaten the sisters had gotten back to their usual happy selves 😀Shania’s been more fussy lately. Drool abounds. Her wee hands look like wrinkled prunes sometimes from all her chewing on them. Her thumb continues to be her BFF. It’s hilarious, I have never seen the like! Layton never sucked his thumb at all. She is determined that her thumb should be in her mouth at all times. When she drinks her bottle she tries to wedge her thumb in sideways. Sometimes one thumb isn’t enough, two is needed! She likes her paci though at nap time and bedtime and that gives her hands a chance to dry out. Layton has been busy with his little projects. One day he wanted me to write down all the parts it would take to build an airplane. Good thing dreams are free. One morning he was quite perplexed. “If I fly from our place to Grampys or papas, what happens if I run out of fuel?” I said “well… get a bigger fuel tank.” That provided him a few more minutes of deep pondering on how to solve this dilemma. He has really been into drawing. I printed off a whole bunch of airplane pictures and he has been busy coloring them and designing how his future plane will look. With all the solemnity that such a young entrepreneur needs he informed me that the new plane will be called an “Airbus 786 R.” Stay tuned to local news to see how this turns out. Saturday evening we had Josna, Sumita and Doyle’s over for the long awaited Stromboli. Natun invited himself too but last minute some work related things came up so he wasn’t able to come which was a real bummer! Sumita wanted chocolate cake and ice cream too. She said she wanted to eat them out of a bowl so she could mix the two together. I made chocolate sauce to go with it, and they weren’t quite sure what to do with it. I showed them how to drizzle it over the ice cream and cake and they were delighted. At the end of the meal they said it was very good! Made my heart feel happy and fulfilled to make them their pizza and cake. After supper when us ladies were doing the dishes, Sumita and Josna reminded me of Grandma Ensz. They scoured the bottom of my cookie sheets with a scrubber until they shone, Josna wiped off the stove to within an inch of its life because Sumita thought I had too much oil on it. Then I was told I needed new dishpans since mine have a crack in the side. Sumita scrubbed the dish drainer and then propped it up to dry. what a deal! Sunday the children and I went to the jute store. Kinda wanted to just get out for awhile. I love that store. Everything there is made from jute. After seeing it harvested at Golpagange it was especially interesting. While we were browsing the lady working there followed me around. When she saw Shania one of the first questions was “Caesar or normal?” 🫢 (speaking of ‘Caesar’s, a lady told me on the street the other day, that I could only have one more baby, because three Caesar’s is the limit.) Came home with some treasures. The moyla lady spotted me coming through the gate with my bags. I had Shania in the baby carrier and was holding an umbrella in one hand and the bags in another. I almost slipped because the courtyard gets slick when it rains.  Unfortunately she saw my clumsy plight and came running. She grabbed my bags and hauled into the elevator. On the ride up to our floor, I got a stern lecture about having “babo” out in the rain and didn’t I know that “babo” could have hit her head if I would have fallen, and I could have landed on my rear?!?! So don’t worry, these Bengalis are keeping this lady at the straight and narrow whether I like it or not. Pretty sure they think this is my first rodeo. Sometimes it really wants to annoy me how they are so curious, but then the next week it sorta cracks me up how they think I’m so helpless. Maybe I am… Jared has been busy getting papers around for the next financial audit. Jon was able to get Kelly’s work visa renewed which means we won’t have to have to pay a huge chunk of money for exit visas for the six of them the end of the month. Still absolutely not one word on Jared’s visa. Not even a security clearance… Hoping it will all of a sudden go through like Trevor’s did. 

July 31-August 6, 2023

 In Which They Have Fellowship… 

Friday 8/4: We packed up and left the house around 7:30. It was a few minutes after leaving that we made the sickening discovery that the AC on the van had quit. Thank goodness that it was a cloudy cool day. We drove through rain but kept the windows open otherwise the windshield fogged up. At one point Shania’s burp rag was used as a rag to wipe the fog off the windshield! Since we left on Friday the traffic was good. All of a sudden though things came to a halt, we couldn’t figure out why. As we approached the area we soon realized that many many motorcycles had parked under an overpass to keep out of the rain, so a three lane road was now a 1 lane road. If they would park their bikes somewhat in an orderly fashion along side the road it would help but instead they were all scattered hodge podge thus clogging up the road. Having 5 children 6 and under in the van proved to be controlled chaos. We only stopped once. Seemed like it was best to just power down and keep on hustling. We kept all the windows open the whole way to Kulna to stay cool. I was worried how Layton would handle the trip. He woke me up at 3 am before we left and was having bad stomach cramps. We prayed about it together and finally around 5 he was able to relax enough to go back to sleep. He was much quieter than usual on the way to Kulna. I was so glad we made it there without any vomiting or diarrhea episodes. Got to Kulna around 1230. They have gotten quite abit of rain in the past two weeks! We noticed a lot more standing water in the rice and jute fields. Had a quick lunch and then we all took naps. Around 4 we headed to Santos for fellowship. None of our Dhaka members, Meso and Masi, Beauty and Harun’s wife were unable to come. Harun had the opening and Trevor had the message. After the service everyone took a break and then there was a members meeting. This fellowship this year was the first time that the members themselves were in charge of organizing and orchestrating it. The decision was made last year that us missionaries are merely guests attending. Since so many members did not attend, that was a topic of discussion about why aren’t our members more enthused about the meeting and getting together? Some were planting rice, some didn’t want to pay for their bus fare there, some had ill family members. Reminded me of the parable about no one wanting to attend the banquet. Several of the members do seem to have the vision and realization that if they care about their spiritual life they need to arrange meetings and attend and not always depend and expect CSI to fund it and arrange sleeping arrangements and transportation. (We take care of revivals but not fellowship.) As one member put it “If we care we need to attend.” Another member said “in school our teachers teach us how to do a job and then it’s our responsibility to get a job, the missionaries have come and encourage us and share the gospel so now we need to take responsibility for our spiritual lives.” And I had to chuckle because I do love a good dose of this Bengali honesty…. One member was asked why he wasn’t enthused about coming as he had been one that made a stink about it. He said “I can’t afford to host it at my house.” Another brother said “I didn’t ask about you hosting I asked you why didn’t you want to come?” Then another brother was having another lengthy ramble and the interpreter said “he’s talking and talking but not saying much!”😂We had supper around 8. Rice, Dal and vegetables. We just had the kids plop on the floor and dished out the rice and dal so they would eat and be quiet. By the time super was over Shania had absolutely had it with all the noise. Santos yard was full of mud so the kids were just playing inside their small house. Jared so kindly brought the children and I back to Trevor’s. Some good showers, a cool quiet bedroom and some alone time with mama seem to calm my children’s nerves immensely. I’m learning to not push them once they have reached their limit. It just goes from bad to worse! Tucked them in for the night and after they were asleep we escaped back downstairs to be with the adults. Good times and hilarity followed. Laughter doeth good like a medicine when one is weary from dealing with matters of the soul.

 Saturday 8/5: Breakfast was at Santos. Lanae and I stayed at the house with all the children. Santos yard is full of mud and there is a pond right by the church. We just felt better having the children in a bit more of a controlled environment. Sounded like they had a church service and then a members meeting where people could express themselves or share what they felt too. Later we packed up the children and went to Santos for lunch. Had SPICY chicken curry with rice and dal. I thought it was just me thinking it was spicy but all of a sudden the children were all gasping and hollering for water to drink!😂 After lunch fellowship was over. The members left and went to their houses. Jared and Trevor took a van full into Kulna to get on the bus. Santos did an excellent job hosting us all! It was encouraging to see. The rest of us went back to the house and put all the kids down for naps. After naps we turned them loose outside! They had all been begging for sand and water. They all played and played in the sand pile. Right when they were coming in to clean up it poured and poured rain. The kids were so filthy you could hardly see the color of their clothes. So Lanae got a bucket of soapy water and some shampoo and Jared got the hose going. We lined them up and gave them all showers out in the rain. It was hysterical!!!😂 Anyways… same routine as the day before… after the kids were in bed the adults stayed up late. More hilarity ensued. Coffee and bars happened. It feels good to just laugh and be crazy with the others… doeth our souls good! Around 1130 pm Jared and Trevor went to pick out van up from the mechanic. They had dropped it off there earlier in the day to get the AC fixed. 

Sunday 8/6: headed towards Golpagange after having breakfast with everyone. Doyle and Jared helped Kelly move all the furniture and meds from his old eye clinic into his new dokan. It’s a brand new building and looked really nice. After that was accomplished we headed for Dhaka. Such relief to have a working AC. The children slept about half of the way home. Made good time and it felt so good to be home!