October 16 - 22, 2023

Monday 10/16: Jared went to the dispensary. Had 28 patients this morning. Layton always wants a precise number as to how many cleft palate patients Jared saw.😅 I did kindergarten with Layton. Doing our best to be consistent with it this week! Elwoods arrived in Dhaka from Golpagange and got to our flat around 11:30 or so. Their bus didn’t stop for breakfast so they were quite hungry!  Sumita was still here cleaning with they arrive so she told Melissa that Amber could understand her but that I can’t. 🫢 😂 I said “Amber was here three years and I’ve only been here one!” Had a relaxing rest of the day. The men went to see Abraham (our expelled brother) at the Bangladesh Bible Society. They got stuck in quite a jam on the way home. Later in the evening we hailed some rickshaws and went to Parktown for supper. Melissa was hungry for Thai Soup and wontons. It seems like it’s God’s leading that Elwood’s were able to come to Bangladesh right now. Our sister Monica and her family are going through a tremendous valley right now. Her husband Michael is in a psychiatric hospital right now to get some help. Elwood’s were Michael’s missionaries until they moved to Kishorganj. This was why Rajshahi closed earlier this year. Elwood’s know them very well and with their amazing Bangla they were able spend several days with Monica and their family and be a “ministry of presence.” 

Tuesday 10/17: Dispensary was canceled this morning. Dr Elizabeth had an exam. She’s been taking some classes. I made a pie to take to singing this evening. An apple crumb pie… Did kindergarten with Layton. He thinks of many shortcuts that he could take with his writing and learning and I tell him “no shortcuts, we are doing it just exactly how Silas and Kobe and Kenyan will learn it.” His mind leaves me in the dust some days. Elwoods were out and about on their own. Melissa wanted to go a store for some souvenirs. Shania was quite fussy this morning. Finally after baby food, a bottle plus walking around, we turned on the AC in the bedroom and she went right to sleep. I was glad Jared was home so he could watch her while I did school with Layton. Walking to the clinic for singing was quite an “adventure.” They have the sidewalks all tore out and a 4 foot trench dug where the sidewalk was. They have big piles of sand and gigantic spools of electrical wire siding beside the trench. There is also sewer bubbling up onto the street at various places. Traffic continues to fly by at their usual pace unless it’s jammed up. The only place for pedestrians is to dodge traffic and walk around sand piles, spools and sewer puddles or if the road is jammed to wind your way through the jam between motorcycles and CNGs. So we ventured forth. I held onto Layton’s hand for dear life. When we went and came we managed to hit it so that the road was quite busy. We dodged as best we could and almost got sideswiped a few times but we eventually turned onto our side street and heaved great sighs of relief. We like to call this sort of thing “adventurous” in order to be Pollyanna. 😂 

Wednesday 10/18: The apartment that the dispensary is in plus a few other nearby buildings are out of water. Jared tried to call the caretaker and ask if it could be fixed. He was told “in one hour a mistri will come.” Josna and Sumita brought all their food over and cooked lunch for us here at our house.😃 Had lunch abit early since Elwoods needed to leave by one for the airport. Jared took them… the new expressway makes such a difference!! They were able to make it back to India without problems. They were unsure how it would go since their 6 month visas were expired. Later in the afternoon the sisters came back for showers and to fill up their water jugs with water. Apparently the mistri still hasn’t gotten the issue fixed. I guess the underground water storage tanks are empty and haven’t ever gotten refilled by the city. 

Thursday 10/19: We woke up with a start at 7 to the doorbell ringing. We couldn’t figure that out as most Bengalis are still in bed at that time so Jared went to investigate. Here it was Harun! So we welcomed him in and gave him coffee. He wanted a shower and then I made everyone breakfast. I didn’t really have anything on hand that Bengalis eat for breakfast so I quickly ran to the dokan but it was still closed. He had to eat American food. Fried some eggs, cut up bananas, and had granola. We showed him how to add milk to the granola. 😀 He ate it all so it must not have been too bad. He stayed and visited for awhile. The conversation was pretty simple but we still were able to communicate some. He got ready to leave at 9 and then asked Jared for money. Our hearts always sink when this comes up. One of Harun’s family members had been in an accident awhile ago. Jared told him we can’t give him any money. Harun is one of our brothers that is quite offended from things in the past. We are praying that us not giving him money won’t deepen the offense. We have to be careful with giving out money. This specific brother asks for money a lot. Around 10 Jared left and went to a Baptist clinic. They had called him last week and wanted more tracts. He was enthused to go and take some! The lady that’s in charge talks English. Jared wanted to go today specifically because the workers where going to be there. Last time he had to leave the tracts with a caretaker so he was glad to be able to give them to a worker! It has been a smidge cooler lately. Layton washed his bike in the courtyard and then I put Shania in the stroller and walked her around. These Bengalis always stare at a stroller.😂 All the trees are officially down in our backyard. Next summer I’ll need to find some thick curtains to hang up over the windows because now that the sun shines in the living room it definitely makes things toastier! The extra sun and heat will be nice in the winter though. Jared had a good laugh yesterday because there was a group of men working on cutting up the felled trees into smaller pieces. Two men got into quite an argument over it all I guess and went at it for quite awhile. Jared stood and watched and laughed. 

Friday 10/20: Church today! Jared had the message on “The Lord is my Shepherd” and how God will always be with us in the hard times. It was a good message for both of us. Natun left right after church for  Golpagange. He said he missed his mom and wanted to eat her cooking again. He talks alot about his mom and her cooking😁 He says “I’m afraid when I get married my wife’s food won’t be as good as my moms. And then what will I do? I can’t be quiet if it doesn’t taste good. I’ll have to tell her that.” 😂He wanted to park his motorcycle in our parking garage but our alloted space for motorcycles was taken by someone else when we got rid of our motorcycles. Went and got lunch and groceries. We found a neat play place in the food court at UniMart. You have to pay for it but Layton played for an hour and had so much fun that we felt like it was well worth it. Got ice cream too while we were up there. Today is the first day of “Durga Puga.” It’s a Hindu holiday where they celebrate their god Durga. The Hindu portions of Dhaka are all decorated. Ec Number Gate had a big castle looking canopy over the gate with lights hung down the walls on both sides of the street. We noticed that other Hindu areas had the same thing. Wish we could be in the villages right now and see and hear their celebrations. Krystal says at Golpagange they’ve been hearing a lot of drums at night. 

Saturday 10/21: Just a usual day… nothing too exciting. 

Sunday 10/22: Jared had dispensary this morning. Did kindergarten with Layton. After naps we went to Farmgate. It is quite a chaotic mess there right now. There are redoing alot of the sidewalks around the area and now the foot bridge is open. Unfortunately the tailor and fabric store level was completely closed. I did find a pair of jeans for Layton though for this winter.